Orders fell by more than half, Amazon Black Friday was a flop

During the Black Friday promotion on the US site, only a few sellers received a surge in orders. Many people offered large discounts, but the orders did not increase but fell. They joked that they could not even make back the storage fees and faced continuous losses. Because they did not want to pay high storage fees, some peers chose to clear their inventory, but the bulk inventory clearance led to the deactivation of a large number of accounts. In the end, they did not make any money, but lost their accounts!

Orders are cut in half, is the coldest Black Friday coming?

Following the European site, more sellers on Amazon's US site sent in Black Friday battle reports. Compared with the European site, the situation on the US site is still bleak, with only a few sellers seeing an increase in orders.

According to feedback from Amazon sellers, most people's Black Friday orders did not increase, and some even fell by one-third or more than half . Sellers invested a lot of advertising budgets, but everything else exploded except orders.

"I have never seen such a bad Black Friday. The price has been falling from August to November. Women's winter clothes cannot be sold even at a discount. The refund rate is scary, the advertising fee is scary, and the funds are scared!" said a clothing seller. Some sellers also said that they encountered fake Black Friday, with fewer orders and lower profits. Big promotions mean losing money. Some peers even asserted: This will be the worst Black Friday in history ! More sellers on Amazon are as follows:

“——Sales volume directly decreased by one third;

——Sales volume is two-thirds less than usual, and advertising expenses have doubled. This event is worse than not happening.

——It’s really bleak. The sales volume is low, but the discount is so big. It’s better to shorten the time and not lose so much.

——Advertising costs doubled, orders halved, pure injustice to Amazon to give money;

——After a series of aggressive operations , discounts were given as low as possible, advertising and budget were increased, but in the morning, the orders were even less than usual ;

——The number of orders is not as much as the same day last week, and I am already disappointed ;

——For the same ranking, the order volume is only half of the usual, which is a failure ;     

——New products are sold at zero price directly;

——After the member discount, the sales and ranking dropped, and the ACOS was very ugly;

——It didn’t feel like Black Friday. Sales were half of what they usually were, but a lot of money was spent on advertising.

——Sales volume is not as good as the previous few days, there is no splash at all, and the holiday activities are becoming more and more empty. "

An industry insider said: "I have been tracking a category for a long time, including more than a dozen local American products. Judging from the number of reviews, the fluctuations in the past few days are no different from usual."

While most sellers saw a drop in orders, a few sellers still had a bumper harvest. One of our peers saw orders increase three times compared to usual. Another peer also saw a small boom, and is confidently looking forward to another boom on Black Friday, Cyber ​​Monday and Christmas.

Sellers without orders received comfort from their peers: Black Friday has not yet arrived, this is just a warm-up for Black Friday, the real Black Friday will be on Friday, and the data of previous years can also give us a glimpse of it. Cyber ​​Monday is also on Monday, and the specific performance depends on the performance of Black Friday on the 24th and Cyber ​​Monday on the 27th. This is the last chance this year.

Regarding the current situation that Black Friday is not popular, an industry insider summarized the reasons: 1. This year, Amazon was creative. Before Black Friday, it held a big autumn sale + Black Friday warm-up. After the platform was flooded with orders twice, Black Friday was not popular anymore; 2. This year , Temu is targeting Amazon, and it is targeting Amazon's traffic on Black Friday, giving each person a $200 coupon + 3 products of their choice ; 3. The United States continues to raise interest rates, and consumption is downgrading.

Storage fees during peak season are as high as $70,000, but sellers say they can’t make it back

In the view of some sellers, the ongoing Black Friday promotion, apart from the peak season storage fees and FBA surcharges, does not feel the arrival of the peak season. 3 times the storage fee + thousands of dollars in BD + high inventory + discounted prices + dismal order volume = continuous losses.

It is understood that from October to December every year, Amazon charges about three times the usual storage fee, which is also the peak sales period for cross-border e-commerce. Due to the current bleak order situation, many sellers are trapped in the dilemma of being charged high storage fees.

One seller was helpless: " Storage fees have increased 2.8 times, and I am losing money directly . " Another seller was in the same situation, and was charged more than $9,000 in storage fees, which he could not make back at all. Some sellers also collapsed. Their current sales are not as good as in July, October, or even as usual. They have so much stock, but can only bear the high storage fees.

Many sellers were charged unexpectedly high storage fees. Some were charged more than $6,000, some were charged $12,000, some were charged more than $20,000 , and some were charged as high as $70,000.

"When I calculated the profits a few days ago, the storage fees made my eyes go dark." A colleague lamented.

In today's situation, Amazon sellers are facing rising operating costs such as storage fees, delivery fees, high advertising fees, etc. during the peak season. Many people lament that Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday are just working for Amazon.

Bulk clearance caused a large number of accounts to be deactivated

Faced with high storage fees, some sellers will use the Black Friday event to clear inventory, or choose to clear inventory at a low price after the event. It is worth noting that there are also hidden risks in clearing inventory at present, and improper operation may lead to account closure.

The seller joked: "I don't want to pay for warehousing anymore, just clear the inventory with one click and start! Amazon: No, you want to."

Recently, many sellers have had their accounts deactivated due to bulk clearance . The emails received by the sellers show that your Amazon seller account has been deactivated due to violation of Article 3 of the "Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement" and the "Inappropriate Inventory Investigation Policy".

A seller had two accounts that were selling products normally. The account had no claims, no fraud, and no performance. The ASIN had been sold at 20.99 since it was launched, and it had been selling normally for about a year. Because it entered this category too late, there were still several thousand stocks left that could not be sold. Because he was afraid of being charged high storage fees, he sold the remaining goods in batches at 20.99. The goods in both accounts were sold normally, and he thought he could wait for the payment, but he received an email that the account was deactivated.

This is not an isolated case. Some sellers said that they cleared out the unsold goods last month, but received a red flag within a few days . This was the first time they knew that clearing out the goods would also result in the account being cleared. Another person had two accounts receive notices of suspension for Article 3 and the "inappropriate inventory investigation policy" in October.

According to people familiar with the matter, many of these accounts that were deactivated for clearing stock were normal clearance accounts, and some sellers were deactivated because they raised prices to clear stock themselves.

Amazon banned accounts because some sellers tried to take advantage of the platform by selling goods in bulk, but failed . They sold goods worth a few cents, priced them a little higher than normal, and then sold them in bulk quickly with high profits. This behavior infringed on the interests of normal sellers.

After the account was suspended, a seller started to appeal, saying that it had been almost a month since the appeal was filed and relevant information had been provided, but it was still unsuccessful. After checking the cause of death, the summary was that the product was sold too expensively. When asked, the manager also said that the price issue should be explained in the appeal.

During this Black Friday peak season, many platforms started big promotions in advance. Amazon's traffic was suppressed, sellers' orders were bleak, storage fees were very high, and bulk clearance was required with extra caution.

Meiya

Black Friday

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