Industry News
Industry News Compan
Amazon FBA's five European sites launch a 'Refund Without Return' program
Amazon is rolling out a voluntary 'Refund Without Return' program for FBA sellers on its Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and UK sites. Eligible buyers can get a refund without returning the item. Sellers can enable this feature in Seller Central and set a per-item maximum price threshold between €1 and €75, as well as choose which ASINs to include or exclude. These returns don’t count for inventory reimbursement but do count toward the return rate, though fees related to high return rates don’t apply. Whether it’s worth it depends on the product category and price.
Amazon plans to invest over 16 billion euros in Germany by 2027
Amazon announced it will make a major investment in Germany. By 2027, the total investment will exceed 16 billion euros, covering areas like employment, technology, and infrastructure. Key investments include expanding the Frankfurt AWS data center to support A1 and cloud service demand, with about 4.8 billion euros to be invested in a single year by 2027; rolling out the Amazon Leo satellite internet service; advancing the nationwide logistics network; and producing localized original content through Prime Video. The move aims to strengthen its digital infrastructure and market competitiveness in Europe.
Home basketball shooting toy trending on TikTok in the US
A home basketball shooting machine toy for kids ranked 11th in the Toys category on TikTok US over the past week with 3,656 units sold, up 56.44% week on week. The product has been on the shelf for about 3 years, selling a total of 18,600 units with a GMV of $666,700. In the past 28 days, it contributed $200,400, with about 82.2% of sales driven by influencer promotions. In the past 28 days, 487 influencers and 1,058 promo videos were involved, mainly targeting moms, highlighting both playability and safety, and benefiting from the year-end gifting traffic boost.
Amazon sets 2026 holiday return window
Amazon announced its extended holiday return policy for 2026: items purchased between November 1 and December 31 can be returned until January 31, 2027 (Apple products until January 15). The policy automatically applies to both seller-fulfilled and FBA orders. Amazon said this move aims to boost traffic during the year-end shopping season and, for the first time, clearly informs sellers that this policy will be used every year, instead of waiting for a separate announcement in the fall like in previous years.
eBay launches up to three-tier bundle discounts
EBAY has launched a bundle quantity discount feature for sellers, allowing up to three discount tiers for multiple-item orders. Sellers can set the discount levels themselves, and the discount applies to orders combining the same or different products, automatically taking effect in the shopping cart. This discount can be combined with EBAY's official promotions, but not with seller coupons, multiple discounts, or promo codes—if overlapping, the buyer gets the better deal. Partial returns will trigger a recalculation of the discount. In the official example, a buyer buys three items priced at 10 euros each and gets a 30% discount, paying 21 euros.
AliExpress and Wildberries achieve product interoperability
AliExpress confirmed in its rules announcement in Russia that it is working closely with Russia's WILDBERRIES platform. Right now, users searching for 'ALIEXPRESS' on WILDBERRIES can see official collection stores featuring shoes, clothing, consumer electronics, tools, and more. Although neither side has made an official announcement, they’ve already connected on payment processing, local pickup networks, and the purchasing process. The move is aimed at improving the efficiency of delivering Chinese goods in Russia and enhancing the consumer experience, while boosting AliExpress’s cross-border cooperation capabilities in the Russian market.
Italy delays the 2-euro surcharge on low-value non-EU parcels for the fourth time
In late October, the Italian government introduced a new decree, postponing the implementation date of the 2-euro surcharge on non-EU small parcels under 150 euros from December 1, 2026, to January 1, 2027 — the fourth delay. The finance department estimates that each month of delay will reduce revenue by about 20.4 million euros, potentially exceeding 122 million euros by the end of 2026. The logistics industry says goods are already flowing to countries like Belgium and the Netherlands.
Poor Russian customer service experience leads 1 in 5 users to stop using it
About one in five users completely stopped using a company after a bad customer service experience, and another 21% switched to a competitor. Only 20% of respondents said they never had trouble contacting customer service. 72% had to contact customer service multiple times for the same issue, and 12% gave up on asking for help again because they didn’t trust it would be resolved. The worst experiences were mainly about hard-to-reach live support and new agents not understanding the history of their issues.
Amazon FBA's five European sites launch a 'Refund Without Return' program
Amazon is rolling out a voluntary 'Refund Without Return' program for FBA sellers on its Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and UK sites. Eligible buyers can get a refund without returning the item. Sellers can enable this feature in Seller Central and set a per-item maximum price threshold between €1 and €75, as well as choose which ASINs to include or exclude. These returns don’t count for inventory reimbursement but do count toward the return rate, though fees related to high return rates don’t apply. Whether it’s worth it depends on the product category and price.
Amazon plans to invest over 16 billion euros in Germany by 2027
Amazon announced it will make a major investment in Germany. By 2027, the total investment will exceed 16 billion euros, covering areas like employment, technology, and infrastructure. Key investments include expanding the Frankfurt AWS data center to support A1 and cloud service demand, with about 4.8 billion euros to be invested in a single year by 2027; rolling out the Amazon Leo satellite internet service; advancing the nationwide logistics network; and producing localized original content through Prime Video. The move aims to strengthen its digital infrastructure and market competitiveness in Europe.
Home basketball shooting toy trending on TikTok in the US
A home basketball shooting machine toy for kids ranked 11th in the Toys category on TikTok US over the past week with 3,656 units sold, up 56.44% week on week. The product has been on the shelf for about 3 years, selling a total of 18,600 units with a GMV of $666,700. In the past 28 days, it contributed $200,400, with about 82.2% of sales driven by influencer promotions. In the past 28 days, 487 influencers and 1,058 promo videos were involved, mainly targeting moms, highlighting both playability and safety, and benefiting from the year-end gifting traffic boost.
Amazon sets 2026 holiday return window
Amazon announced its extended holiday return policy for 2026: items purchased between November 1 and December 31 can be returned until January 31, 2027 (Apple products until January 15). The policy automatically applies to both seller-fulfilled and FBA orders. Amazon said this move aims to boost traffic during the year-end shopping season and, for the first time, clearly informs sellers that this policy will be used every year, instead of waiting for a separate announcement in the fall like in previous years.
eBay launches up to three-tier bundle discounts
EBAY has launched a bundle quantity discount feature for sellers, allowing up to three discount tiers for multiple-item orders. Sellers can set the discount levels themselves, and the discount applies to orders combining the same or different products, automatically taking effect in the shopping cart. This discount can be combined with EBAY's official promotions, but not with seller coupons, multiple discounts, or promo codes—if overlapping, the buyer gets the better deal. Partial returns will trigger a recalculation of the discount. In the official example, a buyer buys three items priced at 10 euros each and gets a 30% discount, paying 21 euros.
AliExpress and Wildberries achieve product interoperability
AliExpress confirmed in its rules announcement in Russia that it is working closely with Russia's WILDBERRIES platform. Right now, users searching for 'ALIEXPRESS' on WILDBERRIES can see official collection stores featuring shoes, clothing, consumer electronics, tools, and more. Although neither side has made an official announcement, they’ve already connected on payment processing, local pickup networks, and the purchasing process. The move is aimed at improving the efficiency of delivering Chinese goods in Russia and enhancing the consumer experience, while boosting AliExpress’s cross-border cooperation capabilities in the Russian market.
Italy delays the 2-euro surcharge on low-value non-EU parcels for the fourth time
In late October, the Italian government introduced a new decree, postponing the implementation date of the 2-euro surcharge on non-EU small parcels under 150 euros from December 1, 2026, to January 1, 2027 — the fourth delay. The finance department estimates that each month of delay will reduce revenue by about 20.4 million euros, potentially exceeding 122 million euros by the end of 2026. The logistics industry says goods are already flowing to countries like Belgium and the Netherlands.
Poor Russian customer service experience leads 1 in 5 users to stop using it
About one in five users completely stopped using a company after a bad customer service experience, and another 21% switched to a competitor. Only 20% of respondents said they never had trouble contacting customer service. 72% had to contact customer service multiple times for the same issue, and 12% gave up on asking for help again because they didn’t trust it would be resolved. The worst experiences were mainly about hard-to-reach live support and new agents not understanding the history of their issues.
