Illustration: Peter C. Espina/GT

A recent customer survey conducted by A.C. Nielsen among China's haitao (overseas online shopping) customers in 10 cities found that product quality, especially authenticity, and international delivery capability are the two things customers are most concerned about.

Is this a surprise? No. It actually makes perfect sense. Chinese customers are getting mature in their approach to online shopping.

Instead of caring about price only, they now care more about product quality and authenticity. They would like to know clearly where the product is sourced and how it will be guaranteed to be authentic. They also would like to track where the product is during the delivery process and they want to be assured that the product they buy will be delivered to them on time.

In my view, cross-border businesses are now going back to business fundamentals. The only way for any business to succeed in competition is to focus on customer needs and innovate based on customer needs.

Those fundamentals are rich selection, trusted product quality, transparent pricing and fast cross-border delivery capability.

The global presence of top e-commerce platforms allows them to develop global vendor resources and long-term trusted relationships with those vendors.

This also enables them to bring high quality and authentic international brands to Chinese consumers.

In China, an ideal approach for an online retailer to bring high-quality, authentic international brands to Chinese customers is to build a unique destination on its Chinese site with a localized shopping experience.

The price and delivery speed are also of importance, so it would be ideal for a cross-border e-commerce platform to build up a direct import team, which sources products directly from brands and cuts off all unnecessary mid-levels and consequently assures customers of a good experience.

On top of that, more preferential policies piloted in the country's free trade zones (FTZs) could be leveraged to enhance Chinese customers' cross-border e-commerce experience. Earlier in May, we reached a strategic partnership with the Xiamen FTZ and launched a Taiwan store, featuring more than 5,000 items from approximately 500 Taiwan brands. We have a partnership with the Shanghai FTZ as well.

Premier Li Keqiang recently talked about how China will promote the sound development of cross-border e-commerce.

We have many reasons to believe that cross-border e-commerce is entering a golden period in China.

For us, this is not only an opportunity, but also a responsibility.

We believe the only way for this industry to have sustainable growth and long-term success is to move back to business fundamentals.

This means focusing on customer needs, in particular the quality and authenticity of the goods, and guaranteeing rapid delivery.

The author is president of Amazon China. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn