During Ioan’s keynote presentation on International Expansion at SCOE 2013, we asked attendees to send questions at http://bit.ly/AskIoan.
Today we’ll start by answering a few of those questions!
When you look into your crystal ball, what year do you think selling to China will be viable for US Amazon Sellers?
This is a great question! And a very tough one to predict, but I’ll do my best. I was just reading that the economies of the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) will be larger than the economies of the G7 nations (United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan) by the year 2027.
Of the BRIC nations, China currently has the greatest GDP at a bit above $7 trillion USD. That’s greater than Brazil, Russia and India combined.
So, I think that while 2027 is still a ways off, we’ll see Amazon in China as a viable option for US sellers by the end of this decade and maybe even within the next 3-5 years.
The stumbling blocks are part political and part logistical. On the political side, trade with China will need to become more open, or else selling there will be too difficult for the average seller. Logistically, Amazon will need to create fulfillment centers capable of providing a wide range of goods to the rapidly growing middle class.
But one thing to remember, is that Amazon is open in China now. And by jumping through the hoops required (including finding a mainland China entity to act on your behalf), you can get a great headstart on selling in China.
In your Amazon’s Long Game slide, is that Amazon retail or combined 3rd-party sellers and Amazon retail?
The slide referred to here is the one below.
And to answer the question, the data on this slide comes from Amazon’s yearly filings that they are required to provide as part of being a publicly traded company.
We originally believed that the revenue is the total of both Amazon retail and 3rd-party retail. However, we have heard that some believe that Amazon uses a combination of their own retail sales and the commission they earn from 3rd-party sellers to report their income. If this is the case, we could infer that Amazon’s total sales are getting very close to (if not over) $100 billion annually. But there’s no way to know for sure.
Will slides be available after the presentation?
Yes! We’re finalizing the slides and make a few updates now, but we’ll send them out to all attendees within the next few days.
If you’d like the slides today, please send me an email to paul.cole@SellerEngine.com and I’ll send them to you today!
They’ll also be available on our SlideShare page, too! So keep your eyes peeled.