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AI-Driven and Global Competition: E-commerce Industry Insights for Late May 2026

AI-Driven and Global Competition: E-commerce Industry Insights for Late May 2026

News2026-05-28

As of late May 2026, the mid-year "618" sales event has entered its active phase. Unlike previous years focused purely on low-price competition, the main battlegrounds this year have shifted to "AI Competition" and "Deepened Globalization."

AI Takes Center Stage: The "618" Enters an Intelligent Era
This year's 618 has become a testing ground for the full-scale adoption of AI across the e-commerce industry. Platforms no longer see the event merely as a promotional period but as a core battlefield for deploying AI technologies.

JD.com's 618, scheduled to start on the evening of May 30, features "full-scenario AI integration" as its biggest highlight. Cao Peng, Chairman of JD.com's Technology Committee, revealed that the group's R&D investment related to AI will increase by over 200%. The goal is to move AI from conversational assistants (with nearly 80 million users for Jingyan, JD's AI assistant) to physical smart hardware, such as smart mattresses and cooking robots, accelerating AI's integration into home scenarios.

Meanwhile, Alibaba is connecting its Tongyi Qianwen AI model with the Taobao ecosystem. Users can now use an AI assistant to complete the entire shopping process, from product comparison to checkout. AI-powered virtual try-ons and coupon optimization aim to solve users' "choice paralysis."

Douyin E-commerce has also joined this technology race. According to data released for the first phase of its 618 event (May 15–20), the synergy between "content and store shelves" enhanced by AI is notable. The platform invested tens of billions in consumer vouchers and provided AI tools to assist merchants with content creation and customer service. Data shows that the number of merchants achieving over 100 million yuan in GMV driven by these vouchers grew by 325% year-on-year, and more than 150,000 influencers saw a fivefold increase in GMV. Notably, with rising temperatures, the AI-assisted "summer cooling economy" boomed, with orders for air circulation fans up 348% year-on-year.

Diverging Platform Strategies: from "Involution" to "Expansion"
While fiercely competing with AI in the domestic market, major platforms are also actively seeking overseas growth, showing distinct strategic differences.

Domestically, Taobao Flash Delivery introduced the "City Alliance" system, aiming to shift city operations from experience-driven to data-driven by using an "operations command center + AI + Agent" workflow, focusing on refined local lifestyle and on-demand retail.

On the cross-border front, AliExpress, part of Alibaba, has signaled strong expansion. News on May 26 indicated that AliExpress's US site saw GMV increase by over 50% during its May promotion. The platform is scaling up investment in the US, South Korea, and Latin American markets by two to three times. For Brazil, it is using chartered flights to accelerate customs clearance, seeking to capitalize on tariff reduction benefits and gain market share.

Macro Enablers: Agricultural Goods and Silk Road E-commerce
From a macro perspective, e-commerce continues to strongly enable the real economy. According to Ministry of Commerce monitoring, online retail sales of agricultural products grew 12.2% year-on-year from January to April 2026, while online sales of catering and travel grew 20% and 33.2%, respectively.

Furthermore, international logistics improvements are supporting cross-border ambitions. With the advancement of the "Silk Road E-commerce" initiative, fruit imports via the China-Laos Railway have surpassed 100,000 tons this year, a year-on-year increase of over 30%. This not only enriches domestic supply but also accelerates upgrades to the fresh food e-commerce supply chain.

Summary: Based on current trends, the e-commerce industry in 2026 is at a turning point where AI technology is restructuring underlying efficiency, and globalization is expanding market boundaries. For merchants, the space for simple price wars is narrowing. How to leverage AI tools for refined operations is becoming the key to success.

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AI-Driven and Global Competition: E-commerce Industry Insights for Late May 2026