Amazon announces closure of an independent website business

With the continuous development of the e-commerce market, the strategy of making quick money has become outdated. High-quality products and branding have become the pursuit of many sellers. In addition, with the continuous tightening of platform policies in recent times, the development of multiple channels other than Amazon has gradually become the general trend.

Among them, independent websites such as Shopify and SHEIN have been gaining popularity in the past two years, and have been catching up with Amazon with rapid development, and their market share is increasing day by day. Faced with strong competitors, Amazon has been making continuous moves in independent websites. On the other hand, Shopify is also constantly improving its logistics and other services to enhance its competitiveness with Amazon.

Amazon shuts down its independent website business Selz

Recently, Amazon announced the closure of its independent site business Selz, and may focus on developing buy with prime ( prime service can be used for independent site sellers).

It is reported that Selz is an independent website building platform from Australia. It was established in 2013 and was acquired by Amazon last year. At that time, it triggered speculation in the industry that Amazon would use it to compete more directly with Shopify.

Now, just about a year after the acquisition, Amazon announced the closure of this business, which has attracted attention from the industry. In response, Amazon said in a statement, "We plan to continue to support Selz sellers, but after a thorough review, we have decided not to offer Selz as a standalone service."

For Selz sellers, Amazon will give them 60 days to find a new platform, during which time all fees will be waived.

Amazon also said that Selz employees will have new uses and will turn to develop the Buy with Prime business. Therefore, some industry insiders suspect that the closure of Selz may be to focus more on Buy with Prime.

Buy with Prime is a new business launched by Amazon. Prime users can shop on the seller’s independent site and continue to enjoy the logistics and delivery provided by Amazon. This is equivalent to cutting into the independent site sellers from another angle. Amazon has not given up this piece of "fat meat".

In fact , Amazon has also tried to establish its own independent website before, but it also did not last long. Amazon previously operated a service called Amazon Webstore, which was similar to Shopify and helped small and medium-sized sellers build their own retail websites. The service was shut down in 2015.

At that time, companies such as Shopify and Bigcommerce were constantly improving their product lines and were strong competitors in the independent station market, while Webstore's sales were far behind Amazon's platform. Although Amazon did not respond positively to this, the closure was probably related to the above reasons.

During the pandemic, independent websites represented by Shopify have achieved rapid development, from being not favored by Amazon to now posing a threat to Amazon's e-commerce giant status. According to a report by Bloomberg at the end of last year, Amazon internal sources said that it is developing another service to help sellers set up independent online stores, continuing to compete with independent websites.

In order to compete for the independent station market, Amazon has also taken various measures to compete. Some time ago, it entered the traffic pool of independent station sellers and created a Prime account on Tik Tok.

Amazon opens new TikTok account, accelerating traffic generation

In recent years, Amazon has been increasing its layout of major profit channels, which now include its own brands, independent websites, logistics, etc. However, in order to reduce risks, many sellers have started to deploy on multiple platforms and build their own independent websites, which has caused Amazon's traffic to be divided. How to further divert traffic has become one of the important issues that Amazon needs to solve.

In the past two years, as the social media platform TikTok’s ability to sell goods has become increasingly prominent, the platform has also been regarded as a "treasure land" by Amazon.

After opening the "amazon " account in 2020 , Amazon recently opened a new account on TikTok, which was named "Prime" . This move has attracted the attention of industry insiders, but it is also within everyone's expectations. It is understood that the account was opened after Amazon cooperated with Big Spaceship (an independent creative agency).

TikTok and Amazon can be considered to have a "close" relationship. In the past two years, due to the recommendations of many internet celebrities on TikTok, Amazon's products in many categories have quickly become popular, such as air fryers, fairy jars, beauty and skin care products, etc. The number of viewers and likes range from hundreds of thousands to hundreds of millions. The sales of related products have also increased rapidly, and it has become very common to see an increase of more than 100%. Many netizens commented on this: "Amazon was led away by TikTok." It can be seen that TikTok's ability to bring goods should not be underestimated.

TikTok has obvious advantages in attracting traffic, as reflected in its younger audience and wider coverage, which has accelerated Amazon's promotion process.

According to relevant surveys, TikTok currently has more than 1 billion monthly active users, 67% of which are young users, and TikTok is becoming more and more popular among Generation Z. This group has huge consumption potential and is becoming the main consumer shopping group, which has opened up the market for Amazon.

In terms of the scope of audience, TikTok currently covers several major markets for cross-border e-commerce sellers, including North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia. The consumption trends of each market are slightly different, which to a certain extent enables Amazon to promote its products more targeted and save time and labor costs.

Although Amazon has not made any major moves on this account, TikTok's support will make Amazon's leading position in cross-border e-commerce platforms more obvious.

As Amazon expands its competitiveness and accelerates the layout of its independent station channels, its competitors are also taking action.

Shopify acquires Deliverr to catch up with Amazon

As one of Amazon's main competitors, Shopify announced on its official website on May 5 that it had acquired logistics service provider Deliverr. The acquisition was also called "the largest acquisition in history" by Shopify. It is reported that the acquisition price was US$2.1 billion .

  Shopify stated in the article that this will help the platform create an end-to-end logistics platform, provide fast and convenient logistics services to millions of merchants, and also help merchants of all sizes eliminate supply chain complexities, democratizing the end-to-end logistics channels of independent brands for the first time.

Sellers can enjoy simplified multi-channel inventory management, distribution of inventory across different sales channels, and more. Deliverr also provides technical support for Shopify's "last mile" delivery service. SFN will provide merchants with a one-stop service for logistics needs, from initial inventory receipt to smart delivery through fast delivery and easy returns.

Shopify said the service is available to merchants’ online stores, physical stores, wholesale customers, marketplaces including Amazon, eBay, Etsy and Walmart, and platforms such as Google, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Shopify founder and CEO said that together with Deliverr, Shopify Fulfillment Network will provide millions of growing businesses with a simple, powerful logistics platform to increase customer satisfaction.

Amazon has also put a lot of effort into logistics, increasing air transport and expanding warehouses, etc. This time, Shopify's large-scale acquisition is also seen by the outside world as a sign of catching up with Amazon.

But we have to admit that Amazon's position as a cross-border e-commerce giant is still unshakable. It is the preferred platform for both buyers and sellers. However, sellers should note that multi-platform operation has become a trend. For sellers who have the conditions and intentions, it is also a good idea to develop independent sites and multi-platform sales.

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