Open the book at a low price! Amazon's new project is coming soon

The first batch of merchants have already settled in ...

As early as June this year, there was news that Amazon would launch a new project - the Low-Price Mall, which will mainly sell white-label low-priced products, competing with Temu.

Currently, the low-price mall is in the internal testing stage, and the first batch of sellers have already settled in. Amazon has made detailed requirements on product weight and price, delivery and return, etc.

Amazon's low-price mall operation details exposed! Products are priced up to $20

According to the latest documents provided by Amazon to sellers, the upcoming low-cost store ( official name of the low-price mall ) is in the internal testing phase and is currently limited to invited sellers. It will sell unbranded low-priced goods directly from Chinese warehouses to American shoppers. The goods are not part of Amazon's regular search and must be accessed as a separate storefront through the Amazon application . For the sellers who settle in, Amazon has formulated detailed operating rules .

Product pricing and selection criteria: Sellers must list all products with the brand name "Universal" . Currently, there are nearly 700 products available for sale , all belonging to the three major categories of fashion products, household products and daily necessities .

Products must not exceed 1 pound or 14 x 8 x 5 inches. Products that are batteries, inedible (such as food), or intended for use on the skin are not eligible , as are products that require additional cross-border compliance documentation ( such as products for infants, children, or pets ) .

Each product has a maximum product price, for example, shorts have a maximum price of $14 , hair clippers have a maximum price of $12 , necklaces have a maximum price of $10 , calculators have a maximum price of $8 , bookmarks, bottle openers, bottle stoppers, buckles, needles and rotary files, cable ties, calendars, camera cleaners, camera lens accessories, camping equipment, can openers, capos, card files, card stock, suitcases or handbags, CE accessories, pendants, coin purse bags, compression springs , etc. Large items such as digital cameras, desks, lawn mowers, etc. have a maximum price of $20.

Items priced above these levels will be removed from the shelves.

In addition, the products in the low-cost store must have different ASIN and SKU from the main site. Amazon recommends using a specific prefix "LowCostStore-" to distinguish them.

In terms of logistics and warehousing: All orders cannot be delivered by the seller themselves . They are uniformly stored in the Amazon operation center in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province , and then delivered by Amazon , mainly by air. Since the value of the products meets the small tax-free requirements , they can be exempted from customs duties.

Delivery fee ↓↓↓

For items under 4 ounces and under $3, the delivery fee is $0.50 ;

For apparel items weighing 4 ounces or less and priced at $3 or more , the delivery fee is $0.99, and for non-apparel items , the delivery fee is $0.88 ;

For items over 4 ounces , the starting price for apparel is $2.05 and the starting price for non-apparel is $1.77, and the delivery fee increases gradually based on weight .

Storage fees ↓↓↓

Sellers are required to pay a monthly storage fee of $0.40 per cubic foot .

Removal Fee ↓↓↓

The fee for shipments weighing 0.5 lbs or less is $ 0.20;

The fee for shipments weighing 0.5 to 1 pound (excluding 0.5) is $0.30;

The fee for shipments weighing 1 to 2 pounds (excluding 1 pound) is $0.55;

The fee for shipments weighing 2 to 3 pounds (excluding 2 pounds) is $0.90 ;

Shipments over 3 lbs. are charged $1.20.

Return fee ↓↓↓

The return period is 15 days from the date the product is delivered . Items priced at $3 or less are not eligible for buyer returns . All low-priced items priced above $3 are eligible for a refund without return solution by default, but Amazon will decide which products are eligible for a refund without return solution at its sole discretion.

If a product is deemed ineligible for a refund-free solution, Amazon may, without further notice, clear, donate, or dispose of the returned product as applicable, and charge the seller a return administration fee . If the product is cleared, the seller will receive the clearing proceeds (minus applicable fees).

It is worth noting that Low-Cost Store sellers cannot opt ​​out of the refund-no-return solution for Low-Price Store orders.

In summary, Amazon's low-cost store chooses the existing Chinese supply chain, integrates it from the source, has no tariffs, ships within 9-11 days, and defaults to refunds without returns. In terms of product selection, all brands are removed and the selection is narrowed to low-priced goods (according to the price cap of the category, no goods exceed $20).

It can be said that Amazon's low-cost store is equivalent to an online low-price dollar store. With Amazon's influence, some low-priced products can be sold at lower prices.

Comparing with Temu, low-cost stores may be launched as early as November

One of the main reasons why Amazon wants to launch a low-cost store is the rapid rise of low-price platforms such as Temu, which have, to a certain extent, snatched away Amazon's low-price customer base.

In recent years, Amazon has continuously optimized its fast delivery and provided consumers with more and more perfect logistics services, but the prices of many products are not low. In fact, there are still many consumers who do not need fast delivery services. They prefer to buy products with high cost performance and do not use brands as a basis for decision-making when purchasing. Even if the logistics is slow, it does not matter. Factors such as inflation and consumption downgrade have driven this shopping trend to become more and more obvious.

The emergence of Temu just meets the shopping needs of a large number of consumers, so Temu has been able to rise rapidly in a short period of time, and even posed a threat to the old e-commerce giant Amazon. Amazon launched a low-cost store as a counterattack against Temu. According to foreign media reports, Amazon has targeted the hot-selling products on the Temu platform.

People familiar with the matter said that although the low-cost store has not yet been officially launched, some sellers who have received invitations have already opened and operated it. There are currently more than 100 internal test sellers who have uploaded products and stocked them in Amazon's warehouses in China.

"At this stage, it can only be opened through invitation from Amazon. We are the first batch of sellers to participate in the closed-door meeting of the low-price mall, and only a few sellers in each category are selected for testing." A seller who has already settled in said that the background of the low-cost store is not perfect at present, and the operational experience of uploading links is a bit poor, which should be optimized in the future.

As for when the low-cost store will be launched, some people said it would be launched publicly and officially open to consumers by the end of this year. Some even said it would be launched in November.

A large number of Amazon sellers are waiting for the official launch of low-cost stores. In their view, this new project is very promising and can make up for the loss of traffic to a certain extent. "More importantly, new projects generally have a traffic bonus period. As long as you move in in the early stage, you can basically make money." A seller believes.

Different from the optimistic attitude of the above-mentioned sellers, some sellers are actually worried that low-cost stores will divert traffic and deal a fatal blow to a group of FBA sellers!

How big a storm will the low-cost store cause? We will find out when it goes online ...

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