E-Commerce Morning Brief: Alipay Launches Agent Business Infrastructure; Amazon AWD Warehousing Rolls Out in Europe

News 1: Alipay launches its first agent business infrastructure

On August 17, Alipay held its first AI Ecological Partner Conference in Hangzhou, where it launched an agent business infrastructure and the AHA protocol system for cross-end interconnection of multi-agents. Alipay disclosed that its super service agent "A Bao" has completed AI-enabled access to more than 10,000 services, covering eight major scenarios including transportation, catering, cultural tourism, and government and people's livelihood services. Its cross-end services have been connected to 5 mainstream mobile phone manufacturers and 16 leading automakers, and have reached fixed-point cooperation agreements with more than 60 car companies. Li Jun, President of Alipay Business Group, revealed that since the launch of Alipay's AI development platform in July this year, demand for merchant access has grown rapidly, with some development requests already scheduled into next year.

News 2: Walmart sees 118 million fewer in-store visits, while online channels gain 250 million new visits

Walmart is undergoing a shift in consumer channel preferences. Latest data from Numerator shows that in the 12 months ending June 30, 2026, foot traffic to Walmart's U.S. physical stores decreased by 118 million visits, while Walmart.com recorded nearly 250 million new shopping visits, indicating that consumers are not reducing their spending at Walmart but are gradually shifting their shopping behavior to online channels. The main groups driving this change are high-income households and Generation Z. Among them, high-income households' online spending increased by $6.4 billion, a year-on-year rise of 27%; Generation Z's online consumption growth reached 48%, driving the average online order value up to $65, more than 60% higher than the offline average of $40. Despite higher average online order values, consumers' habit of frequent in-store shopping has not completely changed, with offline users spending an average of $1,900 per year, higher than the $1,600 average annual spending of online users.

News 3: 12 streamers awarded "Kuaishou Semi-Annual Most Influential Streamer"

"Cun Li De Chu Qi" won the "2026 Kuaishou E-Commerce Premium Semi-Annual Single Session Everest Award". He said: "When we first started making videos, we mostly just recorded how we lived by the sea. Later, we gradually realized that our fans not only want to buy products, but also want to know where the products come from, how locals eat them, and how to pick the good ones." In addition to "Cun Li De Chu Qi", the ceremony also awarded the honor of "2026 Kuaishou E-Commerce Premium Semi-Annual Most Influential Streamer" to other streamers and merchants including Cuilu Official Flagship Store, Lingfengjin Flagship Store, MiMi who runs a garment factory in Guangzhou, Tutu Mom Cashmere Coat Factory, Weiwei · High-end Strict Selection, Yan Qing No.30 Baby First Birthday Full Site Event, Nizi (fashion matching tutor), Sister Keer · No.27 Summer Clearing and Nourishing Festival, Uncle Tian Fresh Produce, Sister Ni No.25 Sale Festival, and Tangshan Paopaolong.

News 4: JD.com partners with Far East Group to target 100 million yuan sales goal

JD.com and Far East Group recently signed a strategic cooperation agreement. The two parties will focus on the 3C high-quality wire sector, leverage JD.com's strong operational capabilities, unlock industry potential through bulk centralized procurement models, and deepen cooperation across dimensions including product supply, channel collaboration, quality control, and service experience. The two sides will work together to hit a 100 million yuan sales target and jointly promote high-quality development of the 3C high-quality wire industry.

News 5: Freight volume at China-Vietnam border rises, supply chain linkages support expansion of Vietnam's manufacturing sector

According to foreign media reports, against the backdrop of additional U.S. tariffs, Chinese manufacturers have been setting up factories in Vietnam one after another, driving deeper supply chain linkages between the two countries. In 2025, China's exports to Vietnam reached $198.11 billion, up 22.4% year-on-year, doubling the scale from 2019. In freight warehouses in Pingxiang, Guangxi, goods bearing the logos of Foxconn, Nokia and multiple Apple suppliers are stacked, while aluminum profiles marked with BYD's logo are being carried by workers to trucks waiting for departure. These goods, produced in major domestic manufacturing provinces such as Guangdong and Jiangsu, will stay briefly before being transported via border ports to various industrial zones in northern Vietnam to supply local production lines. Local freight drivers travel between the two sides five days a week. Under smooth conditions, a single customs clearance takes less than an hour, allowing up to three cross-border trips per day.

News 6: Amazon AWD warehousing service to launch in five European countries: Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK

Amazon announced that its AWD (Amazon Warehousing & Distribution) bulk warehousing service will officially launch in Europe. The service will cover five countries -- Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK -- starting August 20. These five countries are not only the largest e-commerce markets in Europe, but also core markets where Amazon holds a leading business position.

That's all for today's morning brief. For more e-commerce insights, please stay tuned to Ebrun audio news.