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Dear Readers,

To those who celebrated Columbus Day yesterday, I hope you had a wonderful long weekend.

The three questions on my mind this week:

1. Flipkart is going to do a public listing in the next six to 12 months. Moving the company domicile from Singapore to India, selling non-core assets such as their shares in Aditya Birla Lifestyle stake through Rs. 950 crore ( $106M). The question for me remains what the valuation will be and how large a stake Walmart is planning to own.
2. Mercado Libre suspended distilled liquor advertising [in Portuguese] due to ethanol poisoning cases in Brazil. The government also requested that marketplaces suspend the sale of goods that can be used to produce alcoholic beverages [in Portuguese]. I find it interesting that emerging markets can regulate the marketplace in a matter of days, whereas it takes developed markets months or even years.
3. Did anyone hear anything about Prime Big Deals Day from last week? Amazon never misses a beat to tell us nothing by writing a press release about selling the most items yet. I wonder whether we will hear about it on the next earnings call or this is a sign that the event underperformed. It never takes this long for them to tell us about a Prime Day event.

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.

​​Please share this newsletter to help me grow my list.

​Onwards,

Hendrik

Around The World in Marketplaces

Africa

Takealot plans to open a massive new depot inside Inospace’s Powder Mill Park in Ndabeni, Cape Town. Inside YetuLink, Kenya’s first escrow-secured luxury marketplace

China

HungryPanda is watching China’s food price wars, but says its customers are less price-sensitive. The next frontier in China’s instant commerce: speed, quality, and synergy. JD Logistics to acquire JD.com’s wholly owned instant delivery subsidiaries Dajiang and Dasheng for $270M.

Europe

The German cartel office is investigating Temu over allegations of merchant price influencing. Reuters

Germany's cartel office has initiated proceedings against Temu to examine whether the Chinese company is influencing the pricing of third-party merchants on its e-commerce platform. Reportedly, sellers are required to offer products for no more than 85 percent of the price of similar products on other platforms.

Azerpost partners with global e-commerce giant Temu to improve delivery services.

Allegro begins construction of central logistics hub in Piotrków Trybunalski. Allegro collaborates with Valyuu to buy used electronics from consumers.

India

Flipkart’s dark pattern self-audit: what it means for businesses in India. Babycare quick commerce startup Ozi raises $3.3M in seed funding. Flipkart to reportedly sell Aditya Birla Lifestyle stake through Rs. 950 crore ( $106M) block deal. ED offers Flipkart to settle Fema case by paying penalty, admitting fault

Indian e-commerce firm JSW One Platforms closes $64.7M funding. Meolaa raises $6M in pre-Series A funding led by General Catalyst.

Latin America

Mercado Libre will offer free shipping in Brazil for subscribers with same-day purchases [in Spanish]. Mercado Libre confirms plans to operate in the pharmaceutical sector through a marketplace [in Portuguese]. Mercado Livre suspends ads for distilled beverages after methanol poisoning cases [in Portuguese].

Middle East

Amazon UAE introduces new packaging recycling scheme with 150 sites across Dubai.

South East Asia and Australia

The next retail war in Southeast Asia: marketplaces vs GPT prompts. - The Business Times

For simple goods, people may rely on affiliates and influencers instead of turning to chatbots. Even so, Srivorakul from aCommerce thinks that fashion and beauty brands as well as fast-moving consumer goods could be a good fit for GPT-commerce since consumers buy them regularly and often seek AI recommendations.

Blibli doubles down on online grocery with the launch of BlibliFresh. Indonesia to start taxing e-commerce transactions from February 2026.

US

Erria offers a new marketplace for independent makers. Comic book marketplace Shortboxed is launching with Walmart Marketplace.

eBay seller lists $10K shipping fee on $20 kitchen tool, citing 'new tariffs on US imports. eBay’s CEO Gets Glowing Profile On AI & Focus Verticals - But Does Reality Live Up To The Hype?

Meituan enters the U.S. market, but not via food delivery but rather via Peppr, a POS

Luxury Commerce

BCG report predicts $360 billion second-hand fashion market by 2030. - Fashion Network

According to a BCG report for Vestiaire Collective, it is projected to generate $360 billion by 2030, up from nearly $220 billion today. Among the platform’s users, pre-owned pieces now make up nearly one-third of their wardrobes.

Shake-up at Vestiaire Collective: French Platform Appoints New CEO. Frasers Group acquires a majority stake in US luxury retailer The Webster. Rackhams extends Marketplacer partnership. Cape Ardor launched a new luxury wine retail platform.

Marathon mediation fails to resolve Chanel-The RealReal dispute over fake goods ($)

Mytheresa CEO on thriving amid the e-commerce meltdown [podcast]

Fashion and Beauty e-commerce

I spent years trying to avoid Vinted. It turns out I was right to be afraid. - The Guardian

To my utter dismay, my extremely fashionable, hardly worn clothes were no longer flying off the shelf. A friend explained I had probably priced the shirts too cheaply and my other clothes too high. The app’s pricing algorithm agreed. Still, it felt like a personal rejection, like the internet was saying I had bad taste.

Plug in to Shein: Inside the Brand Incubator That Made One Label £100m in a Year. - Drapers

A Shein Xcelerator pilot started in August 2023. Nearly 20 brands from around the world have been onboarded includ­ing womenswear brand Cosmina, and have achieved close to £300m in combined revenue, Shein says. It states that many of the brands experienced significant sales growth – on average of 190% in the first year.

Direct traffic dominates fashion e-commerce. Depop still loss-making but revenue surges.

K-beauty conquers Tokyo as Japan’s MZ generation falls under its spell. eBay Japan drives K-beauty inner beauty expansion into the Japanese market. Musinsa to Open "Musinsa Shop" on Japanese E-commerce Platform Zozotown

Women’s ski brand Halfdays raises $10M Series A. Touché Privé Raises $5M in Funding Ahead of GCC Expansion.

Vinted Go opens its first lockers in Belgium.

Strike at Zalando distribution center. Vinted alerts sellers when they need to report sales to HMRC.

Stitch Fix Introduces Stitch Fix Vision, a GenAI-Powered Style Visualization Experience. Zalando expands its offering in Spain, introducing its beauty division to the market. Cymbio expands its partnership with Authentic Brands Group.

AI and Commerce

India rolls out pilot for e-commerce payments via ChatGPT. - Reuters

India's payments authority, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), and fintech firm Razorpay have collaborated with OpenAI to launch AI-driven payments on ChatGPT, the companies announced on Thursday. The initiative, currently in its pilot stage, will enable users to make purchases on ChatGPT, facilitated by India's homegrown payments network, Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

Prosus launches a specialist Large Commerce Model. - Prosus

The LCM has been trained on Prosus’s unique global database of commercial transactions, continually learning from over 500 million users and over 10 trillion tokens of data. This is a new operating system for e-commerce - a single integrated model which can power diverse tasks from improving basic search to personalized recommendations.

Restaurant delivery is coming to ChatGPT. Cora by Commercetools turns product search into a branded AI concierge. AI toys are all the rage in China—and now they’re appearing on shelves in the US too. Bigbasket enables conversational quick commerce through ChatGPT’s Integrated UPI Payments.

Avalara introduces AI agents to automate e-commerce tax and compliance. Gap taps Google Cloud for AI to boost e-commerce, internal operations.

SoftBank to buy ABB's robot business for $5.4 billion in push to merge AI and robotics.

Alvys closes $40M Series B to enhance AI-driven freight operations for carriers and brokers. Mentium lands $3.2M Seed Round to bring AI-powered digital workers to freight brokerages.

Advertising

DOJ and Google wrap up ad tech monopoly hearing. With the Feds circling, Google is starting to play nice with smaller rivals. Google search comes under renewed scrutiny in UK as competition watchdog flexes new powers.

Google updates Misrepresentation policy for Shopping Ads and free listings

Criteo and DoorDash sign multi-year partnership to expand retail media access. Instacart announces end-to-end retail media solution on TikTok.

The Trade Desk brings onsite Retail Media Inventory to advertisers through integration with Koddi; Gopuff serves as first retail partner. The Trade Desk Is now selling onsite retail media ads, Pitting it against Criteo.

Adobe and Amazon team up with first-party data partnership.

Too-loud ads annoying you while streaming? California's put a stop to that.

Logistics is sponsored by Third Person - a new way for brands to discover 3PLs

Why ‘doorstep taxes’ are making Amazon, DoorDash deliveries more expensive. CNBC

Unlike stealth fees added by companies, it is now state and local governments that are adding taxes to help fund big projects such as infrastructure.

Amazon is opening its largest fulfillment center in the Pacific Northwest and building another large e-commerce distribution center in Indiana.

Gulf logistics gets $5B boost from Blackstone, Abu Dhabi’s Lunate. GWC strengthens global growth with strategic stake in Quivo. Abu Dhabi Customs, Mærsk sign agreement to enhance trade facilitation.

Roadrunner launches AI delivery system to speed up e-commerce logistics. DoorDash to use Serve Robotics’ sidewalk robots for deliveries in Los Angeles.

Royal Mail and TikTok Shop partner to supercharge British businesses. SkyNet and Hellmann: A cross-border logistics partnership. PostNord: ‘lockers need more visibility in checkout’.

Mexico’s tariff on Chinese imports rattles cross-border e-commerce.

Univearth, an Osaka, Japan–based logistics DX company, has raised ¥360 million in Pre-Series A funding. Japan Post to acquire 19.9% of LOGISTEED. Logicbroker acquires Virtualstock. Ingka Group acquires Locus, an AI-powered logistics software company to transform the IKEA home delivery experience

Consumer

Major US online retailers remove listings for millions of prohibited Chinese electronics. - Reuters

FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in an interview that the items removed are either on a U.S. list of barred equipment or were not authorized by the agency, including items like home security cameras and smart watches from companies including Huawei, Hikvision, ZTE, and Dahua Technology Company

Data leak at VTEX exposes personal information of six million shoppers.

Lowe’s closes FBM acquisition to expand digital reach in Pro market. Ocado buoyed by online delivery demand and M&S switchover. Pandamart at 5: How Foodpanda built Bangladesh’s fastest grocery network.

Payments

The European Commission has appointed global payment service provider SumUp to a VAT Expert Group, which will advise the European Commission on VAT matters over the next three years. Flipkart’s Super.money quietly partners with troubled Juspay as it expands its reach. USA to Canada e-commerce shipping alternative during Canada Post strike.

Why Checkout.com is seeking a Georgia state bank charter. PayPal introduces 5% cash back on buy now pay later purchases this holiday season.

Pine Labs and Flipkart partner for the launch of prepaid cards. How Cashfree Payments Is unlocking India’s cross-border e-commerce growth.

Coinflow raises $25M Series A to Advance Cross-Border Payments Tech.

Stats and Other Interesting News

Belgium wants to accelerate international parcel tax. Local online stores dominate Dutch market. Fashion remains the leading category in European e-commerce. NITDA to Launch Nigeria’s Digital Trustmark Seal to Strengthen Online Safety.

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 333, sent on 14 October 2025.