Japan shuts tax loophole 🇯🇵

Happy Thursday! Markets are rewriting the last mile. Japan is closing its tax loophole, Uber is hunting for density in Türkiye, and the Nordics are quietly turning lockers into profit engines. DoorDash and Amazon keep spending to win the speed war, while Europe’s post giants trim fat to stay alive. Scale, not story, decides who delivers the future.

Maze Focus🌀
🇯🇵 Japan shuts tax loophole
🏍️ Uber bets on Getir
📦 Nordics split on delivery
🧩 Lockers rewrite last mile
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🍔 Delivery & eGrocery briefing
🚚 Ecommerce Logistics briefing

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The Maze: Japan is ending its small-parcel tax break that let ultra-cheap imports from Shein and Temu dodge duties. Starting 2026, all parcels will face the 10 percent consumption tax and likely customs checks. A rule written in 1980 for gifts became a billion-parcel backdoor for cross-border ecommerce. Tokyo just closed it.

→ Around 200 million low-value parcels now enter Japan yearly, four times more than five years ago, with Shein and Temu named as main users of the loophole.
→ The ¥10 000 de minimis limit and 60 percent value-tax rule will be abolished in the FY2026 reform covering April 2026–March 2027.
→ The EU is making the same move, adding a €2 fee on 4.6 billion Chinese parcels, showing that cheap shipping is becoming a regulated privilege, not a right.

Why it matters: The tax shift erases Shein’s and Temu’s unfair edge and forces them to collect and remit local taxes like domestic players. Shoppers will see small price jumps, but retailers regain room to compete. For ecommerce, this is a wake-up call: low-cost can’t stay low-compliance, and logistics strategy now matters as much as marketing reach.

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The Maze: Uber is in talks to buy Getir for up to $1B, chasing control of Türkiye’s fastest-growing last-mile market. After snapping up Trendyol GO, Uber wants scale, not stories. If it lands both, it owns the country’s delivery rails. The bet: density turns chaos into cashflow.

→ Getir peaked at a $11.8B valuation in 2022 before crashing and exiting the US and Europe in 2024 to focus on Türkiye, now its only active market.
→ Mubadala, Getir’s top investor, became majority owner in 2024 and is negotiating the sale after injecting new capital to stabilize operations.
→ Uber’s Trendyol GO deal in 2025 covered 85% of the platform for $700M, handling 200M+ orders last year; combining it with Getir would create an unmatched fleet footprint.

Why it matters: Türkiye is the real-time lab for last-mile economics. Whoever wins there proves whether instant delivery can make money outside food. For Uber, it’s scale meets timing—turning two loss-makers into one profitable network. For the industry, it signals that fast commerce’s second act is consolidation, not expansion.

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The Maze: Nordic shoppers are voting with their wallets. Home delivery stays premium, while lockers and parcel shops win on price and predictability. The spread isn’t seasonal—it’s structural. Finland’s home delivery costs twice as much as a locker drop, and Danes are paying less every quarter. Cheap is out-of-home, fast is at your door.

→ In Sweden, home delivery peaked near €8 in late 2024 while lockers stayed around €5. By Q3 2025, home dropped only 5%, showing that premium holds.
→ Denmark saw all methods fall by about €0.5–0.6 in 2025, a rare post-peak price cut driven by locker expansion and fewer failed deliveries.
→ Finland’s home delivery holds above €12 as consumers embrace lockers, now preferred by over 60% of online buyers across the country.

Why it matters: Delivery price gaps shape how people shop online. When lockers stay €3 cheaper, consumers choose convenience they control—and retailers cut cost per order by double digits. The next wave of ecommerce competition won’t be free shipping; it’ll be “free locker, paid door”, and that will decide who owns the checkout button.

The Maze: Every euro counts in the last mile. Lockers cut total delivery cost by 20–25%, shrinking last-mile share from half to a third of total spend. Carriers love them because vans stop less. Retailers love them because failed deliveries disappear. It’s the one upgrade that saves money and sanity.

→ Door delivery burns over 50% of total parcel cost; lockers cut that to 30%, saving about €1 on a €3.50 shipment.
→ In Norway, upgrading a pickup order to home costs an extra NOK 97, proof of how costly knocking on doors has become.
→ UK data shows failed first attempts add €12–14 to each order; lockers all but eliminate that waste while speeding up returns.

Why it matters: Ecommerce profit lives and dies in logistics. Each locker slot is a margin lever hiding in plain sight. As networks like InPost, DHL, and DPD race to cover Europe, the €1 saved per parcel becomes the moat. The smartest retailers aren’t chasing faster delivery. They’re chasing fewer doors.

🇺🇸 DoorDash cuts outlook, plans bigger 2026 spend. Revenue rose 27% to $3.45B and orders hit 766M, but EPS missed and expenses climbed, while Q4 GOV is guided to $28.9B–$29.5B and EBITDA to $710M–$810M.

🇬🇧 Gumtree adds payments and delivery. After 25 years as classifieds, the platform shifts to a transactional model with in-app checkout, Mangopay wallets, and integrated shipping to convert millions of visitors into repeat buyers.

🇨🇳 XPeng robotaxis plug into Amap. XPeng will book rides inside Alibaba’s Amap and scale autonomous fleets using in-house chips and software, targeting mass access from day one and lower sensor costs as pilots await permits and insurance frameworks.

🇨🇳 Alibaba folds Ele.me into Shangou. Food delivery shifts under Taobao Shangou to unify instant retail for meals, grocery, and small electronics, with new branding and uniforms pushing one-hour delivery deeper into the Taobao ecosystem.

🇺🇸 DoorDash spending spooks investors. Growth stayed strong but heavier 2026 investments and a lower Deliveroo EBITDA lift hit sentiment as shares fell and the Street asked for clearer operating leverage.

🇬🇧 Tesco upgrades Scan as you Shop. Lists sync from app to handheld scanners, linking Clubcard, offers, and real-time prices to speed trips and improve aisle data for in-store media and promo decisions.

🇪🇺 Glovo buys DH Balkans for €170M. The 2021 deal consolidated six markets, boosted courier utilization and take-rates, and trimmed the seller’s footprint while setting a template for later food-delivery M&A.

🇬🇧 TikTok lets shops mix shipping modes. Sellers can assign platform ship, seller ship, or FBT per SKU to balance speed and cost, improving on-time rates and margin control.

🇺🇸 Amazon sets new speed bar for 2025. Tighter placement and fewer touches push more same or next day orders including rural coverage, with automation and routing aimed at lower cost per package as compliance pressure rises for sellers.

🇺🇸 Shippo unveils shipping analytics suite. Dashboards expose on-time rates, invoice deltas, and exception hotspots so teams can rebalance lanes and carriers weekly to cut waste and protect contribution margin.

🇩🇪 Deutsche Post to cut 8,000 jobs. The mail unit trims roles as letters fall and costs rise, targeting about €1B savings while leaning on lockers and digitalization to lift productivity as parcel remains resilient.

🇩🇪 DHL lifts profit despite softer volumes. Revenue dipped but EBIT rose on cost control and yield, with Express, Supply Chain, and eCommerce steadying results while Forwarding lagged and full-year cash flow targets stayed intact.

🇺🇸 UPS expands Saturday home delivery. Weekend service scaled from pilots to a core offer and later spread to Europe, giving retailers an extra delivery day and smoother capacity with added operational complexity.

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