(Yicai Global) Aug. 16 -- The government of China’s southern city of Shenzhen plans to offer support to e-commerce vendors affected by Amazon’s move to block online Chinese sellers for violating the platform’s rules on fake customer reviews.

The Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Commerce met with about 10 leading cross-border e-commerce firms on Aug. 13 to discuss the impact of Amazon’s action and how the local government can help the affected businesses, Yicai Global learned from one of the firms. The bureau gave no details about the kind of support the government would provide.

Amazon has shut more than 10,000 Chinese stores since May, and the accounts of at least 50,000 Chinese vendors have been affected, causing cross-border e-commerce firms a CNY100 billion (USD15.4 billion) loss. The world’s largest online retailer said the stores were closed for abusing its review system.

Chinese firms made up 75 percent of Amazon’s new sellers in January, according to a report by Marketplace Pulse, with China accounting for 63 percent of its cross-border e-commerce merchants in January, up from 28 percent a year earlier.

About 70 percent of the Chinese vendors are from Guangdong province, with half based in Shenzhen, according to statistics. The value of the city’s cross-border e-commerce reached CNY100 billion in the first half, more than for whole of last year.

In a document released on Aug. 5, Shenzhen’s commerce bureau proposed to help big cross-border e-commerce players expand their foreign market through self-operated platforms and the construction of overseas warehouses. Sellers that develop successful projects in this direction will be given a CNY2 million (USD308,900) subsidy, it said.

The heads of several Chinese online merchants told Yicai Global that they have already started building their own e-commerce sites, adding that it has become a priority now that Amazon is pulling their shops.

Editors: Liao Shumin, Futura Costaglione