Amazon's Hot Topics of the Week | Amazon was ordered not to offer big discounts

1. Amazon Netherlands site is officially open to global sellers

On January 16, Amazon announced yesterday that the Netherlands site is officially open for registration to global sellers.

It is reported that sellers can register and open the Dutch site through https://services.amazon.nl to bring more high-quality products to local consumers. In addition, in order to provide local users with a more comprehensive consumer experience, Amazon also stated that it will continue to expand the product selection of the Dutch site this year.

It is understood that in November last year, there was news that Amazon would launch a full market service in the Netherlands in the first quarter of this year. Since Amazon launched the Dutch site in 2014, it has only sold books for the time being.

Starting in 2018, Amazon began translating 2 million product pages on the German site into Dutch. Dutch consumers who want to purchase other products on a long-term basis can visit Amazon.de (Amazon Germany) and pay using their own payment methods. The purchased products will be shipped to the Netherlands within 24 hours.

2. India's antitrust agency: Amazon and other e-commerce platforms should not offer large discounts

On January 16, according to foreign media reports, regarding the antitrust investigation of Amazon and Flipkart by the Indian antitrust agency Competition Commission, the agency’s chairman Ashok Kumar Gupta recently stated that large e-commerce companies should not offer large discounts and must disclose their discount policies.

It is reported that the purpose behind this statement may be to protect small and medium-sized enterprises in India to ensure that they will not go bankrupt due to excessive discounts on e-commerce platforms such as Amazon. At the same time, Amazon founder Bezos is about to visit India. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has stated that it will hold protests in 300 cities during Bezos' visit to India.

It is understood that in February 2019, India officially implemented new e-commerce FDI regulations to protect 130 million people who rely on small-scale retail for their livelihood by blocking large online discounts.

At the same time, in October last year, the Indian government also launched an investigation into Amazon and Flipkart for possible excessive discounting on e-commerce platforms. Recently, the Competition Commission of India, an antitrust agency, has ordered an investigation into Amazon and Flipkart for suspected violations of fair competition laws.

3. Amazon is rumored to be planning to provide more counterfeit product data to law enforcement agencies

On January 14, foreign media quoted an informed source as saying that in order to further combat counterfeit goods sold on the platform, Amazon plans to provide law enforcement agencies with more data on counterfeit goods. In recent weeks, Amazon has held meetings with government authorities and relevant organizations to discuss new counterfeit reporting strategies and how the company can promote law enforcement actions.

The person also said that if Amazon confirms that a company is selling counterfeit goods, it may close the seller's account. After the account owner fails to successfully appeal through the platform's typical process, Amazon will report the merchant's name, company name, products and contact information to the authorities.

4. Customs: The total value of cross-border e-commerce retail imports and exports in 2019 was 186.21 billion yuan, an increase of 38.3%

News on January 14: Today, the State Council Information Office held a press conference. Zou Zhiwu, Deputy Director of the General Administration of Customs, and Huang Guohua, Deputy Director of the Statistics and Analysis Department, introduced the import and export situation in 2019 and answered questions from reporters.

Zou Zhiwu answered questions from reporters and mentioned that in 2019, my country's foreign trade showed a trend of high-quality development and quality improvement while maintaining stability. Among them, new trade momentum has been significantly enhanced. Last year, new foreign trade formats such as cross-border e-commerce in my country continued to maintain a vigorous development trend. Among them, imports and exports through the customs cross-border e-commerce management platform reached 186.21 billion yuan, an increase of 38.3%. Imports and exports through market procurement reached 562.95 billion yuan, an increase of 19.7%. The two together contributed nearly 14% to the overall foreign trade growth.

In addition, international competitive advantages have been significantly improved, especially the results of export brand building have been quite significant. Last year, exports of self-owned brand products amounted to 2.9 trillion yuan, an increase of 12%, accounting for nearly 17% of the total export value, an increase of 1.1 percentage points from 2018.

5. Amazon Spain opens logistics infrastructure outsourcing

On January 15, Amazon Spain recently opened up outsourcing of certain core processes of its logistics infrastructure.

According to people familiar with the matter, Amazon has signed a document with Celeritas, an e-commerce subsidiary of SGEL, to outsource the management of some logistics stations. This is also the first time that Amazon has tried to outsource the logistics business. If the project achieves good results, it will also prompt Amazon to consider further expanding this model to other countries and regions.

It is reported that in August 2019, in order to test whether the distribution station can be controlled by a third party without affecting the quality of service, Amazon launched two logistics-related pilot projects in Spain. At present, the two projects are still in progress, and their warehouses, staff and management have been outsourced.

6. Shopee releases the 2019 best-selling product lists in Vietnam, Thailand and other markets

On January 17, Shopee released the 2019 hot-selling product list in Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore yesterday.

In 2019, the top five cross-border categories in the Vietnamese market were mobile phone accessories, home furnishings, fashion accessories, women's clothing, and beauty and skin care; the top five sub-categories and hot-selling products were mobile phone cases, jewelry, beauty tools, decorative items, and tops.

In 2019, the top five cross-border categories in the Thai market were mobile phone accessories, baby products, home furnishings, women's clothing, and fashion accessories; the top five sub-categories and hot-selling products were mobile phone accessories, girls' fashion, kitchen supplies, hair accessories, and boys' fashion.

In 2019, the top five cross-border categories in the Philippine market were mobile phones and accessories, home furnishings, women's accessories, baby products, and women's clothing; the top five sub-categories and hot-selling products were portable audio, jewelry, girls' clothing, decorative items, and mobile phone accessories.

In 2019, the top five cross-border categories in the Singapore market were home furnishings, mobile phones and accessories, beauty and personal care, women's clothing, and fashion accessories; the top five sub-categories and hot-selling products were mobile phone accessories, decorative items, kitchenware, underwear, and beauty tools.

It is understood that on January 9, Shopee also released the 2019 hot-selling product lists in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Taiwan. However, looking at all the markets, mobile phone accessories, home furnishings, fashion accessories, etc. are basically hot-selling categories. At the same time, the release of the annual hot-selling product list also provides direction for platform sellers to select products in the new year.