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.
Top comments (0)