Amazon.com Inc plans to close its domestic marketplace in China by mid-July, so that it can focus its efforts on the more lucrative businesses of selling overseas goods and cloud services in China, said Reuters.
Amazon shoppers in the country will no longer be able to buy goods from third-party merchants, but will still be able to order from the United States, Britain, Denmark and Japan via the firm’s global store.
Amazon expects to close fulfillment centers and wind down support for domestic-selling merchants in China in the next 90 days.
The move underscores how entrenched, home-grown e-commerce rivals have made it difficult for Amazon’s marketplace to gain a foothold, said Reuters. Consumer insights firm iResearch Global said Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s Tmall marketplace and JD.com Inc controlled 81.9% of the Chinese market last year.