The store balance turned negative overnight! Another batch of sellers are changing their careers

Overnight, several Amazon sellers had negative account balances.

Peak season is here!

It exploded!

Storage fees have skyrocketed!

…

November 2024 is almost halfway through. According to the time point in previous years, the peak season has already arrived. However, a group of Amazon sellers are not feeling the peak season through the number of orders, but rather the warehouse overload problem that has not been resolved, and the peak season storage fees that are three times higher than usual.

Amazon’s collection of storage fees during the peak season has begun to magnify the grievances of some sellers and their disappointment with the platform!

Amazon starts charging storage fees during peak season! Some sellers paid hundreds of thousands

"I should have paid $232.00, but now it has become $696.00. Amazon claims that this is because the peak season has arrived... Who can afford such high charges?" This year is the first year for Amazon seller Xiao Zhang to start selling on Amazon. The store is in its start-up phase and is not making any money. This is the first time he feels the power of the 3x peak season storage fee, and he feels helplessly that Amazon is really burning money.

In fact, in addition to the newbies who were caught off guard by the peak season storage fees, even the old players who have been operating Amazon for a long time said that the fees are too high. Even many sellers have their store balances turned into negative numbers after their money was deducted ↓↓↓

Who said the peak season has not arrived? If you don’t believe me, go to the backend and check the peak season storage fee.

The peak season storage fees have been collected, but sales have not yet picked up.

The peak season has not yet started, but the storage fees are here first!

When I saw the storage fees for October, my heart dropped.

Tens of thousands of yuan were deducted all at once, and this month's profit is gone.

A total of more than 100,000 yuan in storage fees was deducted from all accounts.

The money I made from selling goods is not as much as the deduction.

Once the storage fee is paid, the balance goes directly into negative territory, and I’m effectively working for Amazon.

The peak season is here, and Amazon has entered "robbery" mode.

…

According to feedback from a large number of Amazon sellers, peak season storage fees directly eat up more than half or even more of the returns, and some sellers who sell goods in bulk have been hit hard. There are many stores of sellers who sell goods in bulk, and each store is charged 3 times the peak season storage fee, which is not a small amount when added up. Among them, seller Xiao Li said that all stores were charged more than 100,000 yuan in fees, and even after several stores deducted the money, the balance directly became negative.

"Who is making money during this peak season?" Seller Xiao Liu also said that after deducting the peak season storage fee, the money he received was almost gone. Although the peak season storage fee increased by 3 times, the traffic did not increase by 3 times. This is unfair...

Profits plummet! Amazon sellers: a year of work is for nothing

In the eyes of the majority of Amazon sellers, regardless of whether there are booming orders during the peak season, the platform is guaranteed to generate income and they can make real money.

As we all know, Amazon has been increasing its charging categories in recent years. Taking FBA fees as an example, Amazon has added several new fees this year. Now FBA sellers need to pay a number of fees to the platform, including warehouse configuration fees , warehouse defect fees , low inventory level fees , long-term storage fees , warehouse utilization surcharges , and triple storage fees during peak seasons.

Amazon's third-quarter financial report showed that thanks to the rapid development of its retail business, both sales and profits exceeded market expectations. In detail, retail sales increased by 7% to US$61.41 billion, and third-party seller service revenue increased by 10% year-on-year.

"The platform makes a lot of money from sellers, and the majority of Amazon sellers use their limited efforts to help Amazon's performance reach new heights." Xiao Li said that the platform continues to increase operating costs, but the service level has not improved accordingly, but has become lower and lower.

More than one seller has complained: Amazon's warehousing, distribution and shelf experience is getting worse and worse. This year, Amazon's warehouse explosion problem has been mentioned many times, and the situation seems to be worse as the peak season approaches. People familiar with the matter said that warehouse explosions in FTW5, XLX1, PSC2, ABQ2, MIT2, GEU3, IUSP, TEB9, CLT2, SCK4, ABE8, AVP1, SBD1, ONT8 and other warehouses are still very serious. Goods reservations are made 2 weeks or even 4 weeks later. The rejection rate of some warehouses has increased significantly, and appointments cannot be obtained. Even if an appointment is made and the goods are delivered to the warehouse, the processes of registering the goods, transshipping, and putting on the shelves all take a lot of time. Maybe some sellers will wait until the peak season is over by the time the products are put on the shelves...

The decline in FBA service quality will further increase the operating costs of sellers. It is understood that due to the problem of warehouse overflow, Xiao Li's goods often cannot be put into the warehouse for 30 days, so he will be charged a high defective goods fee by the platform. This year, he has been charged tens of thousands of yuan more.

This is not an isolated case. The "troubles" caused by the platform itself continue to plague sellers. The accumulation of various unfavorable factors has resulted in sellers' profits becoming increasingly thin.

"Last year's profit was close to 30%, but in recent months, it has dropped to only about 10%." A seller said that the overall sales volume last month dropped significantly both year-on-year and month-on-month, and the profit is not expected to be high in the future, because according to the current order volume trend, the profit earned cannot fully support the three times storage fee during the peak season.

In fact, the prices of Amazon sellers’ products have also been going down in the past two years. According to feedback from many Amazon sellers, products that were still priced at more than $20 last year have been reduced to $9.99 this year. The price war between peers has been fierce, but in the end there is no winner. "The price is already so low, but the product is still not selling well; even if some peers have high sales, they can't make much money, and it may even be difficult to break even..."

Want to change careers! A group of sellers are preparing to resign

Under the current environment, should we continue to let the platform suck our blood and deduct money or clear out the goods and exit the platform?

The monthly storage fees during the peak season became the last straw for some Amazon sellers, and they chose the latter.

" Traffic traffic is not increasing, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to promote new products. For a long time, we have to rely on old products to make a living. However, the sales of old products are also declining. As a result , I have worked for nothing for a year! " Xiao Zhou, a solo seller, said that he has worked on Amazon for several years, and this year is the most difficult year for him. He is currently planning to quit after the peak season ends this year. He will either switch to operations or change his career and return to his hometown to start a small business.

Many Amazon operators are also considering changing jobs. "If I stick with it until the peak season ends this year and then quit, what else can I do next?" Amazon operator Xiao Wang said that the company's Walmart and Temu stores are currently operating very well, while the Amazon store is doing very poorly. The company does not attach importance to Amazon, and now the store is basically abandoned. Even if he does not take the initiative to resign, he feels that the Amazon department will be cut soon.

Sellers who choose to stay have to adjust their operating strategies in time to adapt to the development of the platform. It is a fact that Amazon's operating difficulty has increased. Faced with high operating costs, more and more Amazon sellers have begun to change their operating ideas from scale-oriented to profit-oriented.

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