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Amazon sets up warehouse in eastern China for faster overseas e-commerce, signalling confidence in consumer spending

  • The e-commerce giant is setting up a bonded warehouse in Ningbo, which it estimates will cut shipping times by four to five days
  • Amazon closed its China store in 2019, but it maintained operations for cross-border e-commerce, which has exploded in popularity

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People wait in line at the Amazon company booth during the China International Import Expo in Shanghai on November 7, 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE
Iris Dengin Shenzhen
US e-commerce giant Amazon.com plans to set up a bonded warehouse in Ningbo, a major shipping hub in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, to expedite deliveries of foreign goods, showing confidence in Chinese consumer spending in an otherwise weakening economy.
The forward bonded warehouse, a first for Amazon’s Global Store business, is expected to open in 2023 to help Chinese consumers buy from its UK and Germany platforms, the company announced over the weekend at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai, an annual event promoted by the Chinese government to woo investors.

The warehouse, to be regulated by local customs, will allow overseas merchants to ship their goods to Ningbo, where they can be stored in advance. The new facility is expected to cut delivery times for Amazon shoppers by four to five days, the company said in a statement.

In the future, the warehouse will also be able to service goods from Amazon’s US and Japan sites, with expanded product categories to include pet food, the company added.

Amazon did not reveal the cost of the warehouse.

With the new move, Amazon is looking to “merge the advantages of bonded online shopping and cross-border e-commerce … to optimise the experience of overseas shopping”, Li Yanchuan, head of Amazon China Global Store and Prime, said in a statement.

Amazon’s announcement comes after an explosion in cross-border e-commerce, lifted in part by the pandemic, which kept many shoppers at home.

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