Following the closure of its online platform in China, US retail giant Amazon is now back in the country once again. The company announced this week that it will be opening up a pop-store in China through a partnership with the Chinese e-commerce platform Pinduoduo.
Amazon's return to the Chinese market follows its decision earlier in the year to halt its operations in the Asian country, citing difficulties in competing with domestic players. The company return is part of a limited deal with Pinduoduo, which has agreed to carry thousands of Amazon's products from the US until the end of December. It has not yet been made clear if Amazon's products will still remain on the platform after the year ends.
An Amazon spokeswoman mentioned in a statement that the Amazon Global pop-up store on Pinduoduo will be featuring more than 1,000 overseas products that have been carefully selected for the Chinese market. All of the products that will be sold on the pop-up store will apparently be competitively priced with convenient shipping options for Chinese buyers.
The spokeswoman also mentioned that the company hopes to form more partnerships in the future to expand its cross-border shopping business to allow customers to buy the best overseas products at the best possible prices.
The US retailer previously stated in April that the closure of its marketplace for domestic-selling merchants as part of its strategy to focus on its more profitable businesses in China. This included a renewed focus on selling its cloud services and imported goods directly to Chinese consumers.
During its exit from the Chinese market, Amazon stated that it had found it difficult to compete with major domestic players such as Alibaba and JD.com in terms of hosting a platform for domestic-selling merchants. In 2015, Amazon seemingly acknowledged Alibaba's dominance when it opened a pop-up online store on the platform.
Amazon's decision to partner with Pinduoduo for its return to the the market in time for the holidays has cemented the reputation of the Chinese firm's role as a market disruptor in China's massive retail industry. Pinduoduo, which was founded in 2015, has grown to become a a major player in the lucrative industry, threatening Alibaba and JD's long-standing dominance in the Chinese -commerce market.
The four-year-old startup has managed to grow at an increasingly rapid pace thanks to its focus on China's rural areas and consumers. The company mostly offers massive group-buying deals and large discounts on millions of products, which is popular with consumers in China's lower-tiered cities and provinces.
