Amazon Prime comes to China
Amazon announced its Prime membership program will very soon become available to customers in China.
The cross-border shipping service from the Amazon Global Store will require no minimum spend for free domestic shipping and will enter to compete with local players such as Alibaba.
The main focus of Amazon Prime’s China rollout will not initially focus on delivering a varied perks package to customers, but will instead make it much easier for Chinese customers to purchase goods from oversees on its website. With a current China footprint of less than 1.5 percent of the market, Amazon is looking to expand this coverage with its newly introduced Prime service.
International orders will in practice be delivered by Amazon fulfilment centres in the US , using the company’s formidable global logistics assets. Prime members will receive orders in an estimated 5-9 days across 82 cities.
“Launching a unique program designed for our Chinese customers shows our obsession with Chinese customer needs, and demonstrates our long-term commitment to growing our business in China,” said Russ Grandinetti, Senior Vice President of Amazon. “We will continue to innovate for customers in China to deliver more value over time.”
Business Review Asia's November issue is now live.
Follow @BizRevAsia and @MrNLon on Twitter.
Business Review Asia is also on Facebook.
SOURCE: [techcrunch]