Amazon Dragon Boat Plan: New cross-border logistics opportunities and impacts for Chinese sellers

Amazon’s Dragon Boat program is dedicated to providing Chinese sellers with more efficient cross-border logistics options. This plan only provides sea and air transportation services, aiming to reduce transportation costs through combined warehouse and lock-in services in the destination country, and avoid excessive expenses caused by separate warehouses. Sellers can make fee inquiries by calling Amazon Fulfillment at 400-910-5669 or sending an email. No official quotation has been released yet.

In terms of geographical coverage, Dragon Boat Project covers countries in Amazon’s major global sites, including North America (United States, Canada, Mexico), Europe (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, etc.) and Asia (China and Japan). The main collection locations in China include Beijing and Tianjin in North China, Shanghai and Ningbo in East China, Shenzhen and Guangzhou in Guangdong, Xiamen in Fujian, and Hong Kong. There are many Amazon warehouses in these areas, which effectively promotes the convenience of logistics transshipment. As Amazon continues to expand its warehouses in China, it is expected that the number of collection locations will also gradually increase.

The implementation of the Dragon Boat Plan has brought significant advantages to Chinese sellers. It not only performs well in terms of timeliness, but also effectively reduces costs, especially providing convenience in multi-country customs clearance issues. In the past, Chinese sellers mainly sold thin and light products on the Amazon platform, such as clothing, accessories, 3C digital products and related accessories, toys, and auto accessories. After the implementation of the dragon boat plan, products with larger volume and weight such as large furniture, massage equipment and outdoor swimming pools will also gain more development opportunities.

However, the Dragon Boat Project also poses challenges for middlemen and traders. Through this plan, manufacturers have lowered the threshold for entering Amazon, and the complexity of traditional cross-border e-commerce transportation and retail has been simplified. This means that manufacturers only need to focus on the quality of their products to successfully conduct business on the Amazon platform and complete the transformation of cross-border retail.

In order to cope with the new situation, Chinese sellers need to formulate layout strategies in a timely manner in order to benefit from it. There are several modes for sellers to choose from:

1. Build your own brand and find OEMs: Although the cost of registering a trademark is relatively low, operating an internationally recognized brand requires a large investment of money and time, as well as the support of a strong R&D team.

2. Build your own factory and become a manufacturer: This model requires a large amount of capital investment, including factory buildings, equipment, labor and other expenses, and it needs to be based on your own capabilities.

3. Share investment in production plants: Participating in share investment in existing companies can reduce investment risks, but it requires reaching an agreement with the other party.

4. Obtain exclusive authorization from the brand owner: This method has higher requirements on the seller’s product judgment ability. It requires signing an exclusive authorization agreement with the brand owner, and may require payment of relevant fees or guarantee of sales performance. .

To sum up, the Dragon Boat Plan provides Chinese sellers with a variety of flexible cross-border logistics options, broadening the possibilities for product sales. Early deployment will bring the best long-term benefits to sellers.