Cross-Border E-Commerce Weekly: Amazon Q3 Net Sales Up 12% YoY; TikTok Cracks Down on AI Live Streaming; SHEIN Expands Semi-Managed Merchant Recruitment

Platform Developments

Amazon

1. Amazon Q3 Net Sales Up 12% YoY, Net Income Down About 2%

Amazon released its Q3 2026 financial results. During the reporting period, net sales reached $201.944 billion, up 12% YoY (up 13% excluding FX impact); net income was $20.718 billion, down about 2% YoY; operating income was $28.076 billion, up 61% YoY; operating margin reached 13.9%, a record high.

The results show that Amazon's Q3 net sales growth was lower than the 20% recorded in the previous quarter. Officially, the company explained that Prime Day in most major markets was moved from Q3 to Q2 this year, whereas all 2025 Prime Day events fell in Q3. Amazon estimates that excluding this timing shift, sales growth for the quarter would have been about 4 percentage points higher.

2. Amazon Global Consolidation Warehouse Lands in Tianjin, Further Improving Origin Consolidation and Warehousing Network

Amazon's Global Consolidation Warehouse (GXD) has officially opened in the Tianjin Dongjiang Comprehensive Bonded Zone. This is the sixth GXD in China after Shanghai, Ningbo, Shenzhen, Xiamen and Qingdao, and the first GXD in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region serving cross-border sellers. It will provide FBA sellers with value-added services such as consolidation, quality inspection and labeling, further enhancing cross-border logistics and warehousing consolidation capabilities in North China and providing efficient outbound logistics support for cross-border e-commerce sellers in the north.

3. Amazon Holiday Return Window Extended to January 31, 2027, to Be Fixed Annually Going Forward

Amazon officially announced its 2026 extended holiday return policy. Items purchased between November 1 and December 31 will have their return deadline extended to January 31, 2027, while Apple-branded items will have a return deadline of January 15. The policy automatically applies to seller-fulfilled and FBA-fulfilled orders, and sellers do not need to apply separately. Amazon said the move is aimed at enhancing consumer appeal during the year-end shopping season and, for the first time, explicitly informed sellers that the policy will be applied annually going forward rather than announced separately in the autumn as in previous years.

TikTok

1. TikTok US Cracks Down on AI Voice Live Streaming; Digital Human Screen Share Must Not Exceed 50%

TikTok Shop has officially implemented controls on AI voice live streaming on its US site. According to the "Quality Short Video and Live Streaming Compliance Requirements" published by the platform's Global Seller Academy, the controlled formats include two categories: fully AI-voice live streaming and unattended AI live streaming without a real person on camera.

At the voice level, all non-real-time voice materials are included in the scope of control, covering AI-generated voiceovers, text-to-speech, pre-recorded commentary audio and looped audio tracks. The platform requires product introductions, comment replies and daily interactions to be completed by real people in real time as much as possible, and sign language is explicitly listed as an acceptable alternative communication method. At the visual level, the overall proportion of non-real-time human images such as static product images, screenshots, looped animations and AI digital humans must not exceed 50% of the screen. Unattended sales formats such as fully digital-human live streaming, image carousels and looped playback of pre-recorded videos are not recommended.

2. TikTok Shop Cuts US-to-Mexico Shipping Fees, Splits Cross-Border and Local Segments

TikTok Shop Mexico announced that, effective 19:00 Mexico City time on October 21, it will adjust shipping fee policies for China-Mexico cross-border direct-mail stores and US-to-Mexico cross-border direct-mail stores, involving a split in shipping fee structure, lower shipping fees and a lower cap on SFP service fees.

The shipping fee structure will be split into cross-border segment fees and local segment fees. The local segment will include in-Mexico shipping, while the cross-border segment will be charged based on parcel weight brackets. Merchants only need to factor cross-border transport costs into product prices and no longer need to include local segment shipping in hidden pricing. In addition to the structural split, TikTok Shop also lowered its rate card (shipping fee price list) to reduce merchants' logistics costs, and the cap on per-item service fees under the Shipping Fee Program (SFP) has also been lowered.

3. TikTok Launches Must Eat Feature in the US, Entering the Restaurant Guide Space

According to foreign media reports, TikTok has officially launched a restaurant recommendation feature called "Must Eat" in the US. It is a community-driven restaurant guide product that aggregates restaurant resources attracting attention across the platform and integrates scattered food recommendation content into a unified entry point. Unlike similar platforms such as Yelp and Google Maps, whose product logic centers on search results, map services and traditional reviews, Must Eat relies on the platform's existing content ecosystem and builds connections between people and restaurants through real consumption experiences shared by other users.

Alibaba

1. Lazada Philippines Launches Automated Withholding Tax Reimbursement Channel, Effective November 1

Lazada Philippines local site has published guidance on an automated withholding tax reimbursement process for applying for refunds of withholding taxes collected by the platform on various fees. The new reimbursement channel will officially go live on November 1, 2026, covering commissions, order fees, payment processing fees and other platform service fees.

It should be noted that this process does not apply to the 0.5% withholding tax on sellers' gross remittances under BIR Revenue Regulation 16-2023. The current manual reimbursement channel for Q3 2026 will close on October 31, and all backlogged Q3 reimbursement materials must be submitted before that date; late submissions will not be accepted through the original channel.

2. Taobao Malaysia Upgrades Cross-Border Shopping Experience with 1,400 Local Return Points Launching in November

Taobao Malaysia announced a comprehensive upgrade of its cross-border shopping experience, covering reduced logistics times, an expanded local returns network and the introduction of AI shopping tools.

On logistics, the platform is working to deliver cross-border goods in as fast as five days and plans, starting in November, to partner with J&T Express to open about 1,400 local return drop-off points in Malaysia so consumers can return eligible items without shipping them overseas. At the same time, the platform is further improving cross-border direct delivery for large items such as furniture. On product supply, Taobao is leveraging a cross-border product pool of more than 3 billion items to select more than 4,000 original brand stores and 6 million products, and has introduced features such as AI virtual fitting, virtual makeup try-on, AR furniture placement, voice search and an AI shopping assistant.

3. AliExpress Brings Double 11 to South Korea, Opening Offline Pop-Up Store This Year

Alibaba's cross-border platform AliExpress announced that it will run its overseas Double 11 from November 1 to 18. During the period, AliExpress will open a pop-up store in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, South Korea, and set up an EV product experience zone. This year AliExpress is focusing heavily on brands and localization in South Korea. In May, the AliExpress Brand Going Global program officially opened the South Korean site, with investment in the Korean market three times that of last year. Logistics times have also been optimized, with 50% of orders in South Korea now achieving three-day delivery.

More

1. SHEIN Launches Year-End Sales Event and Fast Onboarding Plan for New Semi-Managed Merchants

SHEIN has launched a fast onboarding plan for new semi-managed merchants for its year-end sales event, using five measures to cover the entire process of onboarding, warehousing, operations, stock preparation and fulfillment, helping sellers open stores quickly, stock lightly, get up to speed fast, select products accurately and reduce operating costs, while also providing brands with a dedicated brand onboarding portal.

SHEIN's year-end sales event warm-up and Double 11 warm-up both went live on October 19. The semi-managed model has been an important lever for SHEIN to expand supply in recent years: the platform handles traffic, operations and fulfillment support, while merchants handle supply and local stock, retaining more operational autonomy than the fully managed model and being more suitable for brand-type and factory-type sellers with local warehouses or stable supply chains.

2. Coupang Launches Smart Hub to Enable "Domestic Warehousing, Cross-Border Sales"

South Korean Coupang Rocket Growth has officially launched its Smart Hub solution, which uses a "stock domestically, sell cross-border" model to help Chinese sellers enter and deepen their presence in the South Korean market with lower risk and higher efficiency. Specifically, sellers can first store goods in the first Smart Hub located in Weihai and dynamically replenish to Coupang's rocket warehouses in South Korea based on actual sales, enabling flexible and efficient inventory management.

3. Shopee Brazil Invests BRL 48 Million in Coupons for Year-End, Free Shipping Across Both Major Promotions

Shopee has invested BRL 48 million in coupons for Brazil's year-end shopping season, with free shipping offered during both the 11.11 and Black Friday major promotions. The year-end series of events kicks off gradually from October 28, and the platform is simultaneously opening four new distribution centers in Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Vitoria and Blumenau, adding more than 2.4 million items in daily processing capacity. Combined with capacity expanded in other regions earlier, overall processing capacity this year is up more than 60% compared with the same period last year.

Major Brand Going Global Events

1. Pudu Robotics Officially Opens European Headquarters in Germany, Deepening Localized European Operations

Pudu Robotics has officially opened its European headquarters in Neuss, Germany. As an important move for Pudu Robotics to deepen its European market layout and improve its global operating system, the new headquarters integrates office operations, product display, sales, training, warehousing, after-sales service and maintenance, further connecting key links such as customer communication, product experience, project delivery and service support.

2. Nayuki Flagship Store Opens in New York's Times Square, Revenue Tops $110,000 in First Three Days

On October 23, Nayuki's flagship store in New York's Times Square officially opened, generating cumulative revenue of $111,000 in the first three days, equivalent to about RMB 740,000, setting a record for early-stage revenue at a Nayuki overseas store. This is Nayuki's seventh store in the US. According to information disclosed at Nayuki's August 2026 earnings meeting, mature stores in the US market maintain average monthly sales of more than $250,000, with peak monthly sales at a single store exceeding $400,000.

As of mid-2026, Nayuki had nearly 30 overseas stores, covering markets such as Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the US, and is currently advancing expansion into European markets such as the UK. Its overseas segment as a whole remains loss-making.

3. Pop Mart Q3 Overseas Revenue Down 45%-50% YoY

Pop Mart International Group released unaudited business data for Q3 2026. Affected by pressure on the overall consumer environment and divergent performance across regional markets, overall revenue in Q3 fell 45%-50% compared with the same period in 2025. By region, China revenue fell 25%-30% YoY, Asia-Pacific fell 65%-70%, the Americas fell 70%-75%, and Europe and other regions fell 50%-55%. The results indicate that overseas designer toy consumption and brand expansion are undergoing a phased adjustment amid regional divergence, and the risk of going-global brands relying on a single market is once again drawing attention.

4. Anker Innovations Revenue Up More Than 24% in First Three Quarters, New Products and Channel Expansion Pay Off

Anker Innovations released new financial results. In the first three quarters of 2026, revenue reached RMB 26.140 billion, up 24.36% YoY; net profit attributable to shareholders excluding non-recurring items was RMB 2.279 billion, up 53.72% YoY, with gross margin at 48.44%. In Q3, revenue was RMB 9.535 billion, up 16.96% YoY, and net profit attributable to shareholders excluding non-recurring items was RMB 840 million, up 61.23% YoY.

The revenue increase was mainly due to the company's continued market expansion and new product launches, as well as the continued expansion of online and offline sales. During the reporting period, the company launched multiple innovative products across its three business segments: charging and energy storage, smart innovation, and smart audio-visual. In the first three quarters, online channels contributed RMB 24.791 billion in revenue, up 21.99% YoY; offline channels generated RMB 8.762 billion, up 32.28% YoY; and the official DTC website contributed RMB 3.008 billion, up 43.06% YoY, accounting for 11.51% of total revenue.

5. Insta360 Revenue Reaches RMB 9.3 Billion in First Three Quarters, Nearly Matching Full-Year 2025, With Heavy R&D and Inventory Investment

Insta360 released its Q3 2026 report. In the first three quarters, revenue reached RMB 9.336 billion, up 42.73% YoY and almost matching full-year 2025 (RMB 9.741 billion); net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was RMB 47.8355 million, down 93.96% YoY. In Q3, revenue was RMB 3.919 billion, up 33.30% YoY, and net profit attributable to shareholders was RMB 17.4282 million, down 93.59% YoY.

Revenue growth was mainly driven by continued market expansion, continuous new product launches and the continued expansion of online and offline sales. The profit decline was mainly due to the company's proactive increase in strategic R&D investment and market expansion, with total R&D investment reaching RMB 1.675 billion, up 54.29% YoY and accounting for 17.75% of revenue, up 1.33 percentage points YoY. Facing rising costs of memory components, Insta360 proactively adopted a forward-looking procurement strategy and increased strategic reserves of core components and new product inventory to ensure supply chain stability and security.

Cross-Border Service Provider News

1. Shopify Partners with Card Networks to Launch Agentic Payment Technology for AI Shopping Agent Checkout

Shopify announced the integration of agentic payment technology into its Shop Pay checkout system. The technology was jointly developed by Visa, Mastercard and American Express, taking a differentiated route from Stripe's existing mainstream solutions. It issues dedicated payment tokens to AI shopping agents in place of users' real bank card information. After obtaining user authorization, AI agents can directly complete charges using the token without ever accessing the real card number. Relevant transactions still retain credit card rewards and fraud protection mechanisms, marking a further step toward automation in the checkout process.

The move is expected to improve order conversion rates for cross-border sellers in high-ticket and impulse-purchase categories, but it also requires sellers to complete integration with new interfaces and adapt to compliance standards. Agentic payments are currently seen by the industry as key infrastructure supporting AI shopping agent checkout scenarios.

2. Meta Muse Launches in Singapore, Integrates with Shopee, Lazada and Other E-Commerce and Local Service Platforms

Meta announced the launch of its personal AI agent Muse in Singapore. Users can access Muse via iOS and Android apps and muse.ai, and connect it to services including Shopee, Lazada, Grab, Singapore Airlines, Agoda, ShopBack, Klook and Trip.com.

Singapore is another market for Muse after the US, Canada and Japan, and its first stop in Southeast Asia. The partners announced this time cover e-commerce, mobility, travel and cashback services, showing that Meta is trying to connect its AI agent to users' existing platforms and consumption scenarios.

3. UPS Announces 5.9% Shipping Rate Increase Effective December 21, Cross-Border Sellers Face Higher Last-Mile Costs

US logistics giant UPS announced that, effective December 21, it will raise average daily rates for ground, air and international services by an average of 5.9%, in line with the past three years. The price adjustment coincides with the tail end of the New Year holiday shipping peak, and combined with fuel surcharges and peak-season surcharges, cross-border sellers' last-mile logistics costs will rise further. On billing rules, UPS will raise the minimum billable weight for packages requiring additional handling from 40 pounds to 50 pounds, and has adjusted the ZIP code ranges and zone divisions for zone surcharges. For small business customers, ground, air and international shipping rates will rise by 4.5%.

Trade Policy and Data

1. New US Import Rules May Land Soon, Sellers Using Foreign IOR More Affected

A new US rule specifically targeting "foreign importers of record (foreign IOR)" is under review and may be implemented soon. Amazon Global Selling recently issued a notice reminding US site sellers to confirm their Importer of Record (IOR) status in advance.

According to information disclosed so far, the core change in the new rule is that the IOR's identity—US entity or foreign entity—will directly determine the level of compliance requirements sellers must meet. The proposed provisions apply differently by identity, with foreign IORs (non-US entities acting as importer of record) potentially most affected.

2. EU Requires Product Identification Codes for Imported Goods Under EUR 150

The EU requires that, starting November 1, 2026, product identification codes (PID) be declared item by item. The policy applies to B2C goods sent from outside the EU's 27 member states to local consumers with a value of no more than EUR 150.

3. Cross-Border Online Shopping Share in EU to Rise to 15.2%, with Market Expected to Reach EUR 69 Billion in 2026

Latest data from e-commerce data analytics firm ECDB shows that, driven by Temu, SHEIN and AliExpress, cross-border online shopping's share of total online consumer spending in the EU's 27 member states continues to rise and is expected to reach 15.2% in 2026, up from 10.4% in 2023. By then, EU consumers' overseas online spending is expected to reach EUR 69 billion, nearly eight times the EUR 8 billion in 2020, with 90% of that flowing to Chinese merchants.

4. French Christmas Consumption Survey: 27% of Consumers to Make Black Friday Their Main Purchasing Moment

Data from the year-end consumption barometer released by Havas Market together with global online market research firm YouGov shows that in 2026, 27% of French consumers plan to make Black Friday their main purchasing moment for Christmas gifts. That proportion is up 6 percentage points from 21% in 2025, a record high. Overall, 55% of respondents plan to concentrate their main purchases in November. The survey forecasts a per-capita gift budget of EUR 252, up 3% from EUR 245 last year, but after accounting for 3.1% inflation, real purchasing power is basically flat versus last year.

This article was first published on the official website of Ebrun.