DEV Community: James Walstonn

I built a free macOS app to automate cross-listing from 1688.com to eBay, Etsy, Amazon and AliExpress

James Walstonn — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 07:37:08 +0000

The problem

Cross-border e-commerce sellers who source from 1688.com (China's B2B wholesale platform) and list on eBay, Etsy, Amazon, and AliExpress spend hours on manual work: translating product titles, filtering out branded items, checking images for watermarks, and uploading to each platform one by one.

I was doing this myself and decided to build AutoStore to automate it.

What it does

AutoStore is a free macOS app + Chrome extension that runs the full pipeline:

Discovers products on 1688 across 450+ blue-ocean categories
Brand filter — 548-brand blacklist scans titles/descriptions/specs to avoid IP violations
OCR image check — Vision framework detects watermarks and Chinese text in product photos
On-device AI translation — bundled LLM translates titles and descriptions (no API key, no cost)
Bulk upload — drives your already-logged-in Chrome sessions on each platform via extension

Technical approach

The key insight: instead of trying to automate platform logins (which triggers bot detection), we drive the seller's existing authenticated browser session through a Chrome extension. The platform sees a normal human user, not a bot.

All data is stored locally — MySQL for products, macOS Keychain for credentials. No cloud dependency, PIPL compliant.

Stack

Mac app: SwiftUI, Vision framework (OCR), URLSession
Chrome extension: Playwright-based automation injected into seller dashboards
Local LLM: bundled llama.cpp server for on-device translation
Database: MySQL (local)

It's free

No subscription, no commission, no usage limits. Download at autostore.spriterock.com

Happy to answer questions about the architecture, the 1688 pipeline, or the brand safety system.

I built a free macOS app that automates 1688.com eBay/Etsy/Amazon listings with on-device AI

James Walstonn — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 15:25:58 +0000

What I built

AutoStore is a free macOS desktop app + Chrome extension for cross-border e-commerce sellers who source products from 1688.com (China's wholesale marketplace) and sell on eBay, Etsy, Amazon, and AliExpress.

🔗 Website: spriterock.com

The problem I was solving

If you've ever tried to source products from 1688.com and list them on eBay or Amazon, you know the pain:

Language barrier: 1688 is entirely in Chinese — product titles, descriptions, specs all need translation
Brand infringement risk: Thousands of suppliers on 1688 sell branded knock-offs — list one and your store gets suspended
Manual grind: Manually copy-pasting product data, converting prices, resizing images, writing descriptions... for hundreds of products

Existing tools like Helium 10 ($80+/month) and SellerSprite ($40+/month) don't integrate with 1688 at all and require VPN from China.

What AutoStore does

Full pipeline, fully automated:

Discovers products on 1688.com across 450+ blue-ocean categories
Brand safety filter — 548+ banned brands checked against every product title, description, and spec
OCR image check — flags images with Chinese text or brand watermarks
AI translation — built-in on-device LLM (Apple Foundation Models on macOS 26+, or bundled llama server), zero API cost
Multi-platform export — generates ready-to-upload CSV/Excel files for eBay Seller Hub, Etsy, AliExpress bulk upload, Amazon flat files

Key differentiators:

🆓 Free forever — no subscription, no commission, no API key required
🤖 Built-in AI — on-device inference, your data never leaves your Mac
🔒 Chrome extension approach — drives your already-logged-in browser, undetectable by platform anti-bot systems
📊 Local MySQL — all product data stored locally, PIPL compliant

Tech stack

macOS app: SwiftUI + MySQLNIO + Vision (OCR) + URLSession
Chrome extension: Playwright-style browser automation via a native messaging host
On-device AI: Apple Foundation Models API (macOS 26+) with fallback to bundled llama.cpp server (Qwen 2.5 3B)
Pipeline: Node.js/TypeScript scripts for the 1688 scraping tasks
DB: MySQL (local, user-managed)

Current status

The pipeline is live and processing products:

AliExpress store active with brand-safe accessories
eBay store active
Amazon store active (custom/made-to-order products)

What I'd love feedback on

Is the "free, no subscription" model sustainable? Planning to monetize via premium features later
Would sellers outside China find this useful? (Currently targeting Chinese cross-border sellers)
Any integration priorities I'm missing?

Check it out at spriterock.com — the Mac app is a free download.

I built a free macOS app that automates eBay/Etsy/Amazon listing with on-device AI — no API keys needed

James Walstonn — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 11:31:17 +0000

Background

I run a small cross-border e-commerce operation — sourcing products from 1688.com and listing them on eBay, Etsy, AliExpress, and Amazon. For months I did this manually: open 1688, find a product, copy-paste the description, translate it, check the images, create the listing. Repeat 50 times.

So I built AutoStore to do it for me.

What it does

AutoStore is a free macOS app (+ Chrome extension) that automates the entire product sourcing pipeline:

Discover products on 1688.com using 450+ blue-ocean search terms
Filter brands — 548+ banned brand names checked against titles, descriptions, specs, and images via OCR
Translate — runs Apple Foundation Models on-device, no API key, no cost
Bulk-upload to eBay, Etsy, AliExpress, or Amazon via your already-logged-in Chrome session

The interesting technical bits

On-device AI translation

Instead of calling OpenAI or Baidu Translate, AutoStore uses Apple's on-device Foundation Models (macOS 15+). Zero cost per translation, works offline, and no data leaves the device. Product titles, descriptions, and specifications all get translated in batch.

Brand detection with OCR

Images from Chinese suppliers sometimes have brand logos or text watermarks baked in. AutoStore uses Apple Vision to OCR every product image and cross-reference against the brand blacklist. If "Nike", "Apple", or any of 548 other brands appears anywhere — in the spec sheet, title, image, or seller name — the product is skipped automatically.

Real Chrome automation

Most automation tools spin up a headless browser that platforms can detect and block. AutoStore instead drives your existing logged-in Chrome session via a Chrome extension. From the platform's perspective, it looks exactly like a human clicking through their own browser — because it is.

Local-first data

All data (product catalog, translation cache, brand list) lives in a local MySQL database. Credentials are stored in macOS Keychain. Nothing is sent to a server. PIPL compliant.

The pipeline in practice

1688 discovery
    → brand title filter (isBannedBrand)
    → detail scrape + image download
    → image OCR check (Vision framework)
    → on-device AI translation
    → category enrichment
    → bulk CSV/Excel generation
    → Chrome extension upload to eBay/Etsy/AliExpress/Amazon

It's free forever

AutoStore is free with no subscription and no commission. The target users are Chinese cross-border sellers who are underserved by existing tools (Helium 10, Jungle Scout, SellerSprite) — which are English-only, don't integrate 1688, and cost ¥300-1000/month.

Two versions: AutoStore Full (complete pipeline) and AutoStore Lite (manual import for sellers who already have their own sources).

Try it

🌐 spriterock.com

Happy to answer questions about the architecture — the Chrome extension ↔ macOS app IPC, the Ember-like OCR pipeline, or the MySQL schema.

I built a free macOS app to automate cross-border e-commerce sourcing (1688.com eBay/Etsy/Amazon)

James Walstonn — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 15:38:43 +0000

Cross-border e-commerce tools are expensive and built for Western markets. Helium 10 costs $700+/month. SellerSprite is $300–1000/month. None of them integrate with 1688.com — China's massive B2B wholesale platform where most Chinese cross-border sellers actually source their products.

So I built AutoStore — a free macOS app that automates the entire sourcing-to-listing pipeline.

What it does

The pipeline runs in five stages:

Discover — searches 1688.com across 450+ blue-ocean product categories, filtering out saturated markets
Brand filter — checks every product title, description, specs, and seller name against a 548-brand blacklist. Uses letter-continuation regex (Nike blocks NikeAir, iNike, etc.) to catch brand violations before they become listing violations
Image OCR — scans product images for embedded Chinese text, watermarks, and brand logos that the text filter might miss
AI Translation — translates 1688 Chinese listings to English using a built-in free LLM (no API key, no cost per translation)
List — pushes listings to eBay, Etsy, AliExpress, and Amazon via a Chrome extension that drives your already-logged-in browser session

The Chrome extension approach

Most automation tools use headless browsers or platform APIs, which get flagged by anti-bot systems. AutoStore takes a different approach: the Chrome extension drives your real, already-logged-in Chrome session — the same one you use manually. From the platform's perspective, it's indistinguishable from a human clicking.

This means:

No bot detection issues
No separate login management
Works with seller accounts that have MFA

Tech stack

macOS app: SwiftUI + SwiftData
Chrome extension: vanilla JS, communicates with the app via native messaging
Browser automation: Playwright (for 1688 scraping on a China-network machine)
Local LLM: bundled llama.cpp with a 3B parameter model — runs entirely on-device
Database: MySQL (local) + macOS Keychain for credentials

The two-machine architecture

1688.com is best accessed from within China — foreign IPs get captchas and degraded content. So the scraping runs on a machine with a Chinese network connection, while the listing automation runs on the seller's local Mac.

Why free?

The goal is to build a user base of Chinese cross-border sellers first. The existing tools are all English-only, require VPNs to use, and charge monthly fees that eat into thin margins. A free tool that works natively removes all of those barriers.

Future monetization will come from premium analytics, curated supplier data, and marketplace services — but only after proving real value.

Get it

AutoStore is available at spriterock.com — free download, no subscription, no commission.

Happy to answer questions about the architecture, the brand safety system, or the 1688 scraping approach.