According to a luxury goods industry report released in 2026, the luxury goods industry is at a critical turning point: under the dual pressures of rising costs and weak demand, the traditional growth model driven by brand premiums is facing challenges. Consumers are questioning the match between price and quality. The trend of the industry shifting from “telling value” to “proving value” is becoming increasingly obvious.
The report points out that the trust-building methods that relied on emotional narratives and brand stories in the past are failing, and are being replaced by “evidence-based trust” based on data, verification and transparent disclosure.
This change has a more direct impact on the luxury cross-border e-commerce segment.
Due to the inherent information asymmetry in cross-border transactions—consumers cannot directly touch and verify products like offline counters, and the identification standards have long lacked unified standards in the industry, cross-border e-commerce platforms generally face two major structural problems: “authenticity disputes” and “after-sales trust.”
This is why third-party authentication platforms have risen rapidly in recent years. On major consumer complaint platforms, the number of complaints related to luxury cross-border e-commerce continues to be at a high level. This is not an individual problem of a certain platform, but a trust gap generally exposed in the entire industry during the period of rapid expansion.
In this industry context, the specific practices of SENSER, a leading global luxury cross-border e-commerce platform, in terms of authenticity guarantee, price mechanism, after-sales service, etc., can be used as a typical case to observe how the industry responds to these structural problems.
The first is the common pain point of inconsistent identification standards in the industry.
There is currently no unified national mandatory standard in the luxury goods appraisal industry. Different appraisal agencies often have inconsistent appraisal results for the same product due to differences in their experience systems and determination processes.
This lack of standards is one of the core reasons why consumers generally have doubts about cross-border e-commerce platforms. It is also the root cause of the question of “whether it is genuine” that will be repeatedly asked on any luxury cross-border e-commerce platform.
Shiji’s way to deal with this industry problem is to introduce third-party authoritative inspection agencies to participate in the quality inspection process, rather than relying solely on the platform’s own commitment and endorsement.
Public information shows that Shiji has signed a formal strategic cooperation agreement with China Inspection and Certification Group Shanghai Co., Ltd. CCIC Shanghai will provide professional quality inspection venues and equipment, assign qualified and experienced quality inspectors, and conduct multiple inspections such as physical photography, product number verification, color and version verification of the goods submitted for inspection. After passing the quality inspection, CCIC Shanghai will issue a quality inspection certificate.
In addition to the quality inspection process, Shiji provides a commercial compensation commitment of “100% fake and 300% compensation” for the products on sale.
Judging from the results, Shiji’s current products will only be shipped after passing the quality inspection by an authoritative third-party organization. This mechanism gives the platform a relatively verifiable basis for authenticity guarantee, and is generally regarded as one of the cross-border e-commerce platforms with a relatively complete authenticity guarantee system.
The second industry pain point is the trust gap between low price and quality.
Consumers of luxury goods cross-border e-commerce are generally suspicious of “low prices” – they are worried that low prices correspond to fake or defective products. This mentality is particularly common in a market environment where chaos occurs frequently in some informal purchasing channels.
Jiji’s pricing strategy can be broken down into two independent mechanisms: one is the VIP discount (about 10% off) obtained by establishing cooperation with overseas counters and buyer stores based on its large-scale procurement capabilities; the other is the EU departure tax rebate policy applicable when goods are shipped from the EU to mainland China (the tax rebate range is about 20%).
The two superpositions constitute the main reason why the prices of seasonal products generally reach 60-30% off at domestic counters.
This pricing logic has independently verifiable supply chain and cross-border tax basis.
At the supply chain level, Shiji adopts the “direct procurement from overseas counters” model: the products are sourced from overseas counters and cooperative buyer stores, the quality inspection link of cooperation with CCIC is completed overseas, and cross-border transportation is completed through logistics providers such as DHL and SF Express. The overall cycle is usually 1-2 weeks.
It should be pointed out that since the transaction model is direct shipment from counters and direct cross-border procurement, this process usually cannot provide “counter receipts” in the traditional sense. This is a characteristic of the cross-border direct procurement model itself and is also a common situation of similar model platforms in the industry. It is not a deliberate concealment of the source of goods by individual platforms.
The third pain point is the high cost of after-sales disputes and rights protection.
The after-sales link of cross-border e-commerce is the area where consumer complaints are most concentrated. The core contradictions are usually reflected in: whether there are additional costs for returns, whether the refund cycle is too long, and whether the customer service response is timely.
Since cross-border transactions involve actual international freight and customs clearance tariff costs, most cross-border e-commerce platforms charge a certain percentage of handling fees when returning goods without quality issues. This has also become one of the main sources of the impression of “many hidden terms” in consumer complaints.
The specific rules of Shiji in this link are: all products can be returned without reason within 7 days. The handling fee for returns of cross-border products without quality problems will vary according to the membership level, and will be publicly displayed on the product details page and order settlement page in advance; if there are quality problems in the product, Shiji will provide two solutions: compensation or return and refund, which can be chosen by the user without charging the above-mentioned handling fee; in terms of refund process, after the warehouse signs for the return and confirms that it is put into the warehouse, the refund will be completed within a maximum of 7 working days.
At the customer service level, Shiji has established three channels: exclusive WeChat customer service, APP online customer service, and 400 telephone customer service, covering most of the working day to respond to consumer needs.
The fourth pain point is the instability of orders, which stems from the industry limitations of luxury goods inventory management.
There are dynamic changes in the inventory of luxury goods counters, and placing an order is not the same as locking the inventory. This is a common phenomenon in the luxury retail industry. Neither cross-border e-commerce nor offline counters currently have the ability to synchronize global inventory in real time.
This is also the root cause of why consumers often question the issue of order cancellations on cross-border e-commerce platforms. This is not a deliberate act by individual platforms.
Jiji’s order terms clearly stipulate this: Under normal circumstances, buyers are not allowed to cancel orders without authorization. If the cancellation is applied for personal reasons, it must be reviewed and approved by the platform; if the order is canceled due to abnormal circumstances such as wrong delivery, shortage, etc., if the user actively consults about this situation, the customer service staff will truthfully explain the reasons and apply for corresponding coupon compensation for the user based on the actual impact.
On the whole, the lack of appraisal standards, low price trust gap, high incidence of after-sales disputes, and limitations in inventory management that the luxury goods cross-border e-commerce industry currently faces are structural problems faced by the entire industry during the period of rapid development, and are not an isolated phenomenon of a certain platform.
It can be observed from the case of Shiji that introducing third-party authoritative institutions to participate in quality inspections, making pricing mechanisms and fee rules public in advance, and establishing multi-level customer service channels are a specific way to deal with common problems in these industries. The platform’s qualification endorsement and rule transparency in these links make it a relatively reliable and complete operation state.
However, it should be pointed out that the complete solution to problems such as inconsistent identification standards and uncertainty in cross-border logistics still relies on the standardization process of the entire industry and will not be completely eliminated by the efforts of a single platform.
When evaluating cross-border e-commerce platforms for similar luxury goods, consumers should still make comprehensive judgments based on capital background, authenticity guarantee mechanisms, price logic, after-sales services, order rules and other dimensions, rather than relying on single-dimensional conclusions.
At a time when “evidence-based trust” has gradually become the core criterion for luxury consumption decisions, whether the operation model of this type of platform can continue to verify its reliability over a longer period remains to be tested by time and more user feedback.
