Chinese Platforms’ $100B Fake Goods Pipeline🧨

🇺🇸 Walmart woos European sellers for Americas push. Walmart held its Seller Summit in London, inviting UK and EU businesses to sell on its marketplaces in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Chile. The company is offering a London-based office, two-day delivery, and support for cross-border payments and returns as it aims to boost assortment and speed. 👉 PYMNTS

🇪🇺 Amazon eyes pharmacy entry in Europe next. Analysts expect Amazon’s next move in healthcare to be launching Amazon Pharmacy in Europe, as new e-prescription rules and data-sharing regulations make it easier to digitize medicine. While the company leads in the U.S., strict national rules and trust issues still block a full European launch. 👉 KamCity

🇺🇸 Amazon faces union driver protests after layoffs. In early September, hundreds of unionized Amazon delivery drivers in California and other states protested layoffs after DSP contract cuts. The Teamsters call it retaliation for union activity; Amazon denies and says drivers are employed by contractors. 👉 Mashable

🇰🇷 AliExpress aims for super-app status in Korea. AliExpress is expanding beyond shopping by adding travel, entertainment, and phone top-up features to its Korean app. User numbers are surging thanks to local deals and coupons, and the company is betting big on local partnerships to boost relevance and frequency. 👉 Korea Times

🇪🇺 TikTok hits 200 million monthly users in Europe, with the biggest numbers in France, Germany, and Italy. The platform’s growth gives it a stronger pitch to advertisers, but also increases regulatory pressure from the EU’s new digital laws. 👉 Music Business Worldwide

🇪🇺 Chinese e-commerce ramps up warehouse space in Europe. Shein, Temu, JD.com, and others are rapidly leasing warehouses across the UK, Germany, Poland, and Italy, topping 2 million sq ft in the UK this year alone. The move aims to speed up delivery, localize returns, and boost competition with European retailers. 👉 Ecommerce News EU

🇬🇷 Temu and Shein capture a fifth of Greek e-commerce. Greek shoppers spent up to €627M on Temu and Shein in 2024, making up as much as 21% of all local e-commerce orders. This surge has cost up to €204M in tax and jobs, with local trade groups pushing for stricter import controls. 👉 Page News

🇨🇳 China’s instant retail players burn billions in price war. Meituan, JD.com, and Alibaba are losing money as they fight over one-hour delivery with steep subsidies and coupons. The sector saw over $4B burned last quarter, with Meituan’s profits plunging 89% and regulators warning against further price cuts. 👉 Brand Equity Economic Times

🇫🇷 Secondhand Apps Fuel Compulsive Shopping. A French study finds Vinted, Depop, and Vestiaire Collective use app tricks (endless scrolling, time-limited offers) to keep users hooked. Shoppers often re-buy what they just sold. Vinted now drives the most fashion sales in France, but overuse blurs any green benefit, as 86% buy for price, not sustainability. 👉 FashionUnited

🇪🇺 EU Targets Textile Waste and Fast Fashion. The EU Parliament backs laws to ban destroying unsold clothes, push “right to repair,” and make fashion brands pay for recycling. France’s model is the blueprint. The rules may raise compliance costs for Zara, Shein, and Temu. The plan is now in trilogue talks, with enforcement by national authorities. 👉 RFI

🇪🇺 Temu Adds 12.5% More Users in Europe. Temu hit 115.7 million EU users in H1 2025, up by 12.9 million. Germany, France, and Poland lead with double-digit growth. But Brussels is cracking down… Temu faces DSA probes on illegal goods and addictive design, which could mean big changes to moderation and app features. 👉 EcommerceNews.eu

🇺🇸 Ralph Lauren Launches AI Stylist on Azure. “Ask Ralph” lets shoppers get outfit advice by chat, blending product catalogs with size and store stock. Built on Microsoft Azure OpenAI, the system offers curated looks, cross-sells, and live hand-off to staff. It aims to cut returns, grow baskets, and bring luxury clienteling to the digital age. 👉 WindowsForum

🇩🇪 Luxury E-Commerce Slumps: Layoffs and Insolvency. Mytheresa (LUXE) is cutting 700 jobs after buying YNAP, with layoffs across Net-a-Porter and Mr Porter. Ssense is now under creditor protection, facing $371M in debts. Richemont swapped YNAP for a 33% LUXE stake. Industry is consolidating fast as competition and costs climb. 👉 PPC Land

🇺🇸 Temu Slashes Prices After US Ends Duty-Free Rule. Temu dropped prices by 18% on key items—some even 60% off—to keep US shoppers buying after the $800 duty-free limit ended in August. Sales fell 30% in June, with Amazon picking up share. Temu and Shein now add more US warehouses to dodge rising tariffs. 👉 Quartz

🇬🇧 Shein Shifts Profits Offshore. Shein UK sent 84% of 2024 sales—£1.72B—to its Singapore parent, leaving only £38.2M in pre-tax profit and £9.6M tax. Fair Tax Foundation and lawmakers call it legal but aggressive. The UK may tighten import and tax rules as pressure mounts. 👉 RetailDetail

🇫🇷 AI Dropshipping Scams Hit Vinted. Investigators found 16 Vinted sellers using AI-generated “mirror selfies” to market Shein and Temu clothes as vintage at huge markups. GenAI images dodge photo rules, and reviews show quality gaps. Without tougher checks, buyer trust—and Vinted’s climate claims—are at risk. 👉 Science Feedback

🇪🇺 DoorDash’s $3.9B Deliveroo Buy Gets EU Greenlight. DoorDash’s $3.9 billion takeover of Deliveroo cleared its final antitrust hurdle as the EU approved the deal on September 9, 2025. The acquisition folds Deliveroo’s UK and Ireland operations into DoorDash’s Wolt platform, creating one of Europe’s largest food delivery networks. 👉 PYMNTS

🇺🇸 Amazon Grocery Push Drives Instacart Growth. Instacart’s new CEO Chris Rogers says Amazon’s grocery expansion to 1,000 U.S. cities is pushing more supermarkets onto Instacart’s marketplace. Rogers, who became CEO in August 2025, highlights increased retailer interest since Amazon’s August move. 👉 MSN

🇨🇳 Alibaba Moves Tmall Brands to Taobao Instant Delivery. Alibaba is shifting Tmall brands to Taobao’s instant commerce program to boost faster delivery and compete with JD, Meituan, and Douyin. Over 260 brands now use this model, helping Taobao hit 40 million instant orders daily in 2025. 👉 Tech in Asia

🇵🇱 MediaMarkt Launches Marketplace in Poland. MediaMarkt rolled out a marketplace in Poland, adding third-party sellers and dozens of categories. The move targets faster delivery and aims to boost GMV from €277 million to €750 million by FY 2024/25. 👉 CRN

🇩🇪 Lidl Tests First Non-Food Store in Germany. Lidl opened its first non-food-only store near the Swiss border, selling just fashion, home, sport, and DIY items. The pilot aims to boost margins by focusing on impulse buys and reducing grocery complexity. 👉 El Economista

🇪🇺 Wolt: 23% of Deliveries Are Now Clean Vehicles. Wolt says 23% of its global deliveries now use electric vehicles or bikes, up 8 points in a year. Austria leads with over 80%, and Poland, Hungary, and Croatia all exceed 30%. 👉 Retail Tech Innovation Hub

🇺🇸 Sephora Offers Same-Day Delivery via Uber Eats. Sephora launched same-day delivery with Uber Eats across the U.S. and Canada, with delivery as fast as 25 minutes. Customers can earn Beauty Insider points and get $10 off their first order over $50 until October 30, 2025. 👉 Digital Commerce 360

🌍 Global posts restart US parcels with prepaid duties. After the Aug 29 de minimis block halted most mail, operators like Royal Mail, DHL, and Australia Post are resuming US deliveries by collecting all duties at origin using new landed-cost calculators. UPS and FedEx maintained flows with duty-prepay tools, while UPU’s new API enables postal restarts worldwide.

🇬🇧 DHL and Evri Merge, Create UK Parcel Giant. UK regulators cleared the merger of Evri and DHL eCommerce UK, forming the “Evri Group,” the country’s top parcel and mail player with 30,000+ couriers, 1B parcels and 1B letters yearly. DHL will rebrand as “Evri Premium” in 2026 for high-value deliveries. 👉 ChannelX

🇸🇬 Easyship-SHEIN Deal Eases Cross-Border Sales. Easyship’s new integration with SHEIN Marketplace lets sellers sync orders, automate global shipping, and show full landed costs at checkout. The tie-up gives SHEIN merchants lower costs and automated customs to help avoid import disruption. 👉 PRWeb

🇺🇸 OnTrac Takes on FedEx and UPS with 7-Day Delivery. OnTrac now promises coast-to-coast ground delivery every day, with new programs showing shoppers exact delivery dates. The carrier also launches a 2–3 day “Express” service and cheaper deferred shipping, aiming to win share from FedEx and UPS. 👉 FreightWaves

🇸🇬 DHL and SingPost Expand Parcel Drop-Offs. DHL Express now lets customers drop off parcels at all SingPost outlets in Singapore, after a successful pilot. The partnership adds 160+ new points, with green shipping options and FSC-certified packaging, expanding access for walk-ins and small businesses. 👉 FreightWaves

🇪🇺 Google fined €2.95B by EU over adtech dominance. The European Commission hit Google with a €2.95B fine for abusing its power in the adtech stack, citing self-preferencing practices since 2014. Google must propose a fix in 60 days or risk a breakup; it plans to appeal the decision. 👉 CNN

🇺🇸 Google says the open web is rapidly shrinking. In a court filing, Google admitted that open web advertising is in fast decline and warned that breaking up its adtech business could make things worse for publishers. This contradicts its recent public messaging and drew backlash from industry observers. 👉 The Verge

🇺🇸 HubSpot launches AI ‘Loop Marketing’ framework. HubSpot’s new system moves marketers away from old-school funnels, introducing a four-stage Loop with 200+ AI features. The goal: help brands handle zero-click search, LLMs, and constant channel switching, while boosting personalization and CRM workflows. 👉 Campaign Asia

🇺🇸 Meta, TikTok, Pinterest: Creative that works everywhere. New guidance outlines how brands can make one ad concept work on TikTok, Meta, and Pinterest—use vertical videos, show products fast, design for silent viewing, and tweak aspect ratios for each platform. Fast hooks and short text are now best practice. 👉 Search Engine Land

🇫🇷 Criteo and Google launch onsite retail media beta. Criteo became Google’s first onsite retail media partner, letting brands buy sponsored product ads across 200+ retailers via Search Ads 360. The beta starts in the Americas, aiming for easier measurement and more ad demand for retailers. 👉 Marketech APAC

🇺🇸 Google Ads links web and app for better results. Google now lets advertisers send traffic from YouTube and other Google channels directly into mobile apps, unifying reporting and boosting conversion rates. New features make cross-platform campaigns easier to manage and measure. 👉 Search Engine Land

🇺🇸 Netflix and Amazon partner on programmatic TV ads. Starting Q4, advertisers can buy Netflix’s ad-tier inventory through Amazon DSP in 12 countries, including the U.S. and U.K. The deal brings Netflix to more brands and gives Amazon’s ad clients new connected TV options. 👉 Netflix

🇸🇪 Klarna’s $1.37B IPO leads 2025 fintech listings. Klarna went public on the NYSE, raising $1.37B at a $19.65B valuation after a 30% debut jump. The deal, managed by Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley, was 25x oversubscribed. Klarna’s Q2 revenue was $823M, but it posted a $52M loss. This is 2025’s biggest IPO and signals renewed risk appetite in fintech. 👉 Al Jazeera

🇺🇸 Google Cloud rolls out AI shopping agent. Google Cloud launched a Conversational Commerce AI, now live with Albertsons banners like Safeway and Vons. The tool helps shoppers find products and build baskets through chat. Retailers get personalization powered by first-party data. This brings AI-powered, guided shopping to U.S. grocery at scale. 👉 Google Cloud Press

🇺🇸 Visa expands AI payments with MCP toolkit. Visa opened its Model Context Protocol server, letting AI agents connect to Visa APIs, and launched a no-code toolkit for fast payment flows. The tools speed up builds and standardize secure payments in apps and superapps. Visa aims to be the “rails” for agentic commerce across platforms. 👉 ZDNet

🇺🇸 Rithum’s AI engine claims 2B daily transactions. Rithum introduced RithumIQ, powering 2 billion transactions and over $50B GMV yearly for thousands of brands. The engine forecasts product performance, automates listings, and optimizes fulfillment for marketplace sellers. This ML layer aims to drive profit at the SKU level, not just power chatbots. 👉 ChannelX

🇨🇳 Chinese AI models break global top 10. Alibaba’s Qwen3 and Moonshot’s Kimi K2 entered the global top-10 LLM leaderboard, joining OpenAI and Anthropic. Qwen3 ranked No. 6 and Kimi K2 at No. 8, showing China is catching up in general reasoning and long-context AI. Enterprises now have more serious multi-vendor choices in AI. 👉 SCMP

🇺🇸 PayPal gives users free Perplexity Pro and browser access. PayPal and Venmo users can now access Perplexity’s Comet AI browser with a free year of Perplexity Pro, valued at $200, plus up to $50 cashback for managing subscriptions. The deal is live in the U.S., with more countries rolling out. 👉 PayPal Newsroom

🇺🇸 Etsy uses AI tools to help sellers save time. Etsy added AI listing-title suggestions, a writing assistant, review highlights, smarter delivery date estimates, and image search. Sellers control all features and can edit outputs. The focus is boosting conversions and trust without replacing creativity. Rollout is gradual by market. 👉 Etsy