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

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:

1. Discover — searches 1688.com across 450+ blue-ocean product categories, filtering out saturated markets
2. 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
3. Image OCR — scans product images for embedded Chinese text, watermarks, and brand logos that the text filter might miss
4. AI Translation — translates 1688 Chinese listings to English using a built-in free LLM (no API key, no cost per translation)
5. 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.