2025 was a challenging year for cross-border platforms and businesses。
On the one hand, the end of the united states “small exemption” policy and the finalization of the eu fixed tariffs have formalized the long-standing “low-cost direct mail + duty-free” model that underpins maritime trade; on the other hand, tax compliance has been fully tightened and cross-border electricity revenue, once in a grey zone, has been incorporated into comprehensive regulation。
However, under the double pressure of tariffs and compliance, the growth of the four dragons across borders has not slowed. In 2025, tiktok shop and temu both hit the $100 billion gmv gate, and industry's focus shifted from north america to europe, latin america and so on。
For a wide cross-border business, however, rising policy thresholds and operating costs are forcing industries to move away from past flows and accelerate the move towards a long-term, long-term, compliance-based and brand-centred business era。
I. Double pressure on tax exemptions and compliance
In 2025, cross-border traders were living under the shadow of tariff pressures。
In february, the united states imposed a 10 per cent tariff on chinese goods on the basis of the “fentanyl issue”, thereby opening a months-long us-china tariff game. Until august, the united states formally suspended tax exemptions for parcels valued at $800 and below. The “low-cost direct mail + tax-free” model, which had long underpinned cross-border electric operators, had thus come to an end。
“after the new deal, our tariff costs jumped directly by about 25 per cent.” a 3c seller for eight years at a deep-down amazon station in the united states made an unsuspecting debt: in the case of a normal computer keyboard, tariffs alone increased the hard cost by about $20. In the area of consumer electronics, where profits are transparent, this almost eliminates all the price advantages of the product。
More and more businesses are looking for alternative markets。
The seller ultimately chose to shift its focus to the european market. In their research, they found that european consumers were in high demand for high-quality 3c products and that price competition was less intense than in the united states market。
“the current market base in europe is far from as in the united states, but the trend is very healthy, with average monthly sales growing at more than 25 per cent. More importantly, the european market has not suffered from such a severe price war and the average profit margin continues to rise, and we are confident that the future will surpass the united states market.”
This is not an example。
In 2025, following the lifting of the “micro-exempt” policy in the united states, the volume of small parcels flowing to the european union rose rapidly, exceeding the full year of 2024; in contrast, the volume of parcels going to the united states declined significantly。
Customs data show that in 2024, china’s exports to low-priced electricity suppliers in the european union amounted to $19. 1 billion and to the united states $23. 1 billion; but in january-september 2025, the flow to the european union was $20. 5 billion, up from $13. 1 billion last year。
However, it was not thought that the european market was not a safe haven。
Last december, the council of the european union adopted a resolution establishing a fixed tariff of €3 per package for small parcels with a value of less than €150, which entered the european union mainly through electrical channels, effective 1 july 2026。
This means that the major global cross-border markets are simultaneously bid off the “tax-free age”。
Policy changes are rapidly transmitted upstream and downstream to the industry. Over the past year, old cross-border companies such as fast-track and immortal appliances have been dissolved, and logistics platforms and small and medium-sized sellers have been dropping out of the market, closing down, losing, and falling as key words for cross-border electricians。
If tariffs are raised at cost, then compliance is directly raising the industry threshold。
Last year, the general tax administration implemented new regulations requiring all internet platforms (including amazonia) serving chinese operators to submit to tax authorities, on a quarterly basis, vendor identification and transaction data。
Since october, the amazon has submitted to tax authorities quarterly core data on the identity of chinese sellers, details of transactions, and flow of funds, covering 22 major sites worldwide。
This means that, starting with the first filing period in november, amazon sellers, regardless of their size, are required to complete formal tax returns in accordance with tax requirements, and grey operations such as “zero declaration” of “discount collections” are no longer viable。
Cross-border electrician, officially entering the full compliance era。
Ii. Four dragons across borders, sprinting hundreds of billions of gmvs
In 2025, the cross-border electric powerer “four dragons” experienced multiple challenges, such as tariffs and compliance, but overall growth was significant, with two companies, gmv, approaching hundreds of billion dollars for the first time。
According to the interface, in 2025, tiktok shop was an active consumer of 400 million; the platform gmv was close to a trillion dollars, second only to amazon, wal-mart, hopee and ebay, ranking fifth and fastest among mainstream electric power platforms overseas. In the fourth quarter, the platform surpassed $25 billion by ebay; in december alone, gmv surpassed hopee in overseas markets。
According to a third-party study circulated in tiger securities, temu 2025 is estimated to be between $90 billion and $95 billion (the previous target was $100 billion). In addition, in the past three years, temu's global electrician downloads and monthly growth list champions, temu's cumulative global downloads exceeded 1. 2 billion times by october 2025, reaching an all-time high of 530 million active users in august 2025。
It is noteworthy, however, that during the past year tiktok shop has had limited effect, although he has increased the input of the live broadcasters. According to charm. Io, an electronic intelligence company that tracks the sale of tiktok shop products, live shopping has never reached 30 per cent of tiktok shop's sales. The model was launched in september 2023, when it was slightly less than 14 per cent, surged to 26 per cent by july 2024, but fell back to 18 per cent by july 2025。
In contrast, short video revenues have grown steadily and now account for two thirds of tiktok mall revenue. In other words, despite tiktok's efforts to replicate the $200 billion live radio model, in the united states, live sales still lag behind short video。
On the whole, there are two major common trends in cross-border dragons。
One is that europe has become a new level of growth。
As a result of the united states tariff policy, four small dragons collectively increased the european market layout。
According to the european commission (esa) transparency report and third-party monitoring, temu's monthly active user (mu) in the eu has surpassed 140 million in the first half of 2025, a 74 per cent increase over the same period. In addition, research data show that, as of the third quarter of 2025, the european market had contributed 40 per cent of temu's global gmv, officially anti-united states (about 31 per cent)。
Similar to temu, shein is more affected by tariffs and has shifted its focus to europe. According to coresight research estimates, for the first time this year, shein’s income in europe is expected to exceed that in the united states, by 30. 7 per cent, to reach $17. 9 billion, and in the united states, by 20. 1 per cent in 2025, to $17. 2 billion, below the 50 per cent increase projected for 2024。
Second, branding becomes consensus。
Morning coAccording to a consumer buy-in report by nsult, tiktok shop is the third fastest growing brand in the united states in 2025, growing faster than chatgpt and coinbSee, it's the only social media tool in front of 20 this year。
The increased brand recognition of the platform is also directly reflected in the presence of front-line vendors. In recent months, tiktok shop has been registered in well-known brands, such as disney, samsung and raul lauren, which have had a wait-and-see attitude to the united states market. In the first half of 2025, the number of large brands with an annual income of at least $30 million joining tiktok shop increased by 95 per cent over the same period。
This shows that tiktok shop is mature in its ecology, from being dominated by small and medium-sized businesses to growing together with head brands。
In 2025, it was also a year of accelerated branding. Before the double 11, fast-marketing had launched a super-branding scheme targeting a number of head brands, including cross-border sales, home-grown brands, etc., with full additions to the brand at half the cost of amazon。
There was a price war around branding. With the introduction of brand-new brand-new channel brand+ in the united kingdom, the fast-sale commitment for commodities with “best price guarantees” on the product page, and if consumers find lower prices on other designated electric power platforms within seven days of purchase, the quick-sale will refund the difference, a competition strategy that is considered to point directly to amazon。
Shein took an important step downline. In november, the opening of the world's first permanent shop in paris, despite resistance, attracted more than 50,000 customers in just one month. Shein opened a shop and was also intended to enhance its brand image。
Whether tiktok’s international presence is accelerated, the fast-track sale of the super brand program, or shein’s opening in paris, france, marks an era in which china is going out of the ocean to say goodbye to the white card, with the cost of hedging through brand premiums rising。
Concluding remarks
In 2025, china's cross-border electric operators moved forward with policies, costs and market re-engineering. The tariff shocks at the beginning of the year and the compliance pressures at the end of the year have forced businesses and platforms to revisit the growth logic. The low-price-driven model is no longer feasible for cross-border traders and platforms, and branding, fine-tuning and diversified market layouts have become new。
At the same time, ai is bringing new opportunities and shocks to cross-border electricians, perhaps reshaping their rules of the game. Towards the end of 2025, openai officially announced the introduction of instant closure, and chatgpt users could buy without leaving the chat interface。
Currently, chatgpt has about 700 million live users, producing about 75. 6 million commodity-related dialogues per week. This means that it is equivalent to a supermarket that receives nearly 4 billion commodity queries annually. On this scale, it is only a matter of time before the sum of billions of dollars (gmv) is achieved. In the future, electrical platforms may no longer be just a search box and information stream, but rather an ai-guided user。
In this age of uncertainty, the only certainty is that cross-border electricians have entered the digital, branding and ai era, and that global competition has shifted from flows and price games to a match of supply chain resilience, brand influence and technological capabilities. China's cross-border electrician platforms will compete more directly and intensively with international giants such as amazon and wal-mart。
