The EU Is Coming for Shemu – Plus More Marketplace News LTM #154

The best thing that they can do is keep their, keep a look on their marketplaces, what they are doing in the AI space and then optimize their products there.

Because if you are on Amazon or on mediamarkt or on whatever as a marketplace and they are good at presenting their products to an AI, then your products are there as well.

Let's talk Marketplace.

The Marketplace podcast with Ingrid Lohmer and Vanavrita History.

Hi everyone and welcome back to let's Talk Marketplace.

I'm Ingrid and today I'm back behind the mic.

I've been for two weeks in Italy.

That was quite great actually.

No marketplaces, no slack, no newsletters, no podcast either that was needed.

It was a little boring, to be honest, I have to say, but at least I'm now absolutely relaxed and yeah, and Valerie, from the way that my slack exploded when I reopened it yesterday, I guess that things weren't so boring on your end, were they?

No, so boring isn't even in my vocabulary right now.

I mean I spent those two weeks actually setting up three Marketplace Universe Connect events.

One in July, so just with like six weeks pre setup time.

One in September while in Mexico and one already in February while the world biggest toy fair.

Yeah, looking forward to that one Nuremberg for the first time.

So three events, quite a lot of things to plan.

Two podcast episodes I recorded, one webinar I did and actually we had just like eight now, seven working days because I also had like a long weekend now, so it was a challenge.

Weather was nice actually.

And I mean I still have my baby which I breastfeed in between.

So I would say it was a lot but not boring.

But it's also, I like it also when there's like so much to do and to organize and if so much and so many good things keep going.

So.

Yeah, and going on.

So yeah, I see lots of stuff happening.

I have been eating pasta and pizza.

And saltfish and Sergeant Bocca and you know, thank you.

All those nice things that Italy has to offer.

But yeah, you know, but in my defense, I wasn't all useless because we had a long car ride home to catch up and.

And I used the time there to catch up on the most important Marketplace news and because I figured as you have so many things to do, you might not be able to look a lot at the news.

So yeah, I looked around and I have to say a lot of ground to cover.

Obviously you weren't the only person being really busy because there was lots of stuff happening actually.

Yeah.

And actually, I mean Mainly it was holiday season, meant to be.

Right.

But yeah, no, I didn't have time a lot to like to stay up to date with the latest news.

Sometimes I scrolled LinkedIn, but to be very honest, my LinkedIn is quite flooded about mom and dad posts, so I didn't know how that happened.

But less marketplace content.

I need to challenge the algorithm, I guess a bit.

So you need to really update me as well on the latest news.

So that's what we do today, right?

Yeah, absolutely.

I thought that would be a good point in time to just have a look back at what happened in the marketplace industry in the last round.

About six weeks.

Because we haven't done that for a while and.

Yeah.

And things are amassing.

So.

So for example, just to give you the sneak peek, we've got some EU fines against imo and we've got some actions in France.

And Amazon has moved the prime day to June and stretched it to four days.

Why not?

And jd, who is trying to take over economy, which is not happening at the moment due to an EU investigation, is now eyeing a British retailer.

And yeah, lots of.

And lots of things going on.

And of course AI shopping is all over and getting more crowded by the minute.

Yeah.

And I also heard that some marketplaces expanded and internationalized, so that's true.

Yeah, that's what I heard at least.

That's absolutely true.

And we're going to cover that as well.

Well, so I guess, yeah, I'll give you the facts, you give me your take and then we can start into another news episode.

Great.

Let's go.

Okay.

Right, let's go.

Okay, then I guess let's start with the first item that is already coming quite close because Amazon has announced their prime day for this year and they announced it quite late because they moved prime day to June, end of June 23 to 26, to be more specific.

It's going to be live in 26 countries and it's going to last for four days.

So it's earlier than ever and longer than ever, which is interesting.

And I think, I mean, June is already quite full for everyone in the E Commerce space and now Prime Day is there as well.

Any ideas on why they would move that from?

It always had been in July and now it's end of June.

Well, you know, I think that, I mean, it was always in July, as you said.

I mean now it's exactly six months before Christmas.

It's actually my mother's birthday and K5, so that's why I remember that quite well.

And I mean it used to be a bit like.

Yeah, okay.

That's like a thing like in October, right.

And then now in July, like always kept a bit earlier.

But to be honest, I think it's good because there is.

Yeah.

I mean we have like this Easter days.

Right.

There are also like some discounts happening on Amazon and now in end of June, there's no big other.

Yeah.

Discount time in between, to be very honest, before Black Friday and the spite of the sale season, which is a bit later.

That's true.

And in, in terms of fashion.

Yeah.

But I expanded it to from two to four days.

I mean that's, that's a word.

Yeah.

I mean that's.

Yeah.

Making this a lot bigger than it was like prime day.

Yeah.

Not used to be prime day.

Not days.

Yeah, yeah.

Last year was already two days.

Yeah, it was already two days.

Now they were like okay for it.

I mean also like Black week is also black weeks already, right?

Yes, like one black month, by the way.

Spend it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

What I also found interesting regarding Amazon and it came up during my Prime Day research because when you think about Prime Day, you always have to think about fulfillment and logistics and stuff.

And there Amazon has already always been very, very active and one major thing happened and that is Amazon Supply Chain Services.

That is Amazon's full logistic network where they offer, you know, freight and distribution, fulfillment, parcel delivery, like the whole package.

And they are now opening to any business.

So not just marketplace sellers, not just retail, but also healthcare and automotive motive and manufacturing, you name it.

Everyone is now able to use Amazon's huge logistic network.

That's interesting.

And actually that's a move that I thought would come much earlier because they, I mean they have their own airlines and their own truckloads and stuff.

So of course that is a move that.

Yeah.

Has been in the making for a few years, I guess.

Yeah.

I mean I think it's also good that they expanded it now, I mean at least.

And yeah, but I also need to say that, I mean automotive manufacturing, healthcare, it's really a different game.

I would say you need to be more, more strict and be, be more on time.

Imagine if you deliver something like in the automotive industry and it's like too late and the production is stopping or something.

So you have like a lot of like more and different risks, especially also for healthcare, like maybe some products who need to be in fridge and cooled, etc.

So I think there is like a lot of like things to adjust also.

Like maybe flammable goods, etc.

So there is a huge bunch of.

Yeah.

Challenges they maybe need.

Needed to be.

Yeah.

Ready for before they started.

And I mean, I am happy about that because to be very honest, I think sometimes or often Amazon, I mean, I'm living in Munich, Right.

The delivery is quite fast with Amazon.

I'm often like, today, this morning I ordered something because we forgot our night light in the hotel for the baby.

And then we were like, where's the night light?

Yesterday when we packed out and then we're like, we forgot it.

Great.

So I ordered it again and this morning at 7:30 when I stood under the shower, Amazon was ringing.

I was like.

But I imagine I. I bought it yesterday night at 9pm or something and this morning at 7:30 they already delivered it.

Yeah, they are crazy good.

Yes, they are crazy good.

And DHL or Ms. Or whatever is like sometimes a bit more difficult in timing.

Oopay.

I don't even want to start.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay, let's move on to our next big news item, I'd say.

And that is actually not just one item, but several because.

And we can frame it under.

The EU is fighting back against the Chinese players because we've got some interesting stuff happening.

For example, the EU find Temu for 200 million euros.

That is one of the first major enforcements of the Digital Services act.

And they were fining them for systematic risk underestimation and tolerance of potentially addictive design mechanisms.

All that things that have been, you know, reported through the Digital Services act over the last two years and now they have fined them for it and quite big.

And talking about fines, France has also hit she in with a new fine for just 22.4 million euros.

But still, it's not the first fine that they hit Shein with.

They are really going after them there.

Of course Sheen's not happy calling it disproportionate, but yeah, whatever.

So there's just, there's lots of things happening at the moment.

And what I thought about that when I amassed all these news.

I was thinking back to many conversations that we had with sellers and people from the E commerce space who always said, yeah, you can't rely on political activities against Timur and Shein and stuff because, you know, regulations will never be able to really help you fight those new players.

Were they wrong?

Is regulation now finally kicking in?

So I hope so.

To be very honest.

I think like that the EU finds Timu is like overdue.

Mm.

Because I mean, yeah, there happens like so many different things in terms of, like, also illegal products, product safety, etc.

So.

So I think it's good, but.

And I hope it helps.

Right.

So not that they just think, like, okay, yeah, we just price it in and we don't care about it.

Let's go further, like we did in the past.

So hopefully they are changing off some things.

You also said they also had, like, the thing of, like, tolerance of potentially addictive design mechanics.

I cannot imagine what that is.

So I think that they will also.

Some things won't change.

I hope that something changed, like, as I said, the safety things, the illegal products, etc.

But some things that's like just their business model, how they work.

Right.

And how they attract and connect and stay with their customers and.

Yeah, but I also think it's quite a bit funny that Sheen and Timo are also, like, excusing each other.

Yeah.

They're all always dragging each other in front of the courts.

Yeah, absolutely.

And like, yeah, you are much worse than I am.

No, I'm finding you for whatever.

But you are doing this.

No, but you are doing this.

It's like something like that, right?

Yeah.

So expensive.

That's.

That's absolutely expensive.

Legal dispute that they are going on about and.

Yeah, maybe that would be.

Even.

Could be the solution.

You know, those two just fighting against.

Themselves in the eu.

Yeah.

And what do you think about it, Ingrid?

Well, I. I have not been one of the crowd who says that, you know, regulation and EU bureaucracy is something of a, I don't know, a lame duck.

I think it really can hit.

It really can create a market in which we are all retailers are created equal in a way.

But the problem is always that it moves very slowly.

It moves very, very slowly.

It takes a long, A lot of time for all these investigations to go through and then to put that into investigations into action, it takes another while and a while and a while.

And they have.

If you look at what the EU has done to Amazon, in a way, because, of course, Amazon is the major player in the EU and the EU regulations couldn't stop that.

But they have created a marketplace in which EU retailers can compete on an equal level, mostly.

And they have regulated against, for example, Amazon kicking off people from the marketplace without any reason and stuff like that.

So it has worked.

And I think it can work in a way to regulate Temu and Shi' in as well.

I don't think the EU will be able to push Shi in and Temu out of the European.

No, but that's also not the idea.

Right.

That's not the idea.

But the idea is to create an equal playing ground and I think they can absolutely do that.

It will just take a bit more time and more and more time because bureaucracy is moving slowly.

But I think that these fines are a good sign that things are on the move and it is okay if we keep some trust in these organizations.

Yeah, yeah.

So that would be my take.

Yeah.

Talking about regulations and what the EU is doing.

The EU is also not happy with one of the biggest takeover plans that have been emerging in the last half year and that is JD.com, who wanted to take over the economy.

You might remember sometime, I think in March things were actually going quite well for JD and the economy is economy deal.

And then Austria of all countries said no, we're not going with this.

We don't want them to go through with this takeover.

We don't think that this is a good idea.

And then the EU opened investigations as well and is now looking into the deal and who knows at the moment it is still under consideration.

Could take as I said a while before things are going their ways.

But JD.com doesn't seem to be in any problems with this because they are now looking for new ways to get a foot in the door and they're now looking to take over the very group which is a UK fashion and department store.

So JD.com we have been talking about them back last year.

We already thought about Kikonomy.

Maybe we need to add that Kikonomy is also the company company from who owns media.

Mark Zatron.

Yes.

Yeah.

And to like relate to that one.

And that's the reason why.

Or the background is also that the EU is asking like who owns the retail business then.

Right.

Because what we also or I heard was that there is like a bit of the EU being afraid like who owns the retail.

Which brands are then in the your retail stores?

Are they mainly Chinese brands etc.

Will the EU brands like slowly moved out etc so.

And phased out.

So there's like this big question mark on that one hand side and I mean, yeah, if they now go for the Vari Group, that's not EU regulations anymore.

So that's the reason why they can like go both ways at the same time.

I would say.

Yeah, it might move a lot faster actually.

Yeah.

Because there's less bureaucracy behind this.

And I mean to be very honest they were almost gone through with the economy deal already because everyone said yeah, it's fine, especially Germany, go ahead la la.

And then The Austrians said no.

And then you say like nah.

Okay, well actually they have quite a bit.

Yeah, it was almost really gone through.

We were also like.

We also thought like it's like already done, right.

Because we also worked a lot with media mazzat together last year and we were also like, yeah, okay, okay, let's wait till this deal is over.

And we are also waiting and it's.

Like, yeah, not happening so fast.

What's happening.

Actually I have to say I understand the reasons behind Austria putting a hold to this because yeah, it is a big deal and this economy is one of the largest players, retail players that is EU based and originating from the EU and it should be protected I think, if it's possible.

So I think it's good that they're looking more closely into this.

Yeah.

Okay.

I guess next let's have a look at what is happening in the AI shopping space.

Because of course that would be a whole different podcast, maybe even a whole series if we need to keep up on that.

Maybe we need to add that we wrote a blog post also about it on marketplace universe.com and we send you the link also in the show notes to read a bit longer about it because.

So it's like 10 minutes reading time or something.

Yes.

And it is just what has been happening lately because we stumbled across on my speakers, it's really hard to keep up.

I actually have a newsletter that is done by some people from Snox interestingly enough because they keep track on what is happening in the agentic space.

I would actually recommend because they look at all different areas that you know, the different companies that are making a footprint here and it's.

It is helpful to keep track on what is happening.

But yeah, to give you a small rundown on what is interesting for our space there would be Google Universal Card I guess is the main point here.

That is a new AI powered infrastructure that is able to move checkout to the start of the journey.

So you're searching prices and it can check availability for you and it can apply at discounts and it operates across search, YouTube, Gmail, Gemini, wherever.

So you can basically send out Google and tell Google I want to buy XYZ and then it goes ahead and does that.

In theory I haven't tried it out.

I have no idea how that, how good it is and how well it works already.

But this is where the direction that they are going like one active and all over available shopping agent.

Quite a huge thing.

Yes, definitely quite a huge thing.

And I think also I mean I so sometimes am in the like chat GP or Gemini or Claude and ask them like hey, where can I buy this or that etc.

And especially in the past it was limited.

For example, Amazon has its limitations because I remember when I said like okay, I need a baby phone and please give me the link to Amazon and there was no link, there was no pricing.

It was really a bit annoying.

But Amazon blocked it, right?

Yes, Amazon blocked it.

But they are.

And that would be the second part of this cluster on AI shopping.

They are at the moment opening their access to their shopping areas to four AI agents.

So they are building APIs which external AI agents can use to connect to the catalog of Anderson.

So yeah, that opening the doors, but the back door in a way and yeah, I don't know looking for.

I think they will be very clear on who they let in and on what terms through that API.

But it seems that Amazon is no longer able to block out AI agents because they have become such a huge thing in such a short time.

Yes.

Yeah, so I think that's very important.

What would you say like from a brand or seller perspective what's the one question or practical thing they need to do to really stay connected and be able to use also agentic commerce?

That is really a big question and I think it corresponds with the problem that so many things are happening at the moment.

So many.

And it's really hard to keep track and keep up to date even.

And if it's.

And just to keep up to date on what is happening.

And it's even worse if you try to keep your products up to date or your own shop or whatever because things are, you might be optimizing for one thing and in the meantime three other things have happened.

So that is what I also have been saying on stage in Berlin during my talk because I think that this is where platforms are really excelling in because they have the means and the infrastructure and the knowledge and the know how in house to keep up with this.

So which one brand or one retailer can't do?

So I think the best thing that they can do is keep their, keep a look on their marketplaces what they are doing in the AI space and then optimize their products there.

Because if you are on Amazon or on mediamarkt or on whatever as a marketplace and they are good at presenting their products to an AI, then your products are there as well.

You can do that for your own shop as well.

But as I say, I think it's going to be really difficult to Keep up.

So at least for the time until the AI race is decided, because there will be a decision sooner or later someone will emerge on top.

At the moment I couldn't say who it will be, but there will be one or two players that emerge on top.

But as long as this is not decided as a brand or retailer, I wouldn't put all my money on one horse.

No.

You know, I would also do the best that like on a wide range my product data is so much up to date and yes.

Expanded and added that they can like most of them can find my product.

Yeah.

Despite off marketplace or et cetera.

So that you have really the best product data which is.

Is interesting for AI.

Yeah.

And you know, this is something that will help you anyways because.

And that is the nice thing about this AI shopping.

If it's good for the AI in general, it's also good for your human consumer.

So if you're updating and controlling your product data and are really focusing on giving very, very structured data, then this is also helpful to your consumers, to your human consumers and it will absolutely be helpful for AI shopping.

So yeah, definitely.

Yeah.

But this is a space that we're going to keep watching because so many things are happening.

Yeah.

So I guess these were the most important big news items.

But there has also been a lot of smaller things happening.

As you said in the beginning, we had a few marketplaces that are expanding or reopening.

For example, we have been already talking and writing about Otto who's opening their marketplace to international sellers.

They launched Netherlands in March and April and now opening to Polish sellers, for example.

So they're not opening a marketplace in these countries, but they are allowing sellers from Poland or the Netherlands to sell on the German auto marketplace.

Yeah.

And there will also be added countries like Denmark, Spain, Italy and France later in the year.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, yeah.

And talking about expansion, the same thing is happening on a TikTok shop they've been launching in Poland and Netherlands and in Austria, seller registration just opened on June 1st.

Yeah.

So that was the expansions.

We also had some expansions of catalog inside some areas.

For example, Zalando has been announcing a partnership with Vestia Collectif which I think that is interesting because pre owned luxury on Solando.

Sounds good.

Yeah, it sounds very good and it's actually quite well connected because I think that both target groups are fitting quite well to each other because they are a really luxury recommerce topic.

And yeah, that's quite a good match.

We also see that Otto now partners with Talia, so they expanded also with 100,000 books on Autod.

Yeah, yeah.

Also.

So that's something that we have been seeing over the last year.

Is it?

That marketplaces are opening to other categories or integrating new partners into their catalog.

Not necessarily in their main space, but maybe opening a different platform or in the case of Zalando, going through a partnership.

That's interesting.

Yeah, we also another news that we should touch upon is that ebay is also moving their focus a little bit.

They are now focused much more.

They have been over the last year but now it also shows in their commission structure because they are now refocusing on E commerce and refurbished inventory.

So everything that you're placing in these categories on ebay will be, will have a fixed commission of 5%.

But if you are placing new goods on ebay then this is going to be a bit more expensive than it used to be before.

And they say that this is part of their restructuring and moving their focus on what is very essentially ebay that is used.

Used items.

Okay, yeah, interesting.

Speaking about fee expansion also DHL and other like carriers expanded also with like fuel add ons and fuel charges which is also very much unpredictable because they are like okay, like if it's the price of this barrel in two weeks time, then you get in one week time this fee or that fee or up to 3% and I think that's a lot.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Especially in, in times like these, you know, where everyone is going for profitability and, and 3%.

I mean 3% is quite a lot.

Yeah.

And, and relatively short notice as well.

So like, okay, thank you very much I guess for ruining my summer business.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well I guess that brings us to the end of this news flash.

As I said before, it was a lot.

So we got some regulation escalating.

We've got Amazon building infrastructure at scale.

We've got JD moving into new places, we've got new marketplaces expanding to new countries and we've got of course AI everywhere.

Yeah, that was quite the drive.

I would say worth the drive.

And yeah, thank you for doing the homework.

Well, I had to do it now, you know, because I'll be on the road this week again tomorrow I'm off to ecommerce day by Kaufland and Cologne where I'm going to give a presentation on our marketplace Country Quadrants and also host the Speed Connect and host a panel discussion on AI of all topics.

Yeah.

And in two weeks time we are both on our way to Berlin to K5 conference.

So you can meet us there.

We'll be happy to meet you there.

Just like talk to us because sometimes we don't even get it.

And yeah, so event season is in full swing.

Yeah.

And we also would love to invite you to our Marketplace Universe Connect event on 8 July in Munich for all mainly brands and Marketplace people.

So our last event before the pre summer break I would say and yeah, we would love to.

Yeah, listen to us and yeah, so just follow us, subscribe us to let's Talk Marketplace on Spotify, Apple Podcast, YouTube or wherever you are listening to us.

And yeah, tune in again for the next episode.

For next episode.

Yeah.

Thank you for the day and goodbye.

Goodbye.

You listen to let's Talk Marketplace, the.

Marketplace podcast with Ingrid Lommer and Vanari Dichtel.