Amazon’s autumn promotion went silent, and sales of a large number of sellers plummeted!

Amazon’s autumn sale is still going on. Have you received a lot of orders?

The 2024 Amazon Prime membership promotion was launched globally from October 8th to 9th. 19 sites including the United States, Japan, Italy, France, etc. participated in this autumn promotion carnival, but the sellers’ joys and sorrows were not the same.

According to feedback, a large number of sellers have successfully ushered in a surge in sales. Triple sales is a basic operation, and there are many sellers who have increased sales 10 times or even higher. The sellers who have experienced a surge in sales are pleasantly surprised that this year's autumn promotion is even better than last year. However, overall, there seems to be a larger group of sellers who have not experienced a surge in sales. They waited from the 8th to the 9th, and the backstage was still quiet. It was another year of running for the same company. Not only were sales not as good as usual, but advertising costs were higher than usual.

It can be observed that in recent years, there have been frequent promotions, and major cross-border e-commerce platforms have launched various preferential promotions. Competitors such as Walmart have launched similar activities to compete with Amazon's autumn promotion to grab traffic . It is normal for overseas consumers to "compare prices from three stores" during shopping and choose to place orders on platforms with lower prices, which poses a challenge to Amazon sellers.

The autumn promotion can be said to be the first shot of the peak season in the second half of the year. Will the sellers' orders continue to rise during the following holiday shopping season? Relevant institutions have given predictions.

Amazon autumn promotion in progress: some people’s orders have increased 10 times, and a large number of sellers are left behind!

Amazon's second major promotion this year is ongoing, and a number of sellers are receiving continuous orders, with many expecting their overall sales to increase tenfold or even higher.

Seller Xiao Zhang is one of those who received a huge order boom. When he woke up in the morning, he saw that his store had sold nearly 2,000 orders. When he refreshed the backend, it was "just a moment ago". The order effect of the autumn promotion was even better than that of the summer membership day, and the overall sales volume was expected to increase tenfold.

Seller Xiao Li also said that the number of orders during the autumn promotion exceeded expectations. The company had anticipated a surge in orders, so it arranged for employees to be on duty at night. Now both the European and American sites have considerable sales. It is expected that sales at the US site will increase by at least 10 times, and sales at the European site will increase by 7 times.

In addition to the sales explosion, many sellers have achieved the goal of small or medium sales explosion, among which many sellers have tripled their sales, and many sellers have sold out. Seller Xiao Liu said that although the sales volume of this autumn promotion is not as good as the summer promotion, the sales performance is better than last year's autumn promotion, and now he is looking forward to other upcoming promotions.

Some are happy while others are worried. The editor summarized the feedback from sellers and found that although there are many groups with explosive sales, the group whose sales are lower than expected is even larger.

In the past two days, the majority of cross-border sellers have been celebrating in the circle of friends. However, many sellers are not cheering for the number of orders ... The overall sales of autumn activities are usually lower than the summer Prime Day. Sellers are well aware of this. When they see the dismal sales, a group of sellers are still hurt by such a cold autumn promotion ↓↓↓

This autumn membership day felt so peaceful. Did something go wrong?

Why is no one discussing Amazon’s Fall Prime Day this year?

It's really bleak! Sales are about the same as usual, but the advertising costs are even higher.

From the start of the event to now, I feel that the traffic this year is really not very good.

Normally there would be a few orders at this time, but today there was not a single order.

We set up an exclusive discount but didn't get a single order. Normally the orders were all fine. It's outrageous.

The sales during the big sale were not as good as usual, so how can we comfort the sales that started to decline from the previous week?

…

According to feedback from Amazon sellers, the atmosphere of this year's autumn promotion is not right. In the past, during this time period, major seller groups would often have heated discussions, but this year it was deserted, with only a few sporadic discussions. How quiet it was!

It is undeniable that the dismal order volume has suppressed the sellers' desire to discuss. It is understood that during this year's Autumn Member Day, a large number of sellers participated in the event, and the advertising was very popular. Not only did the order volume not increase at all, but it was even lower than the usual order volume.

"The $50 handling fee is really wasted." Seller Xiao Wang said that not every Amazon seller can make money during Amazon's autumn sale, but the Amazon platform will definitely make money, and the advertising fees and handling fees have been overwhelming.

Many industry insiders believe that this year's autumn promotion is too "cold", which may be related to the small number of applicants. Many sellers participating in the autumn promotion have the need to clear their inventory, and those who do not want to clear their inventory basically do not sign up for the event.

The seller Xiao Qian did not participate in this promotion. In his opinion, it was a bit outrageous that one had to pay money to sign up for the promotion. Moreover, to put it bluntly, the promotion was to make a loss for the sake of publicity. After the discount, the profit of the product would inevitably be worrying. Between sales volume and profit, he decided to choose the latter.

Amazon's competitors have launched autumn promotions to "divert traffic", and a number of accounts have collapsed during the peak season

There is no doubt that the poor sales of some Amazon sellers’ autumn sales promotions are caused by many factors, one of which cannot be ignored is the influence of the external environment.

There are big sales every year, and there seem to be more of them every year. Consumers have more choices, which will undoubtedly divert traffic to the Amazon platform to a certain extent and intercept the traffic of Amazon sellers.

It is understood that in addition to Amazon's autumn promotion, many of Amazon's competitors such as Target , Walmart, and Wayfair have also launched promotional activities in recent times, and some of the promotional activities on these platforms last longer and the product prices are also very competitive .

Target   : From October 6th to October 12th , Target held its second Target Circle Week this year . The event lasted a total of 7 days. Target Circle Week provided consumers with huge discounts on thousands of products, including the most popular fall items such as Halloween costumes and candy, holiday gifts such as toys and Lego sets, etc. Consumers can enjoy discounts of up to 50%.

Walmart : Walmart held a holiday promotion from October 8 to October 13. Walmart is known as the best "alternative" to Amazon . The two promotions started on the same day. Consumers can compare product prices between the two platforms and choose to place orders on the website with the biggest discount. It is understood that the prices of many products on the Walmart platform are very competitive. For example, a very popular air fryer is 70 US dollars lower than other platforms.

Wayfair : Earlier, home furnishing e-commerce giant Wayfair announced that its Way Day promotion will be held from October 5 to October 7. Originally scheduled to last for three days, the latest news shows that Wayfair has decided to extend its Way Day promotion to October 9 .

More than one million items are participating in the discount program , and consumers can enjoy discounts of up to 80% and free shipping throughout the store .

It is worth noting that Temu is also snatching Amazon's customer base, especially the low-price customer base. SensorTower's data analysis shows that in August, the number of users of Temu's application (APP) ranked third among major e-commerce platforms, reaching 91% of Amazon's number of users. It is expected that the number of users will surpass Amazon within this year. Temu is an emerging cross-border e-commerce platform that has only been established for more than two years, while Amazon is a veteran e-commerce giant that has been established for 30 years. Temu 's development speed should not be underestimated.

Due to various factors, some Amazon sellers may not have as many orders as expected, but they still participated in the autumn promotion. Some sellers were even worse off, as they were unable to participate in the autumn promotion due to various accidents such as shopping cart loss and FBA warehouse explosion.

Shopping cart lost. There have been many cases of shopping cart lost recently. There is nothing wrong with the accounts and FBA links of many sellers, but the shopping cart is lost and the products cannot be sold normally!

Accounts were blocked. The surge in orders and account blocking occurred simultaneously. During the autumn promotion period, many sellers were blocked.

Many sellers lost their accounts due to fake orders. One seller said that his store was closed because of fake orders. He contacted consumers through internal messages to modify their reviews, but was immediately caught by the platform. This year, Amazon has significantly increased its review of internal messages that violate regulations. According to reports, Amazon will carry out at least 2 to 3 rounds of cleanups of internal messages in the next two months. Everyone needs to be careful not to use banned words.

There are also many cases where accounts are blocked due to issues such as video verification, account association, and CPC fraud.

Amazon warehouse explosion. I believe that many sellers have personally experienced the Amazon FBA warehouse explosion incident. At present, many sellers have said that they missed the autumn promotion because of the shortage of transfer warehouses . "I didn't feel the peak season, but Amazon's warehouse has been full! This year's configuration fee has not been reduced at all, but the warehousing efficiency has not improved at all." One of the sellers said helplessly.

Yi Enjun learned that Amazon's warehouse explosion is still continuing. The latest news shows that in the West Coast, ONT8, SBD1, LGB8, VGT2, and IUSP warehouses have stopped making appointments and are seriously pushing back appointments. Among them, ONT8, SBD1, and LGB8 warehouses are seriously overwhelmed. In the US-China region, ABQ2, PSC2, and FTW1 warehouses are seriously overwhelmed, triggering a series of vicious reactions, such as serious rejections, and continuous cancellations and non-releasing appointments. Among them, ABQ2 warehouses have been complained by a large number of sellers, and many people have received notifications that orders may not arrive until January 4, 2025 at the latest. Sellers who have run out of stock are wailing. In the East Coast, ORF2, ABE8, TEB9, CLT2, and AVP1 warehouses are also no longer making appointments, and ABE8 warehouse is the most serious.

According to an insider, the DTM1 warehouse has been closed for renovation and is not expected to reopen until April next year. DPD will work with FBA to determine the re-delivery address. The DTM2 warehouse has also been severely overwhelmed. Amazon has suspended receiving goods without warning. It will be closed this week. There are already a large number of cabinets in stock at 0015, and there may be a risk of overwhelm.

Sellers need to note that after the autumn promotions on Amazon and other platforms are over, there will be many more promotions to come. Given that the FBA warehouse explosion problem has not been improved yet, sellers need to plan stocking and other matters reasonably.

Forecast for the upcoming peak season: Sellers trade profits for sales, new trends emerge in online shopping

There will be intensive promotions in the future, and cross-border sellers will continue to usher in the busiest holiday shopping season of the year.

Relevant institutions predict that with the approach of important promotional periods such as Black Friday, Cyber ​​Monday and Christmas season in Q4, leading companies are expected to maintain high growth. In Q4 of 2023, the revenue of Anker Innovations, LDK and Zhiou Technology will account for 32-33% of the annual revenue. The importance of the holiday shopping season at the end of the year in the overall revenue of sellers is evident.

Consulting firm Deloitte predicts that total U.S. online and physical retail sales will reach $1.59 trillion between November 2024 and January 2025 , an increase of 2.3% to 3.3%.

According to Adobe data , online sales are expected to grow 8.4% to a record $240.8 billion, which is undoubtedly a significant increase compared to the $221.8 billion in 2023 .

Cyber ​​Week (a five-day period that includes Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday) is expected to drive $40.6 billion in online spending, up 7.0% year-over-year and accounting for 16.9% of the entire holiday season.

According to the forecast, Cyber ​​Monday will still be the biggest shopping day of the season and the year, driving a record $13.2 billion in spending, up 6.1% year-on-year. Meanwhile, online sales on Thanksgiving and Black Friday will also grow significantly, reaching $6.1 billion and $10.8 billion, respectively , up 8.7% and 9.9% year-on-year, respectively , both of which grew faster than Cyber ​​Monday.

Currently, many retailers such as Amazon are optimistic about a strong holiday shopping season, which has been reflected in the retailers' increased hiring plans .

Overall, U.S. retailers expect to add 520,000 new jobs in the final quarter of this year. Amazon will hire 250,000 people, the same as last year, and Target will recruit about 100,000 seasonal employees, also the same as last year.

The coming period is a great opportunity for cross-border e-commerce sellers to have a surge in orders, but sellers need to note that, although a surge in orders is certainly gratifying, for many people, this may mean exchanging real profits, and not all products will have good sales growth during the holiday season.

Adobe predicts that products such as electronics, clothing and home furnishings will continue to show good sales momentum this holiday season, and may account for more than half of online spending. Among them, sales of electronic products are $55.1 billion, an increase of 8.5% year-on-year, sales of clothing products are $43.9 billion, an increase of 5.8% year-on-year, and sales of furniture/bedding are $28.4 billion, an increase of 4.2% year-on-year. In addition, groceries remain a high-growth category, expected to reach $20.8 billion in revenue, an increase of 8.8% year-on-year, and sales of cosmetics will reach $10.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 7.3%.

Many popular products will continue to be heavily discounted this holiday season, with electronics expected to be discounted 30% off list price (up from 31% in 2023) and toys to be discounted 27% (up from 28% in 2023) across the 18 categories Adobe tracks. Televisions are expected to be discounted an all-time high of 24% ( up from 23% in 2023 ), while sporting goods are expected to be discounted 20% ( up from 18% in 2023 ).

Discount promotions have always been a reliable driver of e-commerce growth. Statistics show that during previous promotions ( Prime Day, President's Day, Memorial Day and Labor Day), for every 1% price reduction, consumer shopping demand increased by 1.025% over the previous year, which drove an increase of $305 million in online spending. For this year's upcoming holiday season, consumers will be more inclined to buy cheaper goods . Months of inflation have made them extremely sensitive to prices. It happens that the discounts on online goods are still strong this year, so many consumers said they would increase their shopping budgets on e-commerce platforms. According to RetailMeNot's latest consumer survey, American consumers plan to spend an average of $1,069 on holiday shopping in 2024, 14% higher than in 2023.

With the development and changes of cross-border e-commerce, some new trends have emerged in online sales in recent years, such as:

Consumers start shopping earlier during the peak season : According to data from the National Retail Federation ( NRF), 47% of American consumers start shopping for Halloween before October. This figure is higher than 37% five years ago and 32% in 2014. Young people aged 25-34 have always been the main consumer group for Halloween, and this year they are more motivated to shop earlier, with about 56% of consumers having started shopping before October.

Except for Halloween, the consumption trend of the entire holiday shopping season shows an early trend. According to a data from Walmart, consumers still pay attention to prices and plan ahead to maximize their holiday budgets , with nearly 50% of American shoppers starting their holiday shopping as early as August or September this year.

Amazon and other large retailers launched promotional activities in October, which is the main reason for the early trend of the entire holiday shopping season. In order to adapt to consumer behavior and a longer holiday season, sellers need to plan promotional activities reasonably in the next four months, and seize the opportunity of explosive orders during the peak season by providing competitive prices and preparing inventory reasonably.

Consumers are increasingly shopping on mobile: Consumers are keen to shop on their phones, which is expected to drive mobile sales this year to $128.1 billion, up 12.8% year-over-year, accounting for 53.2% of total online sales. This marks the second consecutive year that mobile devices have accounted for more than half of holiday sales. Adobe predicts that by 2025, mobile shopping will "continue to surpass" desktop shopping.

Shopping basket size on mobile devices is 32% smaller than on desktop, which brings challenges and opportunities to sellers . We need to improve the mobile shopping experience to maximize sales .

The main factor driving consumer purchases is paid marketing: Among major marketing channels, paid search remains the main driver of retail sales ( 28% of online revenue between January 1 and September 3, 2024) and is expected to grow 1% to 3% during the holiday season.

Generative AI is driving the consumer shopping journey : Traffic to retail sites from generative AI-powered chatbots doubled between January 1 and August 31, 2024. Direct referrals (consumers clicking on links to retail sites) also increased dramatically, eight times higher than in 2023. Consumers are expected to see a significant increase in using generative AI tools to shop during this holiday shopping season . Adobe’s survey shows that seven in ten consumers who shopped using generative AI feel it enhanced their experience, and two in five plan to use it during the holidays. Additionally, 20% of respondents turned to generative AI to find the best deals.

Sellers also need to keep abreast of the latest shopping trends in cross-border e-commerce and respond in a timely manner to increase sales.

How are your sales in this autumn promotion? Is it a big hit, a medium hit, a small hit, or below expectations? Are you confident about the upcoming peak season promotion? Welcome to leave a message to discuss.

Amazon Platform