The new year has started off coldly, with a group of sellers receiving “0” orders!

When work resumed after the Chinese New Year, the sellers were in a state of gloom. Traffic decreased , and the number of orders plummeted like a runaway slide . Some sellers even said that they no longer wanted the goods and were ready to abandon their stores and run away.

The number of orders is "0", and sellers complain about the lack of orders at the beginning of the year

“There have been really no orders recently. I almost thought Amazon was going to go bankrupt,” a seller said half-jokingly. He checked his store on the second day of the Chinese New Year and found that the ads were running and the links were normal, but the number of orders was unexpectedly zero.

This phenomenon is not an isolated case, and many sellers have expressed similar concerns on social platforms.

A seller asked on a social platform , "How are Amazon sales recently?" The feedback he received was generally that the order volume in the past week continued the poor performance before the New Year, or even worse. One seller said that there have been no orders for more than half a month, while another seller mentioned that there have been no orders for two consecutive weeks since the 28th of the New Year.

"I often wake up in the middle of the night to check my orders, and then I force myself to lose sleep," said one seller. "I thought January was a low season, but February was worse," added another seller. Another seller mentioned that the order volume on the US site plummeted by 70%, while the Canadian site was directly zero.

The sales volume plummeted at the beginning of the year , and sellers complained bitterly. One seller complained helplessly: "The sales volume has dropped too much. In just a few days, the daily order volume has dropped to single digits. It's really puzzling. Don't foreigners buy things anymore?" At present, many sellers are anxiously looking for ways to break the order volume bottleneck.

What to do? No problem! According to sellers’ feedback, the problem of declining order volume has been apparent since the beginning of the year, and even if sellers increase their advertising budgets, it is not sustainable. One seller complained that the Acos in the last 7 days has soared from 25 to 50, and he did not understand why. “The ads were running well before, but now I am not getting any orders even after increasing the bid and the position bid.”

The seller's ranking is also dropping. Since the 28th of last month, the seller Xiaolin's ranking has plummeted from the top 20 in the small category to the 30th place now. She is also helpless about this.

As for the continued sharp drop in order volume, some sellers attributed it to the previous decline in return levels. Some sellers also said that after receiving bad reviews, the order volume dropped drastically, and they had to clear the stock at a low price, but the effect was minimal.

Consumer dissatisfaction with Amazon's product prices is also one of the reasons. Some overseas consumers mentioned in their comments, "I like shopping at Target because there are discounts and coupons, which saves more money overall than Amazon. " As online prices are getting closer to those in physical stores, and returns in physical stores are relatively more convenient, consumers are more inclined to shop offline.

In addition, their spending is also slowing down due to factors such as the extravagant spending during last year's Christmas promotions and the tightening of consumers' household budgets. An overseas celebrity revealed that overseas consumers are waiting for the country's tax refund, so the decline in orders may continue for a long time.

Some sellers also believe that Trump’s policies have also affected the sales of the platform. One seller said: “Before Trump took office, sales were close to $1,000 a day. After he took office, it dropped directly to $100.” Relevant economic policies change frequently, being implemented and canceled at other times, disrupting the rhythm of sellers.

Judging from the data alone, the recent sales are more pessimistic than the data in January. "I thought January was the lowest point in sales, but I didn't expect the beginning of the year to be the highlight. Not only did we get zero orders, but we also received returns and bad reviews. It will be even harder to do business on Amazon in 2025."

The seller wants to abandon the store because he can’t continue to make money

Previous industry research data showed that 42% of sellers expect their revenue in 2024 to increase compared to 2023, 18% of sellers expect their revenue to remain the same as in 2023, and 40% of sellers said their revenue may decline.

Although some sellers have maintained performance growth on the Amazon platform, overall, there is a certain degree of uncertainty in the order volume and revenue of most Amazon sellers, and some sellers are facing the challenge of declining revenue.

Some sellers who feel deeply about the current situation of Amazon have already considered quitting.

"I want to quit Amazon, I can't continue to do business because of the loss," said the seller @桃子 helplessly. According to Taozi's feedback, she has been working in the Amazon home category for a long time and has lost tens of thousands of yuan. The losses from returns and unsalable goods are the main factors that crushed Taozi. Now she wants to quit, but the store has no traffic and the goods cannot be cleared even if the price is reduced. During this period, fees including storage fees are still being deducted.

In this regard, some sellers expressed their empathy, "I lost hundreds of thousands of dollars and sold out my original goods at a discount. After three months of trial and error, I have cleared 80% of them." Some sellers also said, "I don't plan to keep my own US site anymore. The long-term storage fee is too high. I keep deducting money, but I don't know if it will affect other sites."

Judging from the feedback from sellers, there are quite a few sellers who have the same idea. Many sellers have even planned to abandon their stores or even close their stores before the New Year. The reasons for their abandonment are mostly the same: they cannot clear the goods, the long-term storage fees are high, and they keep deducting money.

However, some industry insiders pointed out that "sellers who want to abandon their stores need to make sure that their account email and payment information are not duplicated with those of other stores, otherwise the funds coming in from other accounts will also be frozen."

Smartscout data shows that as of January 23, more than 1,000 Amazon sellers have chosen to close their stores , including multiple accounts with annual sales of millions of dollars, and sellers from multiple regions including Hunan and Zhejiang.

Although the detailed reasons for withdrawal are not listed, judging from the data of individual sellers, the negative reviews and return rates of products are mostly high. Some sellers with better data chose to withdraw, and it is not known whether they were impacted by competing platforms.

It is also worth noting that data released by the Federal Reserve showed that U.S. consumer credit increased by $40.85 billion month-on-month in December last year, compared with an expected increase of $12.35 billion. Specifically, credit cards and other revolving credit increased by $22.9 billion in December, far exceeding the decline in the previous month.

Although Federal Reserve officials expect the pace of interest rate cuts to be moderate this year, high borrowing costs have put more American consumers into a "debt rollover" dilemma. Foreign media data show that in the third quarter of last year, more and more Americans only paid the minimum payment on their credit cards, setting a record high.

The increasing debt burden of American consumers is likely to affect consumer spending and overall economic growth, and sellers' order volume is likely to be affected. However, 2025 has just begun, and there are many cases of low opening and high closing. I believe that sellers will soon usher in a new peak in order volume.

Unit quantity

Amazon

Abandoned Store