Amazon plans to shut its online store in China that allows shoppers to buy from

local sellers as it downsizes operations in the country.

The firm said it would no longer run the domestic marketplace from July, but
Chinese shoppers will still be able to order goods from Amazon's global store.

It will also continue to operate its cloud business in China.

The retail retreat comes as Amazon faces tough competition from local rivals
Alibaba and JD.com.

Reuters first reported Amazon's plans to close its domestic marketplace in China by
mid-July to focus on more lucrative businesses selling overseas goods and cloud
services. Amazon's profitable cloud computing division hosts huge swathes of the
corporate world on its data servers.

A spokesperson for the company said in a statement that it was "working closely
with our sellers to ensure a smooth transition and to continue to deliver the best
customer experience possible".

Consumers accessing Amazon Chinese web portal, Amazon.cn, after 18 July will see a
selection of goods from its global store, Bloomberg reported.

Amazon bought Joyo.com, a Chinese books, music and video retailer, for $75m
(£57.4m) in 2004. It rebranded the company as Amazon.cn in 2007.

But it has struggled to compete with dominant players JD.com and Alibaba's Tmall
marketplace in China.

Amazon becomes most valuable public firm

How Jeff Bezos took Amazon to the top
The community that rejected Amazon
The shift away from the world's second largest economy comes as the company pours
huge investment into India.

Amazon has committed to spending $5.5bn on e-commerce in India, where it competes

with local rival Flipkart.

Last year, it launched a Hindi version of its mobile website and smartphone app in
an attempt to attract millions of new customers in the country.