Amazon's Global Warehousing and Distribution Hubs Land in Shanghai and Ningbo, Extending 'Sell Globally from Launch' Model to the Yangtze River Delta

On July 7, Amazon's Global Warehousing and Distribution (GWD) officially launched in East China, with dual hubs in Shanghai and Ningbo commencing operations. The Shanghai hub will open for seller inventory intake on July 16, followed by the Ningbo hub in the third quarter of this year. Concurrently, services such as the 'Auto Replenishment' function and support for FOB (Free On Board) trade terms have been officially launched.

In terms of new product supply, the Auto Replenishment feature automatically calculates and executes replenishment quantities, reducing the risk of stockouts for sellers. Importantly, this replenishment inventory is not subject to FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) storage limits. It also automates repetitive manual tasks, freeing up seller resources to focus on product selection and listing optimization. Support for FOB trade terms simplifies the process for sellers to apply for export tax rebates. GWD's hybrid warehousing model supports various scenarios, including tax rebates upon warehousing and flexible return processes, streamlining the return and tax rebate procedures.

According to the official introduction, the deployment of GWD's dual hubs in East China will provide multiple advantages for sellers in the Yangtze River Delta region, facilitating the global expansion of local industrial clusters. In terms of cost, sellers can store inventory at low cost near their production sources, eliminating the need to commit large quantities to overseas stockpiles in advance. This can lead to storage cost savings of up to 45%, reducing capital pressure from bulk inventory preparation and the risk of overstocking. Regarding delivery speed, GWD orders can save up to 7 days in transit time from China to FBA warehouses. Operationally, Amazon handles the complex export process—including export customs declaration, cross-border transportation, import customs clearance, and FBA warehousing—in a one-stop manner, allowing sellers to concentrate on product development and brand building.

Furthermore, GWD supports shipments starting from a single carton, with no minimum shipment quantity requirement. This allows for both bulk replenishment and new product testing, enabling sellers to experiment flexibly at low cost. Suppliers from different regions can ship products to the nearest GWD warehouse. The elimination of the need to consolidate full container loads also reduces the complexity of domestic cargo coordination.

In the GWD operation, Amazon Global Logistics (AGL) provides end-to-end logistics support from the supplier's warehouse to overseas FBA fulfillment centers. Zhang Hui, Vice President of Amazon China and Head of Amazon Global Logistics for Asia Pacific, pointed out that AGL will continue to provide sellers with three key assurances: a rich network of cross-border shipping routes and dedicated transport capacity, highly compliant customs clearance solutions, and dedicated customer teams offering one-on-one guidance from account setup onwards.

It is reported that the Shanghai GWD hub is located in the Lin-gang Special Area, adjacent to the Yangshan Deep-Water Port, covering nearly 20,000 square meters. The Ningbo GWD hub is situated near the Meishan Port. Both facilities are equipped with Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (ASRS) and high-bay storage racks. Notably, the automated storage system in the Ningbo hub reaches a height of 40 meters, making it the tallest of its kind among Amazon's global warehouses.

Once fully operational, these dual hubs will form a cross-border logistics network covering the Yangtze River Delta, East China, North China, and the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Earlier this year in April, the Shenzhen GWD hub also commenced operations.

Currently, GWD supports inventory replenishment to Amazon's FBA network in the United States. In the future, GWD will gradually expand support for replenishment to Amazon fulfillment centers in the EU, UK, Japan, Canada, and other regions. At that point, inventory stored in GWD warehouses, intelligently allocated by the system, will be able to serve real-time demand from multiple international marketplaces simultaneously. Amazon is leveraging its GWD network to unify global inventory, progressively realizing its vision of 'Sell Globally from Launch'.