Shenzhen hands out US$1.6 million to support ‘made in China, sold on Amazon’ community
- The 11 recipients, each receiving 1 million yuan, are third-party service providers that help Chinese merchants reach overseas buyers through e-commerce platforms
- The city government is also offering cross-border sellers 2 million yuan for each independent online store they set up
China’s southern tech hub of Shenzhen is giving away 11 million yuan (US$1.6 million) in cash grants to local firms that provide services to the cross-border e-commerce sector, part of a plan to boost sales of Chinese products to overseas consumers.
The 11 recipients, each receiving 1 million yuan, are third-party service providers that help Chinese merchants reach overseas buyers through e-commerce platforms.
Shenzhen Ocean Payment, for instance, provides payment solutions to China’s online merchants, while Shop Lazza helps Chinese exporters to build their own e-commerce website. Shenzhen ECCang, another recipient of funding, provides logistics and warehousing services to merchants on platforms such as Amazon.com.
The cash grants, announced by Shenzhen’s commerce bureau over the weekend, are part of an initiative launched in 2021 to boost the local cross-border e-commerce community, including merchants, service providers and warehouse operators.
The Shenzhen government pledged help after some Chinese online stores on Amazon.com – referred to as the “made in China, sold on Amazon” community – were banned for rating and review irregularities, although the funding support is not specifically tied to the Amazon crackdown, according to merchants.
As China maintains its “dynamic zero” Covid-19 policy, business travel between the mainland and the rest of the world has largely ceased, and the country’s export machine is increasingly relying on online means to reach consumers.