In the past 24 hours, the cross-border e-commerce industry has ushered in a number of key changes. These changes involve platform policy adjustments, market performance, and new domestic fiscal and taxation policies, which have had an important impact on sellers’ operations and market trends.
Platform Core Dynamics
Coupang: Regulatory stance softens, risks cool down significantly
The Korean Fair Trade Commission (FTC) made it clear that because there is no evidence to prove that the data leak has caused actual economic losses to users, it will not issue a suspension order to Coupang, which is a clear reversal from the previous tough attitude.
The industry believes that this adjustment is related to the trade game between the United States and South Korea. The United States previously warned South Korea not to adopt discriminatory supervision against American companies.
Coupang’s interim CEO will testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on February 23, and the matter may still affect U.S.-South Korea trade issues.
In terms of capital markets, Barclays lowered its target price from US$40 to US$23 and remains cautious in the short term.
The seller suggested that the risk of platform shutdown has been significantly reduced, but it will still take time to repair the brand. The seller will focus on watching the public opinion and policy trends after the testimony on February 23, and will not make large-scale investments for the time being.
Amazon: Transaction volume surged, AWS experienced service failure
On February 20, Amazon’s single-day transaction volume reached US$13.685 billion, a sharp increase of 87.59% from the previous month. The stock price rose by 2.56% to US$210.11, indicating strong market confidence.
At the same time, AWS cloud services were interrupted at least twice due to AI tool failures, triggering internal discussions on the pace of AI expansion and serving as a reminder to independent website and ERP system sellers who rely on AWS.
Sellers recommend that sellers using AWS hosting services consider multi-cloud backup in advance to improve business stability.
Temu: Compliance is implemented in Turkey, and the Polish market reaches the top
Temu officially resumed cross-border shipments to Turkey by setting up a local entity company WhaleCo in Turkey, resolving regulatory issues with localized compliance.
Under the new model, WhaleCo, as a local importer, is responsible for customs clearance and declaration; consumers pay the price and taxes together when checking out, without additional operations; a minimum consumption threshold is set to cover new costs; the initial categories are limited, and will be gradually expanded in the future.
Market data shows that in January 2026, Temu’s monthly active users in Poland exceeded 20.34 million, with an Internet user coverage rate of 68.04%, ranking first among Polish online shopping apps; in 2025, Temu’s global cross-border parcel share reached 24%, ranking first in the world with Amazon.
Sellers suggest that logistics obstacles in the Turkish market have been cleared, and they can pay attention to the opening pace of subsequent categories and make arrangements in advance.
TikTok Shop: A major policy reversal, canceling self-delivery restrictions
TikTok Shop officially announced the cancellation of seller self-delivery restrictions originally scheduled to be implemented on February 25.
Previously, the platform required sellers to stop self-delivery and switch to official fulfillment. If the policy is implemented, it will have a direct impact on a large number of sellers who use multi-channel fulfillment such as FBA, MCF, and WFS.
After this adjustment, sellers can continue to use self-shipping and retain logistics and cost flexibility; USPS channels still need to be operated through TikTok Shipping; the platform will continue to promote TikTok Shipping and FBT.
Sellers are advised to seize the policy window period, optimize the multi-channel logistics portfolio, and pay attention to the official logistics incentive policies.
New domestic fiscal and tax policies: Export return shipping benefits are clarified
The Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs, and the State Administration of Taxation jointly issued an announcement to further clarify the tax benefits for cross-border e-commerce export returns. The policy implementation period is from January 1, 2026 to December 31, 2027.
Applicable to regulatory codes 1210, 9610, 9710, and 9810. Goods that are unsaleable or returned in their original condition within 6 months of export are exempt from import duties, import value-added tax, and consumption tax. Export duties paid are refundable. However, this policy does not apply to food. The tax refunded part is handled according to the relevant regulations on domestic sales and returns.
Sellers are advised to standardize the return process as soon as possible to ensure “return in the original condition” and keep the customs declaration form, return record and other documents to facilitate subsequent verification and enjoyment of the policy.
Trend analysis and action suggestions
Logistics flexibility has become the key to platform competition. TikTok Shop’s policy reversal shows that the platform is balancing fulfillment efficiency and seller experience. Sellers can take the opportunity to optimize multi-channel logistics solutions.
Local compliance determines the life or death of the market. The case of Temu Türkiye proves that platforms with strong compliance and strong local operations are more capable of resisting policy risks, and it is more stable to give priority to such platforms.
Geopolitics affects the supervision of transnational platforms. The Coupang incident shows that the risks of large platforms are deeply bound to international trade. Sellers who rely heavily on a single platform are advised to diversify appropriately.
Fiscal and tax compliance dividends continue to be released, and the export return policy directly reduces the cost of slow sales and returns. It is recommended to incorporate it into the inventory management system as soon as possible.
Sellers need to adjust their operating strategies in a timely manner according to different platform conditions and policy changes to adapt to dynamic changes in the market.
