Amazon’s pushing further into the low-cost realm.
The e-commerce giant is celebrating the first anniversary of its ultra-low-cost goods marketplace, Amazon Haul, which competes with the likes of Temu. The marketplace, originally launched in beta, will now become a more permanent piece of Amazon’s offerings, Dharmesh Mehta, vice president, worldwide selling partner services for the e-tailer, wrote in a blog Monday.
“I’m pleased to share that, with the amazing momentum we’re seeing in the Haul experience, we’re removing the ‘beta’ designation on the experience globally. We’ll continue to invent new features and evolve Haul as we work to further delight customers and expand to even more new regions,” Mehta wrote.
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The company has increased the items offered on Haul by 400 percent in the past year, alongside making improvements to the platform itself, including “improved personalization” and the ability for users to engage with shoppable livestreams via its Amazon Live initiative. The e-tail giant noted that it offers more than one million Haul items priced under $10.
Amazon has another ultra-low-priced marketplace offering, called Bazaar, which has the same value proposition as Haul—it said in a blog that the names are chosen by market “to better resonate with local language preferences and cultures.”
Bazaar had already been operating in markets like Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but the company announced that it will expand into 14 additional markets, including Hong Kong, Philippines, Taiwan and Costa Rica. The expansion comes alongside the launch of a standalone Bazaar app, which will allow customers to use their regular Amazon login and credentials.
When Amazon first announced the beta of Haul, it said it would ship products directly from China to customers in the United States. When the company announced Haul, the de minimis provision was still fully intact in the U.S.; parcels valued under $800 were, at the time, allowed to enter the U.S. without duties. Since then, President Donald Trump has issued an executive order collapsing what many called a “loophole.” Republicans’ megabill, which Trump signed into law in July, also includes a section that will, by law, end de minimis shipments in 2027.
Amazon has not commented publicly about how it continues to sustain its Haul business in light of the added tariffs associated with shipping goods from China, especially as the trade fracas between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping wages on.
Haul has now grown into 25 markets, including Australia, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, among others. As Amazon celebrates Haul’s “incredible momentum,” it has launched a global sale on Haul items, offering “crazy-low $1 deals” on a variety of products, as well as “exclusive $0.11 hidden treasures on select items.” The sale, which began Monday, will end Tuesday.
That Amazon is offering $1 and $0.11 products seems to allude to the idea that its low-cost offerings could become part of the conversation around Alibaba’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, commonly known as Singles’ Day. The shopping holiday offers rock-bottom prices on goods from low-cost retailers like Alibaba, JD.com and others. While the sales are primarily targeted toward Chinese consumers, Coresight Research analysis shows that the shopping holiday has also started to take root in the U.S., Southeast Asia, Russia, Brazil and parts of Europe.
