On December 10th, Amazon announced that its Amazon supply chain intelligent hosting service is officially open to Chinese sellers. This is an end-to-end cross-border supply chain management service. Amazon's supply chain intelligent hosting service is another innovative service of Amazon's overall supply chain solution. Since the launch of the Amazon supply chain solution at the end of 2023, hundreds of thousands of sellers worldwide have used at least one Amazon supply chain service. As of the end of October 2024, the number of Chinese sellers using two or more Amazon supply chain services has increased fourfold.
It is estimated that supply chain expenses account for about 15% to 20% of the operating costs of cross-border e-commerce, second only to product costs. Amazon stated that according to platform observations, cross-border supply chain management faces multiple challenges, such as high uncertainty in cross-border supply chains, frequent transportation delays, cumbersome customs clearance processes, and high supply chain costs.
Peng Jiaqi, Vice President of Amazon China and Head of Product and Seller Education for Amazon Global Store Asia Pacific, stated that through supply chain intelligent hosting services, sellers only need to provide product information and pickup locations, and Amazon will help them manage the entire cross-border supply chain process from factory pickup to customer delivery. Meanwhile, relying on artificial intelligence and algorithm updates, it can help sellers optimize inventory layout and achieve automatic replenishment, thereby reducing logistics costs and improving supply chain efficiency and delivery speed.
In terms of improving delivery speed, Amazon stated that it is gradually leveraging artificial intelligence and robots to effectively cooperate with operations center employees and enhance operational efficiency. Thanks to these adjustments, the delivery speed for Prime members continues to improve. In the first half of 2024, there were over 5 billion products on Amazon that achieved same day or next day delivery globally, an increase of over 30% compared to the same period last year. According to Amazon data, sellers have achieved record sales in the Amazon marketplace this year. During the just concluded overseas promotion season, Amazon's sales and product sales both broke historical records, with over 60% of sales during the event coming from third-party sellers. It is expected that by the end of 2024, the storage capacity of Amazon's inventory distribution network (AWD) will increase fourfold, while also supporting more categories including lithium battery products.