E-commerce Morning Briefing: Sam's Club to Restrict Companion Card Bindings; SHEIN UK Revenue Up 18%

Item 1: Sam's Club Updates Membership Terms, Plans to Restrict Companion Card Bindings

Sam's Club is proposing updates to its Membership Terms and Conditions and has opened them for public feedback. The new terms include a rule that, starting from the first activation of a companion card, the linked real-name identity can only be used to activate companion cards for two primary individual members within every 365-day period, with only one primary member's companion card activated at a time. If no changes are made after the feedback period, the new rule is expected to take effect on October 16, 2026.

Item 2: Fliggy: Double Festival Hotel Night Volume Up Nearly 70% Year-on-Year, Five-Star Hotels Up Over 80%

Fliggy's performance report for the 2026 Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday shows that the average daily hotel night volume during the long holiday grew nearly 70% year-on-year, with hotel night volume exceeding historical records for four consecutive days. Over 100 cities in China saw a doubling of hotel night volume. 88VIP emerged as the most prominent growth driver, with 88VIP users' per capita hotel spending on Fliggy during the holiday being 34% higher than the overall average, and five-star hotel night volume growing over 80% year-on-year.

Item 3: SF City Now: Daily Average Order Volume from Key Merchants Up 50% During the National Day Holiday

According to data from SF City Now, on-demand delivery demand remained strong during the National Day holiday, with daily average order volume from key merchants increasing by 50% year-on-year and individual users' daily average order volume growing by 30%. Cultural tourism delivery is accelerating market penetration, with cities like Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Shenyang seeing double-digit growth in daily order volume; categories such as apparel, beauty, and digital products also experienced double-digit daily order growth. The "1-on-1 express" service, known for its high timeliness and personalization, saw daily average order volume grow by over 1.5 times year-on-year.

Item 4: Doubao App Adds "Utility Bill Payment" Feature

Sources close to Doubao reveal that the Doubao app has recently added a "Utility Bill Payment" feature, allowing users to initiate payment commands via voice or text. Doubao then displays a service card and redirects to a dedicated payment page, which categorizes payments into electricity, water, and gas. City coverage and service provider integration are still in progress. The source added that Doubao is gradually building capabilities for life scenarios, including travel services and utility payments.

Item 5: Dingdong Maicai's Private Label "You Dou Zhi" Achieves Cumulative Sales Exceeding 1.5 Billion RMB

Dingdong Maicai's soy-based private label brand "You Dou Zhi" announced two strategic moves: on the supply side, it signed a tripartite agreement with Longwei Foods and Beidahuang Group's Nenjiang Farm in Heilongjiang to jointly plant 50,000 mu (about 8,300 acres) of soybeans, with an expected output of 10,000 tons; on the production side, its invested factory in Ningbo has officially entered the production phase. Since its inception over five years ago, You Dou Zhi has achieved cumulative sales exceeding 1.5 billion RMB, with annual sales growing 20% year-on-year.

Item 6: Former Head of ByteDance's TRAE, Shi Yang, Leaves to Start Business with New Company Valued at Around $200 Million

Shi Yang, former head of ByteDance's AI office platform TRAE, left the company before the holiday. Reports suggest he will team up with Fu Yue, former head of ByteDance's AI data and security, to start a venture in the AI office space. The first round of financing has been completed, with the company valued at approximately $200 million.

Item 7: Canada's Weston Family Acquires UK Retailer Boots for $8.9 Billion

On October 7, Wittington Investments, the holding company controlled by Canada's Weston family, announced the acquisition of UK pharmacy and beauty retailer Boots for $8.9 billion (approximately ￡6.74 billion). The deal includes Boots' UK and Irish retail operations, its optical chain, the No7 beauty brand, and its franchise branch in Thailand. Boots, headquartered in Nottingham, UK, operates 1,800 stores nationwide and employs 50,000 people. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027. Galen Weston, chairman of Wittington Investments, is expected to become chairman of Boots.

Item 8: Amazon Global Logistics Adds Two New Air Freight Options for China-US Routes with Free FBA Inbound Configuration Fee Waiver for Air SMP

Aimed at peak-season restocking, out-of-stock recovery, and time-sensitive new product launches, Amazon Global Logistics has introduced two new service options for air freight from China to the US. The Air SMP service allows sellers to split shipments at the origin, with daily flights from Shanghai and Hong Kong to five US regions, each linked to a designated fulfillment center, delivering within approximately 7 to 10 calendar days from pickup. This service waives the FBA inbound configuration fee, and no surcharges apply to apparel, electronics, or lithium battery products. The other option, Economy Air, flies from Shanghai or Shenzhen to Los Angeles, expected to arrive in 11 to 15 days, with rates lower than standard air freight but still weeks faster than ocean shipping.

Item 9: SHEIN UK Revenue Exceeds ￡2.5 Billion in 2025 with Pre-Tax Profit Up 18%

Recently published accounts show that SHEIN UK generated revenue of ￡2.58 billion in 2025, with pre-tax profit growing 18% to ￡45 million. The UK subsidiary achieved several "important milestones" last year, including a partnership with Wireless Festival, a pop-up store on Oxford Street, and a Christmas advertising campaign. During the same period, the group's operating expenses in the UK, including administrative and distribution costs, more than doubled to ￡27 million.

Item 10: Ozon's H1 FMCG GMV in Russia Reaches RUB 440.5 Billion, Becoming Largest Online Seller

Russian e-commerce platform Ozon recorded approximately RUB 440.5 billion in GMV in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) online channel in the first half of the year, surpassing Wildberries to become the largest online FMCG seller in the country. FMCG covers high-frequency essential categories such as food and daily chemicals, making it a core battleground for platforms to compete on fulfillment density and user repurchase.

Item 11: Lazada: Nearly 10,000 Tmall Brands Enter Southeast Asia

Lazada, Alibaba's Southeast Asian e-commerce platform, recently disclosed that since the launch of Tmall's "One-Click Light Overseas" project less than a year ago, nearly 10,000 Tmall brand merchants had joined as of the end of the first half of 2026, with participating merchants' GMV consistently achieving double-digit quarter-over-quarter growth. During the recent 9.9 campaign, categories such as fashion in Thailand and esports in Vietnam showed significant growth, with several Chinese brands emerging as new growth cases in these vertical markets.

Item 12: Spain's September Shopping App Download Rankings Shift, Temu Drops to Eighth

Third-party data firm Data.ai's September rankings for shopping app downloads in Spain show second-hand platform Vinted rising to first place, Wallapop in second, Lidl Plus third, Shop fourth, Amazon fifth, Mercadona sixth, Action seventh, and Temu eighth. Chinese platforms generally slipped in the rankings, with SHEIN at twelfth, AliExpress at nineteenth, and Miravia at forty-eighth. In other European markets, Temu ranked seventh in France, ninth in Germany, and tenth in Italy. The French economy minister stated that inbound small-package volumes from the EU fell by 30% to 50% between July and August.

That's all for today's morning briefing. For more e-commerce knowledge content, stay tuned to Ebrun's audio news.

This article was originally published on Ebrun's official website.