Executive Summary

Small and medium e-commerce merchants—about 25 million globally—spend roughly $4,800 per year on sourcing and logistics services but encounter persistent frictions when buying directly from Chinese wholesale platforms like 1688: language barriers, nonstandard SKUs, unreliable product data and quality, fragmented carrier options, and payment and trust complications. Those frictions force manual scraping, translation, sample coordination and ad-hoc shipping arrangements that erode margins and scale poorly for merchants chasing direct-from-manufacturer SKUs. You could build an automated 1688→global-doorstep pipeline combining AI-driven translation and listing extraction, computer-vision SKU matching and QC checks, supplier vetting and sample orchestration, embedded payments/escrow and dispute flows, plus multi-carrier booking and customs automation via logistics APIs. The market is large and timely—an estimated $120.0B addressable market (25M SMBs × $4.8K) with a market score of 90/100 and revenue potential 84/100—because advances in AI (NLP/CV) dramatically cut manual work, logistics APIs lower integration costs, and merchant demand for unique, higher-margin direct sourcing is increasing. A focused MVP that targets categories with simpler compliance and QC profiles (small accessories, non-regulated home goods) would let you validate unit economics quickly. To differentiate, invest early in proprietary ML models tuned to 1688 page structures, a supplier-risk index informed by on-the-ground audits, and guaranteed door-to-door SLAs through preferred carrier partnerships—these are defensible assets beyond basic aggregation. Be honest about the challenges: supplier reliability, cross-border compliance, capital for escrow and returns, and a 18–36 month operational ramp to stabilize unit economics. Given medium competition and the enabling tech trends, this idea is worth pursuing if the founding team combines China sourcing experience, ML competence, and logistics partnerships, and if it plans for heavy early investment in data and operations.

Market Opportunity

Automate cross-border sourcing: 1688 → global doorstep pipeline targets a $120.0B = 25M e-commerce SMBs globally x $4.8K annual spend on sourcing/logistics software/services total addressable market with medium saturation and a year-over-year growth rate of 12-20% given cross-border e-commerce growth and logistics digitization.

Key trends driving demand: AI-enabled translation & CV -- enables reliable extraction and matching of Chinese listings to global SKUs, cutting manual work.; Commoditization of logistics APIs -- easier multi-carrier integrations accelerate end-to-end automation.; Direct-from-manufacturer demand -- merchants seek higher margins and unique SKUs, increasing need for streamlined sourcing.; Regulatory digitization for customs -- faster clearances and standardized data make automated landed-costing more accurate..

Key competitors include CJDropshipping, Flexport, Alibaba / 1688 / AliExpress (marketplaces & agents), Superbuy (purchasing agent), ImportYeti (adjacent workaround).

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Automate cross-border sourcing: 1688 → global doorstep pipeline

Executive Summary

Market Validation

Market Opportunity

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