Two sisters once made millions of dollars a year working for Amazon, but now their revenue has been cut in half and they are considering changing careers

As the third quarter of this year draws to a close, Amazon sellers can roughly estimate the overall revenue level for this year. However, judging from the feedback from many sellers, this year does not seem to be a "good year".

So far, many Amazon sellers have complained that the decline in orders this year is really serious, and some senior sellers are even considering whether to continue working for Amazon full-time.

Sisters once sold millions of dollars a year, but now they are considering giving up Amazon

The decline in order volume is undoubtedly a heavy blow to Amazon sellers, and for Amazon entrepreneurs who rely entirely on Amazon for their livelihood, the blow is even more devastating.

Recently, a pair of sisters who work full-time for Amazon fell into anxiety about the sharp decline in orders. According to the sisters, 2024 is really too difficult. They made a 7-digit performance last year, but this year it dropped by 50%.

After some analysis, the sisters still couldn't figure out why the order volume dropped so drastically. "We have launched new products and the inventory level is also very good. What went wrong?"

It is understood that the sisters have always been working on Amazon business full-time, but now facing dismal performance, the two have begun to consider whether to give up Amazon and find other ways out, or stop working full-time and just treat it as an extra income.

After sharing their situation on the seller forum, the sisters quickly received responses from a large number of sellers. Some sellers believed that in the current economic environment, it would not work to put all their assets on a single platform, and perhaps they could try to deploy on multiple platforms to reduce risks.

Some sellers also said that Amazon should lower the commission of the platform. Now Amazon has no big advantage over other competing platforms. If the platform can not charge commission, it will be good for consumers and sellers.

Another veteran seller who has been in the business for eight years admitted that this year was the worst year for him since he started selling on Amazon, and he still hasn’t figured out the reason.

In addition, some local sellers blamed the decline in order volume on Chinese sellers, believing that the influx of Chinese sellers took away their orders, and that Chinese sellers' products seemed more attractive than theirs, and that consumers would give priority to placing orders from Chinese sellers even at the same price.

Obviously, this statement is complete nonsense. Experienced sellers are well aware that Chinese sellers are basically at the bottom of the contempt chain in the eyes of foreign consumers. If it were not for the strong supply chain support and the brand effect accumulated over the years, it would be really difficult for Chinese sellers to gain a share of the overseas market.

However, considering the overall situation of Amazon, these US sellers are not complaining without reason. According to the feedback from some sellers this year, it can be found that the decline in order volume does exist.

Orders and traffic continue to decline, and mid-level sellers are the hardest hit

In the second half of this year, the order volume of many sellers continued to decline, among which the decline in order volume of mid-level sellers was the most obvious.

Some industry insiders believe that the decline in orders may be related to the overall traffic of the platform. With the rise of platforms such as Temu and SHEIN, Amazon's traffic has been snatched away, resulting in the overall order volume of sellers being completely incomparable to last year.

In July this year , a group of sellers experienced a record low in sales, and many buyers even had zero orders in a single day. Many sellers realized that Amazon's head effect has become more and more obvious.

A survey shows that due to the high advertising costs, Amazon may no longer be suitable for small and medium-sized sellers. As the platform has developed to this day, the number of merchants has been oversaturated. If small sellers want to be seen, they must pay more advertising fees to grab limited traffic. Now, if you want to start a business on Amazon, you have to invest more than one million yuan to start.

"If you want to do business with Amazon now, you have to pay a configuration fee for shipping, a storage fee for storing the products in the warehouse, a long-term storage fee if the products are unsaleable, a low inventory fee if they sell quickly, and an abandonment fee if you don't want to buy them anymore. At the end of the year, all the money has been paid to Amazon," complained a seller.

A seller found during a review that his operating costs had increased three or four times from 2021 to now, and now even if he spent a lot of money, he might not be able to promote a new product, and some of the previous operating strategies are no longer effective.

On the other hand, due to the decline in traffic and order volume, sellers have to start raising prices. Currently, competition in various categories on Amazon is fierce, and price wars are raging. One seller complained: "I have been selling products for $39.99, but now my competitors have raised the price to $13.99. I don't know what they are trying to achieve!"

In addition, as sellers are competing internally, Amazon has also introduced new policies this year. The newly added warehouse configuration fees and low inventory level fees have made many sellers shudder. One seller lamented: "The fees are getting higher and higher, the prices are getting lower and lower, and the profits are getting thinner and thinner. It's getting harder and harder every day!"

For Amazon, it seems that what it wants to retain are only the powerful top sellers, and the remaining small and medium-sized sellers are not of great significance to it.

Amazon may have entered the "enterprise-level" competition landscape

Some sellers have previously expressed their view that Amazon has entered into competition among enterprise-level hot-selling products, which means that the survival space for ordinary individual sellers may become smaller and smaller in the future.

The so-called enterprise-level competition has several main characteristics. First, most of the sellers on the platform will focus on hot-selling products and single products, rather than casting a wide net and relying on channel dividends to reap sales.

Secondly, if sellers do not become top sellers, it will be difficult to make a profit because they cannot enjoy stable traffic. However, there are only a few top sellers in each category, and they are all big sellers with rich experience, strong strength, mature supply chain and sufficient funds. Therefore, it is difficult for ordinary small sellers to challenge them.

On the other hand, the speculative product selection that small and medium-sized sellers are good at is becoming increasingly difficult. Even if they occasionally select one or two products with high profits and low competition, they will be equalized by other competitors within a month and then fall into head-on competition. Moreover, products with too low barriers to entry have no long-term operating value.

Overall, the cost-effectiveness for small and medium-sized sellers to enter Amazon is indeed not high. Without years of industry experience, or sufficient funds and supply chain support, blindly rushing into Amazon may end up giving away money in vain.

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