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Amazon Opening Imported Goods Store On Alibaba

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the goes-both-ways dept.

itwbennett (1594911) writes "Amazon is usually on the other end of the 'if you can't beat em, join em' dynamic. But next month Amazon is launching a store on Alibaba's Tmall.com site to get access to some of the Chinese online retail giant's 265 million monthly active users. Amazon already has its own e-commerce site geared for the country, but its share of China's online retail market is only 0.8 percent, according to Beijing-based research firm Analysys International. Alibaba, in contrast, controls three quarters of the market through its Tmall and Taobao Marketplace sites."

3 of 31 comments (clear)

  1. nothing to be ashamed there for Amazon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    I bet this itself is a desperate measure to stop vendors turning away from Amazon and running their foreign stores by themselves.

    Amazon has close to no overseas presence outside of English speaking countries. Their total overseas revenue is miniscule, comparable only to third and fourth tier online retailers in China.

    1. Re:nothing to be ashamed there for Amazon by nojayuk · · Score: 3, Informative

      "Amazon has close to no overseas presence outside of English speaking countries."

      Well, apart from France (75 million people), Germany (80 million), Japan (120 million), South Korea (50 million), Spain, Greece, Italy, the Scandinavian countries, Holland, Belgium etc. etc.

      Add them up and you'll find the populations of Amazon's non-English-speaking markets are way larger than the English-speaking nations. The total number of customers and total sales may be lower -- Japan, for example has Rakuten/Tenso as a serious competitor to Amazon.co.jp for online sales -- but they're out there and selling to anyone with a credit card and a keyboard whatever language they speak.

  2. Re: Maybe if they actually sold goods too... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    I was there last week. They're now checking mainlanders at the border to ensure they don't take more than (IIRC) 1.8 kilos (3 big tins, basically) of baby formula per locust per day back with them to Shenzhen. And some other stuff as well, but they actually have big signs up warning that anything in excess of that amount will be confiscated.

    Watch out for the border guards on the mainland side, too, at least at Luohu--many of them will try to steer you into "bargains" like cab rides into town with their buddies who'll say they'll charge 100¥ to get you in the car, then demand 200 when they drop you off. (The going rate from an honest cabbie is more like 20¥.) Or you, if you're not carrying too much, you can simply walk all the way to the end of the Customs building rather than coming out in the middle like some of the border guards encourage you to do (fair enough, it *is* faster to get out of the building that way), get on the Shenzhen Metro, and pay 2¥ to ride to the city centre.

    As cities go, Shenzhen is somewhere between horrid and nasty. Lots of folks coming from the mainland stop off there for a day or two on their way to HK, not knowing any better. My advice is to take the bus or train direct from Guangzhou--those go through a separate border crossing which is heaps nicer and faster to get through.