Chinese Amazon has become a trusted, well stocked online shopping site in China. Now, you can shop in English both conveniently within the mainland and abroad for Chinese goods. Here’s a helpful guide I wrote for the Amazon.cn store.
Click here for Amazon.cn in China
“Refresh page if the language does not change to English immediately.”
About Amazon.cn
Amazon (in Chinese: 亚马逊 or Yàmǎxùn) has arrived to the republic with ambitious plans to storm the world of e-commerce, this time in China. And have done quite well considering that the Chinese internet shopping sphere is a tough one to penetrate, with locals faithful to Taobao, Tmall and other consumer-to-consumer focused retail shopping sites.
Despite Amazon still falling short compared to it’s well known dominating characteristics in other countries, especially the US, undoubtedly it’s position in the Chinese market will only continue to increase. Already boasting with an impressive amount of products on their wear house shelves. On top of that, there is special interest amongst foreigners not used to the tangles of smaller Chinese businesses and individual entrepreneurs with varying degrees of reliability. Especially with comfortable shopping in English, there is demand for a company like Amazon.
With a high level of consumer protection, not just foreigners but also the Chinese are reaping the benefits of a well known and trusted international brand.
Amazon China in English
Their website at Amazon.cn has a very useful guide for English speakers on how to order both within and outside of the Chinese mainland. Also you may check the direct link on top of this page, to change the site language directly to English.
This does leave some product description and a few other pages untranslated. If you are shopping for already known products, the amount of English should be sufficient for registration and processing orders. Also they have efficient help desk staff that can guide you in English. But for those who wish to browse through the products completely in English, there is an option to use a translation extension that utilises Google Translator for live translation of web pages. While the translator is far from perfect, it still provides a very liable option to understanding the content.
Here are some methods to achieve this with popular browsers. Note that the same trick will work for other languages too: — for example Spanish, French, Japanese, Korean, Italian & Russian.
Google Chrome
My personal favourite is Chrome, which is equipped with a translating feature for languages other than your set “default browser language”. It will automatically popup the translation bar where you have the “always translate this page” option for a smooth and automatic browsing experience.
Mozilla Firefox
This option in my experience is more reliable for Mac users, and a very easy extension to install for Firefox with a click of a button. Similar settings can be found from an icon that is added to the top right corner of the browser window.
Note. If you have any questions please leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to answer them! Thank you for reading! Kind wishes, Charlie.
Can I put an ‘English’ address for my location in Shanghai (China) in my address field? Will that be delivered OK bearing in mind many drivers may not read English well?
Using the latin alphabet to send mail within China is usually frowned upon. However I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. It certainly works with international parcels. My advice is to use an address in Chinese characters if possible. This could avoid potential hassle.
Thanks for your question.
I publish a series of popular Amazon kindle ebooks on Australian travel (A huge number of Chinese now visit Australia) and health and I am very keen to promote and sell these ebooks on the growing market in China.
But I don’t know how. Can you help me?
Here’s one on the Australian Outback which the Chinese seem to love because of the uncrowded wide open spaces and sense of adventure:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00735AXZW
Are you planning to translate your books into Chinese?
You might want to look at TMall Global (天猫国际) which supports shipments directly from overseas to Chinese customers in the mainland. There are agents that can help you set up shop there.
My son and daughter in law are in Beijing and will soon be having a baby. They want to make a registry where people in the US can purchase items for delivery in China. Can you tell me where they might go to do that?
Thank you
Ni-hao Terry. Sounds interesting. Care to elaborate on the ‘registry’ part?
Hi Charlie Hu:
I cannot create my account on amazon.cn in English website.
I tried to use WeChat but it does not accept my phone number, 408-981-9752
I would like to buy this book: ABCs in Politics & policies
Published by amazon in USA
isbn-13: 978-1543255355. isbn-10: 1543255353
Thanks
Erlyn [E RayLyn]
Hi Erlyn. Have you tried the regular method of registration without Wechat? It is the grey button that says “创建您的 Amazon 账户” (Create Amazon account). Any phone number, including foreign ones should work through there.
Hi, Charlie. Glad I found your page. Managed to view in English, but had problems keying in my state. I keyed in accordingly, but was prompted to change it, I have no idea how to change it as I have keyed in correctly the state I am staying. I suspect it’s an issue with Amazon China.
Any idea how to get this sorted?
Hello,
Unfortunately can’t get to reset my password.They do not recognize my email and phone number so it is impossible for me to find a way to get a new password…Any suggestion? Tried to re-register but no luck…
I did receive books in the past and the service is very good, so I’m a little sad not to be able to buy books again…
Thank you
Nancy
I’m talking about Amazon china
路过此地 雁过留声
I want to buy “renovator twist a saw kit de lux“.
What is the price final with shipping in France, in payment EU.
While I generally shop on JD.com or Taobao (the better Chinese versions), I’ve used Amazon in the past to buy things here in China and it’s been a good experience. I particularly like that I can use my foreign credit card.
It’s also worth noting that even though an Amazon Prime membership in another country doesn’t translate to China, there’s still value in being an Amazon Prime member while in China. I’ve been doing it for the last few years and even wrote out my reasons for why I use Amazon in China and how I do it.
Amazon may never beat Alibaba on their home turf, but they’re building market share!
hello , can amazon france deliver in China?
Yes, Amazon.fr does deliver some of the items to China. Mainly, those that support international shipping (which will cost you quite a bit obviously).
So if you are in mainland China, better order from there if possible.
Olá!!! Você teria a indicação de sites onde podemos comprar em inglês, quando estamos na China? A Amazon de lá disponibiliza a entrega por lockers? Estou indo para Pequim em Setembro e isso seria de grande ajuda para mim. Obrigado e parabéns pelo Blog.
Thanks
NP!