近日有外媒報導稱,亞馬遜將於7月中旬前停止為亞馬遜中國網站上的第三方賣家提供賣家服務。
Amazon.com Inc plans to close its domestic marketplace business in China by mid-July, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday, focusing efforts on its more lucrative businesses selling overseas goods and cloud services in the world's most populous country. 知情人士17日對路透社稱,亞馬遜公司計劃在今年7月中旬前關閉其在中國的本土電商業務,將業務重點轉移至更有盈利空間的海外購和雲服務上。
【知識點】
電商平臺一般有自營(proprietary trading)和第三方賣家(the third-party sellers)兩種基礎銷售方式。自營就是平臺自己經營銷售商品,第三方賣家則可以利用平臺的服務自己開店。
而我們經常聽到的直銷(direct selling)指廠家直接銷售商品和服務,直銷者繞過傳統批發商或零售渠道,直接向消費者推銷產品的方式。
亞馬遜在一份聲明中表示:
We are notifying sellers we will no longer operate a marketplace on Amazon.cn, and we will no longer be providing seller services on Amazon.cn effective July 18. 我們正在通知商戶,從7月18日起,不再運營亞馬遜中國電商業務,並停止在亞馬遜中國網址提供賣家服務。
We are working closely with our sellers to ensure a smooth transition and will continue to deliver the best customer experience possible. Sellers interested in continuing to sell on Amazon outside of China are able to do so through Amazon Global Selling. 我們正在與賣家緊密協作,確保順利過渡,同時也將繼續盡力提供最好的客戶體驗。有興趣通過亞馬遜在中國以外地區出售商品的賣家可以加入亞馬遜全球開店業務。
Users logging onto Amazon's Chinese site after July 18 will see products sold from its global store. 7月18日後,用戶登錄亞馬遜中國網站會看到海外購商家的產品。
亞馬遜中國的官網顯示,目前亞馬遜在中國布局的核心戰略業務包括以亞馬遜海外購(Global Store)和亞馬遜全球開店(Global Selling)為中心的跨境電子商務(cross-border e-commerce),涵蓋紙書、Kindle電子書閱讀器和電子書的亞馬遜閱讀(Amazon Reading),亞馬遜物流運營(Amazon Logistics)和亞馬遜雲計算服務(Amazon Web Services,AWS)。
據了解,未來三個月,亞馬遜還將關閉中國本土的配送中心。
Amazon expects to close fulfillment centers and wind down its support for domestic-selling merchants in China in the next 90 days, one of the people said. 一位知情人士說,亞馬遜預計將在未來90天內關閉物流中心,並逐步減少對中國內銷商戶的支持。
競爭力不敵本土電商,喪失優勢
Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, bought local Chinese online shopping website Joyo.com in 2004 for $75 million and rebranded it as Amazon China in 2011. 全球最大的在線零售商亞馬遜於2004年斥資7500萬美元收購了中國本土在線購物網站卓越網,並於2011年將其更名為亞馬遜中國。
The company's China marketplace struggled to gain a foothold in the country's fiercely competitive e-commerce market. 該公司的中國商城難以在競爭激烈的中國電子商務市場站穩腳跟。
凱度消費者指數大中華區總經理虞堅表示:「在我們所監測到的數據中,亞馬遜在快消品的中國市場佔比連1%都不到。現在品牌的營銷資源只會投放在頭部的兩三家,亞馬遜中國沒有特別的優勢。」
Consumer insights firm iResearch Global said that Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's Tmall marketplace and JD.com held 81.9 percent of the Chinese market last year. 消費者研究公司艾瑞諮詢表示,阿里巴巴集團旗下的天貓和京東去年佔據了中國市場81.9%的份額。
Amazon launched Amazon Prime in China, the first unlimited free cross-border shipping membership program globally in October 2016, in an attempt to lure the rising number of quality-conscious Chinese buyers to buy foreign products. 2016年,亞馬遜在中國推出首個全球Prime會員服務,可享受全球商品無限次免運費,希望以此吸引越來越多看重品質的中國買家購買外國商品。
但在中國,很多電商都提供零門檻的免運費服務,Prime會員也就失去了吸引力。
亞馬遜回應:繼續在中國投資和發展
Over the past few years, we have been evolving our China online retail business to increasingly emphasize cross-border sales, and in return we've seen very strong response from Chinese customers. 過去幾年,我們一直在把中國的在線零售業務重心逐步轉向跨境業務,同時,我們也看到了中國客戶的積極反饋。
It will retain its other operations in China, such as cloud computing services. It will also continue to sell its Kindle e-readers and content in the country. 亞馬遜將繼續保留在中國的雲計算服務等其他業務,同時也將繼續銷售Kindle和電子書。
Amazon's commitment to China remains strong. We have built a solid foundation here in a number of successful businesses and we will continue to invest and grow in China. 亞馬遜在中國的發展意願依舊強烈。我們通過多個成功的業務已在中國建立了堅實的基礎,會繼續在中國投資和發展。
【相關詞彙】
跨境電商 cross-border e-commerce
消費升級 consumption upgrade
購物清單 shopping list
實體零售商 brick-and-mortar retailer
新零售 new retail
剁手黨 shopaholics
購物狂歡 shopping spree
大減價 slash prices
代購 private overseas shopping representative/procurement service
海淘 buy products from overseas websites
直郵 direct delivery
免運費 free shipping/delivery
參考來源:CNN、路透社、中國日報雙語新聞
(中國日報網英語點津 Helen)
來源:中國日報網