Amazon has announced that the GWD warehouse was officially launched on April 10th. The first GWD warehouse is located in Shenzhen, the capital of cross-border e-commerce and the place where sellers are most concentrated. It is indeed Amazon's best testing ground. The GWD warehouse can replenish inventory with one click. For Amazon sellers, it has its conveniences and is like honey, but for logistics service providers, it may be arsenic and will compete for part of the market.

Original article by Chu Hai Vision. Please indicate the source when reprinting.

1. Amazon Officially Launches GWD Warehouse

According to Chu Hai Vision, many Amazon sellers have already received invitations from the GWD warehouse: "Starting from April 9, 2026, you can store inventory in batches at a lower cost in our new Amazon Global Intelligent Hub Warehouse (GWD) distribution center in Shenzhen, China, and seamlessly replenish it to our US distribution network when needed."

According to Amazon's official description, the Shenzhen GWD warehouse is a cross-border warehousing distribution service that can help sellers handle warehousing, customs declaration and clearance, cross-border transportation, and inventory allocation. When needed, it can be seamlessly allocated and replenished from the source of goods to Amazon's US distribution network.

In the past, whether it was FBA or self-shipment, sellers had to handle the first - leg logistics themselves, that is, from the factory to the port or airport, and then by sea or air transportation overseas, during which customs clearance issues were also involved.

The traditional cross - border link involves multiple links, and sellers usually need to connect with multiple service providers. Now that the GWD warehouse has emerged, it means that Amazon officially steps in to solve the sellers' first - leg problems. For example, if your goods have been produced and are in the factory, by using the GWD warehouse service, you can send the goods from the factory to the Amazon GWD warehouse, and Amazon will transport your goods to the US FBA warehouse.

It is reported that currently, GWD supports EXW (Ex Works), DDP (Delivered Duty Paid), DDU/DAP (Delivered at Destination/Arrived at Place). Amazon also plans to add the FOB (Free on Board) mode.

There is a detail worth noting. Currently, when transporting from the GWD warehouse to the US FBA, the transportation service is provided by Amazon Global Logistics (AGL) team.

If the seller has not opened Amazon Global Logistics service (AGL), they will not be able to select Guangdong Shenzhen and need to register Amazon Global Logistics to "complete importer setup".

Therefore, the launch of the GWD warehouse will also improve the usage efficiency of Amazon Global Logistics service (AGL).

Sellers need to pay special attention to the following issues:

1. Currently, the GWD Shenzhen warehouse is an export - supervised warehouse, and inventory needs to be stored under customs supervision. In this case, all inventory needs to complete export customs clearance documents before it can be stored in the warehouse. Usually required documents include customs declaration form, pre - shipment notice, commercial invoice, packing list, and sales contract.

2. All shipments transported to Amazon Global Intelligent Hub Warehouse facilities must be packaged in boxes. Bulk goods or unpackaged goods are not accepted.

3. If there are any performance problems with the seller's account or the goods to be transported to GWD, inventory cannot be transported. All problems must be solved before the relevant goods can be transported to Amazon.

4. Inventory cannot be removed from the GWD warehouse in China. The GWD warehouse operates as a bonded warehouse or export - supervised warehouse, and inventory will be kept under customs supervision. Amazon states that once the inventory is transported to such GWD facilities and export declaration is completed, due to customs regulations, Amazon cannot remove or abandon the inventory from the GWD facilities and transport it back to China.

2. Who May Be the First to Exit?

For sellers, Amazon's GWD warehouse can save their costs and improve replenishment efficiency. According to Amazon's official statement, compared with US warehousing costs, the warehousing costs and handling fees at the GWD source location are lower, with a maximum reduction of 45%.

Moreover, goods can be directly delivered to Amazon's global distribution network, eliminating the transit costs of overseas warehouses.

However, in this way, cross - border logistics service providers who previously mainly served Amazon sellers may face a major challenge, especially those mainly engaged in first - leg services.

If Amazon optimizes costs and attracts a large number of sellers to switch to the GWD warehouse, and sellers do not need to screen and connect with numerous first - leg service providers by themselves, then first - leg service providers may face the risk of losing customers, and their living space will be squeezed.

Amazon may integrate logistics provider resources in the market and support sellers to independently choose first - leg delivery within the platform system, but small and medium - sized service providers may not be able to enter the official logistics service list due to qualification problems.

Of course, this has a relatively small impact on dedicated small packets and freight forwarders of special categories (dangerous goods, oversized goods), because currently, the GWD warehouse does not accept high - value goods, large - sized goods, refrigerated goods, dangerous goods, and other special goods.

(Requirements of Amazon GWD warehouse for goods, from Amazon official website)

In addition, overseas warehouses that only do FBA transshipment without other value - added services will also be threatened. Sellers use the GWD warehouse, and Amazon directly allocates and replenishes from the Shenzhen warehouse, so sellers' demand for transiting overseas warehouses will also decrease.

Companies with customs declaration services will also be affected to a certain extent. Amazon has taken over the customs declaration and clearance work, and sellers no longer need to find a customs broker separately. Entering the warehouse completes the export customs declaration.

Industry insiders point out that Amazon's GWD warehouse is equivalent to setting up a collection warehouse in China, allowing sellers to prepare all required documents such as customs clearance in advance, and then enter the warehouse for unified arrangement of container loading. In this way, more logistics intermediate links are cut off, and intermediaries should consider changing their tracks.

Article Source: Chu Hai Vision (WeChat official account) Original Link: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/cBBJfm4rj_1qd7a4HRQvTg