World News during the Pandemic (February 20): Stay at Home to Get the Most Outstanding Cross-Border E-Commerce News

As of 18:08 on February 20, a total of 74,679 confirmed cases, 4,922 suspected cases, 2,122 deaths, and 16,426 cases have been cured and discharged.

From 0:00 to 24:00 on February 19, 31 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps reported 394 new confirmed cases, 114 new deaths, and 1,277 new suspected cases.

1. Registration for Amazon Spring Sale is open

Registration for Amazon's Spring Sale has begun, and the submission window for Lightning Deals and 7-Day Deals activities has opened.

Sellers need to go to the transaction panel of the Seller Center, click "Create a new Deal", then select the type of promotion they want to participate in, then select the recommended product and click "Select", then enter the plan and click "continue to next steps" to submit the transaction for the 2020 Amazon Spring Promotion.

The Spring Sale will be held in Spain from March 27 to April 3, 2020, and in the UK, Germany, France and Italy from March 20 to April 7, 2020. However, it should be noted that the deadline for submissions to the Spanish event is March 15, and March 22 for the UK, Germany, France and Italy. At the same time, Amazon sellers can only participate in 7-Day Deals every other week and only one Lightning Deal per week, and these two events cannot be held in the same week. Amazon's recommendations for the 2020 Spring Sale will also change weekly.

2. Amazon Italy couriers strike for 48 hours

At 09:21 am on February 19th, Italian time, according to the latest news from Italian news media MilanoToday: Amazon couriers in the Lombardy region suddenly went on strike starting today, and deliveries are bound to be delayed.

Currently, all workers in the Amazon supply chain in Lombardy, including Milan, have started a 48-hour strike since Wednesday, February 19. The sudden strike was directly communicated by union representatives at each site in their local area.

3. eBay: The store vacation setting needs to check the relevant options

If sellers are unable to ship due to logistics obstructions, or limited inventory or manpower, eBay recommends that sellers make sure to set up "store vacations" and check the "Keep people from buying your fixed price listings while you're on vacation" option to temporarily hide their product listings to prevent buyers from searching for and ordering their products.

eBay reminds that if the merchant does not check this option, its product listing may still be searchable. At the same time, if a buyer places an order, the seller also needs to ensure timely delivery to avoid affecting the account. After the seller's vacation is over, it is also necessary to manually click to turn off this function, but the hidden products may take a few days to restore. In addition, if the seller can still ship now, but hopes to extend the delivery time, then the delivery time can be set by modifying the Handling time.

4. Lazada releases a plan to comfort (consumers) for order cancellations/delays during the epidemic

In order to improve the consumer experience during the epidemic, the platform will cancel some orders that have not been shipped by merchants for a long time this week (see the recent order management related emails for details). While the platform communicates and compensates consumers, we also hope that merchant partners can do a better job of comforting consumers during this special period and provide buyers with warm care and experience.

In order to improve communication efficiency, the platform has also upgraded the batch communication function of the Consumer Operation Platform (CEM) to help everyone appease consumers. Merchants can circle consumers based on historical order status for batch contact. This scenario is limited to once a day. It is recommended to contact consumers in the shipped status first to make buyers more trusting of your store in the future; then, for consumers in the cancelled status, conduct targeted communication and try to win back consumers.

5. Shopee’s “Second Phase of Operational Recovery” is coming

In the second phase, Shopee will fully revive the merchants that have settled in the store:

1) Since March, the platform has lowered the commission base to reduce the operating costs of platform merchants. For orders subject to commission: Transaction commissions are only charged for completed orders (the commission base does not include the shipping costs paid by the buyer); If the order is cancelled, no transaction commission will be charged; The same seller will be exempted from the transaction commission of each site in the first three months of the platform.

2) Launch a keyword advertising support policy. All registered stores whose delivery rates in February meet the site standards can receive a 20% rebate on advertising fees, reducing operational burdens. 3) Integrate internal and external resources, mobilize a dream team of cross-border industry partners, and launch an "online training program" with a total of 42 free live broadcasts, allowing sellers to obtain operational services from multiple channels within 1 month.

6. Cross-border e-commerce OrderPlus completed RMB 100 million in Series B financing

According to news on the 20th, cross-border e-commerce OrderPlus (Xi'an Aopeng Network) has recently completed a RMB 100 million Series B financing.

This round of financing was led by Cathay Capital, with Xinghan Capital serving as the exclusive financial advisor. The funds will be mainly used for talent introduction, IT system upgrades and investment in emerging markets. Lu Wei, founder of OrderPlus, said that after this round of financing, the company will gradually upgrade the "site group model" to a "micro-brand matrix" and achieve user experience and long-term value of the website by shifting product selection and operations to user repurchase and retention orientation.

7. WeChat for Business and Youzan jointly launched the “Sales Assistant Solution”

According to news on the 19th, Enterprise WeChat has officially launched the "Sales Assistant Solution" in cooperation with Youzan to help companies register employees, shopping guides, store clerks, and customers as salespeople, achieve full-staff distribution, enhance online customer acquisition capabilities, and increase sales.

It is understood that the "Sales Assistant Solution" will fully combine Youzan's salesperson function with WeChat Work's employee management and customer management capabilities, allowing merchants' sales/shopping guides to better serve customers in WeChat groups and Moments, and help offline retail stores fully transform into online marketing and services. Merchants using WeChat Work can add the "Youzan Sales Assistant Solution" application to WeChat Work with one click to achieve refined management of salespeople and customer leads.

8. Postal services of 21 countries including Germany, Spain and Singapore have been suspended in China

On the 18th, New Zealand Post (NZ Post) announced that due to the outbreak of the new coronavirus in China, New Zealand Post will suspend mail delivery to China! On February 13, the Ukrainian Independent News Agency quoted the Ukrainian Postal Company as saying that due to the large-scale reduction in routes to China due to the coronavirus, it will suspend the collection of any form of mail to China. Mail received before February 11 will continue to be delivered, but the delivery time may change. So far, nearly 20 countries have announced that they will stop accepting letters and parcels sent to the "mainland" of China!

9. Hunan issued 30 policies and measures to support enterprises

On February 18, the Hunan Provincial Government issued a notice on the issuance of "Several Policy Measures to Cope with the Impact of the New Coronavirus Pneumonia Epidemic and Promote the Healthy Development of Enterprises", including 30 "dry" policy measures in ten areas, including increasing assistance, financial support, social security contributions, tax and fee support, financial subsidies, stabilizing employment, stabilizing foreign trade and foreign investment, ensuring smooth logistics, optimizing the environment, and strengthening responsibilities, to provide practical support for enterprises to cope with the impact of the epidemic and promote healthy development.

The notice pointed out that the implementation period of these 30 policy measures is from the date of announcement of the notice to the date when the epidemic is lifted; if there are clear time limits stipulated in the specific policy measures in the notice, they shall be followed; if the state issues relevant support policies, they shall be implemented accordingly.

1. The new coronavirus may exist in the human world for a long time

Wang Chen, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and an expert in respiratory and critical care medicine, talked about whether we should be prepared to coexist with the new coronavirus for a long time. Wang Chen said that this disease (new coronavirus) may become a chronic disease that exists in the human body for a long time like influenza. This possibility is entirely possible, and we must be prepared for it.

2. Will the lung function of patients with COVID-19 be affected after recovery?

Will the lung function of COVID-19 patients, especially those with severe and critical illness, be affected after recovery? Can the damaged tissues fully recover? Regarding this question, Wang Chen said that our limited observations suggest that it can grow or fully recover, but of course further and longer-term observations are needed. I think everyone does not need to worry too much about this.

3. Tips for protection

Drinking Isatis root cannot prevent the new coronavirus. Isatis root has a certain antiviral effect, but it is ineffective against the coronavirus.

Fumigation with edible vinegar indoors cannot kill the new coronavirus because the acetic acid concentration it contains is very low and cannot achieve a disinfection effect.

Wash your hands frequently, and clean and disinfect items frequently touched by family members every day.

Not all disinfectants are effective. 75% concentration of medical alcohol is the most effective. Do not spray alcohol in large quantities on infants and adults to prevent alcohol allergies; be careful with open flames to prevent fires.

Medical surgical masks have been disinfected before leaving the factory and can be worn directly. They cannot be reused after being ironed with an electric steam iron.

The thicker the mask, the better. Medical surgical masks feel thinner, but they have a very good protective effect. The three layers of water-blocking layer, filter layer, and moisture-absorbing layer effectively block the invasion of viruses.

84 Disinfectant liquid, bleaching powder, chlorine-containing disinfectant powder or chlorine-containing effervescent tablets are all chlorine-containing disinfectants. They can be directly diluted and placed in plastic containers for disinfection and sterilization. When using, be sure to avoid skin, mouth and nose.

Physical heating disinfection, such as tableware, toys, baby bottles and other small items, can be disinfected by boiling for more than 30 minutes or steaming for 5 minutes.

UV lamps do not disinfect the skin; instead, they may irritate it.

Cross-border Knowledge will continue to follow up and update, so that everyone can keep abreast of the epidemic situation and cross-border e-commerce news without leaving home. Everyone is welcome to collect and forward!

(Source: Cross-border K Circle)