Amazon Global VP Cindy Tai: Chinese Cross-Border E-commerce Must Embrace 'New Value Competition' and 'New Globalization'

As of the first half of 2026, China's foreign trade exports have maintained growth for 11 consecutive quarters. However, amidst this high-speed growth, how can sellers break free from the homogenized competition they are trapped in? On July 28th, Cindy Tai, Amazon's Global Vice President and Global Head of Amazon Global Selling, published a signed article titled 'The Next Chapter for Chinese Brands Going Global: Competing on Value, for the World' in response. She pointed out that sellers need two mindset shifts to escape the cycle of intense, zero-sum competition: moving from 'competing on price' to 'competing on value', and from 'seeing the world as the end point' to 'seeing the world as the starting point'.

Cindy Tai believes Chinese sellers must embrace 'New Value Competition'. By continuously innovating products and creating more differentiation, they can win customers with high value, effectively build Chinese brands, and enhance value competitiveness.

Simultaneously, sellers must embrace 'New Globalization'. Today, the path to globalization is undergoing a fundamental restructuring. Going global is shifting from a one-country-at-a-time approach to launching for multiple markets at once. Only by rethinking manufacturing models with a global mindset and designing products 'born global' from the outset can the full value of R&D and innovation be amplified.

The following is the full text of Cindy Tai's article:

In the first half of 2026, China's foreign trade exports grew 13.4% year-on-year, marking 11 consecutive quarters of growth, once again demonstrating the robust resilience of 'Made in China'. However, an undeniable reality is that while sprinting at high speed, more and more sellers are falling into homogenized competition. Faced with this intense, zero-sum scenario, how do we break the deadlock?

The answer lies in two mindset shifts: from 'competing on price' to 'competing on value', and from 'seeing the world as the end point' to 'seeing the world as the starting point'.

First, embrace 'New Value Competition': Differentiation comes before brand. For the world to feel the value of Chinese brands, the prerequisite is that the products themselves are truly differentiated. Brand building is never about slapping a logo on a generic product. In today's fiercely homogenized competitive landscape, only brands that continuously innovate can consistently enhance product value and escape pure price wars.

Some Chinese sellers have already provided answers through practice. Ohuhu expanded its alcohol-based marker line from 48 colors to 320 colors, developing products with replaceable tips and refillable ink, turning a low average order value (AOV) category into a premium product priced at $289. ELEHEAR directly addressed the pain point for people with hearing loss—'expensive ones are unaffordable, cheap ones are ineffective'—using AI acoustic algorithms to improve speech clarity in noisy environments by 30%, reaching top positions in Amazon US's hearing aid category within a year.

Their path is clear: they win customers not because their prices are lower, but because their products are more differentiated. A high price is just a tag; high value is the reason customers pay. Product innovation is precisely the starting point for moving from 'price competitiveness' to 'value competitiveness'.

Second, embrace 'New Globalization': Globalization is not the end point, but the starting point. True globalization isn't about producing a product and then selling it worldwide. It's about designing the product for the global market from day one of its development.

This signifies a capability upgrade starting from the very source. A product 'made for the world' should be configured according to the standards of different global markets from the first step of design and production: from compliance to packaging, from labeling to environmental considerations, all should be planned holistically at the design stage. This isn't simply about adding steps; it's a structural upgrade in mindset, resource allocation, and systemic capabilities.

Today, globalization is a mandatory question. Only by targeting the global market can the R&D and innovation value of a product be truly amplified. The path to globalization is also undergoing a fundamental restructuring, shifting from expanding country by country in the past to launching for multiple countries at once today.

Amazon proposes 'Sell Globally from Day One' and is realizing this vision through continuous infrastructure upgrades. Just recently, Amazon's Global Smart Hub warehouses in Shanghai and Ningbo officially commenced operations, marking another key strategic move following the first hub in Shenzhen. This enables sellers to focus on product innovation and business growth with lower logistics costs and a simpler export process.

As more and more sellers begin to re-examine the definitions of value and globalization, a profound mindset shift is underway: replacing commodity output with value output, and rethinking manufacturing models with a global mindset.

The next chapter for Chinese brands going global will not be written by the 'World's Factory' but defined by 'Global Brands'. When a product is made for global users from the day it is born, it belongs to the world inherently, no longer needing to 'go overseas'.