On March 28, 2026, the cross-border e-commerce industry ushered in many major developments.
The first is TikTok Shop, which held the British-European-Japanese cross-border POP annual conference in Shenzhen on March 27.
The total retail scale of the UK, EU, and Japan reaches US$4.68 trillion, and the scale of e-commerce reaches US$770 billion. TikTok Shop’s monthly users in Europe and Japan exceed 200 million, which is the same as the size of the United States.
Its ecological scale is also very impressive. The number of cross-border POP merchants in the UK, Europe and Japan has increased sevenfold year-on-year, with 300,000 merchants, 2 million experts, and 1,500 service providers. The growth rate of the Japanese market exceeds expectations.
In terms of operational strategy, it focuses on brand building and tilts resources towards medium and large merchants/brands. Local shipments in the EU are supported by traffic and subsidies, and it has also established a local expert and alliance marketing system.
As for merchant support, new cross-border POP merchants in the UK, Europe and Japan enjoy a three-month commission reduction, key products are subsidized, and alliance channel merchants can participate in master tasks and ranking competitions; the “commodity auction” function is launched in the US region, and Bazaarvoice customer reviews are synchronized to reduce content costs.
Pinduoduo released its 2025 financial report on March 25, with annual revenue of 431.8 billion yuan (+10%) and net profit of 99.4 billion yuan (-12%). For the first time, it “increased revenue without increasing profits.” The high cost increase was mainly due to domestic subsidies and Temu’s overseas investment.
Temu’s global GMV in 2025 is approximately US$90-95 billion (+87.5% – 97.9%), falling short of the 100 billion target due to the impact of US tariff policies; European GMV increased by 90%, contributing 40% of global GMV, becoming the core growth engine.
In the face of policy changes, after the United States canceled the tax exemption of US$800, Temu switched to sea freight stocking and general trade customs clearance, bearing 3% – 5% tariffs. The EU will cancel tax exemptions below 150 euros in July, and Temu accelerates local stocking in Europe (currently semi-custodial accounts for 20%).
In order to optimize profitability, Temu has opened up in-site advertising (revenue accounting for more than 5% of GMV), regulated merchant fines, and launched its own brand “Xinpinmu”; the target GMV in 2026 is US$130 billion (+50%).
On March 26, Amazon announced a capital expenditure plan of US$20 billion for fiscal year 2026 (double the historical annual average), 60% of which will be invested in AWS AI infrastructure, self-developed Trainium3/4 chips, and a dedicated AI computing center; the remaining funds will be used for the satellite Internet “Amazon Leo” project (200+ satellites have been launched).
Affected by the huge investment, Amazon’s stock price fell 3.95% to US$199.34 on March 27.
Coupang has made no core policy or strategic adjustments in the past 48 hours; its stock price fell 1.52% to US$18.09 on March 27, and has fallen 23.31% since the beginning of the year.
Institutions reduced their holdings and insiders increased their holdings, with institutions holding 83.72% of the shares.
In terms of global policy and regulatory trends, the European Union will impose a tariff of 2-3 euros per order on small packages imported from China under 150 euros from July 1, ending the tax-free bonus of low-price direct mail; from February 2027, consumer electronics products listed in the EU will need to be equipped with replaceable batteries, and Meta and Nintendo have adjusted their product sales plans; Russian postal reforms require e-commerce platforms to set up post office pickup points, clarify the upper limit of package weight, and allow postal outlets to sell over-the-counter drugs.
In other platform news, Shopee Philippines launched the “Instant Seller Incentive Plan”, and sellers who meet the standards can enjoy instant delivery with no commission + advertising quota; the Malaysian station updated the pre-sale product specifications on April 6.
Otto’s GMV last fiscal year was 7.5 billion euros, and it aims to exceed 10 billion in 2028. It will expand into 5 new European markets this year and increase its proportion of next-day delivery to 50%.
Data from the Ministry of Commerce show that from January to February 2026, China’s online retail sales increased by 9.2% year-on-year; sales of smart glasses and sweeping robots increased by 183.5% and 130.8% respectively; online retail sales of agricultural products increased by 17.6%; cross-border e-commerce import sales increased by 7.6%.
The current core trend of cross-border e-commerce is that compliance costs have become explicit, small tax-free bonuses have collapsed, and local stocking has become an urgent need for cross-border sellers; resources are concentrated at the top, and the platform focuses on brands and medium and large merchants, while small and medium-sized sellers need to refine their operations; AI is restructuring infrastructure, computing power competition is intensifying, and AI tools have become standard equipment for operations.
Action suggestions include sellers in the European market completing overseas warehouse layout or semi-managed transformation before July, and calculating the impact of tariffs on profits; seizing the commission reduction window period for new merchants in the UK, Europe and Japan in TikTok Shop to quickly enter the cold start; paying attention to Shopee’s new pre-sale regulations in Malaysia, and adjusting the product structure in advance to adapt to traffic changes.
