It's chilling! Amazon sellers' orders dropped by 3/4

When opening the backend early this morning, many Amazon sellers were shocked - the order volume had dropped sharply, even less than half of the normal order volume. What was going on?

Recently, many sellers have not had good order volume, and the excess inventory from last year is seriously piled up, so they can only clear out the inventory at a very low price. Sellers who are eager to clear out their inventory will not only lead to a wave of low-price sales, but may also face a clearance trap.

Another important news is that on July 5th, that is, today, Amazon’s new CEO Jesse took office and officially replaced Bezos.

Independence Day is coming, and the orders from US and Asia fall

In the just-concluded Prime Day, Amazon buyers spent more than $11 billion, a 6.1% increase over last year. Buyers' purchasing demand was overdrawn during the promotion, so after Prime Day, many sellers faced a long-term slump in orders. However, sellers who have adapted to this situation still couldn't stay calm when they opened the backend today.

After work early in the morning, the seller circle was in an uproar: What are the sales figures for today?

——Today's beauty station is chilly

——WHAT? Amazon only received 2 orders last night? I can’t believe my eyes

——My whole family was shocked. Sales are going to be in tatters. They are down by at least 1/4 compared to the worst time.

——Independence Day crashed, is the traffic so bad?

——Those who knew it was Independence Day thought the United States had fallen, and 3/4 of it was missing

Seeing the orders in the background that seemed to have been paused, the sellers said they couldn't believe their eyes and refreshed the page many times before accepting this reality. The reason for the poor orders is obvious. With the arrival of the Independence Day in the United States, Americans all went out to celebrate (play), and few people stayed in front of their computers to shop online.

It is reported that more than 47 million people are expected to travel by car or plane during the Independence Day holiday in the United States , a 40% increase from last year, and has returned to the level of 2019. According to the Associated Press, a large number of Americans are expected to travel and gather for picnics, fireworks, concerts and beach outings. The White House also held an Independence Day celebration on July 4 local time.

Some sellers attributed the sharp drop in orders to Independence Day, but for sellers whose sales have been declining since June, this is probably just an excuse. "The boss always thought it was because of Independence Day, but it has been sluggish since June," said an operator, and another seller agreed: "My sales are also terrible. It has been declining since June, even on Member Day, and it has reached the bottom today..."

Some sellers used numbers to describe the changes in their order volumes: in May, the daily sales volume could reach 7,000 to 8,000. From the end of May, sales began to decline until PD, barely maintaining 3,000. Since PD, there has not been a single day above 3,000.

One seller attributed the reason to internal competition: "It's really been too competitive recently. The number of orders has dropped sharply since Member Day, and now in the past three days it has been reduced to only 1/3 of the number before Member Day. I went to the front desk and saw that there were so many similar items, all sold at low prices. As a result, we can only engage in price wars, and no one is making much money."

The account is down, and the seller has 70 million inventory to be cleared

Orders for products that are normally sold have declined, and it is also difficult to clear out products that are in stock.

In Amazon's crackdown on violations of platform policies, seller accounts have been hit one after another. Recently, an Amazon account with 70 million in inventory was shut down. Such a large amount of inventory is really a headache.

According to the information revealed by the seller, the company is currently urgently clearing out inventory. They consulted their peers to see if anyone is making fans, or if anyone is working on eBay and Wish platforms, and expressed support for one-click delivery from the United States. Some of the 70 million in inventory are in transit, and some are already in overseas warehouses.

Others are at the mercy of others! After the account was blocked, 70 million inventory was left . The sellers' anxiety can be imagined, and clearing inventory is estimated to become a top priority. In fact, other sellers whose accounts were blocked, sellers whose accounts were not affected but had too much inventory, and sellers with poor orders... are collectively clearing inventory.

The above sellers have fans in stock, which are seasonal products for summer. For summer products, some sellers have already put plans to clear their stock on the agenda.

This year, the United States has experienced a rare heat wave, with temperatures in some areas exceeding 46 degrees Celsius. The high temperature has not subsided on the 1st of this month, and many people have died due to extreme high temperature weather. Normally, this period is the best time to ship summer products.

But the situation this year is very strange. Some sellers reported that summer products are not selling well, which is different from the peak season in July in previous years . The fate of some sellers' summer products is that they have been arranged to clear their inventory before the orders have started to explode. For such products, some sellers even started the clearance mode last month.

The main point for clearing out inventory last month was the PD promotion. At that time, many sellers took advantage of the promotion to clear out inventory. They first reduced prices and then offered discount codes. They gave up the profits twice for fear that Americans would not be able to afford it, so they had to lower the prices to the lowest point. This may be the "floor spiral" mentioned by the sellers.

In the competition to clear inventory, Amazon is flooded with various clearance items at $1. Some sellers have no choice but to destroy their inventory directly.

One seller said that the actual situation is that some of the inventory floor screws cannot be unscrewed and finally have to be thrown away. Another seller said that thanks to Amazon's inventory restrictions, I didn't rush to restock, otherwise it would be difficult to clear the inventory. Now there are still a large number of sellers who have to clear their inventory, and they can only hope for promotions in the fourth quarter.

Before the Spring Festival, the shipping scene at Shenzhen Yantian Port was so hot, but now the inventory clearance scene is so miserable!

Low exchange rate clearance trap appears, be careful to lose both money

Taking advantage of the sellers' eagerness to clear out their inventory, some unscrupulous service providers began to resort to "shady operations" and launched a "routine" to clear inventory by using exchange rate rebates.

The service provider told the clearance sellers to first increase the product prices, then find someone to buy it at the original price, and finally the sellers would give them rebates based on approximately 3% of the exchange rate .

Some sellers roughly estimated that this would still make a profit, but they did not know that this was a trap.

After the seller returns the money to the service provider, all the orders they placed with others will be cancelled and refunded. In the end, the seller is left with nothing! When the seller goes to the service provider to argue, he will be told that the buyer has a problem. The blame is passed on quietly, leaving the seller alone to face this mess!

In fact, the service provider is in charge of this process from beginning to end. Sellers need to be extra vigilant and not use any method impulsively. They must carefully identify the methods.

This year's market price of raw materials has increased, and logistics costs are also rising, but the market is forcing sellers to go into a spiral of price cuts to clear inventory. Amazon sellers' profits are getting thinner and thinner, and many are even losing money. Sellers should reflect on the fact that doing business on Amazon is not for charity, but for making money.

Amazon's new CEO Jesse takes office

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' term will reportedly end today. He retired at the age of 57 with a net worth of nearly $200 billion (about 1.29 trillion yuan), more than twice the wealth of the entire British royal family, mainly consisting of his huge assets in Amazon and other assets, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Today, 53-year-old Andy Jassy will take over from Bezos and become the new head of Amazon.

This is the first CEO handover since Amazon was founded . It is understood that Amazon plans to authorize Jesse to receive more than $200 million in stock incentives, which will vest within 10 years. What changes will Jesse bring to Amazon and the sellers on the platform? We will wait and see.

Amazon, order, clearance