At the end of the year, Chinese sellers return, and Amazon is still the favorite!

For sellers, 2022 is an extremely difficult year. The high inflation has swept across many markets, the consumer market has become sluggish, and the cross-border e-commerce market has also shown signs of weakness .

By the end of the year, various renewals such as the European site's EU regulatory agency , German packaging law , VAT, etc. come one after another , coupled with the high return rate of Christmas products ... sellers are feeling miserable.

Fees rise every month, Amazon sellers: 2022 is too difficult...

After experiencing rapid growth in the past few years, especially at the beginning of the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, the development of cross-border e-commerce has slowed down in 2022.

Last year, problems such as the impact of the epidemic, high inflation, exchange rate fluctuations, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the supply chain crisis came one after another. In such an environment, many cross-border sellers said that the performance pressure was unprecedentedly great.

Even the financial report of Amazon, a retail giant, pointed out the depression of the market, with revenue declining continuously . In order to cut costs, layoffs are planned to continue until 2023. The layoffs data website Layoffs.FYI pointed out that in 2022, consumption and retail were the two hardest hit areas in the US technology industry , with a total of about 40,000 layoffs .

In the past year, cross-border sellers have not only had to deal with various market environment shocks, but also had to deal with Amazon's occasional fee increases .

As early as the end of 2021, Amazon US issued an announcement stating that new logistics costs and sales commission changes will take effect on January 18 , 2022 .

In March, Amazon’s European FBA fee increase took effect .

In April, Amazon imposed a 5% FBA delivery surcharge on sellers .

In May, Amazon's multi-channel fulfillment ( MCF ) fees in the United States began to be adjusted ; its European site charged a 4.3% fuel and inflation surcharge on top of the Amazon logistics delivery fee per piece rate .

In June, Amazon US again increased its logistics remote delivery fees .

In August, Amazon charged holiday peak delivery fees for the first time on its US site. Third-party sellers using Amazon's logistics service ( FBA) must pay an additional fee of $0.35 for each item sold in the United States or Canada .

In November , Amazon UK officially increased its Multi-Channel Fulfillment ( MCF ) fees (including fuel and inflation surcharges) .

Frequent fee increases have put sellers under great pressure. To maintain profits, they have to raise prices. But who would have thought that Amazon would extend the return period to win the favor of buyers ?

Over the past year, Amazon has been extending product return periods. Sellers are complaining about this, especially for holiday decorations, where the return rate has skyrocketed after the holidays.

In its most recent return policy, Amazon stated that buyers can return most products sold on the US site between October 11 and December 25, 2022 , and on the European site between November 1 and December 31, 2022 before January 31, 2023.

In response, the sellers tried to find some fun in the midst of hardship, jokingly saying: "Christmas decorations can be returned as much as possible", "I have a panic attack on returning goods", "It's time to contribute to the charity sector again"...

Think the difficulties of 2022 are finally over? No! Amazon has already announced preliminary fee increase plans for 2023.

According to the announcement of Amazon US , from January 14, 2023 , the self-delivery seller will be responsible for the change of carrier freight caused by incorrect return label information. From January 17, 2023 , the US sales commission and FBA fees will be updated , and the outbound fees, off-peak storage fees, storage use surcharges, overage inventory surcharges, and additional removal and disposal fees will all be increased. From January 19, 2023 , MCF fees will be increased .

In addition to the US site, Amazon Japan also issued an announcement stating that it will increase sales commissions starting March 1, 2023 , increase FBA fees on April 1, increase shipping fees for Amazon Logistics' Small and Light Commodities program, cancel buyer purchase fees, increase inventory storage fees, and increase FBA long-term inventory surcharges .

2023 has just arrived, and Amazon can't wait to raise questions, and sellers say it is getting more and more difficult. But even so, various data still show that Amazon has great appeal to cross-border sellers.

The proportion of Amazon Chinese sellers has increased again. Sellers: Amazon is still the best choice

Affected by the wave of account bans and the sluggish market in 2021, many Chinese sellers withdrew from Amazon in the first half of 2022 , and American sellers regained the Amazon market , reversing the trend of losing to mainly Chinese sellers for many years.

However, data shows that by the end of 2022, the share of Chinese sellers on the Amazon market had risen again. In February last year , the proportion of Chinese sellers on Amazon fell to 40%, but by December, it had risen back to 45% .

Obviously , despite Amazon's repeated increases in fees and the normalization of slashing inventory capacity, all of which have squeezed sellers' profit margins , its appeal to Chinese cross-border sellers is still irresistible.

According to the latest data from Amazon, Chinese sellers have sold billions of goods to global consumers through Amazon 's 18 overseas markets this year. The number of Chinese sellers using Amazon's Logistics Service (FBA) has increased by more than 20% year-on-year , and their sales revenue has achieved double-digit growth.

The number of Chinese brand sellers on Amazon has nearly tripled over the past three years , with their turnover achieving double-digit growth in 2022.

Yien.com has interviewed many cross-border sellers who have opened multiple platforms. They said that in terms of traffic and buyer base, Amazon is still relatively capable. Last year, many cross-border e-commerce platforms were launched in the United States, but because they are still in their infancy, various system vulnerabilities frequently occur, and the traffic and user base are not large. Even if they settle in, they are just blindly spending money, and ultimately they still have to rely on Amazon to support their revenue.

As for the revenue situation, these sellers said that given the market conditions, there is nothing they can do about the decline in order volume, but the overall revenue is still okay.

The peak season in 2022 was not "busy", but many sellers still relied on the peak season to achieve a significant increase in sales and sales. Some sales soared hundreds of times, and some products were sold out.

Earlier, Amazon mentioned in a press release that third - party sellers' sales hit a new high in the 2022 holiday season, accounting for 60% of Amazon's total holiday season sales. This is mainly due to small and medium-sized sellers , who sold nearly 5 billion items in the United States alone .

As for last year's market, these sellers who basically maintained their revenue said that product data should be checked regularly , considering profits, returns, advertising reliance, etc. Some products have good sales, but the gross profit is negative, plus storage fees , etc., which actually means huge losses . It is necessary to eliminate unprofitable SKUs in a timely manner , and do not develop new products at will in such a market .

To borrow the words of Amazon sellers, the most important thing in 2022 is to "stay alive." But there is room for choice in how to live. Understanding market demand, not blindly impulsively launching new products, and stabilizing the basic market of existing products are the ways for most Amazon sellers to survive in 2022.

Some Amazon sellers also told Ennet that they did not make a loss, but they made less money and the profit margin was not as big as before. They just took the past year as a holiday to recuperate and slow down their pace, and strive for performance again in the new year.

Although some industry analysts say the current market shock is only temporary, for cross-border sellers, Amazon remains the most important growth channel if they want to seek more opportunities in such a shock.

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