A weekly summary of the essential e-commerce news in sectors such as marketplaces, consumer, and luxury e-commerce news. I also ask three questions that are on my mind.
Around The World In Commerce No. 327
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Dear Readers, Firstly, to those who celebrate Labor Day, - hope you are having a good long weekend! The three things on my mind this week:
I want to thank all the readers who take the time to reply to this email (I spend a considerable amount of time creating this newsletter) and appreciate any comments, even if you disagree with me. I want you to know that all comments are confidential and are not shared. If you'd like to help me, please share this newsletter to help me grow my list. Onwards, Hendrik Around The World in MarketplacesAfrica Axian Telecom CEO joins Jumia’s Supervisory Board amid acquisition rumours. How Africa’s e-commerce giant is fighting off Shein and Temu. Could Amazon deliver fresh food in South Africa? China Alibaba reports Q1 revenue up 2% YoY to ~$34.6B, and net income up 76% to ~$5.9B, as AI demand drives cloud sales up 26%. Didi reports Q2 revenue up 10.9% YoY to ~$7.8B, overseas revenue up 28% YoY, and a ~$350M net loss, due to a once-off ~$740M charge in a shareholder lawsuit. Meituan reports Q2 revenue up 11.7% YoY to ~$12.8B and net income down 97% YoY to ~$51M, due to significant competition in the Chinese food delivery market PDD reports Q2 revenue up 7% YoY to ~$14.5B, and net income down 4% YoY to ~$4B, due to investment in merchant support initiatives. China proposes draft rules on internet platform pricing. China raises e-commerce delivery fees to prevent harmful price spirals. Influencer Tian Xuning’s Decorté Flash Sale Overloads JD.com. Alibaba undergoes another restructuring – What’s changed? Xiaohongshu moves its marketplace to its homepage. Europe The Platform Group raises GMV by 47%. Walmart recruits U.K. sellers to its marketplace at its UK seller summit. Amazon introduces an extra FBA fee in Germany and the UK for the holiday season. ManoMano diversifies its marketplace and expands into sports and beauty categories [in Spanish]. Delivery Hero says it remains committed to the Spanish business Glovo. India India to tap Amazon, Flipkart data directly in inflation revamp, roll out services index. Abhay Group launches Fills.in, a new e-commerce marketplace. Flipkart launches ‘Fashion Spotlight’ to scale emerging D2C brands. Babycare quick commerce platform Peeko raises $3.2M. Prosus eyes additional stake in Rapido with $200M investment. World’s fastest deliveries ignite an investment frenzy in India ($) Latin America Mercado Libre to invest $135M in Chile storage and distribution center. Meituan drives to Brazil in search of growth, only to crash into Chinese rival DiDi. 99Food in Brazil: what is known about complaints from registered restaurants? [in Portuguese]. Temu Captures 15.9% of Mexico’s E-Commerce in 2Q25. Amazon Mexico relaunches Beauty Store, targets young consumers Middle East What makes Gathern special? Israel probes major tax fraud linked to Alibaba and AliExpress imports. Valu launches Shop’it marketplace within app to unify shopping experience. South East Asia and Australia Why Singapore’s durian sellers are now live selling on TikTok. Court confirms 47.6 billion won claim against Qoo10's Goo Young-bae and Ryu Kwang-jin. SoftBank sells $576M in Coupang stock. Hyperlocal, stock-free: Coupang’s late push into quick commerce. Tokopedia layoffs: 420 employees affected amid TikTok restructuring. TikTok addresses Tokopedia layoff rumours, pledges continued investment in Indonesia. Shopee partners with POP MART. Thailand to force e-commerce platforms to offer a choice of delivery firms. US Instacart consolidates search infrastructure on PostgreSQL, phasing out Elasticsearch. AWS services scale to new heights for Prime Day 2025: key metrics and milestones. Walmart ties marketplace to stores, debuts AI seller tools, and rolls out next-day delivery for some marketplace orders in five major cities. Ahold Delhaize expands partnership with Instacart. Temu resumes direct shipments from China to U.S. consumers. Garage raises $13.5M to build a marketplace for municipal equipment. Distributor-focused e-commerce platform Pepper acquires Kimelo. Razor Group and Infinite Commerce merge to form the leading consolidator in the FBA aggregator space. Luxury CommerceSouth Africa's counterfeit luxury goods outsmart AI tools. Business Report Michael Zahariev, co-founder of Luxity, a company dedicated to authenticating luxury items using AI, illustrates this growing problem. In a single month, AI models flagged 203 suspected counterfeit items; however, subsequent human validation identified an additional 91 suspects. It is a global problem, not just in South Africa. Canada Goose Pushes Beyond Parkas in Bid to Become a Luxury Brand for Every Season. Canadian luxury retailer SSENSE to file for bankruptcy protection. Antler acquires Paravel, builds a house of travel brands. Castore acquires Belstaff from Ineos, which takes a stake in the sportswear brand. P&G is selling China-made luxury 'bumbum' brand diapers as market share falters. Fashion and Beauty e-commerceH&M debuts in Brazil with a physical store and online presence. M&S debuts first resale platform on eBay in pre-loved fashion push. Onceloved bridalwear resale marketplace woos U.S. customers. Ecco launches recommerce in Germany. Cape Town fashion brand House of One teams up with Shein Olaplex acquires biotech firm Purvala. AI and CommerceHow Hotels Can Thrive in an Agentic AI World: From SEO to MCP. Madrona announced the 5th annual ranking of the top 40 private AI companies. The rise of agentic commerce could revolutionize buying behavior — sooner than you think. Profound raises $35M. WizCommerce raises $8M to offer an AI operating system for wholesale.UK-based provider of an AI-powered travel platform, Holiwise raised €1.45m in pre-seed funding. ViSenze acquired by Nasdaq-listed Rezolve AI. doola Launches the First AI Co-Founder for global E-Commerce Founders. Domaine launches AI commerce suite for Shopify brands. Jivox unveils DaVinci Commerce. FairPrice taps Google Cloud to bring AI to the aisles. AdvertisingAmazon resumes Google Shopping ads – but not in the U.S. Amazon Says It Exceeded Expectations With 'Significant Growth' in Upfront. Google’s Ad Manager courts agencies as potential breakup looms. Google set to face modest EU antitrust fine in adtech investigation, sources say. Unlock new loyalty features in Google Ads & Merchant Center. Google Ads gets audience exclusions for shopping campaigns. Former Netflix Ads Chief Jeremi Gorman to Lead Fanatics Advertising. Logistics is sponsored by Third Person - a new way for brands to discover 3PLsDHL Expands its International Shipping Services on Shopify for U.S. Merchants. Wayfair expands logistics offering to include multichannel service. BlackRock is teaming up with Flexport to offer $250M to expand the digital logistics platform’s financing options. UPS will prepare an additional fee for US imports starting September 8. eBay to make exporting simple for Canadians with eBay International Shipping. Nippon Express launches new service to support overseas e-commerce operators' sales to Japan. Arrive AI revolutionizing package delivery with AI and smart sensors. Logistics companies can be jointly liable for counterfeits in Germany [in German]. Skutopia raises $38 million to roll out more robot warehouses in Australia and to launch in the US. AI-powered logistics orchestration platform for importers,Nauta, raised $7M. British EnsiliTech secures €5.2M Seed for cold-chain biopharma solutions. Oway, an AI-enabled marketplace to manage LTL freight costs, raised $4M in seed funding. London’s Synkka raises funding to cut parcel delivery costs. Indonesian EV logistics provider Blitz raises pre-series A, DHL eCommerce finalizes strategic minority investment in Saudi logistics leader AJEX. ConsumerVideo commerce now makes up 20 percent of all e-commerce in Southeast Asia: YouTube. Dingdong Maicai defies fresh e-commerce collapse with focus on efficiency. How Picnic’s robots are challenging supermarket giant [video]. UAE-based Desertcart celebrates 10 years of transforming cross-border e- commerce In MENA. Bookstores grow in Brazil despite e-commerce. Target scales back on in-store fulfillment strategy. Walmart reports a 50% increase in US store-fulfilled delivery sales. The battle over rural online shoppers heats up between Dollar General, Amazon, and Walmart. Colgate-Palmolive earmarks $300M for supply chain and efficiencies. Carrefour sets foot in Congo [in Dutch]. Zippcart provides a ‘plug-and-play’ fix for Nigeria’s supermarket queues. Czech retail tech startup Buylo has raised €640,000 in funding, aiming to bring its RFID-powered checkout and inventory automation technology to a broader international market. Why Retail Strategy Now Drives Acquisitions — and How Founders Can Win the Shelf Game. Copper, a Berkeley, CA-based appliances company, raised $28M in funding. Flip, once valued at $1 billion, shuts down. PaymentsVisa tailors stablecoin strategy. Stablecoins set to transform cross-border payments. Local payments driving LATAM’s online shopping boom. Stats and Other Interesting NewsBrazil e-commerce grows 24% through June. China internet in 2025. Personalized pricing can hurt companies' profits: Study. Morgan Stanley counts Amazon’s data center square footage to explain why its cloud business will boom. The content here is for informational purposes only and should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice. It does NOT constitute an offer or solicitation to purchase any investment or a recommendation to buy or sell a security. The content is not directed to any investor or potential investor and may not be used to evaluate or make any investment. This was edition number 327, sent on 31 August 2025. |
Hendrik Laubscher
A weekly summary of the essential e-commerce news in sectors such as marketplaces, consumer, and luxury e-commerce news. I also ask three questions that are on my mind.
,Read online Dear Readers, The three things on my mind this week: Pattern has filed for an initial public offering (S1 here) and reported 35% growth in revenue over the first half of 2025. However, their net income from December 2023 to June 2025 fluctuated between 3% and 4.1% of revenue. Why is this going public and reportedly wanting to raise up to $400M? PE investors likely want an exit. This reminds me a lot of Pharmapacks and the challenges it faced. How will Amazon counter agentic...
Read online Dear Readers, The three questions on my mind this week: The company on the hot seat this week is The Trade Desk. The Information reported that the company's exclusive DSP relationship with Walmart is no longer. A week later, management could not communicate to investors that Amazon's advertising is not a competitor ($). The news led to a rebuttal, but it's clear that the company is under pressure. Remember the last company that failed to see Amazon as a direct competitor? FedEx,...
Read online Dear Readers, The three questions on my mind this week: Have we, as a sector, been thinking incorrectly about nascent emerging markets? Singapore-headquartered Flood, which raised $3.5M, wants to empower telecommunications companies and incumbents through its Superapp-as-a-service platform to grow retail. How does the future for brands look with Google's AI search and answer engine look like? Retailers and brands are concerned, but Google says it is leading to more queries and...