Big sellers on Amazon have had their accounts blocked one after another, so why not try other platforms?

At the end of April, a wave of account bans began on Amazon and continued to spread. Zebao and at least five other top sellers were the first to be affected, and their accounts have not been restored since then. Sellers have a sense of crisis: they must abide by the rules on other people's platforms. If they rely too much on a certain platform, they will be hit hard if something goes wrong. It is very necessary to spread the risk.

Top sellers are banned, sellers seek to diversify risks

Since the end of April, the brand accounts of at least five of Shenzhen's top sellers have been blocked, causing a stir in the industry.

If ordinary sellers were just watching the show when the big sellers’ accounts were first blocked, then as the news of more top sellers’ accounts being blocked came out one after another, the sellers began to feel insecure: if this is the case for the big sellers with huge sales, small sellers like us should not try to jump back and forth on the platform’s rules.

This time Amazon used thunderbolt measures. Nearly two months have passed, and the account of the first big seller that was banned has not been restored. The account has been suspended for two months, and it has missed the most important Prime Day promotion of the year .

According to sellers’ feedback, it is not only the big sellers who have been blocked in this round of liquidation, but also sellers around them. No one can stay out of it. Amazon is still strictly investigating the abuse of reviews and paid positive reviews such as small cards. Some sellers have received warning emails from the platform questioning their manipulation of reviews and paid positive reviews. Some sellers were caught in the recent small card review and are busy writing appeal emails.

This incident has sounded the alarm for many sellers: compliance operations are important, but you can't put all your eggs in one basket. The risk of focusing on a single platform is too great, so you should try to diversify the risk. "The suspension of accounts is a huge blow to sellers who mainly sell on Amazon. We are currently thinking about how to diversify our investment in Amazon and see if we can invest in other areas," said a seller.

Many sellers are looking for new platforms, especially those that can compete with e-commerce giants. Walmart, which has high-quality retail genes, has become a "seed player."

Walmart is a hot platform for arm wrestling

In the past two months, Walmart registration has become popular. A Walmart operator with three years of experience said: "I have really witnessed Walmart becoming stronger little by little, and the threshold has been relaxed little by little."

(Screenshot of a seller’s Weibo post)

A seller who just completed the registration for a Walmart account said: "I am quite looking forward to Walmart's e-commerce, especially with all the troubles Amazon is having now, we really need a platform that can compete with it." Another seller also said that he expects the Walmart platform to rise and provide checks and balances.

Amid this craze, some operations staff said they couldn’t help but urge their companies to register with Walmart, but not all sellers were able to get on board. One seller lamented: “I submitted an application, but it wasn’t approved.”

Is Wal-Mart easy to do business with? The industry's big sellers have already tried it out.

Shirley , sales director of Tongtuo Technology , said that after Tongtuo entered Walmart, its GMV exceeded 8 billion yuan in 2020. During the epidemic last year, the compound growth rate of the business volume of its entire Walmart team reached 400%, ranking TOP3 in Tongtuo Technology's performance contribution. Adhering to the pan-channel and pan-supply chain business model and backed by the business growth potential of Walmart's US site, Tongtuo is expected to be promoted to a cross-border 10 billion enterprise.

In terms of Walmart operations, for sellers with strong overall strength, Tongtuo recommends that after entering Walmart's US site, they can develop operations around four dimensions: general category operations, vertical category operations, boutique operations, and brand operations. However, this type of operation has high requirements for increased investment in capital, manpower and material resources.

The number of sellers exceeds 90,000, and Walmart releases 7 hot-selling categories

There must be a reason why sellers are signing up to Walmart so eagerly. In the past two years, Walmart's e-commerce business has more than doubled, further consolidating its position as the second largest e-commerce company in the United States.

According to the financial report released by Walmart, as of October 31, 2020, Walmart's US e-commerce sales increased by a significant 79%, performing outstandingly; in the first quarter of this year, Walmart's e-commerce sales increased by 47% year-on-year .

Marketplace Pulse data shows that Walmart Marketplace has 95,318 sellers as of June 22. So far this year, 25,970 new sellers have joined, of which 5,298 joined in the last month.

Walmart's e-commerce platform is very attractive to Chinese sellers. First, the traffic is amazing, with 120 million unique visitors per month . Second, the potential is huge, with third-party sellers on the Walmart platform almost doubling their sales in 2020. Finally, the logistics service is perfect, with Walmart's WFS logistics service covering almost 100% of the United States, and can basically achieve "two-day delivery".

In terms of product selection, which is the biggest headache for sellers, Walmart offers hot-selling products in seven categories: home furnishings, daily groceries, 3C products, toys, seasonal products, consumer products, and clothing and accessories. Walmart also speculates that in the post-epidemic era, several categories centered on home scenes, such as cleaning, home appliances, and musical instruments, will continue to grow.

According to Walmart, the platform will also analyze some popular categories, identify some subcategories with great development potential, low competitiveness or lack of competitiveness, and come up with priority development categories. Its priority development categories are mainly some subcategories, including the following categories:

Women's clothing: yoga, sports, summer swimwear, winter warm wear;

Underwear: lingerie, body shapers, maternity wear;

Men’s clothing: sports, fitness, basic styles;

Accessories: backpacks, outdoor travel;

Shoes: water shoes, etc.

Infants and Toddlers: Low-Price Bags

Girls category: Princess dresses are selling very well, but sellers need to pay attention to copyright issues;

Jewelry: some subcategories of jewelry.

JD.com and Walmart join forces to boost sellers’ Walmart business

Because of the good development momentum of the platform, Walmart's entry channel has repeatedly attracted the attention of cross-border sellers this year. The editor learned that an advantageous entry channel - JD Walmart project is here.

JD.com and Walmart are currently working together to develop a new cross-border business model, and large traffic is helping sellers and Walmart's business take off. As one of the media for Walmart to connect with Chinese sellers, JD.com continues to provide Walmart with JD.com's self-operated and domestic cross-border export industry supply chain resources. JD.com's independent station Joybuy store has become the top store on the Walmart platform. In addition to deepening its vertical categories and fine-tuning its category operations, JD.com also provides experience and operational feedback for Walmart's WFS service.

Sellers who enter Walmart stores through JD.com can enjoy registration advantages such as full CPC subsidies during the incubation period , free WFS 90-day storage fees, financial support, price guarantee protection by a professional team, product selection guidance, and high-quality resources.

Next, the entry requirements that sellers are most concerned about are here:

1. Experience on Amazon platform;

2. Return address within the United States;

3. US brand registration;

As cross-border e-commerce has developed to date, the operating risks of third-party platform sellers in the red ocean have continued to increase. After the store is closed, everything may be reduced to zero. Deploying multiple channels is one of the most effective ways to disperse risks, and the Walmart platform is worth considering for sellers. Sellers who have the conditions should click to read the original text or scan the QR code below to consult and enter!

From 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. this afternoon , JD.com's investment manager will conduct a special live broadcast on this project. Interested sellers can scan the QR code below to make an appointment.

Amazon, Walmart, account ban