If you thought Amazon was just about killing bookstores like Barnes & Noble, or ticking off publishers, guess again. It’s becoming increasingly clear that Amazon is not merely a book industry disruptor, but a retail disruptor in general. Bad for Macy’s. Bad for Walmart. Good for Amazon. And, not surprisingly, spectacular for Chinese manufacturers who are now able to produce and sell on demand directly to the American consumer through Amazon Marketplace.

Two years ago, my oldest daughter was looking for special designer nail polish pens. She couldn’t find them at Claire’s in the local mall. She went to Amazon and found them there for about $5. They arrived two weeks later in a padded envelop, the return address in Chinese, from Guangzhou.

A month ago, I ordered pillow covers for outdoor patio furniture. I couldn’t find them at Lowe’s or Home Depot. I got precisely what I wanted on Amazon. They arrived in a box. The return address, Guangzhou.

“What most people don’t know is the amount of investment that is going on behind the scenes to make all this happen. Amazon has blazed the trail and it is now simply a global phenomenon,” says Scott Galit, CEO of Payoneer, a New York City based online payments system that helps process all of those cross-border transactions between American shoppers looking for patio furniture and the Chinese willing to ship it to them.

In China, there are logistics companies building warehouses to accommodate all of this new direct-to-consumer retail.

Amazon and the Chinese are teaming up, for better or for worse, to change the retail landscape forever. There is no going back.

Staples is closing stores because it is just as easy for consumers to buy a laptop or printer ink on Amazon. The company has shut down hundreds of stores in the U.S. and is now considering shuttering all 107 of them in the U.K. The company said it would close at least 50 more here this year.

All 140 Sports Authorities are going out of business. It’s not just because of bricks-and-mortar rivals like Dick’s Sporting Goods. It’s because it is easier to find a Rob Gronkowski jersey on Amazon.

In September, Macy’s said it would close as many as 40 stores this year. Long-term store closing plans have already been announced by Walgreens, Aeropostale, American Eagle Outfitters and The Gap.

Out of all the roughly 100 countries Payoneer works with, roughly 25% to 30% of the manufacturers are Chinese. That they are not a total dominant force shows there is ample room for manufacturers elsewhere to ship direct to consumer through platforms led by Amazon.

At a July 3 e-commerce trade event in Shenzhen sponsored by Payoneer, India’s Flipkart attended, China’s JD.com, Argentina’s undefinedMercadoLibre was there. Everyone sees the future. What is most clear is that it is Chinese businesses who are building out the infrastructure.

“The organization in China, the way logistics companies have made it that you can get goods in small parcels all over the world, is just extraordinary,” says Galit. “They are building an entire eco system to support this.”

Crazy Asia Volume

Many of the companies in Asia, not just China, that are taking advantage of this trend are small to mid sized businesses. Shipping directly to consumers in the U.S. instead of through a middle man is not their core business, but it is a part of the business that is growing greater than traditional exports.

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(Source:Forbes)