“I relying on items for my company and I go crazy that I can not find any of my ordinary supplies,” wrote one Reddit user at Subreddit R/Temuthings. Another user has released a screenshot, which, they claimed, was a conversation with the customer service function of the one in which the agent said that the platform “is currently unable to display elements outside the US” and cannot ensure the time frame as long as the restriction will persist.
The change also confused sellers in China, who apparently have not been notified in advance that Americans will not be able to browse their products soon. Adding to the confusion, the fact that this allegedly removed a enormous number of Chinese sellers from the platform last week, only to quickly reverse the center, which led some sellers to the initial belief that the same problem was repeated, according to sellers who shared their experiences on the Chinese side of social media Xiaohongshu.
The seller of the furniture and home decor confirmed that all his products sent from China were removed, the decision, which they think was made in response to the end of the exception “de minimis”, a rule that allows Americans to import packages from any place in the world in a world worth 800 USD without the need to pay import duties.
It, Shein and other companies that send customers’ orders directly from China for years using a trade recipe, but critics claim that it gave foreign online shopping platforms a dishonest advantage. Trump issued an executive order at the beginning of this year, declaring that de minimis would no longer apply to shipments from China from May 2.
“It may happen that the platform must introduce some regulatory corrections in this difficult period,” says the furniture seller ago.
Ultimately, Trump’s trade war can fundamentally change the way it operates in the US and its strategies to stop American clients. The company has become popular in the United States both because of its lavish advertising expenses, as well as the fact that it can consistently provide lower prices of similar items offered on other E -commerce platforms. With high tariffs for Chinese imports and the end of de minimis dismissal, the cost of this can escalate, and people can also be longer to receive packages, subject to a more stringent customs check process.
Even before Trump announced the tariffs, he has already introduced changes in his business model, including storing more wrestling in the US magazines and experimenting with a more conventional logistics structure in the Amazon style. The platform is currently exploring another mail order program, which is called “Y2”, to which it began implementing Chinese sellers on April 27, According to ChinesellersThe newsletter focused on cross-border e-commerce.
As the publication explains, the Y2 is a more malleable variety of the existing American model of US storage, and sellers send individual orders, not mass stocks. But sellers are responsible for servicing up-to-date tariffs and the customs declaration process, as well as any problems that may be associated with it, not to collect weight. In many respects, it is similar to the existing Amazon logistics option called “Merchant’s fulfillment” or FBM.
These changes in the entire platform emphasize how quickly it adapts to the current unstable politics environment, but the company also risk losing what was the basic part of its identity and comparative advantage. “It strikes me as a huge step back for this. What really helped to distinguish from Wish and Alixpress, it controls the supply chain, thanks to which it can guarantee the speed of delivery and level of quality assurance to ensure consistent experience,” says Kaziukėnas.
The furniture seller tells Wired that they have refrained from jumping on the Y2 wagon. “We are a large organization, so we cannot make changes overnight. We are still observing whether the rules will change,” explains the seller.
He also tries to escalate his sales in other markets, such as Europe, where the Tariffs for Chinese imports remain much lower than in the USA. One Chinese seller tells Wired that although their American offers have been removed, their overall sales increased due to growth from other regions.