‘Made in China, Sold on Amazon’ community faces gloomy future amid Covid-19 lockdowns, geopolitical tensions
- China’s cross-border e-commerce industry has enjoyed rapid growth, expanding 10-fold in the past five years, according to official data from the Ministry of Commerce
- However, the ‘explosive growth’ is over and merchants need to develop their own brands to retain customers, according to the head of an industry association
The “Made in China, sold on Amazon” community in Shenzhen is bidding farewell to the freewheeling growth of recent years as it focuses on compliance and brand building amid an ever-complex market with tighter regulations, geopolitical uncertainties, and logistics disruptions from pandemic lockdowns.
For Zou Xing, sales manager at food thermometer maker Shenzhen Goldgood Instrument, business has thrived in recent years through his clients’ online stores on Amazon, but growth started to slow this year and has even declined in some regions.
The company’s biggest markets, the US and Europe, have seen annual growth of 30 per cent over the past few years, according to Zou.
“The US market is largely stable, but our European business has been slashed by half so far this year,” Zou told the South China Morning Post from his booth at the Shenzhen International Cross-Border E-commerce Trade Expo last weekend. “I think the weakening economy and the politics, such as the Ukraine war, are the main reasons behind the weak sales.”
Despite Shenzhen’s strict pandemic control measures, the three-day expo was packed with tens of thousands of attendees and over 800 exhibitors looking for new clients and opportunities.
