Are Amazon sellers making money quietly?

Everyone is saying that Amazon is getting colder every year, and sellers also claim to have no orders. But judging from the public data of the platform and big sellers, perhaps everyone is still “making a fortune in silence.”

Sellers' order volume drops sharply? Amazon's order volume increases quarter by quarter

During the peak season at the end of last year, cross-border sellers collectively suffered from low sales, and various complaints could be seen on various social media platforms:

"——Who is blowing up the order? It's not me;

——The money earned in the first half of the year was paid back during the peak season ;

——What happened? Who stole my order ?

——The big boss with big orders, please guide me;

—The volume is colder than ever before ;

—— The temperature is 28°, but the heart is minus 50°;

——It is really disheartening to see the sales chart with no ups and downs;

..."

At the same time, the higher return rate than in previous years is also overwhelming some sellers. "I have to sell goods at a loss every day. I lose ten times the money I earn . I really can't hold on any longer. "

Last year, eMarketer predicted that U.S. e-commerce return volumes will remain higher than before the pandemic until at least 2026 , while total U.S. retail returns will reach $627.34 billion in 2023 , and the number of returners may grow to 113 million by 2026.

The peak season return rate of sellers also verifies the development of this trend. A seller once told Yien.com that during Halloween last year, 2,000 orders for a single holiday product were returned. Another seller said that the return rate has increased by 6% compared to the past.

Not only in the fourth quarter, many sellers said that the market conditions for the whole year of 2023 will be worse than before. The losses of big sellers such as Youkeshu and Kuaijietong in each quarter seem to confirm this situation.

But strangely, Extensiv came to the opposite conclusion by tracking data from multiple US e-commerce platforms including Amazon.

Taking Amazon, which is of greatest concern to sellers, as an example, data shows that in the fourth quarter of 2023, the order volume of Amazon's third-party sellers increased by 65% ​​year-on-year , 34% compared with the previous quarter , and 65% compared with the same period last year.

During the hottest Thanksgiving and Black Friday promotions alone, Amazon's order volume increased by 111% year-on-year, far outpacing other platforms in the US e-commerce market.

Amazon's official data also shows that between November 17 and 27, 2023, global consumers purchased more than 1 billion items on its platform, of which more than 50% of sales were contributed by third-party sellers .

In addition, during Cyber ​​Monday, the number of orders on Amazon increased by 63% year-on-year and 18% week-on-week.

Comparing with other quarters, Extensiv data also pointed out that in the first quarter of 2023, the average order volume of Amazon's third-party sellers increased by 17% year-on-year, and increased by 44% year-on-year in the second quarter; the third quarter increased by 21% compared with the second quarter, and increased by 76% year-on-year compared with the same period in 2022.

In addition, as the leader in the US e-commerce market, Amazon's share of e-commerce sales in the United States reached 53% in the third quarter of 2023, up from 48% in the same period of 2022, and sales also increased by 19% year-on-year.

Various data show that many sellers still got a share of the pie on Amazon's cross-border platform in 2023.

In the fourth quarter alone, third-party sellers accounted for 60% of Amazon’s total sales.

Marketplace Pulse data also shows that new sellers are still pouring into Amazon, and there is no obvious sign of sellers fleeing the platform.

In 2023, more than half of Amazon US's GMV will be contributed by sellers who have been on the platform for more than five years . In addition, about 5% of Amazon US 's overall sales come from sellers from ten years ago , and about 5% come from new sellers in 2022 .

The number of new sellers emerging may also be verified by Amazon's specific revenue data. In the fourth quarter of last year alone, third-party sellers contributed $343.4 billion to Amazon's various services, a 20% increase from $28.67 billion in the same period of 2022.

Several big sellers have announced a surge in net profits, and some big sellers are also fighting for Hong Kong stocks

Recently, several major retailers announced their performance forecasts for the full year 2023.

Song:

Thanks to the dual-drive of smart home business and overseas warehouse business, Leckey expects to achieve huge growth in profitability in 2023. Specifically, last year its net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was between 610 million yuan and 650 million yuan , while in 2022 its net profit was 219 million yuan, which means that in one year, its net profit increased by 178.88%-197.17% .

Taking the non-net profit as an example, the expected profit is 230 million yuan to 250 million yuan. Last year, the figure was only 104 million yuan, an increase of 121.26% to 140.50% year-on-year.

Not only is the overseas warehouse business growing faster and faster, but Leckey's own-brand business is also maintaining sustained positive growth. In the first half of 2023 alone, the revenue of Leckey's ergonomic workstation series products reached 1.051 billion yuan, accounting for 71.29% of the main business revenue (excluding overseas warehouse revenue) .

The market penetration rate of its lifting table products is also increasing. In the first half of last year alone, more than 620,000 sets of core linear drive lifting system products were sold , bringing Leckey 924 million yuan in revenue.

Good pets:

Through full-channel coverage and penetration online and offline , Guaibao Pet's multiple own- brands have accumulated a group of loyal consumers, especially the sales of high-end segmented product categories represented by the " BARF Series " , which have seen rapid growth and their share in overall revenue has increased significantly.

In addition, due to the increase in exchange rates and the decrease in costs of raw materials, the profitability of its overseas OEM business increased last year.

Guaibao Pets was only listed in August last year , and now it has handed in a report card with a significant increase in net profit. According to the performance forecast, in 2023, Guaibao Pets' net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies will reach 410 million yuan to 440 million yuan, an increase of 53.63% to 64.87% from 267 million yuan in 2022 .

The non-GAAP net profit reached 403 million yuan to 433 million yuan, an increase of 54.37% to 65.86% compared with 261 million yuan in 2022 .

Super Huakai Yibai also announced its performance last year, with net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies reaching 320 million yuan to 355 million yuan , an increase of 47.99% to 64.18% from 216 million yuan in 2022 ; non-net profit reached 288 million yuan to 323 million yuan, an increase of 45.06% to 62.69% from 199 million yuan in 2022 .

Jihong Co., Ltd., which has been in the A-share market for a long time , is preparing to join the Hong Kong stock market. On January 18, Jihong Co., Ltd. announced that in order to further improve the company's capital strength and enhance the company's core competitiveness, it will issue overseas listed foreign shares ( H shares) and apply for listing on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange .

Although the 2023 annual performance forecast has not been released, some securities institutions estimate that the average net profit of Jihong Shares in 2023 will be 418 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 127.36%. In the first three quarters, its revenue exceeded 4.9 billion yuan, and its net profit increased by 61.41% compared with the same period in 2022 .

"Everyone is saying that there are no orders and life is miserable, but it may be more because they ate too much in the past and are too full that they seem 'poor' now. The cross-border business is still very profitable," a small and medium-sized seller told Ennet.

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