Cross-border events of the week: A large number of sellers were warned by Amazon for fake orders

Today (December 24), a large number of sellers received fake order warning emails from my brother-in-law!

My brother-in-law clearly pointed out in the email: We already know that you are placing fake orders, which is a serious violation of Amazon's policy! If you continue to do this, we will block your account!

Recently, Amazon's Project Zero has been fully opened to brands. Previously, brands had to be invited by Amazon to participate in the program, but now that it is fully open, brands only need to meet certain conditions to participate. Specific conditions include: applicants must be the legal owner of the brand and have a trademark that they wish to protect; brands must register their brands at Amazon's brand registry; brands have submitted potential infringements to the platform in the past five months, and the platform acceptance rate exceeds 90%.

Amazon updated its free return policy on December 18, and the new policy will be retroactive to November 1 and valid until December 31 for products purchased on Amazon. Buyers can return products delivered within that time frame for free before January 31. This update expands the free return policy to millions of products that were not previously included, including electronics, household goods, and kitchen appliances. The free return policy also has certain restrictions. These products must be sold and fulfilled by Amazon and must weigh less than 50 pounds.

On December 17, Amazon temporarily restricted third-party sellers on the platform from using FedEx Ground. FedEx said the decision would only affect a small number of shippers, but would limit the logistics options for small businesses on the historically most demanded shipping days, which could damage their ability to meet customer needs and manage their business. However, FedEx remains ready to serve its customers at any time.

Recently, a study by Which?, a British consumer protection organization, showed that Christmas tree lights sold on AliExpress, eBay and Wish pose a fire hazard. Testers found that nearly half of the Christmas tree lights purchased on AliExpress, eBay and Wish were unsafe and dangerous to use. The six most worrying sets of lights could cause fires or electrocution. Testers purchased 13 lights from four e-commerce platforms (Amazon, eBay, Wish and AliExpress). Only one of the 13 was safe to use, legally sold, and passed all safety tests and compliance checks.

Recently, eBay announced that it will adjust the price of SpeedPAK service starting next year. It is reported that starting from January 1, 2020, the new charging standards will be implemented for SpeedPAK standard or economy services shipped from mainland China to various destinations.

Recently, Wish released the "Wish White Elephant Gift Guide" to help consumers choose gifts for the White Elephant gift exchange game. While providing convenience for consumers to purchase related products, the guide recommends high-quality products on the platform to consumers, helping sellers increase sales. It is reported that the White Elephant game is a gift exchange game spontaneously organized by colleagues and friends in the company in the third week of December every year. The fun of the game is to give some cheap and curious gifts, preferably not more than 25 US dollars. Data shows that 58% of Americans have played this game.

It is reported that from January to November this year, the total import and export volume of cross-border e-commerce in Xi'an exceeded 10 billion yuan, an increase of more than twice that of the same period in 2018. It is understood that since Xi'an was approved as a national cross-border e-commerce service pilot city in March 2014, after five years of vigorous development, it has introduced a number of leading cross-border e-commerce platform companies and cultivated a number of highly competitive local cross-border e-commerce sellers; in July 2018, Xi'an was approved as the third batch of national cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones, and cross-border e-commerce has become an important growth pole to drive the growth of Xi'an's foreign trade.

Recently, Shijiazhuang Customs announced the import and export situation of Hebei Province from January to November this year. The data showed that from January to November, the total value of the province's foreign trade imports and exports was 364.23 billion yuan, an increase of 12.7% over the same period last year (the same below). Among them, exports were 214.71 billion yuan, an increase of 6.4%; imports were 149.52 billion yuan, an increase of 23.1%. Cross-border e-commerce has a strong momentum of development, with a total import and export value of 350 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 204.4 times.