Are the top sellers on Amazon.com contracted by Chinese?

The Spring Festival has passed, and most workers have returned to their workstations to start the new year. At the beginning of the year, many people will start planning for the new year. In the cross-border circle, there may be another wave of resignation and entrepreneurship.

In January this year , many cross-border companies summarized their 2023 performance, indicating that both revenue and net profit had declined, and the performance forecasts of some listed and popular companies also released relatively negative information. However, many cross-border practitioners still said that "a lean camel is bigger than a horse". The turbulent and rapid growth of cross-border business for more than 10 years has only gradually become flat in the past two years. For entrants, there is still gold to be mined here.

As for the platform, Yien.com learned that Amazon is still the first choice for most new entrants.

After working in a cross-border enterprise for two years, a group of newcomers started to start Amazon

“ At the moment, Amazon is still the most stable platform among all platforms , ” said Sofie , who is preparing to start her own cross-border e-commerce business .

After the Spring Festival, the first thing Sofie did when she returned to the company was to resign.

In 2022, after working in a foreign trade company for a year, Sofie switched to a cross-border enterprise to do operations. "In fact, the foreign trade factory where I worked also tried to sell goods on cross-border e-commerce platforms. At that time, I was responsible for the operation of the cross-border e-commerce platform, but unfortunately we couldn't do it. However, I felt that selling goods directly on the platform was more feasible, so I switched to a cross-border company afterwards."

According to Sofie , she has been responsible for the operation of the Amazon platform for the two years she has worked in a cross-border e-commerce company, from an operations assistant to an operations specialist to the head of the operations team. She believes that she has gained a certain degree of confidence in the operation of the Amazon platform.

" If you want to start your own business like Amazon, it's best to find a company to work for first and learn for a while. If you don't know anything and have no practical experience, you will usually hit a wall. "

Sofie , who had gained experience , began to plan her own business. In her opinion, cross-border business was still very attractive.

In 2023, although the performance of Sofie 's company declined by 10% compared with 2022, it still exceeded 120 million US dollars. And with the various actions of the "Four Little Dragons Going Global" in the past two years, Sofie believes that cross-border business is her "inevitable choice".

Like Sofie , Eva, who used to work in a cross-border enterprise , also resigned at the end of the year. "There are no 'old hands' in the cross-border circle. If you want to stay in this circle, you will eventually have to start your own business."

Since 2022, Eva has been laid off three times and became a member of the army of unemployed. The pessimistic trend of economic development made Eva deeply feel that the "age limit for cross-border people has been brought forward."

Repeated unemployment and approaching the age of 30 have forced Eva to find a new way out of her anxiety. “Although starting my own business may not necessarily lead to good results, I have to give it a try.”

Having previous work experience made Eva more confident than a newbie in starting a business on Amazon. "I have experience in listing, selecting products , comparing prices , various platform rules , and invisible handling of problems . I also have start-up capital. Everything is ready. I just need a favorable wind. "

Coincidentally, Eva 's platform of choice is also Amazon.

"Why not Temu or other platforms? Since its launch in 2022, it has rapidly expanded to nearly 50 sites, and the threshold is not high. Many sellers can achieve a monthly sales of 10,000 orders. In terms of marketing, Temu is also very generous. This year, it returned to the US Super Bowl to advertise. There is no need to worry about orders, right?"

But Eva has a different opinion. " Temu is not suitable for a novice like me who has no factory resources . The platform may be able to place orders quickly and increase sales quickly, but running too fast will make you feel insecure. And I am more familiar with Amazon. In markets such as North America and Europe, I believe that no platform can run ahead of Amazon . "

There are many examples like Sofie and Eva who quit their jobs to start their own businesses in the cross-border circle, and most of the entrants still choose the cross-border leader - Amazon.

Among the top sellers on Amazon US , Chinese sellers account for nearly 50%

" Seven out of 10 sellers on Amazon are Chinese ," said a Chinese seller.

Amazon also acknowledges that Chinese sellers do occupy an important position in its market .

In its annual Form 10-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC), Amazon mentioned Chinese sellers in a new warning about the risks of its international business :

“Because Chinese sellers account for a significant portion of our third-party seller services and advertising revenues, and Chinese suppliers provide a significant portion of the components and finished goods on the Amazon marketplace, our operating results could be adversely affected by regulatory and trade restrictions, data protection and cybersecurity laws, economic factors, geopolitical events, security concerns or other factors that negatively impact Chinese sellers and suppliers.”

In 2023, Amazon's third-party seller service revenue was US$140 billion . I believe everyone has a rough estimate of how much Chinese sellers contributed to this.

In recent years, the scale of Amazon's third-party seller market has continued to grow, which has also driven Amazon's global GMV to a record high in 2023.

According to Marketplace Pulse data, Amazon's global GMV totaled $700 billion last year , up 11% year-on-year , of which third-party market sales reached $480 billion, up 13% year-on-year.

Amazon’s GMV has more than doubled since 2019 (increased by $365 billion), with the third-party marketplace contributing approximately 75% of the increase in GMV.

In addition, according to a report by market research firm Marketplace Pulse , Chinese sellers account for nearly 50% of the total number of top sellers on Amazon's US site and nearly half of Amazon's third-party GMV .

Since 2016 , Chinese sellers’ share of the U.S. market has been growing steadily , driving Amazon’s third-party sellers’ market share to grow by an average of 150% per year .

Therefore, Marketplace Pulse believes that the above Amazon risk warning shows that "China is no longer just a manufacturing source , but also a direct participant in Western retail, technology, entertainment and other fields ."

Like Amazon, Meta is also frank about the importance of Chinese sellers. It is reported that Chinese sellers account for 10% of Facebook and Instagram advertising volume, or US$13.69 billion, while this proportion was 6.5% in 2021 and 2022.

Why do Chinese sellers choose Amazon?

Amazon has many competitors in North America and Europe, including Walmart, eBay, SHEIN, AliExpress, Temu, etc. Some people say that "every year there are a group of new Internet e-commerce companies that want to 'kill' Amazon", but the results are obvious to all.

Google also entered the e-commerce industry, but "failed and withdrew" in 2023. Walmart, which can be compared, is not a big threat to Amazon. eBay focuses on areas such as auto parts, SHEIN is still mainly fast fashion, and Temu still has many product quality reputation issues on the consumer side.

In the United States, Amazon alone accounts for 40% of the e-commerce market share . " When it comes to e-commerce in the United States, Amazon is everywhere ."

Based on the above, it is not difficult to understand why most entrepreneurs who enter the cross-border e-commerce industry choose Amazon as their first choice.

But starting a business on Amazon is not an easy task. “ Starting a business on Amazon depends half on money and half on luck. If your product selection is suddenly popular, you will have good fortune. If your product selection is always mediocre, you may have to be prepared to lose money .”

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