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Workers sort arriving products at an Amazon Fulfilment Centre. Photo: Reuters

‘Made in China, sold on Amazon’ community grew in 2021 despite crackdown on fake reviews, US e-commerce giant says

  • The number of new Chinese sellers added to the Amazon platform recorded double-digit growth last year, US giant said
  • At online sellers event, Amazon said it would make it a priority to work with Chinese merchants to operate within the rules
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The “Made in China, sold on Amazon” community continued to grow in 2021 despite an extensive crackdown on paid reviews and other violations that removed thousands of Chinese sellers from the platform, the US e-commerce giant said.

The number of new Chinese sellers added to the Amazon platform recorded double-digit growth last year, Cindy Tai, Amazon.com’s vice-president for Asia Global Selling, said in a video for the company’s seller conference on Tuesday.

The number of Chinese sellers that achieved US$1 million in sales or more jumped 50 per cent year on year in 2021, and among that group, merchants reaching the milestone for the first time increased over 20 per cent, added Tai.

“The business of Chinese sellers on Amazon has not been impacted [by the crackdown on irregularities] … there was no change in the ratio of Chinese sellers in Amazon’s [overall] sales volume during the period, and the Chinese business maintained healthy and rapid growth,” Tai said at the online event.

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Amazon revealed last September that it closed about 3,000 online merchant accounts, backed by about 600 Chinese brands, amid a crackdown on consumer review abuses.

Tai said at the conference that some of the big sellers targeted had repeatedly manipulated reviews or violated other rules, and had turned a blind eye to numerous warnings from Amazon.

Tai said Amazon would make it a priority to work with Chinese merchants to operate within the rules and that good compliance is the bottom line for a brand’s survival in any market or on any platform.

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Bowls for spit marketed as fruit baskets on Amazon for up to 20 times the local price

Bowls for spit marketed as fruit baskets on Amazon for up to 20 times the local price

Amazon’s crackdown, which began last May, hit some of the biggest Chinese brands on its platform, including Aukey, Mpow and Shenzhen Youkeshu Technology Co. Youkeshu said more than 130 million yuan (US$20 million) of its funds were frozen and 340 accounts shut down by the US e-commerce platform.

According to a report by Marketplace Pulse last month, Chinese sellers saw their market share drop to 33 per cent of Amazon’s top sellers by the end of 2021, compared with 40 per cent at the beginning of the year.

Chinese sellers appeared upbeat at Amazon’s online event this week, which had to be postponed for more than an hour due to an influx of traffic that “crashed the server” on Tuesday morning, according to an announcement by the company.

The three-day event also included training for Chinese merchants to help them manage their stores and sell better on Amazon.

The US e-commerce giant encouraged Chinese merchants to target emerging markets, such as Singapore and India, for new growth potential. Amazon set up Asia’s first training centre for sellers in Hangzhou last September to sell globally.

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“We’re very committed to the business in China, and even though there have been times where complexity has been added or there’s been back-and-forth. We’re going to work to overcome [these issues],” said Russ Grandinetti, Amazon’s senior vice-president.

Amazon’s efforts to forge a partnership with Chinese sellers comes as global e-commerce platforms gear up to attract Chinese sellers.

Walmart, which opened its marketplace to international sellers in March, added more than 6,000 sellers from China, which accounted for 20 per cent of new sellers on Walmart by the end of 2021, Marketplace Pulse data showed.

Some Chinese merchants have also started investing more on other international online retail platforms such as eBay and AliExpress, according to the Shenzhen Cross-Border E-Commerce Association.

AliExpress, a global cross-border marketplace, is operated by Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the South China Morning Post.

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