A service provider in Shenzhen was arrested, earning 600,000 yuan a month by selling accounts!

For a long time, VC accounts have been a thing that sellers love and hate.

As an account with a unique status on Amazon, VC accounts have high weight and high sales, and countless sellers are flocking to them. Some big sellers have reached peak performance many times with the support of VC accounts, and have also created many brilliant moments. Some even completely turned into VC sellers in the later period, and their revenue increased by hundreds of millions of yuan.

Behind the popularity of VC accounts is the development of a gray industry chain of account trading. According to feedback from service providers, the price of VC accounts is as low as a few hundred thousand, while the price of accounts on the US site is even higher, starting at millions. Benefiting from this, many service providers who mainly deal in store account trading have made a lot of money and can be said to be making a fortune every day.

The service provider who was arrested recently was one of the large number of account sellers. When the profits were huge, the monthly profit could reach more than 600,000. The service provider was arrested, and more inside stories were revealed. In order to seek more profits for themselves, unscrupulous service providers changed their methods to cheat sellers, registering with false information, and reselling the same information many times. But this time they were caught red-handed. There are also reports that Amazon is conducting a strict investigation.

At the same time, the "shameful operations" of many VC account sellers have also made third-party sellers very angry. Not only do they squeeze the living space of third-party sellers, but they also maliciously use VC accounts to play continuous and compliant flash sales, modify seller brands, and even engage in follow-up sales.

An account trading service provider in Shenzhen was arrested, and once earned more than 600,000 yuan a month

In the cross-border circle, buying and selling accounts is a very common phenomenon. Cases where sellers’ products are removed from the shelves and their stores are closed due to purchased accounts are not uncommon. Now, some service providers have fallen into trouble due to buying and selling accounts.

A seller revealed that a service provider in Shenzhen was arrested by local police for buying and selling accounts. As a service provider that mainly sells accounts for Amazon stores, the company mainly sells VC and SNN accounts. It is well-known in the industry and can earn more than 600,000 yuan a month when the market is good. Industry insiders speculate that the arrest was due to illegal reselling of citizens' personal identity information.

As the news came out, some sellers were upset, some were worried about the impact on themselves, and many people were curious about the specific reasons why this service provider was arrested.

Many people speculate that one of the reasons for Amazon's major rectification is to strictly check Amazon accounts from the source. Industry insiders revealed that Amazon often uses this method to fish for law enforcement, disguising itself as a seller and pretending to buy accounts, and then when there is evidence, it will turn around and shut down the service provider.

As we all know, Amazon strictly prohibits the use of other citizens' identities to register legal persons and open stores, but the transaction of buying and selling accounts has obviously violated Amazon's relevant regulations. At the same time, some of the sellers' shady operations have caused Amazon to lose a lot of profits. After the service provider was arrested for investigation, the seller accounts that have traded with the company are also likely to face the risk of being strictly investigated by the platform or even blocked.

The signs of Amazon's strict inspection have long been apparent. Last year, malicious operations by some VC sellers on the European site led to a large number of VCs being investigated, resulting in major personnel changes, and even regular VC sellers were affected. At the same time, it brought about a series of chain reactions, such as closing VC registration channels, closing a large number of non-compliant and suspicious VC accounts, and terminating purchases from non-brand owner accounts.

Being reported by the seller is one of the reasons they speculate. In order to obtain multiple accounts, some sellers will choose to buy new accounts from service providers, but unscrupulous service providers will not be content. In order to gain more profits, they will always find ways to cheat merchants, provide some false information, transfer a set of information N times, or even directly forge P information. This is one of the reasons why the purchased accounts always have various problems and are even blocked.

Some industry insiders also pointed out that the more they sell, the higher the probability of being caught. It is normal for them to be implicated this time.

According to the relevant provisions of the law, this service provider is likely to face a high fine and several years in prison. According to the relevant provisions of my country's criminal law, if a person violates national regulations and sells or provides citizens' personal information to others, if the circumstances are serious, he will be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of less than three years or criminal detention, and a fine or a fine alone. The monthly profit of the service provider is enough to show the amount of money involved in the service provider, and it is not ruled out that he will face imprisonment.

Why do service providers buy and sell VC accounts? Perhaps it is based on market performance.

For sellers, the first step to enter Amazon is to have an account of your own. So the question is, if you want to make a name for yourself on Amazon, which account should you choose to have better assist capabilities?

As the saying goes, whoever gets the traffic gets the world. VC accounts, which are known as Amazon's "own sons", are obviously more favored by the platform. Compared with SC (third-party seller accounts), VC accounts, as a platform launched by Amazon for suppliers, have greater corresponding permissions. They can modify brands and pages at will, obtain a steady stream of traffic, have a variety of advertising options, various free flash sales permissions, obtain various product data on the platform, and even follow and tamper with other people's listings. It can be said that it is a person that everyone wants to kill, but everyone wants to take it for themselves.

VC accounts have significant advantages, and some sellers are increasingly demanding them, and even one account is hard to come by. But for sellers who operate multiple accounts, registering an account is time-consuming and laborious, and the key is that even if you get a set of information, you may not be able to pass, which in turn promotes the emergence of an industry belt of buying and selling accounts.

In the second-hand account transfer market, the price of a VC account has been hyped up to hundreds of thousands, and in the United States, the price is even higher, starting at millions, which is ridiculously high. As a hot commodity that sellers can only dream of, although the price of VC accounts has soared, there is basically no market for them.

"I bought a European VC account for more than 500,000 yuan, and now it can be sold for at least 1 million yuan," said a seller. This price is equivalent to a house in a second- or third-tier city. After working hard for a year, I am still working for the service provider. However, as for VC accounts, it mainly depends on the account itself. If the account is good, the price will basically double or more. But even if the price of such an account has doubled, no one is willing to sell it.

At this stage , VC accounts are basically priceless, not to mention which market they belong to. They can only be described as something that can be admired from afar but not touched. On the other hand, those sellers who have registered VC accounts in advance can be said to have a certain foresight.

After fully converting to a VC account, Morning North Technology's revenue increased by nearly US$100 million in half a year

When it comes to Morning North Technology, I believe everyone is familiar with it. It focuses on the US market and has three core brands: Levoit focuses on home appliances; Etekcity focuses on smart small appliances, health monitoring equipment, outdoor entertainment products and care products; Cosori focuses on kitchen appliances and dining utensils.

The company's products are sold on platforms such as Amazon, eBay, Cdiscount, Rakuten, Newegg and Adorama. Of course, many people pay attention to it because of its powerful products. Many products of Morning North Technology, including air fryers and humidifiers, are hot-selling products on Amazon, contributing a lot of revenue to the company.

As one of the sellers that has long been deploying VC accounts, Morning North Technology, which is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, can be said to have reaped the benefits of VC accounts.

According to the 2022 semi-annual report, Morning North Technology's total revenue was US$223 million, of which US$190 million came from Amazon's Vendor Central, which is what we call the VC account, an increase of 41.8% compared to US$134 million in the same period of 2021. At the same time, Morning North Technology's humidifier category has also achieved explosive growth, with sales increasing by more than 100% year-on-year.

On the other hand , the revenue of SC (third-party seller account) in the first half of 2022 was only 2.54 million US dollars, compared with 54.32 million US dollars in the same period of 2021, a decrease of about 95.3%. The explanation given by Morning North Technology is that the company has transferred most of its products from SC accounts to VC accounts. That is, there has been a major adjustment in Morning North Technology's Amazon operation strategy. The company plans to reduce the scale of SC accounts, start to rectify SC accounts, and completely convert SC in the US site to VC account sellers, that is, to bet all its life on Amazon.

This means that Morning North Technology can directly supply Amazon at wholesale prices. To a certain extent, Morning North Technology has been incorporated by Amazon. For Morning North Technology, in addition to enjoying the annual store fee exemption and unlimited A+ pages, becoming a VC account seller can also add more colorful pictures and descriptions to the listing than SC sellers. At the same time, the company's sales channels are also broadened.

In 2021, Morning North Technology plans to fully transform into a VC seller. At that time, the Amazon account ban wave hit the entire cross-border circle, and many sellers suffered heavy losses. At the same time, sellers also have to deal with various vicious competition and traffic grabbing from their peers. But in contrast, Morning North Technology, which belongs to the Amazon VC account, obviously has a moat, and its revenue and profits have not been greatly affected. On the contrary, the VC account has increased the company's revenue.

According to the financial report data, the VC account income of Morning North Technology in 2021 increased by 45.4%, an increase of more than 100 million US dollars compared with 233 million yuan in 2020. The SC account decreased by 27% that year, a decrease of more than 28 million US dollars compared with 2020. In comparison, when the SC account revenue decreased, VC was able to bring in rising performance, which can be said to be the main force driving the company's revenue.

The relationship between Chenbei Technology and Amazon can be traced back to 2011, when Chenbei Technology became an Amazon SC seller. Six years later, in 2017, Chenbei Technology was invited to become an Amazon VC seller, obtained a VC account, and was officially incorporated into Amazon's supply chain system.

Soon after becoming a VC seller, the VC account became the main source of revenue for Morning North Technology. Later, as time went on, the revenue brought by the VC account to Morning North Technology could be said to be increasing day by day.

When it first became an Amazon seller in 2017, the VC account of Morning North Technology accounted for only 8.4% of its revenue; two years later, the proportion of VC accounts exceeded 50.8%; in 2020, the proportion of VC accounts of Morning North Technology's revenue increased again to 66.72%. So far, this channel has generated revenue of US$233 million for the company.

Some industry insiders bluntly said that the VC account provided a great boost to Morning North's listing. If you count the profits brought by Morning North's VC account, you will find that it is far more than 100,000 or 1 million. Morning North Technology itself seems to have realized this, so it will fully switch to VC accounts, but this has also created a high degree of dependence on Amazon for Morning North Technology. Nearly 90% of the company's revenue comes from Amazon.

For the company, a high concentration of risks is not a good thing. During the period of Amazon's account suspension, many sellers with a high proportion of revenue on Amazon suffered setbacks. In order to disperse the risks, Morning North Technology began to increase the construction of other channels. While expanding platforms such as Walmart, Rakuten, and Home Depot, it also plans to enter multiple chain retailers and gradually expand its markets outside North America and Europe, so that the company's revenue channels are no longer single.

In fact, it is not just Chenbei Technology. There are many big sellers who have VC accounts and have achieved good results. There are even many big sellers who have managed VC accounts seriously, and the scale of their companies has increased several times. The well-known home furnishings seller Zhiou Technology also has a VC account. In the first half of 2022, the VC account income was much higher than the performance of Wayfair and offline B2B channels.

Another major seller, Lechuang Holdings, also has a VC account, but relatively speaking, the company's VC account's revenue share is not that high. Looking at Lechuang Holdings' revenue in 2020, 7.7831 million yuan was revenue generated by Amazon VC, accounting for 0.41% of the company's total revenue. In 2021, it dropped to 0.28%, but the explanation given by Lechuang Holdings was that this was due to the company's diversified online sales channels.

The VC account has led sellers to reach new heights in performance many times, which is its positive role. However, for third-party sellers, its existence is like a "devil". Small sellers avoid it, and big sellers love it but dare not get it.

VC pranks happen frequently. Is it worth it for sellers to do it?

"I have been working at a loss on Amazon in the United States for several years. Recently, I found that the brand of a listing that was clearing out inventory had been maliciously changed to a completely unfamiliar brand. After that, I was unable to edit the listing and it has become unsalable," a seller complained on a social platform.

Like the above sellers, there are many cases of being spoofed by VC sellers↓

VC changed five descriptions, deleted the details page, and now the template is back. I want to know how to avoid being spoofed next time.

ASINs sold in the United States and participating in the Transparency Program were copied and sold by competitors using VC to Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Poland, and the ASIN brands were changed to their own brands.

A VC account maliciously modified the copy titles and images of multiple of my listings, causing my account to become disabled and I still haven’t recovered.

The brand that they worked so hard to build was instantly spoofed by the VC sellers. Many sellers were furious, but there was nothing they could do except to find the VC account service provider to make changes. "If the price is low, it's a few hundred yuan, and if it's high, it's thousands of yuan," said a seller. Sometimes even if you have money, you may not be able to make changes back. They just want to kill you.

Some onlookers said that such behavior should not be tolerated, as blindly tolerating it will only make him more arrogant in the future. The same situation will not stop in an instant, and only appropriate counterattacks can make them cautious. Amazon officials have also said that they will not sit idly by for violations of VC authority abuse. When encountering the same malicious competition methods, sellers need to keep relevant evidence and report it to their account managers in a timely manner. At the same time, sellers must do a good job of brand registration and not give VC sellers any opportunity to tamper with it.

Sellers who have experienced being pranked by VC sellers said that with so many privileges and advantages, they really want to buy a VC account to try it out. So is it worth it for sellers to have a VC account with higher permissions?

First of all, to open a VC account, you need an invitation from Amazon, which requires the seller to have a certain size. Generally, Amazon will recruit VC sellers when expanding its product categories. For sellers who have a VC account, it does not mean that they can make money without doing anything. Although it has advantages in many aspects such as page, off-site promotion and logistics, you should know that the operation of a VC account is not simpler than that of an SC account.

As a partner of Amazon, the products of VC account sellers are equivalent to those of Amazon, and the selling price of the products is also determined by Amazon. Due to the large number of VC accounts, Amazon generally sets the price of products very low, which means that the sellers' profits will also be compressed. Secondly, the payment period of VC accounts is very long. Sellers basically need to wait for more than 60 days to receive the payment for the products, which means that sellers need to have strong capital turnover capabilities.

Ordinary sellers are not suitable for VC accounts. It is more suitable for sellers with high unit price or medium and large products. Sellers can use the self-delivery function to obtain traffic and conversion effects similar to Amazon FBA, and the link has a better sales effect. At the same time, because VC is a supplier model, on the front desk of Amazon, the products of VC sellers are self-operated by Amazon, which is relatively more likely to be favored by consumers.

Although VC accounts have more permissions than SC accounts, rights and obligations are often relative, which means that they are subject to no less suppression. Moreover, having a VC account does not mean that you will be free of problems once and for all. If you violate the relevant rules, you will also be blocked.

A domestic seller said that he once spent a lot of money to buy a VC account, thinking that he could make a lot of money, but he didn't expect that the account would be blocked within 20 days. It was almost like a death sentence. As we all know, sellers are just partners of Amazon, and customers who place orders on the platform are "God". If sellers do not abide by the rules, they will also face punishment.

Many sellers may know about VC accounts because sellers with VC accounts are spoofing or tampering with other people's listings, or even using some other black technology to harm sellers. But more sellers are attracted by VC accounts because many sellers have made a fortune quietly through VC accounts. However, sellers should know that everything has its pros and cons.

For ordinary sellers, the key to going further on Amazon lies in the strength of their products and operating in compliance with the platform rules.

Service Provider

VC Account

SC Account