The myth of getting rich quickly through cross-border e-commerce has faded

Author | Huang Yu

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

In the past decade, the myth of overnight wealth in cross-border e-commerce is rapidly receding.

Wang Ce (pseudonym), a helmsman who has been navigating the cross-border tide for nearly eight years, once enjoyed explosive sales and substantial profits, earning a fortune daily. However, now his store's sales can barely maintain one-third of their peak, and the romantic notion of opening stores globally has been shattered by the harsh reality.

In the past three years, TEMU, along with a large number of Pinduoduo merchants, surged overseas, carving up the originally niche cross-border e-commerce business. The abrupt cancellation of the "small-value tax exemption" policy for Chinese goods by the United States in April 2025 became the last straw, followed by soaring tariffs that directly impacted Chinese players heavily reliant on direct mail small package models.

Not only individual merchants but also cross-border platforms represented by TEMU have been forced to awaken from their past reliance on tax-free small orders, extreme low prices, and efficient supply chains, which created the illusion of "shopping like a billionaire" for overseas consumers.

The subsequent Sino-U.S. economic and trade talks provided a breather, but the pendulum effect of policies has not yet calmed down—rumors of the European Union imposing fees on incoming small packages have resurfaced. This clearly indicates that uncertainty has become a new normal that cross-border e-commerce must constantly face.

For cross-border players heavily dependent on policy dividends, every shift in direction squeezes their already thin profit margins and challenges their survival bottom line.

This is no longer an era where victory can be achieved solely through courage and low prices; the days of easy profits are undoubtedly over.

Wang Ce and TEMU are also taking action. From an all-out price war to a difficult brand transformation, from fully managed to semi-managed model adjustments, cross-border e-commerce players must exert greater effort to cope with the changing policy environment and severe market fluctuations.

For cross-border platforms, this is not only a battle for survival but also a reshuffling battle that will determine future standings. As dividends fade and the sands of time shift, this test of wisdom, resilience, and adaptability has just begun, profoundly affecting the fate of every participant and sketching a new outline of the global e-commerce landscape.

Storm

In recent years, the rapid expansion of Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms like TEMU, SHEIN, and TikTok Shop in global markets has already raised alarms among regulators in various countries.

For instance, in April and May last year, SHEIN and TEMU were designated as "super large online platforms," becoming key regulatory targets under the EU's Digital Services Act; in July, it was reported that the EU would recommend abolishing the current tax exemption threshold for goods valued under 150 euros (approximately 161 USD) from non-EU countries.

In emerging markets like Southeast Asia, Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms are also viewed with suspicion. Shortly after entering the Thai market at the end of July last year, TEMU was placed under scrutiny, with Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin personally ordering the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, the Revenue Department, and the police to investigate whether TEMU complies with Thai laws and pays the required taxes.

At the same time, Indonesia's Ministry of Communication and Information decided to block TEMU in the country to protect local micro, small, and medium enterprises As a key battleground for cross-border e-commerce, the United States has always kept the "sword of Damocles" hanging high. At the beginning of Trump's presidency, the market began to worry about whether he would impose additional tariffs.

In February of this year, a major blow that shook the cross-border e-commerce industry came.

On February 1, Trump signed an executive order stating that all goods exported from China to the United States would no longer enjoy "low-value tax exemptions." At the same time, the United States Postal Service (USPS) announced that it would suspend the acceptance of packages sent from mainland China and Hong Kong starting February 4.

However, due to the customs system's inability to handle the massive volume of orders, the Trump administration was forced to announce a postponement of implementation on February 7.

Yet, the anxiety of Chinese cross-border e-commerce remained unresolved.

On April 2, the U.S. side announced again the cancellation of tax exemptions for low-value imported products from China. Meanwhile, against the backdrop of increasing U.S. tariff policies on China, starting May 2, packages exported from China to the United States valued at no more than $800 would be subject to tariffs equivalent to 120% of the value or $100 per item.

For Chinese cross-border merchants and platforms relying on the "duty-free direct mail" model, the implementation of this policy is undoubtedly seismic.

Zheng Jichang, director of the China Service Innovation Research Institute, pointed out that the direct purpose of canceling the small-value tax exemption policy is to strike at the "cost-performance advantage" of Chinese cross-border e-commerce, especially targeting platforms that rely on direct mail small packages (such as SHEIN and TEMU), weakening their price competitiveness.

Zhang Jiong, vice president of the Guangdong Import and Export Chamber of Commerce, also believes that U.S. tariff policies have a significant impact on independent sellers and those using direct mail, especially the full-service model of the e-commerce "four dragons," which mostly consists of low-priced products. An additional $25-50 in tariffs makes them completely uncompetitive. Currently, the GMV of Chinese cross-border e-commerce in the U.S. market will be highly volatile.

In the face of high tariffs, not only TEMU and SHEIN but even Amazon quickly raised prices on some products.

According to SmartScout data, from April 9 to early May, nearly 1,000 products on Amazon's U.S. site saw significant price increases, covering various categories such as clothing, home goods, electronics, and toys, with an average increase of nearly 30%. For example, the price of a power bank has risen from $110 to $135, an increase of over 20%.

Additionally, there are reports that Amazon plans to add annotations to product price listings to show consumers the extent to which U.S. tariffs have increased the price of each item.

The White House quickly reacted, with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre vehemently criticizing Amazon, calling the planned approach a "hostile and politicized action."

Subsequently, Amazon responded that the company was only considering displaying tariff costs on certain products, and these products belong to its ultra-low-price shopping section, Amazon Haul, rather than the entire Amazon platform. A company spokesperson also stated that the relevant policy had never been approved and would not be implemented.

In addition to raising product prices, after the implementation of tariffs, TEMU became the first platform to announce that it has stopped shipping directly from China to U.S. consumers This means that its fully managed model in the U.S. is facing significant challenges. Soon, merchants discovered that the fully managed products on TEMU's U.S. site were massively delisted overnight, only showing semi-managed products shipped from local U.S. warehouses, which are usually priced higher than the fully managed products that qualify for the small tax exemption policy.

At the same time, a TEMU spokesperson confirmed that sales in the U.S. market have been fully taken over by local sellers, with products shipped from within the U.S., emphasizing that local products have "no import fees" and "no additional fees upon delivery."

Just when fully managed merchants thought they would lose the U.S. market, the tariff issue welcomed a turnaround.

On May 12, the "Joint Statement of the China-U.S. Geneva Economic and Trade Talks" was released, announcing a reduction in tariffs. According to this statement, the tariffs imposed by the U.S. on China have been reduced to 30%, and the previously imposed 24% ad valorem tariff will be suspended for 90 days (until August 12, 2025).

At the same time, the Trump administration issued an executive order stating that starting from May 14, the tax rate for goods sent from China valued at no more than $800 via postal services will be reduced from 120% to 54%.

This reduction in tariffs by the U.S. is seen as a victory for Chinese merchants and indicates that the daily lives of the American people have become increasingly dependent on Chinese cross-border e-commerce.

Although the 54% tariff still remains, many merchants have told Wall Street Insight that on the same day the joint statement was released, TEMU buyers began notifying that fully managed services in the U.S. would soon resume, urging merchants to stock up quickly.

The significant reduction in tariffs is undoubtedly a boon for cross-border e-commerce platforms like TEMU and SHEIN, but the era of low tariff cost advantages is over, and market uncertainty has increased.

A new round of survival battles for cross-border e-commerce platforms has arrived.

Rise

Cross-border e-commerce platforms play a core hub role in global trade, not only restructuring the traditional international trade chain but also promoting the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce through technology, services, and ecological integration, making them an "accelerator for the expansion of cross-border e-commerce."

Many may not know that Alibaba, which is synonymous with Chinese e-commerce, originally engaged in cross-border e-commerce business.

As early as 1999, Jack Ma led a team to establish Alibaba International, marking the beginning of the development of cross-border e-commerce in China. However, at that time, Alibaba mainly focused on B2B business, providing online yellow pages-style information display, while actual transactions still relied on offline completion.

By 2004, Dunhuang.com, which has recently gained sudden popularity due to U.S. tariffs, was established, positioning itself as an "online trading B2B e-commerce platform," ushering in the era of online transactions in Chinese cross-border e-commerce. Six years later, Alibaba launched AliExpress, known by sellers as the "international version of Taobao," promoting the development of B2C cross-border e-commerce.

However, constrained by infrastructure, policies, and market maturity, as well as fierce competition in the domestic e-commerce market, Chinese cross-border e-commerce was still in its early stages during this period and had not yet reached a tipping point.

Liu Mingtao, chairman of Shandong Hengwang Group, which specializes in construction machinery, revealed to Wall Street Insight that when he started doing foreign trade through cross-border e-commerce platforms in 2012, 99.9% of the companies around him had no idea what he was doing Around 2014, China's cross-border e-commerce export industry welcomed a critical turning point, driven by policy support, platform expansion, and market demand, leading to the transformation and diversion of China's traditional foreign trade towards cross-border e-commerce, entering a period of rapid growth.

As early as July 2013, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Several Opinions on Promoting Stable Growth and Structural Adjustment of Import and Export," identifying the development of cross-border e-commerce as one of the important means for stabilizing growth and adjusting the structure of foreign trade, with clear work requirements proposed.

In August of the same year, the General Office of the State Council forwarded the "Opinions on Implementing Policies to Support Cross-Border E-Commerce Retail Exports" from the Ministry of Commerce and other departments, supporting the healthy and rapid development of cross-border e-commerce retail exports.

In 2014, the domestic e-commerce competitive landscape was initially established, with Taobao and JD.com dominating the market. That year, Jack Ma led Alibaba to ring the bell on the New York Stock Exchange, setting a record for the largest IPO in history, with a market value of $231.4 billion on the day of the IPO, becoming the second-largest internet company in the world after Google, and earning the title of the largest e-commerce company globally.

To seek further development, Alibaba also established globalization as a fundamental strategy in 2014, with the business goal of "serving 2 billion consumers and 10 million small and medium-sized enterprises globally, and achieving delivery of goods within 72 hours worldwide," practicing the motto of "making it easy to do business anywhere" while focusing on AliExpress and acquiring several overseas cross-border e-commerce platforms.

As a global leader in cross-border e-commerce, Amazon's "Global Selling" also increased its recruitment efforts for Chinese merchants during those years, leading to a large influx of Chinese cross-border e-commerce sellers onto the Amazon platform, with many sellers starting their cross-border e-commerce businesses through Amazon.

Against this backdrop, the global potential of China's supply chain was further activated, with Chinese sellers gradually shifting from "OEM orders" to "independent operations," beginning to explore the possibilities of brand operation.

However, due to high entry barriers and the domestic market still being in a golden development period, the cross-border e-commerce business had not yet entered an explosive growth phase.

Han Guangfei, general manager of Jining Sao Machinery Co., Ltd., told Wall Street Insight that although he started trying to do foreign trade through friends in the south in 2013, the domestic trade business was doing well at that time, with major infrastructure and real estate industries booming. His company continued to focus on domestic trade until 2018, when domestic trade accounted for 80% and foreign trade for 20%.

Therefore, for a long time, the main players on cross-border e-commerce platforms were mostly overseas players, with Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, and Wish being the four major platforms, among which AliExpress and Wish were relatively smaller.

Explosion

Just as cross-border e-commerce was entering a phase of accelerated development, after years of rapid growth, competition among domestic e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, JD.com, Pinduoduo, Vipshop, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin became increasingly fierce, leading to overcapacity in domestic consumer goods and "low-price competition" becoming the main theme, pushing the domestic market into a "red ocean."

Rushing towards the overseas "blue ocean" market has become a consensus among major e-commerce platform companies.

As ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming said, "China's internet population accounts for only one-fifth of the global internet population. If we do not allocate resources globally and pursue the scale effect of products, one-fifth cannot compete with four-fifths, so going overseas is inevitable." In this context, in recent years, China's cross-border e-commerce platforms have clearly exploded, with the "Four Little Dragons of Cross-Border E-Commerce" (AliExpress, TEMU, SHEIN, TikTok Shop) representing Chinese e-commerce platforms that have become popular worldwide, threatening Amazon's global e-commerce dominance.

According to data from the General Administration of Customs, in 2023, China's cross-border e-commerce import and export volume reached 2.38 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.6%, with exports accounting for 1.83 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19.6%.

Over the past five years since 2018, the scale of cross-border e-commerce imports and exports has increased tenfold.

Last year, the scale of cross-border e-commerce continued to maintain high growth. According to data from the General Administration of Customs, the total import and export volume of cross-border e-commerce is expected to reach 2.63 trillion yuan in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 10.8%.

Currently, the "U.S. Small Tax Exemption Policy," which was canceled by the Trump administration, has caused a huge shock in the cross-border e-commerce industry and was once a booster for the rapid expansion of this wave of cross-border e-commerce.

The U.S. Small Tax Exemption Policy began in 1938, initially to facilitate tourists bringing souvenirs into the country (with a limit of $5). After several adjustments, it was raised to $800 in 2016, accompanied by the T86 customs clearance model to simplify the process.

Under the small package tax exemption policy, cross-border e-commerce platforms relying on direct mail small packages, such as TEMU and SHEIN, ushered in a golden period of rapid expansion in the U.S.

Data shows that from 2015 to 2024, the application volume for U.S. "small exemptions" surged from 139 million items to 1.4 billion items.

In this wave of cross-border e-commerce, TEMU, the cross-border e-commerce platform under Pinduoduo, which officially launched in September 2022, is undoubtedly a major driving force and a synonym for "miracle" in the eyes of many.

In February 2023, just five months after its birth, TEMU spent $14 million to air a 60-second advertisement during the top U.S. event "Super Bowl," setting a record for the highest price for advertising in the event's history and becoming the youngest brand to ever advertise during the "Super Bowl."

In this event, known as the "American Spring Festival Gala," the slogan "Shop like a billionaire" quickly raised TEMU's profile in the U.S. The following year, TEMU again made a big splash by advertising during the "Super Bowl" while offering $10 million worth of giveaways during the game.

With its substantial spending, extreme low prices, and innovative "full custody model," TEMU has made a significant impact in the global market with a massive number of Chinese supply chain manufacturers.

In just two years, TEMU successfully surpassed eBay to become the second most visited e-commerce website globally, second only to Amazon. Currently, TEMU has operations in over 90 countries and regions worldwide, with the U.S. being its largest single market.

A report from Changcheng Securities in March pointed out that TEMU continues to maintain rapid growth in GMV and user numbers. According to Bernstein, TEM has surpassed Amazon to become the e-commerce platform with the most monthly active users globally, with GMV expected to exceed $50 billion in 2024 and grow to $70-80 billion by 2025 In the face of TEMU's strong arrival, the usually low-profile SHEIN can no longer sit still. In 2023, in order to defend its territory while breaking through growth bottlenecks, SHEIN, the world's largest fast fashion retailer, has launched platformization, full-category, and localization strategies all at once.

Meanwhile, TikTok shop, which had focused on Southeast Asia as its main battlefield for the past two years, also began to enter the U.S. market in 2023.

Against this backdrop, Amazon has sounded the horn of counterattack, increasing its efforts to attract businesses in China while launching the low-price store Amazon Haul last year.

The competition among cross-border e-commerce platforms has entered a heated stage.

Weapon

In the past two years, TEMU has been a gold mine for a large number of new and old cross-border players in China, and its "full management model" has swept through like a hurricane, becoming the hottest topic in the cross-border e-commerce industry in 2023.

Following in TEMU's footsteps, AliExpress, SHEIN, and TikTok shop quickly launched their own full management models.

The "full management model" is undoubtedly the biggest secret weapon that has allowed TEMU to rapidly attract a large number of merchants. It almost eliminates all entry barriers, with merchants only needing to supply goods, while subsequent operations and fulfillment are handled by TEMU.

Wang Bowen, a post-95 "factory second generation," decided to use TEMU's "full management model" as the first stop for his cross-border e-commerce business with his thermal cup manufacturing factory.

According to Wall Street Watch, after Wang Bowen took over the family thermal cup manufacturing factory in 2021, he had been looking to change the previous situation where the factory primarily engaged in low-profit B-end foreign trade business. Originally, he planned to settle on Amazon in mid-2023 to kickstart his C-end cross-border e-commerce business, as he believed at the time that "Amazon was almost the only choice for overseas cross-border e-commerce."

However, after TEMU emerged, Wang Bowen changed his mind. He revealed that the initial opportunity to settle on TEMU came when a batch of summer smoothie cups was unsold. After learning about TEMU and its full management model at the beginning of 2023, he thought about whether he could easily consume this inventory through it.

Wang Bowen recalled that according to TEMU's process, he took some photos, listed the products, and then shipped the goods to the warehouse in Guangdong of Pinduoduo. After that, there was basically nothing else to do. In about two to three weeks, the inventory of over 400 cups was consumed.

With this successful attempt and TEMU's rapid growth momentum, Wang Bowen decided to put all plans for other C-end platforms on hold and focus on TEMU.

A former TEMU employee revealed that during its startup phase, TEMU had a clear goal: to attract a large number of merchants to settle and open stores in the shortest time possible. Most of the staff concentrated their efforts on attracting businesses, with a focus on source factories.

This is the fundamental guarantee for TEMU's low-price strategy to be executable.

It can be seen that on September 19, 2022, Pinduoduo announced the launch of the "2022 Duoduo Going Abroad Support Plan": it will invest a resource package of 10 billion yuan, focusing on the cross-border e-commerce market in the manufacturing industry, with the first phase aimed at creating 100 overseas brands and supporting 10,000 manufacturing enterprises. Specific support measures include: 1) Zero commission and zero deposit for manufacturing enterprises to settle; 2) Providing comprehensive infrastructure services such as warehousing, logistics, and after-sales; 3) Conduct special training sessions for Duoduo's overseas expansion. Attract various merchants through substantial subsidies.

A factory owner who started laying out a cross-border e-commerce platform in 2018 told Wall Street Insight: "From the supply chain perspective, other platforms require us not only to have supply chain capabilities but also a full-chain operational capability. We must transport goods to their overseas warehouses, and once the products are listed, we need to operate them ourselves, including advertising data and handling returns."

TEMU's full-service model allows him to "replicate" successful hot-selling products from other cross-border e-commerce platforms on TEMU without spending effort on product promotion and fulfillment; he only needs to focus on product development and design and send the goods to TEMU's warehouse in Guangdong.

"Full-service" has allowed TEMU to achieve victory in the first phase and has made full-service a standard configuration for major cross-border e-commerce platforms.

However, after choosing to be a hands-off manager, some merchants quickly realized that they had completely become supply channels, lacking not only pricing power but also voice, with product categories and development space being restricted.

Thus, a semi-managed model was born, positioned between full-service and self-operation.

Compared to full-service, the advantage of semi-managed is that it combines cost control with flexibility, giving sellers more autonomy in logistics choices and product pricing. However, the semi-managed model is more inclined towards sellers with cross-border e-commerce operational experience, local inventory in overseas markets, and local fulfillment and delivery capabilities.

Last year, Wall Street Insight learned from sources close to TEMU that the semi-managed model allows TEMU to achieve faster speeds while maintaining quality-price ratios. In the future, if merchants' capabilities strengthen, TEMU may grant them greater space and freedom.

However, the first to sound the semi-managed starting gun is no longer TEMU, but its big brother AliExpress.

Since last year, "semi-managed" has become a new battleground for major cross-border e-commerce platforms, with AliExpress, Alibaba International Station, TEMU, SHEIN, and others shifting their focus to the semi-managed model.

Future

In this wave of tariff wars, there was a small episode where Dunhuang.com, which had been silent for many years, suddenly became popular.

Analysts from Caitong Securities pointed out that the short-term surge in traffic for Dunhuang.com is sporadic, but the demand from American consumers for high-cost-performance products is noteworthy.

"Against the backdrop of significant fluctuations in U.S. tariff policies, we believe that the popularity of Dunhuang.com essentially reflects the strong demand from American consumers for high-cost-performance products, and traffic for cross-border e-commerce platforms is expected to continue to grow."

This is also reflected in the recent stocking efforts of merchants.

To seize the 90-day low-tariff window, the booking volume of container ships from China to the U.S. has surged. According to data from container tracking software provider Vizion, the average booking volume for the seven days ending May 14 skyrocketed by 277% from the average of 5,709 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) for the week ending May 5.

Additionally, shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd stated that container bookings from China to the U.S. have jumped by 50% in recent days Wall Street Insights learned from Ding Linfeng, general manager of Shanghai Weida Sunshade Equipment Co., Ltd., a merchant on Alibaba International Station, that American customers requested another container of goods worth $100,000 on the night of May 12 when tariffs were reduced.

"They are now in a hurry to place supplementary orders, hoping we can complete production within a month. Because subsequent goods will still need to drift at sea for a month. Everyone hopes to seize the 90-day shipping window!" On Alibaba International Station, there are many like Ding Linfeng whose orders in the U.S. region have surged.

However, in the long run, under the impact of the new round of tariffs, cross-border e-commerce platforms will undoubtedly face a major reshuffle in the U.S. market.

Tian Guangdong, president of the Jilin Province Digital Economy Industry Association, pointed out that small and micro enterprises and sellers relying on low prices may be forced to exit the U.S. market, while platforms and large sellers with brand premium capabilities and supply chain integration advantages will accelerate their market share acquisition.

Huo Haoyang, president of Fengbo International in China, believes that for cross-border sellers, this is a process of raising the threshold. At the same time, it is a reshuffle for China's small and medium-sized sellers, cleaning up non-quality white-label/low-price competition/non-compliant sellers.

This is undoubtedly a very unfavorable situation for TEMU, which relies on the rapid expansion of Chinese small white-label merchants in the U.S. According to Wall Street Insights, some merchants have already decided to exit TEMU and switch to other platforms.

In this tariff storm, merchants who choose to set up overseas warehouses locally in the U.S. have effectively found a safe haven, while fully managed merchants have been hit hard.

Multiple merchants have reported to Wall Street Insights that recently, traffic in the U.S. region of TEMU has clearly tilted towards semi-managed merchants.

When Wall Street Insights searched for several types of products on TEMU, it also found that almost all were local warehouse products.

Su Jing, founding secretary-general of the Qingdao Cross-Border E-Commerce Association, pointed out that cross-border e-commerce platforms are likely to recalibrate their recommendation algorithms in response to changes in industry ecology due to policy changes, significantly reducing traffic support for direct shipping sellers to adjust the internal business structure of the platform.

She stated that the transformation of business models is imminent, and platforms that rely heavily on direct mail small packages, represented by fully managed models, will face immense pressure to transition to semi-managed models that ship to overseas warehouses. After the transformation, operational stability can be improved, better aligning with new policy requirements.

It now appears that TEMU and others have vigorously promoted the "semi-managed" model since last year, inadvertently alleviating pressure during this tariff storm. Now, with the cancellation of small tax exemptions, the semi-managed model may become mainstream in TEMU's U.S. region.

Multiple brokerage firms have pointed out that TEMU's semi-managed model can drive an increase in the proportion of bulk goods, thereby raising the average transaction value, while also reducing average logistics costs, which can enhance user experience while optimizing its unit economic model, thus improving profitability and market competitiveness.

Clearly, even though TEMU's price advantage has been significantly impacted by the tariff shock, it will still be a major competitor in the upcoming market landscape.

Analysts at Great Wall Securities pointed out that against the backdrop of high inflation, TEMU, with its extreme supply chain efficiency, still has a significant price advantage compared to U.S. local e-commerce and other cross-border e-commerce platforms, potentially becoming a "price safe haven" in the U.S. inflation environment It is worth mentioning that at the end of April, TEMU's semi-managed U.S. site officially launched the Y2 new model, allowing sellers to ship directly from China to the U.S. Meanwhile, the shipping time has been extended from the previous 2 working days to 9 working days, with the overall logistics time extended to 14 working days.

This is another significant adjustment in TEMU's operational model following the fully managed and semi-managed models. Under the Y2 new model, merchants do not need to stock goods in U.S. warehouses and can ship directly from within China to U.S. consumers, thus eliminating the high costs of overseas warehousing and the risk of inventory backlog.

Y2 is essentially Amazon's FBM (Fulfilled by Merchant) model, but unlike Amazon, the TEMU platform still retains pricing power. Additionally, compared to the semi-managed model, the Y2 model has a longer fulfillment time, and whether consumers will be willing to pay remains uncertain.

It is not difficult to see that TEMU is currently one of the platforms that has taken the lead in actively responding to the recent tariff turmoil.

In fact, to reduce the potential policy risks associated with a high proportion of sales in the U.S. market, TEMU has been recruiting U.S. merchants since last year. Starting from November last year, TEMU further lowered the entry threshold for merchants, allowing any U.S. brand or individual seller to register and sell on TEMU.

The U.S. market once contributed more than half of TEMU's sales. Over the years, TEMU has gradually begun to reduce its reliance on the U.S. market, with emerging markets such as the Middle East, Europe, Latin America, and Southeast Asia now becoming key areas of focus.

According to a report by overseas e-commerce research institution Emerce, the European market is expected to contribute 35%-40% of TEMU's global share in the future, surpassing North America to become the largest market.

Regardless, like the growth path of domestic e-commerce in the past, cross-border e-commerce will also enter a new stage of development.

With the changing global trade situation, there is a consensus that cross-border e-commerce will inevitably shift from growth at all costs to a focus on profitable growth, moving from a simple "price war" to a "value war" that emphasizes product and service value.

Several cross-border e-commerce professionals told Wall Street Insight that the barriers to entry for cross-border e-commerce have become higher, and Chinese companies going overseas must increase R&D investment, improve product quality and added value, and shift from simple "low-price exports" to a "branding" strategy with high added value.

The tariff storm is reshaping the global e-commerce landscape, and the future is full of challenges but also contains infinite opportunities. Those who can seize the opportunities will be able to write a new legend on the global e-commerce stage