Amazon is closing down its retail business in China after admitting defeat to its great rival in the market, Alibaba.
The US etail titan will shut its marketplace and stop offering seller services in the country from July 18.
Amazon will, however, maintain other operations in the market, including Amazon Web Services and Kindle ebooks, but will stop selling through amazon.cn.
The ecommerce behemoth is dominant in its native US, but has struggled to compete with the likes of Alibaba and JD.com in China.
Amazon has invested heavily in its logistics in the market in a bid to woo shoppers and also bought Chinese bookseller Joyo in 2004.
An Amazon spokeswoman said: “We are working closely with our sellers to ensure a smooth transition and to continue to deliver the best customer experience possible.
“Sellers interested in continuing to sell on Amazon outside of China are able to do so through Amazon Global Selling.”
The spokeswoman added: “Over the past few years, we have been evolving our China online retail business to increasingly emphasise cross-border sales, and in return we’ve seen very strong response from Chinese customers.”
Amazon did not reveal how many jobs will be impacted by the move, but informed workers on Thursday morning.
According to Bloomberg, which first reported the news, Amazon plans to shift its overseas focus to the growing market in India.
Amazon attempted to buy a controlling stake in Indian ecommerce business Flipkart to boost its presence in the country, but lost out in the race to Walmart.
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