Amazon is making it easier for Chinese online shoppers to buy products from Germany.
Products on Amazon’s Germany site, Amazon.de, are now available on a section of Amazon’s China site, Amazon.cn. That portion of the China site is called Haiwaigou, and it features more than 10 million overseas items from Amazon’s global sites, with translated product descriptions, local customer services and local payment.
Amazon previously had created a direct link between Haiwaigou and its sites in the United States, United Kingdom and Japan.
Ordering from the four featured countries is especially convenient for Chinese consumers who belong to Amazon Prime, the loyalty program Amazon introduced in China in late 2016. Prime members can get free shipping of products from the U.S., U.K. Germany and Japan on orders over 200 yuan (about $30). Also, Prime members in 85 Chinese cities are promised delivery of overseas products in five to nine days, much faster than the normal shipping time of 20 days for imported goods.
The connection to Amazon’s German site adds to Haiwaigou more than 400,000 products from 6,800 German companies, including children’s food makers Aptamil and Hipp; fashion brands Schaebens, Escada and Gabor; kitchenware manufacturers WMF, Zwilling and Wüsthof; and electronics brands Braun.
Amazon says its European operation centers will fulfill orders from Germany and ship them directly to Chinese consumers. Chinese consumers also will be able to get sales tax on those orders refunded automatically, avoiding the hassle of manually applying for a tax waiver.
Amazon’s Haiwaigou competes for the business of Chinese online shoppers seeking foreign goods with the Tmall Global marketplace operated by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and the JD Worldwide portal operated by JD.com Inc.
Amazon China is No. 4 in the Internet Retailer China 500 and JD.com is No. 1. Alibaba, although it accounts for well over half of online retail purchases in China, is not ranked because it is not the merchant of record for sales on its massive Taobao and Tmall web marketplaces.
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