Last night turned into a full-on rebuild of my store. I’m gradually bringing over the products that are already selling in Russia—editing images, designing product pages, tightening up listings, and tweaking/testing different modules. After hours of staring at screens, my eyes are definitely feeling it.

Today, we expanded into another Russia-focused business scenario. I’m excited for more new beginnings—after reviewing the entire end-to-end process, studying the platform rules, and adapting to local realities, we’ll keep working hard to serve our Russian customers better.

Today is bright and sunny, I’m walking through Yiwu International Trade City in Yiwu, Zhejiang, China—scouting export-ready products and identifying items with real potential for global consumers. The variety here is astonishing. Brilliant Yiwu—Yiwu for the world.

Tighter import tax/de-minimis framework (EAEU): The EAEU has issued updated decisions on rules and duty treatment for goods bought by individuals from foreign marketplaces, forcing sellers to re-price low-AOV “China-direct” models. Platform push toward “more local / more controlled fulfillment”: Ozon continues to update cross-border seller contracts and logistics partner terms, generally rewarding faster, more reliable fulfillment and manageable returns.

This week, Temu’s global play is localization under heavier scrutiny. In Europe, policymakers are moving faster on low-value parcel fees / customs handling costs, explicitly impacting ultra-cheap cross-border flows; Temu is therefore leaning harder into EU local warehousing and in-region fulfillment to reduce clearance and delivery volatility. In Türkiye, Temu also showed a “local-only” pivot (domestic sellers/domestic shipping) amid regulatory pressure—another sign that pure China-direct arbitrage is narrowing.

Midnight finds me passionately replying to Russian customers’ order reviews. New-order email notifications keep pouring in, and the order volume has hit a new high again. During the Spring Festival break, I’m planning to write an automation program to handle some routine reviews—while I’ll still personally respond in Russian to the more advanced, high-touch ones.

Temu’s latest global playbook is “localization under tighter compliance + forward-deployed logistics.” As U.S./EU customs and low-value parcel rules tighten, Temu is scaling local warehouses and in-region fulfillment (especially in Europe) to reduce the risk of China-direct shipping.

Impact on China-based merchants: fulfillment shifts toward overseas stock/local-ship or hybrid, raising inventory & cash-flow pressure; compliance costs (tariffs, declarations, product/IP controls) climb and squeeze low-price margins; localization expectations (standards, after-sales, returns) increase—making supply-chain stability and consistent quality the key to sustained volume.

Meituan announced a proposed acquisition of Dingdong Maicai’s China operations (excluding overseas businesses) for an initial consideration of about US$717 million to strengthen its on-demand retail and fresh supply chain capabilities.

Recently, I’ve been using Trae’s Solo mode for web development, and the results have been excellent. It provides clear guidance and implementation ideas, while generating code with impressive speed. In addition, the output can be packaged and compressed directly for plugin upload, which is highly efficient.

Late at night, I find myself switching between writing code and responding—almost like a dedicated Russian-speaking support rep—to every review on our orders from customers in Russia. Most of them leave five-star ratings along with photos. It’s a genuinely positive experience for both buyer and seller, and it makes the midnight hours feel a little less lonely.