Full opening! Amazon's best-selling categories began to frequently reduce prices

For Amazon sellers, this year's operations have been very difficult and the sense of security has been very low.

Orders have continued to decline recently, and internal competition has continued to escalate. In order to maintain rankings and sales, top sellers in categories that never do flash sales or discounts have begun to frequently cut prices, opening discounts as soon as new products are put on the shelves, and even selling them at 50% off. Some sellers lamented that sales analysis meetings last for several hours, and the action after each meeting is to cut prices.

Account verification also makes sellers nervous. Less than a week before June 27, Amazon reminded that if sellers have not completed all verification items when the Consumer Notification Act takes effect, their accounts may be deactivated regardless of whether they are registered for the Account Status Protection Plan. This "possibility" makes sellers nervous.

Even those who have passed the verification are not taking it lightly. Yesterday, several sellers who have completed the verification found that the backend showed a reminder that "the account is at risk of being deactivated" and the page showed that the bank account needed to be verified, which almost made them lose their minds.

Under the dual pressure of poor sales and difficult verification, sellers are under increasing pressure. Some sellers have begun to operate conservatively, hoping to find opportunities on other platforms.

The books are open, and Amazon's best-selling categories are starting to drop prices frequently

Recently, many sellers reported that the order volume was not ideal, and the order volume dropped by several percent on Father's Day. The sellers described that they came to work full of energy, but they were disappointed when they saw the order volume. The cooling effect is comparable to a glass of cool ice in the hot summer.

With orders falling, sellers hope to use advertising to boost sales, but the products ranked low can’t even afford the advertising fees. Since June, Amazon has repeatedly experienced delays in advertising data, with the backend showing very little advertising spending, but actually exceeding the budget and being suspended. These messy data make it even harder for sellers to adjust advertising. Amazon said that this was a problem encountered when reviewing sponsored product ads, and that the affected activities would be automatically reviewed after the fix.

What’s even more heartbreaking is that the internal competition among sellers has escalated. One seller couldn’t help but complain: “ The order volume is pitifully small, can you colleagues stop competing with each other? You compete with him, and everyone competes with you, but in the end you find that the buyers are getting a bargain, and the order volume has not increased. What have you gained except losing money? ”

Many sellers said frankly that this year was a year of being overwhelmed by their peers. The top sellers in the category took the lead in taking action.

"As a top seller in our category, our main products are always in the top 300 in the category, and we don't do flash sales or discounts! Since March this year, we probably found that our ranking was dropping, so we first offered a 10% discount, then reduced the price by $2, and recently we have been doing flash sales every now and then. After this wave of operations, we still couldn't prevent our ranking from dropping to outside the 1,000 in the category. Although it is still BS in the small category, the profit and order volume have been greatly reduced." said the seller @Striving Simon. The reasons are, first, the price of new products is raised as soon as they are released, and second, the category traffic is also declining.

Not only are prices increasing, but the boundaries of some categories are also blurring. A seller who has been selling in a certain category for nearly three years found that new products from competitors are basically sold at a 50% discount this year, and the competition is more than double what he imagined. In the past, everyone kept to themselves, but this year, no matter what product, they will sell it.

Due to internal competition and poor market conditions, sales of seasonal products have suffered a severe blow. A seller of summer products admitted: " This summer has been wasted . We raised prices and spent a lot of money on advertising in the beginning, but now the peak season is here and I am dumbfounded. It seems that the peak season is lost, and I have no feeling. The sales are similar to the week before Prime Day in previous years. " With his confidence hit, the seller said he would be more conservative in stocking up at the end of the year.

Sellers analyzed that those who cannot currently offer a premium will only become more competitive. Those who are capable will begin to focus on supply chain and product development capabilities to offer a premium, while those who are not capable will see their advantages and profits drop to freezing point.

The price of the coil is getting stronger and stronger, and price has become the biggest factor affecting buyers' orders. If a product is priced half of its competitors, even if the product is mediocre, it can still generate good sales. One force can defeat ten skills. This competitive approach has made many sellers who intend to operate in a refined manner hit cotton with one punch - they have no strength to use, and if they want to fight, they can only join the price-cutting team.

Seller @艾琳明月 said that the company had just finished a sales analysis meeting that lasted for several hours, and the targeted action after each meeting was the same, which was to reduce prices. "The price of the product, which was still rising last year, has been reduced to continuously reducing prices this year to maintain sales. It has dropped by $20 since the beginning of the year."

The peers all felt the same way. "After the storage capacity was released at the beginning of the year, the peers raised the cost price and the profits were greatly reduced." There are even sellers whose profits on almost all products have been halved.

Big sellers can still make adjustments if their sales are not good, but for small sellers, it is a matter of life and death. One seller said that he has been facing losses for half a year, and the atmosphere in team meetings is very tense. If he doesn't make money in July, he will be out of business.

A service provider in the industry lamented that many sellers are currently feeling anxious. After visiting customers this year, he found that some small sellers have disappeared and switched to other industries. In the past, tens of thousands of new users were seen every month, but those days are gone forever. Now is the shrinking period of the industry, and it is no longer as crazy as before.

Not long ago, the small appliance brand Instant Brands filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, which surprised the sellers. This is one of the top sellers on Amazon. Its star product Instant Pot once sold out 300,000 units on Prime Day. The total number of reviews for this multi-functional pressure cooker exceeded 160,000, with a score of 4.7, and it has long been ranked first in the Amazon pressure cooker category. Many other single products have also long dominated the BS list.

The reason for the bankruptcy filing is that the company is facing huge debts due to high interest rates, tight credit conditions and continued decline in consumer demand. Instant Brands has a debt of up to $563 million on its books, but the company is not profitable.

Such a high-level big seller collapsed at any time, and the sellers felt that they were all in the same boat, and their sense of crisis doubled. Amazon business under the FBA model is already an asset-heavy industry, which requires extremely high capital turnover. One careless move may lead to a complete loss.

On the one hand, operating pressure is doubling, while on the other hand, sellers’ sense of security is decreasing.

Verified accounts are again given a "deactivation" warning, and sellers are going crazy

Since the end of April, various Amazon verifications have been launched, and it has been going on for nearly two months. On May 11, Amazon informed sellers of the US Consumer Notification Act and verification requirements, and sent out a large number of account verification emails. Since then, verification has become the top topic in various seller groups. No matter what time it is, there are people asking how to obtain bank statements, which address information to fill in...

The most annoying thing is that there are constant bugs in the entire verification process. Sellers have to grope their way through the process, step on many traps, and repeat the verification process again and again, just like Sisyphus pushing a stone up the mountain, exhausted.

Some sellers passed all the verifications one by one, and the risk warnings in the background disappeared, and they finally breathed a sigh of relief. But when they refreshed the page yesterday, they found that the prompt "Your account is at risk of being deactivated" appeared again in the background , and many sellers reported similar situations.

"I have eliminated all the previous prompts, but now it appears again and I need to verify my identity." "It's the same for us. The verification was successful and it was eliminated half a month ago, but the prompt appeared again today. The bank account shows that verification is in progress, but when I click on it, it is successfully verified." A seller said that this is the case with several of his accounts. After the verification, the bank verification appears again, but when he opens it, it shows that the verification is successful.

Among the five verifications, bank account verification is a relatively complicated one, and many sellers have spent a lot of effort on this link. The seller speculated that this change may be a system bug. At present, the seller reported that the backend has returned to normal.

What is most worrying right now is the time limit for verification. In recent days, Amazon has notified sellers again: Due to the requirements of the bill, starting from June 27, Amazon must collect, verify and disclose the business information of qualified third-party sellers to consumers. Sellers must verify as soon as possible. Sellers saw a prompt in the background:

" Your account is at risk of being deactivated

In order to comply with the Consumer Notification Act, which takes effect on June 27, 2023, Amazon needs to collect information about your Selling on Amazon account and verify it. You currently have one or more actions pending verification. Please review the list below and visit your Seller Account Information page to start verification. Please note that if you have not completed all verification items by the time the Consumer Notification Act takes effect, your account may be deactivated regardless of whether you are enrolled in the Account Health Protection Program. "

The word "possible suspension" has made sellers nervous. It is reported that all stores that fail to pass the review on June 27 will be closed. Even if the seller has submitted the information, Amazon will still close the store if it is slow to review it.

This news caused a panic. But the reality is that many sellers have just received verification notices, and there are still many who have not completed verification. One project takes several days or even more than ten days to verify. There are probably a lot of sellers who have not completed verification by the 27th. If Amazon cuts it off, it will hurt a large number of stores, so the possibility of such an operation is very low.

" The Consumer Act review was triggered only on the evening of the 16th, and the verification was required to be completed before June 27th. Now the review speed is so slow that the account review team doesn't even answer the phone. Identity verification has not been completed, and the postcard has not been triggered to be sent out. " One seller was very anxious. She was not worried that the information would not pass the review, but was worried about the review speed and time node.

In response to this, one seller said that the account manager had informed them that there would be no one-size-fits-all approach and that normal verification would be sufficient. Another seller said: “I opened a case and asked customer service, and they told me that they had received a message that if the verification was not passed on the 27th, the store would not be closed immediately, but it would only affect the collection of payments. As long as the subsequent verification is passed, the collection of payments will be open normally.”

Sellers all feel the same way. Most accounts have controllable information, so verification is not scary, but the time limit is. "If you want to verify, do it early. Don't think about how many bugs there are in your system. I don't know how many days it will take to verify it. I want to hit someone! " At the same time, sellers also realize that compared with the accounts in the first few batches of verification, the old accounts in the last batch of verification need to verify all 5 items, which is obviously more stringent than the new accounts that only need to verify one or two items.

During the entire verification period, bugs almost never stopped, which increased the workload and psychological burden of sellers. For example: the backend prompts that the bank account needs to be verified, but the entry disappears just after the information is ready to submit; prompts to verify the address, but when you click on the page, the address verification is successful; a large number of accounts that have already been verified received verification notifications again and were warned with yellow cards that "the account is at risk of being deactivated"; just after receiving the postcard and not filling in the verification code, the backend shows that the address has been verified.

In general, the verification work is complicated, tedious and laborious. Some sellers have recorded the daily changes of their accounts in a table, hoping to be able to deal with it calmly when they encounter it next year.

Tired, sellers want to develop other platforms

Frequent verifications and increasing difficulty on Amazon have made many sellers feel tired, and their sense of security is gradually disappearing. Some sellers have begun to operate conservatively.

"I plan to just stay with Amazon, maintain sales and avoid out-of-stocks, and continue to put new products on the shelves. Then I can devote manpower and funds to other platforms. Because Amazon's review is getting stricter and stricter, I don't know what kind of review my store will trigger one day. The bigger the store, the greater the loss. This time, all old stores triggered the Consumer Law review. Before the bank account is verified, new ones cannot be added, and even funds cannot be transferred. It is much stricter than the previous waves of law reviews." @土豆跨跨日记 said.

The sentiment of changing platforms is growing among sellers. Some sellers complained that they wanted to sell their products properly, but the platform was conducting various account audits every few days, and the verification alone took up a lot of effort. Tik Tok, SHEIN, Temu and other platforms have emerged and have diverted Amazon to a certain extent. Sellers began to consider: Should they change platforms?

In the cross-border circle, Temu's popularity remains high. Although it has been criticized, it has a huge traffic and sales volume. Many sellers list their products while complaining about it. Especially for factory-type sellers, full trusteeship is indeed a suitable cross-border model.

Recently, the " BrandZ China Global Brands 2023" report and list were released. More than a dozen well-known cross-border brands such as SHEIN, AliExpress, Anker, WORX, Insta360, Roborock, and ECOVACS have been included in the "2023 BrandZ China Global Brands Top 50". Among the 15 global brand growth stars in the sub-list, cross-border brands such as LILYSILK and Tineco occupy half of the list, and Temu, which has been online for less than a year, has also made it into the list.

The selection criteria for "Growth Stars" are industry challengers (continuous growth in performance, innovation in industry development), confidence in consumer purchases (providing cost-effective brands), and active brand building (making good use of a variety of media combinations and cleverly arranging marketing activities). It is undeniable that Temu is a leader in these aspects.

With these advantages, Temu has conquered overseas markets and cut a large piece of the existing market. Its entry point is also just right: as the economy continues to be sluggish, people are beginning to downgrade their consumption.

About 230 million American adults shop online this year, with clothing being the most popular

Recently, there is a joke circulating on the Internet - a good news and a bad news: the good news is living a life in a novel, and the bad news is Yu Hua's novel. Cross-border e-commerce is similar. The good news is that American consumers prefer online shopping this year, and the frequency of online shopping is higher. The bad news is that they value discounts more than ever before and are very sensitive to prices.

Online shopping frequency has exploded since 2017, with an estimated 228.9 million U.S. adults shopping online this year , according to research from digital marketing agency Adtaxi .

What are the most popular online shopping items in 2023 ? Clothing or fashion tops the list ( 67%), followed by beauty or personal care products (53%), health or wellness products (51%), and groceries or food (44%) . Mattresses ( 8% ) and CBD ( 10% ) are at the bottom . Consumers' online shopping goals are not limited to general goods. Almost half of Americans will buy homes or new or used cars online .

“ It’s no surprise that the 2023 e-commerce survey reflects historically high levels of online shopping, as online shopping has brought greater convenience, accessibility and personalization to consumers’ lives, ” said Murry   Woronoff said that compared with previous years, this year's survey statistics prove that consumers prefer online shopping and shop more frequently.

Adtaxi ’s “ E-Commerce Survey 2023 ” had other findings.

Convenience remains the top reason for U.S. consumers to shop online ( 79%). The top three reasons for consumers to shop online are price comparison ( 52%), consumer reviews (51%) and finding coupons (46%).

Nine in 10 online adults (93%) conduct e-commerce in a month, compared to just seven to ten in 2017. By 2023, a quarter of online shoppers will do so daily, compared to just 5% in 2017. Two-thirds will shop online weekly , compared to just a quarter ( 27%) six years ago.

When shopping online, more U.S. adults ( 78%) use mobile phones than any other device type. However , adults who participate in online shopping use an average of two different device types to shop online. Nearly half ( 46%) use a laptop to shop online, three in ten use a tablet, and only one in five use a desktop computer.

In addition, many Americans only look at products online but do not buy them. The survey results show that consumers respond well to retargeting ads, with 88% of consumers claiming that some tips or reminders from companies will convince them to return to their shopping carts , and the main reason for returning to their shopping carts is to offer price reductions or free shipping.

Chris Loretto, executive vice president of Adtaxi , believes that this survey confirms that online shopping is essential for most Americans, but digital marketers should be aware that financial issues are also a top concern for consumers. As inflation continues, digital marketers must continue to attract the attention of these audiences in order to stay ahead when the economy inevitably rebounds. At the same time, simple free shipping or online coupons can prompt consumers to take action.

When cash is tight, discounts do have a huge appeal for consumers to place orders.

Research firm 2 Visions found in a survey of Americans that more than 64% of online consumers will wait until an item is discounted before buying it, and more than 59% of consumers will search for promotional codes before buying anything online. 83% of respondents said they are "likely" or "very likely" to click on ads offering discounts or promotions, about 30% of online consumers have signed up for price tracking services to receive emails when the item they want to buy drops in price, and 22% of consumers will only buy products from their favorite brands when they are discounted or use coupons.

Cross-border sellers are therefore facing greater price pressure in their daily sales, which is a challenge that is difficult to resolve.

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