Black Friday to fuel another online shopping wave

Tech firms covering e-commerce, logistics and cross-border payments aim to explore business opportunities during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping bonanzas.

Amazon China will start a 72-hour shopping promotion from Friday, offering domestic consumer’s big discounts on up to 100,000 goods from thousands of international brands. Categories include maternal, infant toys, cosmetics, food and drinks, shoes, bags, clothes, kitchen appliances and electronics products.

According to a survey by Amazon and Data100, 70 percent of those interviewed planned to spend more than 2,000 yuan (US$288) on Friday.

November is when Chinese consumers buy gifts for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year. 

According to Nicole Yang, CMO of Secoo, a luxury e-commerce platform, luxury goods in China now mean more than handbags and apparel. Pillows which cost 40,000 yuan each and a gold bowl which cost over 300,000 yuan sold recently online, she said.

Cross-border e-commerce brings opportunities for related industries such as payment and logistics.

Payments require security, transparency and timeliness, with technology upgrades for frequent small-amount transactions. 

Comparatively, cross-border payment are less-competitive now, said Lin Yong, general manager of International business for Baofu, a Shanghai-based startup with clients including Amazon and Ymatou.

In Asia Pacific, robot delivery and new-tech payment services have great potential, especially in China and Singapore, said a report by Worldpay.