Over the past week, these things have happened in the cross-border e-commerce space.
- An Amazon seller faces a $12.8 million fine for allegedly falsifying reviews
An Amazon seller recently faced a fine of up to $12.8 million for allegedly creating fake diet pill reviews.
The seller reportedly paid a third-party website and had it write and post fake reviews on Amazon.com. The seller bribed the site to upgrade his product rating to a 4.3 or 5-star rating and asked to have his product remain in an average 5-star review status.
In response, the FTC decided to impose a $12.8 million fine penalty on the Amazon seller. However, the fine will be suspended if the seller is willing to pay a $50,000 penalty to the FTC and meet other tax obligations. In addition, the FTC says that if the merchant deliberately hides their finances, then all of these fees will be paid as scheduled.
Amazon responded to this by saying that it will suspend accounts and ban sellers who violate the platform’s policies.
- etsy access to third-party payment platform klarna merchandise can be paid in installments
Etsy recently announced a partnership with Swedish payment company Klarna, which will allow Etsy users to pay for their products in installments through Klarna. For sellers, using the third-party payment platform Klarna allows them to get all their payments at once, without waiting for monthly installments.
For items priced between $50 and $10,000 (discounted price, excluding shipping and taxes), Etsy consumers can choose Klarna to pay for the item, and when consumers pay between $50 and $250 for the item, they can pay the amount in four installments with no interest. For items with order prices between $250-$10,000, consumers are free to choose the installment period.
Currently, the installment payment feature is only available to U.S. users, and Etsy says it will be expanded to more countries next year.
- eBay announcement: use of dynamic code may cause Listing to be removed from shelves
eBay has recently released the “eBay Business Detail Page Embedded Video Method Introduction” announcement.
According to the announcement, eBay has been committed to providing a better selling platform for both buyers and sellers. In order to facilitate the introduction of products for sellers and buyers to understand what they need, two methods of embedding videos in product detail pages are introduced to better meet the needs of both buyers and sellers.
The announcement shows that eBay supports the use of HTML5 VIDEO tags to reference video resources on the Internet (such as MP4 format video movies) to play directly, and also supports the use of image hyperlinks in the form of HTML code to direct consumers to YouTube and other video sites to view related content.
The announcement reminds that eBay has banned the use of dynamic content such as Javascript and other codes to embed videos, and that video embed codes from traditional video sites cannot be directly referenced, and the use of dynamic codes may result in Listing being removed from the shelves.
4 Statista data: eCommerce revenue in UAE expected to reach $5.746 billion in 2020
Statista, an online statistics portal, has recently released forecast data for the UAE eCommerce market to 2020 based on data from UAE business organizations and government agencies. According to the data, the entire UAE e-commerce market is expected to reach $5.746 billion in 2020.
The data shows that more consumers in the UAE are moving from offline to online consumption in the wake of the new crown epidemic, with a population of around 9.9 million people and 6.7 million e-commerce users this year, with a user penetration rate of 67.8%. Meanwhile, the food and personal care market saw a significant increase in revenue growth to 54.8%.
In terms of age group, those between 23-24 years old are the most core ecommerce users, indicating that youthfulness is an important direction for ecommerce sellers in the UAE in terms of product selection. Due to the cultural peculiarities of the UAE’s home country, female consumers typically place orders on behalf of male family members, with male users accounting for 90% of the UAE’s e-commerce market.
It is worth mentioning that in recent years, the UAE is gradually transitioning to a cashless economy, from which the e-commerce market is developing rapidly, and data from relevant agencies show that the value of online transactions in the UAE has increased sixfold since 2017, with the UAE’s e-commerce market estimated to be worth $27.1 billion in 2022.
- speedy: China sends Russia part of the line price reduction adjustment
Speedway has recently released an announcement that it will give merchants more operating space through logistics subsidies and other means to make price reduction arrangements for some of the line quotations from China to Russia.
It is reported that this price reduction adjustment is effective from October 21, 2020, U.S. Western time, and will end on December 31, 2020, in this period of time created and paid successfully for the transaction orders corresponding to the line shipping logistics orders, will be settled according to the new offer shipping costs.After December 31, the platform will be notified of the corresponding line offer.
According to the announcement, the adjustment includes three logistics lines, including the Rookie Line Economy, Rookie Super Economy, and Speedy No-Hassle Logistics-Easy, which have reduced prices in both the delivery service fee and the registered service fee.
- swiggy partners with government of india to bring in street food providers
October 23, according to Zhudao Capital reported that recently, India’s food technology company Swiggy signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) to bring India’s street food suppliers to its online platform, with the aim of helping these businesses out of trouble.
It is reported that the business of street food vendors in India has been hit hard by the neo-crown epidemic. According to the statement, Swiggy and MoHUA will recruit 250 vendors for the pilot in five cities – Ahmedabad, Chennai, Delhi, Indore and Varanasi.
As part of the scheme, they will also help street food vendors get formal registration, customize digital menus and provide them with training on packaging and hygiene practices. Not only this, they will also provide working capital loans of up to Rs 10,000 to small traders, which can be repaid within 12 months.
After the completion of the pilot, MoHUA and Swiggy will be phased to promote the scheme across the country. It is understood that the Government of India’s ultimate goal is to benefit over 5 million street vendors.
7 Amazon to invest $100 million in a new distribution center in Mexico
Amazon said Thursday that it will invest $100 million in a new logistics facility in Mexico to speed up deliveries.
The new logistics facilities will be built near the northern Mexican city of Monterrey and the central city of Guadalajara, Monterrey and Guadalajara are the two largest metropolitan areas in Mexico after the capital Mexico City. Amazon will also open 12 new large distribution centers, bringing its total number of distribution centers across Mexico to 27.
8 Vietnam’s e-commerce market is expected to drop to $11 billion in 2020
October 23, 2012 – In the worst-case scenario, the size of Vietnam’s e-commerce market is expected to drop to 11 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, 2.6 billion U.S. dollars less than projected before the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
It is reported that the business of street food suppliers in India has been severely hit by the new coronary epidemic. According to the statement, Swiggy and MoHUA will recruit 250 suppliers for a pilot program in five cities – Ahmedabad, Chennai, Delhi, Indore and Varanasi.
As part of the scheme, they will also help street food vendors get formal registration, customize digital menus and provide them with training on packaging and hygiene practices. Not only this, they will also provide working capital loans of up to Rs 10,000 to small traders, which can be repaid within 12 months.
- eBay adjusts SpeedPAK’s shipping service from mainland China to Spain
The eBay platform released an urgent notice (hereinafter referred to as the announcement) on October 22 regarding the adjustment of SpeedPAK’s Spanish Standard Program’s shipping and receiving services.
According to the announcement, SpeedPAK will adjust its shipping and receiving services in the following directions from October 22, 2020: suspend the shipping and receiving of parcels over 2kg from SpeedPAK Mainland China to Spain Standard Program; suspend the shipping and receiving service of standard charged parcels from SpeedPAK Mainland China to Spain.
The eBay platform also issued a notice on October 13 about SpeedPAK’s shipping fee adjustment from October 16, based on the current cost changes of logistics, SpeedPAK will adjust the shipping price of SpeedPAK and SpeedPAK Mini exported from mainland China and Hong Kong respectively from October 16, 2020, Beijing time.
10 Chongqing Free Trade Port Zone Cross-border E-commerce Returns Warehouse officially put into operation
Recently, Chongqing Bonded Port Zone cross-border e-commerce returns warehouse was officially put into use, to break the last “one kilometer” of returns, for cross-border e-commerce enterprises to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
In accordance with the State Council issued “the sixth batch of free trade pilot reform experience replication and promotion of work”, in May this year, Chongqing Customs jointly with the two road Cuntan Bonded Port Zone innovative supervision model, the formation of “cross-border e-commerce retail import returns central warehouse model”, set up a cross-border e-commerce returns warehouse in the Cuntan Water Port No. 5 warehouse, and took the lead in cross-border e-commerce retail return business cooperation with the Choi bird network, koala sea purchase into the district, the warehouse was officially put into use recently.
11 Korea’s cross-border e-commerce exports 18.409 million from January to September this year
Recently, data from the Korea Customs Service (Customs) showed that Korea’s cross-border e-commerce exports of 18.409 million from January to September this year have surpassed last year’s total of 13.198 million, hitting a record high for the second year in a row. Meanwhile, exports increased from $269 million in 2016 to $800 million in the first nine months of this year.
It is reported that Japanese consumers placed 7.701 million Korean sea orders this year, accounting for 41.8 percent of the total, while mainland China ranked second with 6.002 million orders accounting for 32.6 percent, followed by the US at 6.7 percent and Singapore at 6.2 percent.
In terms of categories, Korea’s spices and cosmetics ranked at the top in the number of export orders for five consecutive years, accounting for 33% of the total number of cross-border e-commerce export orders from 2016 to September this year, greatly boosting the development of cross-border e-commerce in Korea.
12 Amazon Whole Foods Market launches in-store pickup service
Amazon Whole Foods has recently launched a pick-up service in-store. If members place an order from Whole Foods and buy groceries online, they can pick them up from the store in one hour. Amazon claims that most consumers will only have to wait a minute to pick up their goods.
The pickup at the store service is said to cover all Whole Foods stores in the United States. However, in order to take advantage of the service, grocery orders must total $35 or more. There are currently 487 Whole Foods stores in the United States.
Prior to the new policy, Prime members were already able to pick up groceries at select Whole Foods stores. Due to the new crown spread, Amazon increased the number of Whole Foods pickup locations in April, from 80 to 150. When Prime members place an order for checkout, they can choose the pickup time.
- bangladesh ecommerce services company ShopUp closes $22.5m Series A funding round
Recently, ShopUp, a Bangladeshi e-commerce services company, announced the completion of $22.5 million in Series A funding, which was co-led by Sequoia India and Flourish Ventures, with participation from Veon Ventures, Speedinvest and Lonsdale Capital. It is reported that since its inception four years ago, ShopUp has received a total investment of about $28 million.
14 European fashion e-tailer Zalando expects GMV to rise to 31% in Q3
European fashion merchant Zalando said recently that it expects its GMV to rise sharply in the third quarter, from 28% to 31%, between about €2.43 billion and €2.48 billion, and revenue will also rise from 20% to 23%, with the total rising from €1.83 billion to €1.87 billion, so Zalando expects full-year GMV to grow 25%-27% and revenue to grow 20%- 22%.
- Fakespot data: 42 per cent of Amazon product reviews during the epidemic were false reviews.
New data from monitoring services firm Fakespot shows that during the neo-coronavirus outbreak, about 42 percent of product reviews on Amazon.com were fake, a rate equivalent to levels seen during the traditional peak shopping season.
This is not the first time Amazon.com has been exposed to the presence of fake reviews. A previous study released by UCLA and the University of Southern California showed that of the more than 20 Facebook groups surveyed related to fake Amazon reviews, each had an average of 16,000 members. In more than 560 posts per day, there were sellers swiping sales or reviews, with prices averaging about $6 per order.
- over 1.2 billion visits to Brazil’s largest online store in September of this year
Recently, Conversion released a report on the Brazilian e-commerce industry, which shows that the largest online stores in Brazil will have over 1.2 billion visits in September 2020. The growth of e-commerce in Brazil is expected to continue in October, with the industry reaching at least 1.22 billion visits.
It is reported that Brazilian consumers are now inclined to shop online due to the epidemic, with many traditional retailers and small businesses turning to online sales, with data showing that online stores in the northeast region of Brazil saw sales growth of 60.9% from January to May this year.
The head of Compre & Confie, a Brazilian e-commerce consulting firm, said that the epidemic has led to more and more consumers choosing to shop online, mostly for necessities and medicines to prevent neo-crowns.
In addition to drugs, there are four other categories of products with rapid growth in sales: pets, food and beverage, furniture and home furnishings, fashion and accessories. Pet products were the most popular products sold in September, with a 71% growth rate compared to February. Food and beverage products were the second most popular products in the sales growth ranking, with a growth rate of 56% compared to February.
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