500 accounts are blocked every week? Amazon's best-selling category is affected

Last week, Amazon banned another batch of accounts, including two super sellers. The platform's crackdown may still be continuing. The Shenzhen Cross-border Trade Association said that more than 500 accounts are banned every week. In response to the previously reported account ban ratio, Amazon responded that the actual data is much smaller.

There are two best-selling products in the category, with 40,000 to 50,000 reviews .

Recently, an industry insider said that there was an emergency, and two super-selling stores in his category were shut down . Look at each link, there are 40,000 to 50,000 reviews . Those who make fake orders really have no good end, and this wave of cleansing is still going on !

At the same time, some colleagues also said that the top sellers who operated small categories had also disappeared.

When a big seller in a category has a problem with his account, it will have a certain impact on other sellers. "A product that was sold very frequently suddenly became popular, and I was wondering if the big seller had also gone bankrupt ? " said a seller.

Some sellers are waiting for their peers to fail, so that they can have a chance. Some people bluntly said that the company is waiting for several peers in the same category to register at the same time and make good optimization.

For sellers, accounts that sell well in the same category have a direct impact on their product orders and rankings. Many people always pay attention to the trends of sellers in the same category, so they can find out whether the accounts of sellers in the same category are safe at the first time. When Amazon cracked down, many people looked forward to opportunities, but were afraid that they would be the next to be hit.

According to sellers’ feedback last week, news of Amazon sellers’ accounts being blocked is still spreading from time to time, and the platform’s rectification actions are still ongoing. Wang Xin, executive president of the Shenzhen Cross-border E-commerce Association, said that more than 500 accounts are blocked every week. The reasons for the closure are mostly related to sellers’ fake reviews, including improper use of reviews, soliciting false reviews from consumers, and manipulating reviews through gift cards.

Previously, the association’s data showed that more than 50,000 Chinese sellers had been banned by Amazon, with an estimated loss of more than 100 billion yuan. Wang Xin recently told the media that the 50,000 were not official statistics from the association.

In response to reports that Amazon has banned 35% of its platform accounts, a public relations officer for Amazon Global Selling in China responded: "That's not accurate. The real figure is much lower than 35%."

Anker responded that it was not affected by the account ban

Many of the top sellers suffered heavy losses in this Amazon crackdown. We know that Youkeshu and Tongtuo have both released specific data on their store closures and the amount of money lost. However, some of the top sellers in the industry have not been affected by the closure, or have been less affected by the closure by developing other businesses.

In the middle of this month, an investor asked Anker Innovations questions. 1. Is Anker Innovations affected by the Amazon ban? 2. If not, will the temporary suspension of other sellers who do not follow the rules indirectly bring benefits? 3. The performance is rising, but the stock price is falling. Does your company have any measures such as repurchase to enhance investor confidence?

In response, Anker Innovations said that the company adheres to compliance operations and returns value to consumers and the market, and has not been affected by the relevant incidents.

Since the account was blocked, after several top sellers encountered problems, sellers in the industry have been paying attention to Anker's situation. One seller lamented: "At present, Anker is a stable seller ! "

In recent days, some investors have asked *ST Cross-border that Amazon has kicked out many Chinese e-commerce companies, and Shenzhen has also introduced favorable policies for cross-border platforms in the past two days. Cross-border is the leader in cross-border platforms, and its stock price has also risen sharply in the past two days. So I would like to ask whether these are helpful to Cross-border.

The company responded that its current cross-border export business mainly relies on its own website platform and is less affected by other platforms.

As far as the entire industry is concerned, the sellers who are unfortunately blocked are only a small part. However, judging from the semi-annual reports of cross-border e-commerce companies that have been released recently, compared with the same period last year, many companies have seen a decline in revenue and profits. Among them, the increase in freight, advertising fees, and foreign exchange losses have led to an increase in operating costs. In the first half of the year, the overseas epidemic was under control, and people went outdoors, which had a substantial impact on online e-commerce sales.

Advertising, shipping costs and exchange losses increase sellers’ costs

Some sellers in the industry said that this year is difficult. "Registration is difficult, US standards are slow, materials prices have skyrocketed, advertising prices have skyrocketed, sea freight prices have skyrocketed, logistics timeliness is unstable, replenishment restrictions, European tax reforms..." These factors that lead to higher costs are also reflected in the semi-annual reports of industry sellers.

Chuangyuan Co., Ltd. is a cross-border e-commerce seller of cultural, educational and sporting goods. Its semi-annual report shows that its subsidiary Ruitefei mainly deals in home sports and fitness products, and has facilitated a total of 147,000 orders in the first half of the year, of which sales of 7.9975 million US dollars were achieved through the Amazon website, an increase of 108.91% over the same period last year; its subsidiary American Zhiyuan mainly deals in fashion stationery and home furnishing products, and has facilitated a total of 296,000 orders in the first half of the year, of which sales of 4.0650 million US dollars were achieved through the US Amazon website, an increase of 151.19% over the same period last year.

During this period, Chuangyuan's operating costs in the first half of the year increased by 37.22% compared with the same period last year, mainly due to rising raw material prices, employee salary adjustments, increased freight costs due to the growth of cross-border e-commerce business, and increased investment in factory equipment, including increased cross-border e-commerce advertising fees and platform service fees.

Freight is also a huge expense. Some sellers said they “died on the spot after seeing the recent ocean freight prices”. “I calculated the first leg using the latest Matsun prices, and then looked at the profit [tears] and felt hopeless.” said one seller.

The big seller Lejia also stated that since the fourth quarter of 2020, the proportion of shipping costs in its cross-border e-commerce sales has increased from 1-2% to 5%. The company will continue to hedge the impact of adverse factors on the company by reducing costs, increasing efficiency and strengthening independent station operations.

Halfway through this year, many sellers, when looking back and taking inventory, found that their profits were unexpectedly low and could not be compared with last year's peak.

Amazon sales growth will remain low

In the first half of the year, sellers continued to report a drop in order volumes. Amazon's second-quarter financial report showed that compared with a huge 44% increase in the first quarter, Amazon's revenue growth in the second quarter fell to 27%. For the current third quarter, Amazon predicts revenue growth will only be 16%.

The sales slump will continue for some time. Amazon said in its financial report that the growth rate of online retail will slow down in the third quarter of this year as consumers gradually leave their homes.

Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said that the lower growth rate was mainly due to the high base last year. Last year, American consumers were forced to stay at home and rely on online retail to meet their daily needs. Now in Europe and the United States, consumers can go out of their homes and the demand for online shopping has decreased. In the next few quarters, Amazon's sales growth rate will be at a low level. Sellers should also be prepared for this in terms of stocking and launching new products.

Amazon, best-selling category