U.S. e-commerce giant Amazon is set to launch its first Global Warehousing and Distribution (GWD) facility in Shenzhen in March.

The new center aims to significantly accelerate the delivery of Chinese products to buyers around the world, according to an announcement by Qiu Sheng, vice president of Amazon China.

The GWD facility will offer Chinese sellers a streamlined, one-stop service. By shipping their goods directly to the Shenzhen warehouse, sellers will gain access to an integrated logistics solution that covers warehousing, customs clearance, cross-border transportation, and global distribution.

As a global hub-based fulfillment system, the GWD model simplifies inventory management for sellers. Instead of maintaining separate stock for different regions like the U.S. and U.K., sellers can consolidate their products into a single, centralized inventory pool at the GWD hub. Amazon then manages the entire process — from warehousing and customs to cross-border transport and allocation to Amazon marketplaces worldwide. The company describes this as “one inventory supply for the world.”

Sunny Jain, head of Amazon’s Global Logistics, highlighted Shenzhen’s strategic importance as the reason for choosing the city for this pioneering facility.

“As a manufacturing powerhouse and innovation hub with a high concentration of Chinese sellers, Shenzhen represents the ideal location for our first GWD facility,” Jain explained.

The decision is further underpinned by Shenzhen’s high supply density, which enhances Amazon’s scheduling algorithms, and its mature supply chain, which allows for significant economies of scale at the source.

The city’s central role as the hub of Amazon’s global supply side makes it the logical launch point for this new logistics solution, which is expected to help sellers drastically reduce their logistics costs.

The evolution of Chinese sellers on the platform was a key theme at the 2025 Amazon Global Selling Cross-Border Summit, held in Hangzhou last December.

“What’s really interesting is that what started maybe 10 years ago with Chinese sellers reselling existing products has changed. The sellers [are] now building and creating and innovating with new products, as if we’ve switched from a world of resellers to a world of innovators and brand owners,” Amazon vice president Eric Broussard said.

Chinese sellers on Amazon posted strong gains in the first 10 months of 2025, with sales up more than 15% in the U.S. and Europe and over 30% in emerging markets.

“And the number of [Chinese] sellers doing more than 10 million dollars a year, increases by a whopping 30%, really demonstrating the contribution the sellers are making,” Broussard said.

(Li Jing)