In this week's edition of the 80/20 of E-Commerce Midsummer Edition. Good news for people sourcing from China. A huge shift in GPT-5 as well as a Ecom seller success story in Japan in this week's edition of the 80/20 of E-Commerce.
Let’s dive in.
U.S. and China have extended the suspension of tariff increases for the next 90 days until November 10th. The tariff on your Chinese imports will stay at 30% plus the original 25%, and in reciprocal, China will keep a 10% tariff on US products imported to China.
The good news is this prevents the tariffs from skyrocketing to 145% as some people feared. However, people still need to monitor further changes. This is not set in stone for the next 90 days.
Critical Q4 Timeline:
- Factory closures for Golden Week: October 1-7
- Chinese New Year 2026: Late January (factories close 2-3 weeks)
- Sea shipping to US: 30-35 days minimum
- Your real deadline for Q4 orders: September 15-20
Takeaway: This is a temporary relief window. Make sure you get all your orders in ASAP, especially for Q4 because the deadline for production is closing soon. Book your freight forwarding now—capacity will tighten fast.
If you need additional help on your China sourcing, please fill out this sourcing request form below.
I’m sure you guys have heard last week of the announcement of GPT-5, ChatGPT’s flagship model. In my personal tests, it does seem more intelligent because it’s able to discern which model to use to give you the best result. If it’s a simple request, then it would give you a quick response, but if it’s more complex, it will take its time to give you a better quality response.
What this means for sellers:
- Product research that actually understands market nuance
- Listing optimization that goes beyond keyword stuffing
- Customer service responses that don’t sound like robots
- PPC analysis that catches patterns you’d miss
My friend Ritu Java gave a really good breakdown in her AI for E-commerce newsletter which you can check out at the link below.
Takeaway: Definitely leverage this and test it for your own business going forward. Start with one specific use case (like review analysis or competitor research) before going all-in.
Recently I found out that one of our previous attendees of the 7-Figure Seller Japan mastermind in 2023, Burak, actually has launched a product and made it a best seller on Amazon Japan.
Watch the full breakdown of his strategy in our latest podcast episode below. The Japan opportunity is real—and most sellers are still sleeping on it.
Takeaway: Japan remains the most underutilized opportunity for US sellers. Less competition, higher margins, loyal customers.
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ICYMI:
- Seller Spotlight: Julian Timings – Autron
- Amazon to End FBA Prep Program – Sellers Have 5 Months to Adjust
- How EOS Can Transform Your E-Commerce Business
- Amazon to End FBA Prep & Labeling Services in the US by January 2026
- U.S. to Implement Country-Specific Tariffs Starting August 7
- Predict Winning Amazon Keywords with the Free Conversion Benchmark Buddy GPT
Talk next week,
Gary