Amazon Overseas Purchasing's JD Flagship Store: A "Three-Dimensional" Strategy Behind Million-Plus Products and Fivefold Growth
Amazon Overseas Purchasing's JD Flagship Store: A "Three-Dimensional" Strategy Behind Million-Plus Products and Fivefold GrowthIn February 2025, Amazon Overseas Purchasing publicly released its operational data for its JD.com flagship store, showcasing its new strategy and remarkable achievements in the Chinese market
Amazon Overseas Purchasing's JD Flagship Store: A "Three-Dimensional" Strategy Behind Million-Plus Products and Fivefold Growth
In February 2025, Amazon Overseas Purchasing publicly released its operational data for its JD.com flagship store, showcasing its new strategy and remarkable achievements in the Chinese market. The flagship store boasts over one million products, with 500,000 new apparel and accessories items added in a single quarter, encompassing 1,600 international brands. First-quarter order volume increased nearly fivefold compared to the previous quarter, while health product sales surged sixfold. Niche categories like vintage cameras and jigsaw puzzles also performed exceptionally well. These figures demonstrate that Amazon is not solely relying on a "self-built ecosystem," but has successfully forged a new path in the Chinese cross-border e-commerce market through strategic cooperation with JD.com, achieving impressive results.
Amazon Overseas Purchasing's New China Model: A Light-Asset, High-Efficiency Strategic Partnership
The key to Amazon Overseas Purchasing's success in the Chinese market lies in its unique operational model a strategic partnership with JD.com. Unlike other brand flagship stores on platforms like Tmall International and Kaola, the JD.com Amazon Overseas flagship store adopts a "light-asset" strategy. Its product selection comes from Amazon's global sites, logistics rely on JD.com's bonded warehouses and SF Express international direct mail dual channels, and the payment system integrates with local payment systems like WeChat Pay and JD Pay. This model effectively integrates Amazon's global supply chain advantages with JD.com's local traffic and infrastructure strengths.
Li Yanchuan, Vice President of Amazon China and Head of Amazon Overseas Purchasing China and Amazon Singapore e-commerce, explained that the flagship store adds 100,000 new products weekly. To ensure product quality and inventory stability, Amazon leverages its robust global supply chain and efficient logistics system, collaborating with teams worldwide to achieve "zero-delay" new product launches. Simultaneously, the local team curates differentiated new products from Amazon's global selection pool based on Chinese consumer trends.
From the consumer shopping experience perspective, the flagship store features functions like a new product calendar, allowing consumers to stay updated on global releases. Some products support SF Express international direct mail, utilizing direct flights to deliver overseas products quickly. This partnership ensures product quality, logistical efficiency, and traffic foundation, providing strong support for the flagship store's impressive data.
This seemingly conservative strategic partnership actually hides a "secret." Li Yanchuan revealed that the flagship store's product pool adds 100,000 SKUs monthly, with a significant portion coming from "Amazon Exclusive Brands," meaning exclusively sourced products directly from overseas sites. This effectively "transfers" best-selling products from Amazon's 20 global sites to the Chinese market, creating a unique product selection barrier. One cross-border e-commerce professional commented, "Competition in domestic cross-border e-commerce is no longer simply a price war, but a battle of supply chain responsiveness and the availability of scarce goods." Amazons introduction of brands like Brooks Brothers (overseas line) and Maui Jim designer eyewear successfully targets high-net-worth consumers, creating a differentiated competitive advantage.
The "Three-Dimensional" Strategy Behind Millions of Products: Precise Selection, Logistics Upgrade, and Niche Market Penetration
Amazon's ambition goes beyond simply increasing the number of products; its core strategy can be summarized into three aspects: precise product selection, logistics upgrades, and niche market penetration.
First Dimension: Reshaping Consumer Mindset with "Long-Tail Bestsellers"
Products like Fujifilm Instax cameras, Galison jigsaw puzzles, and Hazard 4 tactical backpacks, seemingly niche categories, have become powerful differentiators for Amazon. The success of these "long-tail bestsellers" reflects the transformation of Chinese cross-border e-commerce from "premium brand alternatives" to "interest-driven consumption." Gen Z consumers seek emotional resonance and community identity; Amazon successfully captures pricing power in niche markets by introducing a "long-tail bestseller" matrix built from 1,600 brands.
Second Dimension: Logistics Speed Exceeding Industry Standards
The logistics system of "bonded warehouse 2-day delivery + international 16-hour direct flight express customs clearance" directly addresses the biggest pain point of cross-border e-commerce: waiting anxiety. Amazon, through its global supply chain, overseas warehouses, and SF Express international routes, has elevated cross-border fulfillment efficiency to a level approaching "domestic-like cross-border" service. A deeper strategy lies in enhancing warehouse network density. Since the establishment of the Ningbo bonded warehouse in 2022, the number of brands has doubled within a year, the number of products has tripled, and warehouse space has expanded by 25%. This allows popular products to ship directly from domestic bonded warehouses, eliminating the need to wait for overseas shipments and significantly reducing logistical uncertainties.
Third Dimension: Breaking Through Growth with "Niche Market Economics"
A sixfold increase in health product sales, a 140% increase in golf equipment sales, and the immediate sell-out of Capezio ballet shoes these figures show Amazon replicating mature overseas "niche market consumption" models in China. Amazon Overseas Purchasing introduces proven overseas consumption trends to the Chinese market, leveraging global data to inform local product selection and establishing a first-mover advantage in niche segments. Li Yanchuan emphasized that product selection, pricing, and logistics services remain Amazon Overseas Purchasing's three key focuses. The JD.com flagship store implements a "triple-pricing system" discounts from Amazon's overseas sites, Amazon Overseas Purchasing's good prices, and JD.com promotional mechanisms to ensure competitive pricing. Since its Black Friday launch, the flagship store's product selection has expanded from 400,000 to over one million items in just three months, offering a more diverse range of imported goods. The "bonded warehouse + international direct mail" dual-engine fulfillment system ensures efficient delivery speed.
Localization Remains the Ultimate Challenge: Traffic Acquisition, Price Advantage, and Localized Innovation Face Hurdles
Despite its strong initial performance, Amazon still faces three major challenges in the Chinese market:
- Traffic Acquisition: The flagship store's growth is closely tied to JD.com's traffic, but JD Global faces intense competition from Tmall International and Douyin cross-border platforms. If platform resource allocation decreases, can Amazon maintain its user base?
- Sustainability of Price Advantage: While the "triple-pricing system" is effective, fluctuations in tariff policies and logistics costs may affect the long-term maintenance of price competitiveness.
- Localized Innovation: While emphasizing "authentic overseas products," this clashes with domestic consumers' demand for customization and local adaptation. Issues like European and American clothing sizes and health supplement ingredient standards require more flexible solutions.
Li Yanchuan stated that a diversified matrix of authentic overseas products is the core competitiveness of Amazon Overseas Purchasing. Through a distinctive product selection strategy, customized pricing, and a convenient cross-border logistics network, Amazon aims to better meet the diverse needs of Chinese consumers. In the future, Amazon will continue collaborating with JD.com to deepen its global product selection matrix, create a more competitive pricing system, and optimize the cross-border logistics experience.
A Strategic Deployment and Competition Focused on Supply Chain: Global Resource Network Empowering Cross-Border E-commerce
The essence of Amazon's competition in the Chinese market lies in its supply chain capabilities. While domestic e-commerce is caught in traffic involution, Amazon, with its global network of 20 million suppliers and 175 fulfillment centers, simplifies cross-border trade into "inventory deployment and combination." This capability is particularly evident in the explosive growth of apparel the ability to add 500,000 products at once. In 2024, China's overall imports increased by 2.3%, reaching a historical high and maintaining its position as the world's second-largest importer for the 16th consecutive year. Chinese consumers' demand for imported products is also becoming more diverse and segmented. Competition in the cross-border e-commerce industry continues, but its ultimate outcome is not just the flow of goods, but the integration of culture and services. The ability to strike a balance between "global goods" and "local consumers" will determine Amazon's success in the competition within China's import e-commerce market. Chinese consumers need not only "more choices," but "better choices."
Disclaimer: The content of this article is sourced from the internet. The copyright of the text, images, and other materials belongs to the original author. The platform reprints the materials for the purpose of conveying more information. The content of the article is for reference and learning only, and should not be used for commercial purposes. If it infringes on your legitimate rights and interests, please contact us promptly and we will handle it as soon as possible! We respect copyright and are committed to protecting it. Thank you for sharing.(Email:[email protected])