It reached 300 in the main category within one day after being released. Is the so-called "hot item" actually a scam?

FBM delivery, short shelf time, 90% off, $1.99 price, the product quickly rushed to the BSR... What kind of operation is this? What is the purpose? Pig-killing scam has appeared again?

Although the performance of this year's peak season is far behind last year, sellers are still facing the same problems. Not long ago, a seller discovered that Christmas decoration pants had such a high discount and low price ranking phenomenon.

According to feedback from more sellers, this phenomenon has occurred not only in the Christmas pants category, but also in many other categories such as beauty and personal care, shoes and clothing, jewelry, gardens, auto parts, etc., and has lasted for a long time.

As for the specific reasons, there are many discussions in the seller circle. Some say it is a low-price spiral, some say it is fake delivery, making a fortune and running away, and some say it is a 1688 pig-killing scheme.

High discounts and low prices to boost rankings appeared in many categories

Because of the price war caused by internal circulation, Amazon sellers are now particularly sensitive to the word "low price". Recently, a seller discovered such a phenomenon in the Christmas decoration pants category. In this category, some products with super high discounts and extremely low prices suddenly appeared, and the rankings rose rapidly. Among the top five links, 4 are exactly the same.

Not only that, some sellers pointed out that the same is true for beauty and personal care, shoes, clothing, jewelry and other categories. These products were sold at a 90% discount and priced at $1.99. In just one day after being put on the shelves, they rushed to the top 300 in the major categories.

Although the prices of these products have returned to normal after inquiries before publication, the editor found in the investigation that this phenomenon of rushing to the rankings with super high discounts and extremely low prices in the short term has been occurring for a long time since the beginning of this year.

Last month, a seller said that he found a store with more than 30 pages of products. The sales of the products on the homepage were very high, and some even achieved BSR, while others were also at the top of the list. "These products have been on the shelves for a short time, many of them were only put on the shelves in August, and the prices are much higher than those of their peers. One of the products was put on the shelves on August 11, and six days later it was ranked more than 2,000 in the automotive category and top 50 in the subcategory. "

Earlier, a seller said that when everyone was preparing for Christmas , a self-shipped Halloween carpet took only three days to top the list of new products in the Patio, Lawn & Garden category .

There are many similar situations:

“——Recently, I keep seeing some newly launched FBM products ranked very high, with prices of either $1 or $2, or 90% off at high prices, and they are basically large stores that do self-delivery and carry 2,000+ SKUs.

——I found a very interesting product. It basically dominated the new product list in the secondary category. The links were basically old links that were modified. It was 50% off on FB. Some of the comments were thousands. The category ranking was basically in the early 1,000s to around 10,000. I was so scared that I quickly went to 1688 to take a look. ”

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Is it a hot product or a scam? Sellers keep guessing

Seeing such a good performance of the product, many sellers or operators' eyes light up, and they can't wait to make arrangements to start working on it. However, there are also many sober people who think: Is this a "hot product" or a "pig-killing scheme"?

In fact, this phenomenon is not unique to this year. It is understood that a few years ago, some popular products were sold at a price of $0.01 plus a shipping fee of about $1.

A careful look at these links this year reveals that they are similar to the tactics used by the big sellers a few years ago, such as "low price". However, these links also have the following characteristics: 1. Many links do not ship after buyers place orders; 2. The prices are extremely low, mostly between 1 and 2 US dollars, or the prices are higher than those of peers, but they offer a super high discount of 90% off; 3. The products have been on the shelves for a short time, but are ranked very high.

In response to this issue, many sellers have given such speculations:

1. Clear inventory at low prices.

2. Strategic losses, excessive internal circulation, and a low-price spiral.

3. If it is a new store, the plan of big sales may be ruined before the big promotion, and then the store will be closed.

4. It is possible that the novice accidentally set the wrong discount.

5. If the sales are not normal in the later stage, then they are specialized in gray industry, that is, false shipments, making a quick buck and running away.

6. Use FBM to offer big discounts to promote products off-site to grab BSR, and then switch to FBA stores to grab shopping carts. This has happened before in the fascia gun category. That is, use FBM to offer big discounts or very low prices to attract people to place orders (while also posting outside the site to attract traffic), then don’t ship the products, and use the big account to merge the small account link to maintain rankings. (However, this will put the small account at risk of being complained about and then having its store closed)

7. The pig-killing scheme is a false illusion of hot-selling products created by suppliers to deceive sellers, especially some novice sellers who come to 1688 to purchase.

Most sellers speculated that it was a "pig-killing scam". Some said that although it was not a new trick and many old sellers had seen it, new sellers might not know it. This year, there were so many sellers entering the market and seeing such a delicious cake, it was hard for them to resist a bite. So they thought the product was easy to sell and placed large orders.

Why do sellers firmly believe that this is a scam? One reason is that some sellers have also seen some suppliers posting these products in their own WeChat Moments, and the atmosphere of deliberately creating hot-selling products is particularly obvious.

"We sellers don't want to be scammed, but we also don't want to miss the opportunity. We know exactly what's going on with our mentality," said a seller helplessly and sadly.

Suppliers' "pig-killing" routine, sellers are badly cheated

It is said that sellers are a vulnerable group in the cross-border circle, and service providers, platforms, and suppliers can all cheat them. The "pig-killing scheme" we are talking about today is a routine that suppliers "carefully" plan for sellers.

It is reported that the general routine process is as follows:

1. Suppliers launch small and light products produced by their own factories on Amazon, and then use some means, such as false orders, or significantly reduce the price to 10% or 20% off outside the site, to attract buyers to purchase but not ship the products, thereby increasing sales in a short period of time and improving rankings.

Second, suppliers sell these products in large quantities on product selection websites such as 1688.

3. When sellers are looking for new products through product selection tools, these fast-growing products are captured.

4. Some sellers who are easily deceived by data will go to some product selection websites to find product suppliers and order products.

5. Suppliers will deliberately say that the product is very popular, the factory’s production capacity is insufficient, and reservations can only be made in full, or the order quantity must not be less than a certain amount, and the goods cannot be returned after they are sold.

As a result, the seller invested a large amount of money, bought a lot of inventory, and eventually had to sell out the inventory at a loss, while the supplier received a large number of orders and reaped the benefits.

Previously, a seller complained that he had been cheated by a product called Tequila. "I listed the product in three stores through self-delivery and turned on automatic advertising, but after a few orders, I didn't receive any orders for half a month."

Another seller revealed that when he was purchasing a popular product on 1688, many suppliers said they had no inventory reserves and required the minimum order quantity to be more than 500.

With the explosion of information nowadays, sellers must be careful to distinguish.

1688 Pig Killing