As a world-class e-commerce platform, Amazon currently has 1 billion products on the platform, over 100 million monthly website visits, and over 300 million global users. No matter which market in the world, from the perspective of traffic, Amazon is the preferred platform for cross-border e-commerce sellers.
2.2.1 Analysis of Amazon’s four main sites
Amazon’s current business scope is mainly distributed in four major regions: North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia.
1. North American site
Register once and open sites in the United States, Canada, and Mexico at the same time. Products are exposed to more than 95 million North American customers every month. According to the survey on the US trade in goods and the Sino-US bilateral trade overview from January to June 2018, Chinese products ranked first in the total import volume of the United States. From January to June 2018, the United States imported US$249.74 billion from China, an increase of 8.6%, accounting for 20.2% of the total import volume of the United States.
Among the locations where American consumers have purchased cross-border e-commerce products, China ranks first (56%), followed by the United Kingdom (27%) and Canada (20%); and among the locations where they intend to purchase cross-border e-commerce products, China also ranks first (72%), followed by the United Kingdom (68%) and Australia (52%).
Amazon ranks first among the top 10 most popular websites in the United States. The website has an average monthly traffic of about 1.78 billion, accounting for 54.1% of the traffic share. As of January 30, 2019, the number of Prime members exceeded 100 million, and Prime members accounted for more than 50% of the customers on the US site, and 75% of middle-class families purchased Prime members. The average spending of Prime customers is twice that of non-members, which contains huge purchasing potential. During holiday traffic periods such as Prime Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, companies can quickly create hot products and increase sales.
2. European site
The total population of the five European countries is large. In 2019, Europe has more than 360 million online shopping users, with a market size comparable to North America and sales exceeding that of the United States. However, compared with North America, Europe is still a blue ocean market with great potential for business development.
Europe has more diversified Amazon logistics service solutions. Various European Amazon logistics services can distribute inventory goods to the operation center closest to customers, with low cost and fast delivery. At the same time, Amazon logistics can also provide customer service and product return and exchange services in local languages.
Amazon has high visibility, high traffic and a large customer base in Europe, which will help us expand our territory in Europe and bring higher exposure to products.
Amazon provides a European joint account system for Europe. With only one sales account, you can create and manage multiple product catalogs for the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
At the same time, the establishment of international product information tools can help create and synchronize product catalogs in multiple regions in Europe, set pricing rules with one click, and manage five-country business simultaneously, with one country warehousing and five countries selling. Amazon has operation centers in seven European countries, which can deliver products to all parts of Europe and promote business growth.
Enterprises should take advantage of the holiday season and peak sales periods in Europe to enhance business cash flow and protect product sales from the impact of off-season sales in other markets.
3. Japan Station
Japan is the world’s third largest economy, with a total population of 128 million and an Internet coverage rate of 93%, of which 70% of buyers shop online. The number of mobile users visiting Amazon Japan Station is about 32.96 million per month, with a monthly traffic of about 1.08 billion times; the number of PC users visiting Amazon Japan Station is about 16.24 million per month, with a monthly traffic of about 1.04 billion times, and the number of PC page views ranks first among e-commerce websites.
Japan Station opened to Chinese sellers relatively late, but the competition is still not saturated, and there are many market opportunities. 52% of consumption on Japan Station comes from middle- and high-income people, with an annual income of more than 5 million yen (about 300,000 yuan), of which 10% have an annual income of more than 10 million yen (about 590,000 yuan), which contains huge consumption potential.
Chinese products are popular in Japan, and the total import volume has ranked first for many years. Geographically close to China, it has lower logistics costs and lower return rates than European and American sites.
4. Australia
Australia has a population of about 24 million, with Internet users accounting for more than 90%. The smartphone coverage rate ranks among the highest in the world, reaching 78%. More than 80% of consumers shop on cross-border e-commerce, far exceeding the global average of 51.2%, and the cross-border consumption rate ranks first in the world.
As e-commerce business continues to grow, Australian e-commerce continues to maintain a double-digit growth trend, and there is still a lot of room for growth in the future. In 2017, Australia’s online retail sales exceeded US$10 billion, accounting for 6.6% of total sales.
From January to August 2018, Australia imported US$34.89 billion from China, an increase of 14.6%, accounting for 23.2% of Australia’s total imports. As of August, China remained Australia’s largest trading partner, while continuing to maintain its position as Australia’s largest export market and largest source of imports.