The order quantity is 0. The seller said: The F5 key is broken.

It is Christmas, and we have entered the traditional "slow order period" in previous years, but this year the slowness is a little more severe. Many sellers have begun to experience stagnant orders long before the holiday, and have said that they will start looking for service providers to clear their inventory. Some sellers have placed orders but sacrificed profits.

Seller: Pack up and prepare to clear out the stock until next year

As we enter late December, Christmas is approaching New Year's Day, and many countries in Europe and North America have entered holiday mode. Consumers' wallets have also been stretched for holiday online shopping, with traffic and order volumes declining. This situation seems to have continued for several days.

“——The day before yesterday, it was 600 (order volume), and today it is directly 0;

——Looking at the cold '2', I thought it was a system bug;

—— The F5 key broke when I pressed it, but the number is still in single digits ;

——The new product just came out and it happened to be a festival , so it was sold directly;

——On the 21st, I rode a roller coaster, which was exciting;

——Suddenly no one bought it, how weird;

——Missed stocking, and will clear stock until April next year ;

..."

There are countless feedbacks like this on various social media platforms.

A seller told Ennet that "In fact, our store's sales would also drop during Christmas in previous years, but this is based on the comparison of daily data. If we compare it year-on-year, there is generally not much change, and there is usually a more obvious downward trend starting on the 23rd. But this year, not only has it declined year-on-year, but the start time has also been earlier. Our store started to decline around the 19th, and after the 21st, the sales were basically double-digit, and on the 24th it was actually zero ! "

Some sellers also showed the same sales performance in the past week as the above sellers when interviewed.

According to the interviews, many sellers said that it is normal for the number of orders to drop around Christmas, but this year the Christmas promotion ended earlier, and there were no orders at all at the beginning of the holiday .

Taking December 20 as the starting point, in a seller survey, only 7% of sellers said that "the order volume is the same as usual, with little change", nearly 20% of sellers said that "the order volume has dropped by less than 25%", and more than 50% of sellers said that "the order volume has plummeted by more than 50%" .

Compared with previous years' data, a seller poll showed that no more than 18% of sellers said that "this year's Christmas peak season order volume and profits both increased year-on-year compared with 2023", 20% of sellers said that "order volume increased, but profits declined", and the remaining 62% of sellers faced varying degrees of decline in orders and profits .

"It is more difficult to do business on Amazon this year." In an interview with En.com, many sellers mentioned that with Temu's low-price attack, Amazon sellers not only have to accept competition from outside the platform, but also have to face price wars within the platform. The reason is that Amazon launched a low-price mall in November, which directly or indirectly makes it more difficult for platform sellers to place orders and reduces their profit margins .

According to reports, Amazon's low-price mall has started its second round of investment promotion. Some sellers believe that Amazon may increase its support for the project next year, but the threshold is similar to that of Temu and has certain requirements for the supply chain, so small and medium-sized sellers will face certain competitive pressure. However, some optimistic sellers said that it may be used to clear inventory.

It's not just the Christmas peak season. In the earlier "Black Friday Online Monday" promotion, many sellers also said that the order volume has not improved significantly. "According to the sales volume in the fourth quarter of previous years, we even reduced the inventory, but now it may take until April or May next year to clear all these goods. If they can't be sold, the storage fees during the peak season will be "bleeding". As of now, our gross profit margin this year has fallen by 30 percentage points year- on-year . "

If the new US bill is passed, stocking may be difficult

In addition to poor sales performance, sellers also have to endure many troubles in stocking inventory.

As the year draws to a close, a group of sellers are starting to stock up for next year. However, Amazon warehouse workers' strikes continue, affecting warehouse operating efficiency and leaving warehouses with no solution.

On December 19th, Eastern Time , what was called "the largest strike against Amazon in U.S. history" began. Reports said that the strike involved nearly 10,000 Amazon employees in the U.S. market, including workers in New York, Atlanta, Illinois, San Francisco, Southern California and other places.

In this operation, popular warehouses such as DBK4 in New York, DGT8 in Atlanta, DFX4, DAX5, DAX8 in Southern California, DCK6 in San Francisco, and DIL7 in Illinois were all affected to varying degrees.

At present, information from some freight forwarders shows that Amazon warehouses in the western United States are still severely overwhelmed. Warehouses such as LAS1, SCK4, SMF3, LAX9, VGT2, MIT2, GEU2, GEU5, QXY5, and JOT1 frequently refuse to accept goods and skip appointments. Both floor appointments and pallet appointments are impossible to make. PSC2 and FAT2 floor appointments are largely pending, and floor appointments and pallet appointments for GYR3, SLC2, and SCK3 will have to wait until after January next year .

In addition, the floors of warehouses such as LAS6, SNA4, SMF6, AZA4, MCE1, SBD2, and LGB9 will take more than a week to arrive.

No new floor and pallet contracts are available for warehouses such as LAN2, IND9, MDW2, MQJ1, IAH3, FTW1, RFD2, and FWA4 in the Central United States . The floor contract for MEM1 will have to wait until after January next year . The floor and pallet contracts for warehouses such as ORF2 , RMN3 , SWF2 , AVP1 , TEB9 , BNA6, and RYY2 in the Eastern United States are in a pending appointment status .

Earlier, some of Amazon's warehouses suspended receiving goods, with the time tentatively set from December 15 to December 31. It is still unknown whether these warehouses will resume accepting goods in January next year.

There are obstacles to the final delivery, and the sellers' first-leg logistics are also facing price increases. Recently, the freight rates of the US West and US East routes have rebounded, and shipping companies such as Maersk and CMA CGM have successively issued price increase notices. HMM also notified that starting from January 2, 2025, it will charge a peak season surcharge for all services departing from the United States, Canada and Mexico .

It is also worth noting that, according to foreign media reports, the two major parties in the United States recently jointly formulated the "American Shipbuilding and Port Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security Act" ( SHIPS) . Section 415 of the Act proposed a "commercial goods priority" policy, requiring that in the next 15 years, 10% of all goods imported by the United States from China must be transported by ships flying the U.S. flag, built in the United States, and operated by American crews .

Five years after the bill is enacted, it will begin to require that the proportion of Chinese goods on US ships reach 1%, and then increase by one percentage point each year . This means that a large amount of Chinese export goods will have to be transported by ships in the United States, and freight forwarders or shippers who do not comply with this regulation will face fines.

If the bill is passed and implemented , Chinese sellers' shipping costs may increase significantly and shipment volume will also be affected. At the same time, Trump 's proposal to " impose a 10% tariff on Chinese goods " after taking office has also become an unresolved cost sword.

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