eBay Helping Chinese Merchants Manage Retail Supply Chain

eBay may have found its edge with its Chinese merchants by giving them an overseas warehouse presence across four countries — providing some of the merchants a sales boost of 145 percent in one quarter alone, Internet Retailer reported.

The program ran by eBay is aimed at helping China-based sellers, giving them the chance to offer quicker delivery in its main delivery hubs by offering them warehouses to store merchandise. And according to the stats presented in the report, Chinese eBay merchants who were storing their goods in overseas warehouses saw a massive boost in 2014. Since the program has been added, eBay said the number of Chinese merchants selling on eBay also grew 199 percent, according to Internet Retailer. By helping these Chinese merchants manage their retail supply chain, eBay has also managed to increase revenue on its own side.

Because the overseas warehouse enables the merchants quicker delivery times, it’s also created a new eCommerce model for many of those Chinese merchants. Roughly a third of Chinese sellers on eBay rely on warehouses to fulfill orders, and of those who use overseas warehouses, half of their orders go through warehouses outside of China, Internet Retailer said. eBay has a Chinese merchant base of roughly 10,000 that produce billions of products on a yearly basis.

“Overseas warehouses enable China-based sellers to localize their services and improve their consumers’ experiences in global markets,” an eBay China spokesman said. eBay also said it would be “working with independent logistics companies to operate the warehouses outside of China.” Warehouses are currently operating in the U.S., the U.K., Germany and Australia.