The black technology bosses in the category were cleared out! A large number of sellers "turned from black to white"

Black hat play is like a " beautiful bubble "... it bursts with a single poke.

On the Amazon platform, which is full of interest struggles, the collision of different product promotion ideas has spawned various gameplays and contradictions. Simply put, we can divide all gameplays into white hat operations and black hat operations. Some people never believe in product selection, but only believe in fake orders and black hat operations; some people only believe in products, never fake orders, and stick to white hat operations. 2021 is an important turning point in the black-and-white controversy. The aggressive Amazon account ban wave almost brought a repressive victory to white hat operations.

Under the platform's drastic reforms, white hat sellers applauded, black hat sellers were terrified of "brushing", and a large number of sellers "turned from black to white"! The platform's wave of account bans has made the Amazon ecosystem relatively good throughout 2022.

However, this year, sellers have felt that all kinds of black technologies are making a comeback ...

Black technology is rampant in the category, and sellers' orders are plummeting

More than one Amazon seller has found that in 2023, there are more and more listings that engage in illegal activities such as fake orders!

Different from the simple and crude characteristics of previous black hat operations, many black hat operations this year seem to have been upgraded. The principle is not understood, and they try to evade platform supervision. For example, it was found that peers in the same category have been promoting new products by merging dozens of seed links and merging zombies. Even if the variants are often dismantled, they can be merged again soon; and the rate of five-star reviews is very fast. VP reviews + zombie mergers (or seed links) can quickly rush to the top.

In addition, Amazon 2.0 mirror review technology has been used by many sellers since this year . In this way, each product can be advertised separately and has its own natural position. On the surface, these sellers' product reviews can be shared, but all links have no variation relationship. No variation information can be found on the front desk. Basically, they are products sold on other sites other than this site and in different categories. For a large number of sites, tens of thousands of ratings can be displayed in a few days.

"At the beginning of this year, various black technology operations emerged and intensified. The links between peers in the same category soared, but the number of orders in my own store plummeted..." Xiao Zhang, who insisted on white hat operations, said helplessly.

Xiao Zhang's category is not a red ocean, but it is also highly competitive. In the past six months, there have been signs of a large number of comments being manipulated by competitors in the same category. "The number of product reviews for peers has increased too fast, and the proportion of text and picture reviews in ratings far exceeds half. It's obvious that there's something fishy going on."

The category that Xiao Li belongs to is also full of black technology operations. Some of his peers not only get thousands of reviews when they put new products on the shelves, but can also post pictures of product A and actually sell product B. They can even easily handle the issue of counterfeit brands.

Faced with the rampant phenomenon of black technology , Xiao Zhang complained and reported it several times. Although the complaint was successful at the time, the comments came back not long after. Xiao Zhang felt helpless and at the same time couldn't stand these behaviors from the bottom of his heart. He believed that if it continued like this, white hat operations would be squeezed out.

The phenomenon of "ineffective reporting" is not an isolated case. Reporting behavior does not seem to deter related players in the same category. Instead, they are more crazy about black technology operations, which brings extra troubles to many sellers who insist on white hat operations. "Many opponents can quickly get the BS mark by directly mirroring comments, adding unlimited flash sales, and changing nodes. This behavior is fraudulent. It is a disaster for categories with no threshold. I can't help but watch the living space of white hat sellers become smaller and smaller." Xiao Zhang said that competitors are too good at brushing orders. The number of comments can increase by hundreds in a month, and sales and rankings will go up immediately. Their profits are naturally very good. On the other hand, although his pure white hat operation can also be promoted, the links are not stable, and the profits are not as much as competitors. Many times, I wonder what is the point of sticking to the white hat method?

Why do some people choose to ignore the rules and repeatedly cross the platform red line despite Amazon's continuous crackdown? Because the market competition is fierce, some people want to take shortcuts to make money. As this famous saying goes: Once there is a proper profit, some people become bold. If there is a 10% profit, it is guaranteed to be used everywhere; if there is a 20% profit, it becomes active; if there is a 50% profit, it will take risks; for 100% profit, it dares to trample on everything... It is observed that many sellers unscrupulously apply black technology, and in essence they are actually aiming to make quick money, so they almost follow the "one store, one product, one brand, fast order" strategy to control the product cycle, and the store will be closed if it is closed, as long as they can make money. They adhere to the principle of "taking a gamble to turn a bicycle into a motorcycle", regard " the bold will die of overeating, and the timid will die of starvation " as the truth, and try to obtain tens or even hundreds of times the profit with a smaller cost expenditure...

Compared with those very blatant black hat operations, some sellers' black hat operations are considered "mild" and their methods are concealed. They basically have a fluke mentality: as long as they are careful enough, it is difficult for the platform to find out about them...

However, the nature of black hat methods means that this path is risky, and it is a high risk. Many sellers keep brainwashing themselves, thinking that they can escape the platform supervision and jump back and forth in the minefield of Amazon ; on the other hand, they are always worried, not knowing when the link will become a dog ? Not knowing which will come first, tomorrow or an accident? The psychological torment and struggle bring huge pressure to the whole person.

It was not until Amazon took drastic measures that many sellers felt a sense of relief as if the pressure had suddenly been lifted.

Black hat operation was banned! Many sellers "turned from black to white"

Xiao Liu just had a black hat operation account destroyed in May this year , which strengthened his idea of ​​​​devoting himself to white hat operations.

At first, he was very angry when he saw many of his peers in the same category were doing tricky operations. He was annoyed that these people broke the rules of the industry. Then he calculated that his peers had very considerable profits, which shook his white hat approach. Finally, he decided to join them. After the real experience, Xiao Liu found that the days of black hat were actually dark. He even had trouble sleeping. The first thing he did when he woke up every day was not to check the number of orders, but to see if the account was still there!

"Amazon is already an asset-heavy industry, and the financial pressure brought by stocking up is already great enough. Black hat operations will undoubtedly increase people's pressure and psychological burden." Xiao Liu believes that black hat operations obtain conversion rates and false data through illegal operations, which is to seek wealth and fame in danger. White hat operations obtain conversion rates through product development, operations, and advertising promotion. This is real combat and real strength. Relatively speaking, white hat operations do require more patience and thinking, and the promotion cycle will be longer . The initial investment period is very difficult, but white hat operations are more down-to-earth, and the profits are actually very good after persistence.

Xiao Zhou, who is working alone, had his main account blocked recently due to black hat operations. Since almost all his assets were invested in it, he suffered heavy losses.

It is understood that from the beginning of entering the industry, the cross-border e-commerce company where Xiao Zhou worked has been pursuing black hat tactics, and he has been learning relevant knowledge about black hat operations. In response to the fact that his peers despised black hat operations, he subconsciously thought at the beginning that as long as he could make money, it didn't matter whether it was white hat or black hat, as long as he could achieve his goal in the end.

In Xiao Zhou's opinion, black hats are more likely to make money and can better control the number of orders and rankings. White hats have higher requirements for product development. If you come across a good product, you can make it without much operation. However, the reality is that many companies do not have strong enough capabilities to create good products. Instead, they sell products developed in batches by suppliers. The competition they face can be imagined. In addition, most categories on the Amazon platform are currently oversaturated, and there is a serious internal competition among sellers. In order to grab the front row position occupied by old products, new products often open the way for price wars. The entry of Pinduoduo's overseas e-commerce platform Temu has also snatched traffic from the Amazon platform to a certain extent. Under white hat operations, the situation of difficulty in promoting new products will only become more and more common.

After seeing the difficulties faced by many white hat sellers, Xiao Zhou realized that his own products had very good sales and profits, and he tasted the sweetness of black technology. He became more and more dependent on this method. At the beginning of this year, he resigned from the company and started his own business, continuing the black technology method. Soon, the sales of his products increased. Considering the fact that black technology methods do have risks, Xiao Zhou is not only extremely cautious in his operations, but also cooperates with black hat and white hat operations.

In the end, it still couldn't escape the platform's supervision.

The above sellers are not isolated cases. Since the beginning of this year, black hat sellers have been registered one after another. Recently, according to feedback from many white hat sellers, the black technology giants in the category have been cleared out by the platform one after another ... Black hat operations are short-term operations with quick entry and exit, and their life cycle is short. Maybe some people are still dreaming of making a big profit and then retreating today, but when they wake up, their store is blocked by the platform.

Industry insiders predict that as the traditional peak season for cross-border e-commerce is approaching, the platform will inevitably conduct a wave of account sweeps, and a large number of black hat sellers will surely "return to the pre-liberation era overnight."

Speaking of account suspension, the 2021 Amazon account suspension wave is a landmark event! Before this, fake orders were almost everywhere in every category of the platform, and many big sellers started with 10,000 fake orders; at the same time, various ultra-low-price shipments and mismatched goods were also rampant... The relevant sellers made a lot of money with this simple and crude approach. It can be said that the reason why many big sellers made their fortunes was because of fake orders and other operations. Many serious sellers persevered in this smoky environment until the account suspension wave came, and they finally felt that the spring of white hat operations had arrived.

Amazon dealt a heavy blow to black hat sellers, and a large number of small and medium-sized cross-border companies were dissolved on the spot. Many listed big sellers including Youkeshu suffered heavy losses.

Public data shows that due to suspected violations of Amazon platform rules, Youkeshu had about 340 sites blocked or frozen in 2021, accounting for about 30% of the average monthly number of sites with sales revenue on the Amazon platform from January to May 2021. Among the restricted funds on the Amazon platform, the funds suspected of being frozen by Youkeshu are about 130 million yuan.

According to the latest announcement from Youkeshu, after the Amazon account blocking incident, the company strengthened the compliance operation level of its platform stores and has been trying to unblock the frozen funds in multiple ways, namely, setting up a special working group and continuously making active appeals to Amazon. At the same time, the company is also seeking cross-border arbitration, litigation and other means to unblock the frozen funds as much as possible. At present, the large amount of frozen funds has not been recovered.

It was precisely because of the shock of the account blocking wave that a large number of cross-border e-commerce companies no longer dared to touch black technology after surviving the disaster, and thus began the journey of "from black to white".

Xiao Wu is one of the sellers. Before the account closure wave, he was a loyal follower of black hat operations.

"Why should we worry about whether the product is made by black hat or white hat? Different ways of playing represent different risk resistance. Playing black hat requires bearing the corresponding consequences, and playing white hat requires enduring a protracted war. No matter which method is used, as long as you can make money in this way of playing, it's enough." Xiao Wu once expressed his confusion about his peers reporting his violations. He believed that there was no difference between white hat and black hat, and whoever can survive was the king.

Until 2021, when Amazon banned him, nearly a thousand links were removed, all accounts were banned, millions of funds in the account were frozen, tens of millions of inventory and supplier debts needed to be settled urgently, and the company went bankrupt in an instant... Since most of the money had been recovered when the account was banned, and the company had not yet stocked up, there was still a chance to make a comeback! Xiao Wu decided to abandon the black hat strategy and start over.

Xiao Wang, an operator, also experienced the account suspension wave. At that time, Xiao Wang's main business was the 3C blood sea category. The company directly wrote the evaluation into the operation requirements, and there were fixed requirements for the number of orders to be evaluated each week. Although he knew that the evaluation had risks, if he failed to complete the relevant tasks, his performance would be affected. Xiao Wang was full of anxiety during the work process. After the account suspension wave, the company began to practice white hat operations. Xiao Wang began to get in touch with white hat knowledge. After comparison, he found that white hat was better and could better improve the comprehensive ability and level of an operator.

Many people who have "turned from black to white" believe that in the past, fake orders were like taking drugs. With good skills, you can sweep all categories. Now, the effect of fake orders is very short, and free traffic is getting less and less. As mature platforms become more and more strict in product screening, they will support the entry of high-quality products in the future. If sellers want to go further, they must rely on white hat operations.

Adhere to white hat operations! Many sellers say they never fake orders

Putting aside the impact of the account suspension wave on the purification of the industry, there are still a group of people on the Amazon platform who said that they have been followers of white hat tactics since they entered the industry. They never engage in fake orders and still live a comfortable life.

One of the white hat sellers has been in the industry for many years. Although he has heard of things like sending tests for reviews, small cards, zombies, seeds, wireless flash sales, and merged variants, he has never been involved in them in his own operations. He believes that many products supported by these black technologies are not competitive. Moreover, he is used to pure white hat tactics and can also promote his products. If the product is good enough, the VINE plan can already bring a sufficient number of good reviews, and there is no need to take risks. Therefore, he will not think that sales will take off after a wave of orders, a wave of advertising, price spirals, and comment mergers. The examples of too many peers who have experienced ups and downs are the best illustrations.

Nowadays, people often have a question: In today's highly competitive environment, how good is the survival situation of white hats overall?

A fact that cannot be ignored is that there are indeed many white hat sellers struggling. For example, when a blue ocean product has few sellers, the sellers think it is profitable, so they optimistically stock up. When the goods finally arrive, a bunch of competitors' goods also arrive. The blue ocean product becomes a red ocean product in seconds after it is put on the shelves, and the progress bar goes directly to price wars and inventory clearance, which shows how difficult it is to launch new products.

According to feedback, someone working as a white hat product developer in a startup company has launched nearly 10 products in 2 years, but only 2 of them have been successfully promoted. The performance of the others is average. Product selection is the biggest problem. Product selection is also a problem that bothers other sellers. Many people believe that the white hat strategy mainly depends on whether the product is good or not, that is, the product must pass the test first. If the products are highly homogenized, they basically cannot be promoted.

At the same time, sellers need to be able to withstand the initial investment period and keep a calm mindset during the investment stage. Many people often give up halfway and fail to stick to the end. "White hat links need time to settle, and what supports the links through this period of settling is extreme listing optimization, good enough products, and relatively sufficient returns to promote products."

Many white hat sellers follow these guidelines and successfully launch new products. Weibo blogger "Amazon City Brother" said that two products he made at the beginning of this year relied entirely on pure white hat tactics. One was priced within 10 US dollars, and the other was priced within 20 US dollars. Both were successful. He believes that there is no shortcut to running an Amazon business. If sellers want to take the easy way, it will actually be longer and more painful than the hard way.

In summary, there are many successful white hat new product launches, but there are also many failures. Regardless of failure or not, the key point is not the application of black technology. It is a fact that Amazon's internal circulation has intensified, and it is also a fact that Amazon's input-output ratio is relatively high. Adhering to compliant operations is the right way. As cross-border e-commerce is becoming more and more like traditional industries, the previous saying of 70% product and 30% technology has now become almost 90% relying on products, and operational technology is just icing on the cake. This tests sellers' control over comprehensive operational capabilities, supply chain, quality control, after-sales, etc. On the other hand, the Amazon platform has continuously increased its efforts to regulate various black technologies, and the platform's trends also determine the future direction of sellers' operations.

"The success of white hat operations has a lot to do with Amazon's purification of the entire environment," a seller said. Relatively speaking, Amazon is still very fair to sellers who abide by the rules of the platform and do not violate regulations! Business should be down-to-earth. If you take shortcuts, you will overdraw the reputation of other down-to-earth sellers and the reputation of the platform.

Will black hat operations disappear under the platform's strict crackdown? The answer is naturally no. As mentioned above, driven by interests, everyone has their own ideas and pursuits, and the complexity of business has given rise to various different ways of playing. However, different ways of playing lead to different destinations. Looking at the timeline in the long run, the path of black hat operations will only become narrower and narrower in the future.

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