Amazon Global Store disrupts the game

Amazon Global Store, which has been low-key in the Chinese market for many years, is continuing to ramp up its efforts.

On July 2, Amazon Global Store announced that it will launch the "Sea Discount Festival" from July 8 to 12. This is the first shopping festival tailored specifically for Chinese consumers by Amazon Global Store.

Amazon's ambitions are significant, just like JD.com created 618 and Alibaba built Double Eleven, Amazon aims to make the "Sea Discount Festival" an annual event for Chinese consumers.

Li Yanchuan, Vice President of Amazon China and Head of Amazon Global Store China and Amazon Singapore e-commerce, stated at a media exchange that Amazon Global Store hopes to establish the "Sea Discount Festival" as an annual consumption node for Chinese cross-border shopping enthusiasts.

This is destined to be a tough battle. Currently, in the Chinese cross-border import e-commerce market, local giants such as Tmall Global, JD International, and Douyin Global Purchase have captured over 70% of the market share.

Faced with the giants, Amazon has bid farewell to its past strategies and has instead launched a new combination of tactics: actively avoiding the spotlight of 618 and Double Eleven with the "Sea Discount Festival," creating its own consumption rhythm; launching an "Import Supermarket" channel, targeting high-frequency repurchase scenarios such as maternal and infant products and food with selected items priced as low as 9.9 yuan; and partnering with former rival JD.com to leverage its vast user base for new growth points.

In 2004, Amazon officially entered the Chinese market by acquiring Joyo.com. During the "wild years" of the Chinese internet, Amazon achieved a strong start, but with the rise of local e-commerce giants like Alibaba and JD.com, Amazon became marginalized in the Chinese e-commerce market and ultimately decided to stop providing local e-commerce services for Chinese third-party sellers in 2019.

This is clearly not the end of the story. With this restructuring, it attempts to leverage its global supply chain advantages to make a comeback in the vast market of 188 million cross-border shopping users in China. This is not only a commercial return but also the ultimate test of its ability to balance "global goods" with "local needs."

"Sea Discount Festival" Launch

Amazon Global Store places great importance on this "Sea Discount Festival."

"The 'Sea Discount Festival' is our deep response to the new demands and preferences of import e-commerce consumers, and it is also an important step in exploring better services for local consumers."

At the same time, Li Yanchuan pointed out that Black Friday is an important promotional node for Amazon globally, mainly concentrated in the fourth quarter, but Amazon Global Store wants to bring some new rhythms to Chinese consumers, so it has launched a brand new annual and summer promotion for the first time.

In terms of timing, the "Sea Discount Festival" also avoids direct competition with traditional Chinese e-commerce promotions like JD 618 and Tmall Double Eleven, allowing Amazon Global Store to create its own consumption rhythm.

Li Yanchuan stated that the reason for holding the "Sea Discount Festival" from July 8 to 12 is that Amazon Global Store has observed that during this period, parents around the world tend to buy more products because their children are on vacation and they want to take them on trips, which requires purchasing many items, and they may not take their fathers along, so they also need to buy things for their fathers in advance It is reported that more than 30,000 international brands and over 2 million overseas products will participate in this "Sea Discount Festival," along with a million new global products launched simultaneously.

During this flagship event, Amazon Global Store has also launched a brand new "Imported Supermarket" channel. This channel focuses on high-frequency consumption scenarios of "daily essentials," featuring products that are of the same quality and origin as those on Amazon's overseas sites, covering popular imported categories such as maternal and infant products, food, and health supplements, with over 700 globally renowned brands and more than 2,000 daily necessities, some priced as low as 9.9 yuan.

Li Yanchuan stated: "We hope that Amazon Global Store's 'Imported Supermarket' will provide consumers with more choices of imported daily high-frequency products, better serving the high-frequency daily needs of Chinese families. It's like shopping in a local supermarket abroad—great prices, a rich selection, and everything in one stop."

According to Amazon Global Store, imported products have shifted from being purely "high-ticket items" in the past to becoming part of daily life, especially in areas like maternal and infant products, food, and health supplements, where consumers tend to stock up and repurchase regularly. This is also a deeper reason for the launch of the "Imported Supermarket."

In addition to enhancing product selection, during the "Sea Discount Festival," Amazon Global Store will introduce a new limited-time "Sea Discount Price."

It is reported that the "Sea Discount Price" consists of direct discounts from Amazon's overseas sites and exclusive direct discounts from Amazon Global Store, with the final good prices displayed directly on the page, without the need for bundling or complex calculations, and no pre-sale throughout the promotional period, allowing consumers to place orders at any time.

In response to users' higher demands for cross-border logistics experiences, during the "Sea Discount Festival," Amazon Global Store will also support consumers with zero threshold global free shipping on single items. In terms of timeliness, products shipped from Amazon Global Store's Ningbo bonded warehouse can arrive in as fast as 2 days, and some items using international direct mail can be delivered via SF International in as fast as 16 hours to domestic locations.

From product selection to pricing and logistics, Amazon Global Store has clearly put in a lot of effort for this "Sea Discount Festival."

Continuous Local Actions

The launch of the "Sea Discount Festival" by Amazon Global Store reflects Amazon's commitment and determination to focus on and deepen its presence in the Chinese e-commerce market.

Looking back to 2019, that year, Amazon, which had been in China for 15 years, announced that it would no longer provide seller services for third-party sellers on the Amazon China website. Since then, Chinese consumers have been unable to purchase products from other domestic third-party merchants on the Amazon China platform.

After this adjustment, Amazon Global Store, Amazon Global Selling, and Amazon Web Services were retained.

As Amazon's closest business to Chinese end-users, in addition to launching the "Sea Discount Festival," Amazon Global Store has made several significant moves in recent years.

The most notable is the partnership with JD.com. Last November, the official Amazon Global Store flagship store officially opened on the JD.com platform.

JD.com has a large monthly active user base, which provides Amazon Global Store with a broad reach.

"Allowing JD.com's consumers to easily purchase products from Amazon Global Store is a new opportunity for us and a potential growth point," Li Yanchuan stated, emphasizing that enabling consumers to conveniently purchase Amazon's global products in a familiar shopping environment is one of the focuses and efforts of Amazon Global Store To further align with the trend of mobile shopping among Chinese consumers, at the end of January 2024, Amazon's overseas purchasing business officially entered a new channel for transformation and upgrade, launching the new version of the "Amazon Shopping" App.

Over the years, Amazon's overseas purchasing has been undergoing localization changes, previously covering more regional consumers through WeChat live streaming and mini-programs. This App revision can be seen as a strong measure for the localization of Amazon's overseas purchasing.

According to the official website of Amazon China, the revamped Amazon Shopping App features a cleaner overseas and international shopping interface, upgrading the localized experience while also customizing discounts for more Chinese consumers.

In addition, Amazon has invested significantly in improving logistics efficiency, such as launching its first forward tax warehouse in Ningbo before Black Friday 2023 and introducing SF International direct mail service in July 2024.

"The tax warehouse 2-day delivery + international 16-hour direct flight fast customs clearance" greatly enhances the timeliness of certain products in Amazon's overseas purchasing, which is currently the biggest pain point in cross-border online shopping.

It is reported that the proportion of SF direct mail in Amazon's overall direct mail packages has steadily increased when comparing the initial launch period (August to October 2024) with the recent three months (March to May 2025). Meanwhile, delivery efficiency has also significantly improved, with the average delivery time of packages shortened by more than 2 days compared to the initial launch period.

Additionally, in May this year, the average daily order volume from Amazon's overseas purchasing Ningbo tax warehouse has increased by nearly 50% year-on-year, with delivery timeliness improving by over 25% year-on-year.

From localized operations to accelerated logistics, Amazon's overseas purchasing is continuously increasing its investment in the Chinese market.

Overseas Purchasing Battlefield

Amazon's overseas purchasing is targeting a market full of tremendous growth potential.

In 2024, China's overall imports grew by 2.3%, reaching a historical high and maintaining its position as the world's second-largest importer for 16 consecutive years.

According to the "2024 China Cross-Border Import Consumption Trend White Paper" released by Nielsen IQ, from 2018 to 2023, the scale of China's cross-border import e-commerce increased from 444.1 billion yuan to 548.3 billion yuan; from 2017 to 2023, the number of users of China's cross-border import e-commerce grew at an annual rate of nearly 20%, tripling over seven years, reaching 188 million in 2023.

The future of China's cross-border import e-commerce market still has significant growth potential. Deloitte has released a report stating that starting from 2023, the scale of China's cross-border import e-commerce is expected to double within the next three years.

More and more consumers are willing to pay for imported products, but this market is also highly competitive.

According to a report by Analysys, the annual transaction share of domestic import retail e-commerce platforms in 2023 shows that Tmall Global ranked first with a 37.6% share. The third place was held by JD International (18.7%) and Douyin Global Purchase (12.3%), indicating that consumers' platform choices for imported e-commerce are relatively concentrated.

Nielsen IQ pointed out that as cross-border e-commerce platforms accelerate integration and more brands participate directly in cross-border trade through cross-border e-commerce, a cross-border ecosystem has formed, and China's cross-border import e-commerce industry has entered an "upgrade development period." Li Yanchuan pointed out that currently, consumers are able to access global information through various channels, including how to choose imported goods they use daily. Consumers' attention and expectations for overseas products are also continuously increasing.

"We believe that there are more opportunities in the future import goods market." In Li Yanchuan's view, the first is the positive promotion at the policy level; secondly, from a technological perspective, the rapid development of AI is significantly improving the efficiency of various links; the third dimension is logistics. As the volume of cross-border business continues to grow, more companies may adopt commercial flights for cargo transport in the future, thereby enhancing the efficiency of the entire cross-border logistics chain.

In fact, as early as 2014, Amazon Global Store was launched in China, providing Chinese consumers with overseas shopping options.

In the same year, the Chinese e-commerce industry witnessed a significant event—cross-border shopping finally became compliant, as the General Administration of Customs successively issued Document No. 56 and Document No. 57, clearly defining the status of cross-border e-commerce as a legitimate trade channel and further improving customs clearance efficiency and cross-border logistics timeliness.

Against this backdrop, Tmall Global, NetEase Kaola, and JD Global Purchase also went online one after another.

In the competition with these local Chinese competitors, Amazon Global Store is at a disadvantage in terms of market share. Currently, compared to platforms like Alibaba, JD, and Douyin, Amazon Global Store remains a "small but beautiful" player in terms of user base, transaction volume, and market share, rather than a mainstream player.

Today, overseas shopping has become a key focus of Amazon's layout in the Chinese e-commerce market. In this new round of competition, Amazon Global Store has its own advantages, including global brand trust, a vast selection of overseas products, and a mature international supply chain.

In the minds of the general consumers, the brand recognition and preference rate of Amazon Global Store are not high.

In the future, to rise in a market dominated by local giants, Amazon Global Store still faces challenges, including improving logistics timeliness, strengthening localized operations, rebuilding brand recognition, and highlighting value perception.

Li Yanchuan also admitted that the nature of import e-commerce determines that it is difficult to compare with domestic e-commerce in terms of delivery timeliness. In addition, cross-border shopping currently requires real-name authentication and is subject to annual personal consumption limits. For some users with high purchase frequency and high average order value, this may also become a limiting factor.

Despite the challenges, Amazon believes that the opportunities far outweigh the challenges. Li Yanchuan stated, "Amazon Global Store has established a solid foundation, and we remain confident in its future growth potential and development space."

The breakthrough for Amazon Global Store in the future will be in vertical segments. Li Yanchuan mentioned that once leading platforms generally cover mainstream markets, whoever can do more refined and precise work in a specific demographic or category will have the opportunity to capture new growth points. "Especially in the content area of import e-commerce, this is also a key focus for us and a direction we hope to continue investing in."

The ultimate goal of cross-border e-commerce is not only the flow of goods but also the integration of culture and services. Chinese consumers need not only "more choices" but also "better choices."

Whether Amazon can find a balance between "global goods" and "local people" will determine its success or failure in the competition of the Chinese import e-commerce market The landscape of the internet is ever-changing, and the competition in the imported cross-border e-commerce industry continues, which is destined to be a "long-term battle."