Amazon program set to make shopping day the next big thing

Workers are busy at a distribution center of online retailer Amazon.com Inc before the Christmas season in Bad Hersfeld, Germany, on Nov 22,2016. [Photo / Agencies]

The Chinese don't really celebrate Thanksgiving Day, the US public holiday.

But Amazon.com Inc plans to make Black Friday, the US shopping season starting immediately after Thanksgiving, a big thing in China by offering online shoppers free cross-border shipping.

In October, Amazon launched its membership program in China in an attempt to use a tailor-made free cross-border shipping service to lure the rising number of Chinese who seek for high-quality products from overseas.

The membership program－Amazon Prime China－makes subscribers the first in the world who can enjoy free cross-border shipping directly from the United States and the United Kingdom.

With an annual subscription fee of 388 yuan ($57), the prime package offers unlimited free cross-border shipping on more than 4 million authentic overseas products and unlimited free shipping with no minimum purchase on more than 9 million domestic products.

Amazon China Vice-President Elaine Chang said that the Nov 11 shopping festival in China and Black Friday were the two annual shopping highlights for many customers in China.

"The reason that we launched Amazon Prime in China in late October was because we wanted our users to be able to enjoy free and fast delivery and have a better shopping experience when the big shopping season came," she said.

With the Amazon Prime service, more consumption power is expected to be seen during the Black Friday shopping season.

Created in 2005, Amazon Prime has attracted more than 65 million members in the US and acted as an effective catalyst to increase customer loyalty and boost sales.

Lu Zhenwang, an internet analyst and chief executive of Wanqing Consultancy in Shanghai, said that the newly launched Amazon Prime China was expected to help the company boost sales among its existing customers in the country.

"As soon as you join the membership, you will want to buy more because of the free shipping policy. And it is also likely to help the company gain new customers," he said.