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What an amazing hardworking group of people!

Our China trips are physically demanding, and mentally tiring.  And everything is new - the culture, process, food.  Everything.

Thank you to everyone who came on this trip and previous trips to China with us. Thank you for your trust. And thank you for being part of a brave group of new eCommerce sellers.

It was a great time, and everyone walked away learning something new. Every single day.

Here's a bunch of us leaving the hotel in China at 5am.

That's Greg's daughter Patricia, Joseph and Victoria, Greg, Michael, and me (Brian). Stephane is not in the picture though as he flew back to Canada a couple of days earlier.

All ready for a 14 hour plane ride to Canada.

Except Patricia. She has a few more stops in Asia before making a pit stop in Canada a couple months from now. Ecommerce has let her live life skipping country to country after graduating University.

It doesn't get much better than that.

For this week, we'll be sharing the latest game-changers in eCommerce below.

FREE ONE-DAY DELIVERY IS THE NEW NORMAL

Walmart has one day shipping with no membership fees (unlike prime) required. And Target is running with same day shipping.

Shipping time and cost has always been a large factory in the battle for online consumer dollars.  How companies can do this at such scale will be interesting to watch.  Amazon employees are already running at up to 300 orders per hour in 12 hour shifts.

Smaller retailers will have a harder time competing with every improvement the big guys make. We have to adapt and make good use of platforms like Amazon, Walmart, and Target where it makes sense.

One-Day Free Shipping in eCommerce

AMAZON FREIGHT: "UBER FOR TRUCKING" SERVICE

There's an Uber for everything...

And now the eCommerce giant has been quietly building what's being called the uber for trucking.  And we're not surprised at all by this.

We continue to predict the Amazon logistics network to be a huge factor in bringing true global commerce to our front door, blind to borders.  We're already seeing Amazon best sellers being sold in their Amazon-4 star store, and returns being accepted at Kohl's and Whole Foods.

We fully expect to see products showing up at more brick and mortar stores, all over the world.  Selling and purchasing should become a lot easier very soon.

Produce a product in Asia, and Amazon will be able to take it in their planes and boats where it’s needed most. And shoppers will be able to buy any product. From anywhere and to anywhere in the world. In a seamless transaction delivered in a day or less. Not yet, but I would bet it’s coming very soon to your door.

Amazon's Foray into the Online Freight Service

INCREASE IN DUTY RATES

One more quick thing: Keep an eye on your imported products.

The U.S. plans to increase duty rates on imports subject to Tranche 3 of the China 301 Tariffs (also known as List 3) from 10% to 25%.  The change is expected to impact shipments arriving into the U.S. on or after Friday, May 10th, 2019.

Check this link of tariff list to see if your products are affected.