Amazon Lays Out Plan to Attract China-Based Sellers

Jennifer Bringle
·3 min read

With Shein and Temu biting at its heels, Amazon has plans to court Chinese sellers during the coming year. That’s according to a 2024 business priorities strategy the online retail giant released last week during its Amazon Global Store Cross-Border Summit held in Shenzhen, China.

Among those plans, Amazon will open a new Global Store Asia-Pacific Innovation Center in Shenzhen, an area known for technology and e-commerce. This will be the first such facility in the Asia-Pacific region for Amazon, focused on promoting global export cross-border e-commerce.

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The innovation center will integrate the resources of Amazon with industry organizations, experts and scholars, and third-party service providers with the goal of assisting Asia-Pacific region sellers with product launching, brand building and digitalization.

Amazon also announced it will open its supply chain service, The Supply Chain by Amazon, to Chinese sellers. The company launched the service in September for U.S. sellers, allowing them to source goods from overseas factories and replenish them on Amazon on a single platform.

Additionally, Amazon said it established five global store centers in the region in East China, South China, West China, North China and Central China.

“Amazon has made long-term investments in innovation and is committed to help sellers expand a wider range of e-commerce business opportunities globally,” said Eric Broussard, international seller services, Amazon. “We provide comprehensive operational products and tools, help sellers achieve sustained growth, and work with sellers to uphold the concepts of continuous innovation, long-termism and global layout to jointly create E-commerce for the future.”

This announcement comes on the heels of Amazon’s reduction in seller fees for lower-priced merchandise, designed to help the retailer compete with discount e-commerce behemoths Shein and Temu. The company announced that it would reduce seller fees on clothing and accessories beginning in January. Fees for items priced $15 to $20 will drop by 10 percent while fees on products $15 or cheaper will drop 5 percent.

Shein, which specializes in low-priced apparel and accessories, and Temu, which offers a wider range of products from apparel to home goods, have both eaten into Amazon’s market share over the past year. Shein filed confidentially for an IPO in late November, eyeing a valuation of $90 million for the offering. And according to research firm Apptopia, consumers spend nearly twice as much time in the Temu app than they do competitors such as Amazon.

Successes aside, Shein and Temu are currently engaged in their own battle, with the latter suing the former for targeting suppliers with intimidation tactics, among other claims. The suit, which was filed last week, accused Shein of detaining suppliers in their offices for hours and threatening them with penalties for doing business with Temu.

Chinese suppliers such as the ones Shein and Temu are beefing over have become more important for Amazon. Amazon said that over the past year, the number of Chinese sellers on its platform with sales exceeding $1 million per year has increased 25 percent. And Chinese merchants exceeding $10 million in sales increased by 30 percent. The number of items sold by Chinese sellers on Amazon has grown 20 percent year-over-year.