Sales dropped 85% as Amazon's new rules hit sellers hard

Amazon’s new coupon rules in the United States have a far-reaching impact on sellers.

A large number of sellers have been suffering from the new regulations. Many sellers' coupons have been reporting errors; some sellers have doubts about the current price and the crossed-out price under the coupon; and some sellers have more than 200 ASINs affected, causing a sharp decline in sales...

In the view of some sellers, Amazon's policy makes sales increasingly difficult, which may have some counterproductive effects and eventually reflect on the platform.

Under the new rules of Amazon coupons, sellers' sales have dropped sharply

On March 12, Amazon's new coupon rules came into effect in the US. More than a month later, sellers are still complaining about it. Recently, many peers have reported that there are widespread errors in coupon reporting, and it is difficult to clarify various pricing issues under the new rules.

A seller said that after the new coupon rules were introduced in March, coupons have been reporting errors, and some products have not shown the list price strike-through price, and they don’t know why. Some products showed the typical price after the price reduction, but the typical price disappeared after half a month, and they still can’t find the reason.

"Ever since the new coupon requirements on the US site came into effect, I can't figure out the prices. I'm afraid that my operations will result in coupon errors," said another seller.

Various problems with coupons have appeared since they came into effect and have continued to this day , causing trouble for many sellers.

"The new coupon rules are absolutely invalid. My coupon keeps showing an error. I submitted an explanation document to Amazon on March 15 to prove that I met the policy, but I have only received useless replies and error messages. This problem has not been resolved yet.

I have been using 10% coupons on multiple ASINs, and the prices have not changed for years. All ASINs have sales history and reference prices, and 100% meet the new coupon rules. However, currently 209 out of 235 ASINs have coupon errors and cannot be used normally because "no reference price available".

I looked at my top 20 ASINs, and they all met the new coupon standards, but they still couldn't be used. Because of these coupon errors, my sales dropped 85%. If Amazon doesn't fix the problematic new coupon rules, it will be a disaster for me and many sellers who haven't realized this problem yet. "Seller Wang Ke is helpless.

Like Wang Ke, many colleagues have reported problems with coupons.

“- Amazon does not seem to factor in the ASIN sale price with coupons, so all my product coupons are reported incorrectly. For example, the list price on Amazon is $28 and the sale price is $24, which is the price the customer purchased it at and the price shown on the detail page. However, with the 5% coupon, Amazon compares it to the $28 price and says the final price after factoring in the coupon is too high.

- We have the same issue, coupons are reported incorrectly and cannot be used, and Amazon's suggestion to increase the discount seems to be based on the sale price. I tried to get some help through seller support but was unsuccessful, and I don't think they know how to calculate it either.

- The price on the product detail page is $29.90, which is the sale price (the price the customer purchased it at). After applying the 5% coupon, the final price will be $28.40, which meets the requirements for using the coupon. It calculates the discount based on the regular price/list price of $34.95, which is not the price the customer sees on the detail page! So it keeps giving an error when trying to use the coupon.”

Multiple sellers are experiencing the same issue, with some removing the sale price and using the sale price as the list price and it still doesn’t work. So sellers are concluding that there is some kind of glitch in Amazon’s current coupon system , as this is not a one-person issue, but a shared problem that seller support cannot resolve.

New coupon policy may backfire

It is understood that after the new Amazon coupon rules are introduced, coupons will be subject to new pricing requirements. The use of coupons requires meeting two conditions. If the price or discount of the product does not meet the requirements, the coupon for the product cannot be used normally .

First, you need to provide a discount percentage between the minimum discount (5%) and the maximum discount (50%);

Second, the product needs to have a sales history to be eligible for a coupon, and the promotional price should be lower than its "historical selling price" or recent lowest price.

Under the new policy, many sellers are stuck on discounts. Generally speaking, once there is a list price for a product, Amazon will calculate the discount based on this price and verify the discount with the actual selling price. For example, the list price of a product is $500, and later the seller's actual selling price is $400. When making a coupon, Amazon's rule requires at least a 5% discount from the actual selling price, to $380, but the price is calculated based on the list price, which means that at least a 24% discount coupon must be set, 500* (1-24%) = 380 US dollars. But if a 24% coupon is set, the buyer's actual purchase price is 400* (1-24%) = 304 US dollars. So Amazon is asking sellers to repeatedly provide discounts.

Many sellers believe that the logic of tracing back historical list prices is unreasonable, and many people are unable to solve the problem by deleting the original price, so there will be continuous errors, which will affect everyone's sales.

In the opinion of seller Li Xiang, Amazon's new coupon policy is counterproductive . Amazon wants to use the new coupon policy to prevent sellers from artificially raising the manufacturer's suggested retail price, but the effectiveness of this practice is questionable.

Amazon aims to curb sellers from manipulating prices by comparing them to historical prices of sales . However, by limiting sellers from offering discounts before they have established a sales history, it deprives sellers of their most powerful weapon when launching new products .

Many brands impose a suggested retail price on sellers but allow coupons , and Amazon sellers lack the ability to offer deep discounts to lure customers in. Independent online retailers often offer 10% or 15% "first-time buyer" discounts to attract customers , while Amazon sellers rely entirely on product coupons.

Given this disparity, Amazon’s sellers are at a disadvantage when competing against independent sellers, who can offer deep discounts to attract customers.

Other peers agreed with this view, with one saying: "I don't know who made these policies, nor who approved them. Sellers are fed up with these time-wasting policies , Amazon is making it harder and harder for sellers to sell. This will definitely reflect on them soon . "

Amazon is just a marketplace, not the owner of the goods, the seller is. So the seller should have independent decision-making power over the price, not Amazon. Amazon's responsibility should just be to display all the listings and let the customer decide where to buy from.

As for this new regulation, if sellers do not use it because the rules are complicated and they do not know how to calculate, then Amazon will also lose a lot of revenue due to this policy. It is also worth mentioning that other e-commerce platforms have also been competing with Amazon, and some are doing better and better. Perhaps more and more sellers will turn to other e-commerce platforms.

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