The arrival of the new year has filled many sellers with anticipation. I have experienced itAfter a series of blockades and related events in the cross-border circle in 2021, the development of cross-border e-commerce has been affected to some extent. The profits of small and medium-sized sellers have declined, while the profits of large sellers are relatively stable,Overall stable development.
In the context of global supply chain issues and recurrent epidemics, sellers' transportation costs are still increasing. In addition, the new round of Amazon fee changes will further increase seller costs.
Multiple fee changes, increasing seller costs!
According to Amazon's previous announcement,sinceStarting from January 18, 2022, multiple Amazon fees will changeIt involves multiple fees, including Amazon logistics delivery fees, monthly warehousing fees, sales commissions, logistics removal and disposal fees, as well as light and small product planning fees, labeling fees, and so on.
From the specific content announced by Amazon,Logistics costs will increase5.2%, and the increase in removal and disposal costs for some products will exceed 130%, with the highest reaching 150%, which is the most prominent among all cost increases.
Taking products of different sizes as an example,The cost of removing and disposing of standard size items from 0 to 0.5 pounds will increase from $0.32 to $0.52, while standard size items from 0.5 to 1.0 pounds will increase from $0.35 to $0.75
In terms of storage feesThis yearSeptember as the boundaryEach cubic foot (standard) of the product is0.83 US dollars and 2.40 US dollars, while the extra large ones are 0.53 US dollars and 1.20 US dollars, and some products will be subject to an overdue inventory surcharge.
In addition, what sellers are concerned aboutSales commission will decrease7%,Many people say that if you really say it's up, it's up! A bit disappointed. The main reason for the delivery cost of light and small goods is that the weight has changed from the original12 ounces adjusted to 3 pounds
Obviously, the increase in multiple costsIt means an increase in costs, and the seller naturally has an additional worry. It is worth noting that the above fee changes do not take effect simultaneously, so sellers need to make timely plans for the next step based on Amazon's previous announcements.
Some sellers have stated that multiple cost adjustments have created new requirements for their product development, selection, stocking, and transportation processes in the new year. Whether the product selection is appropriate or not, the standard size and weight control of the product will both affect the cost of investment. For example, once a product fails to sell or has low sales, the subsequent processing costs will not be the same as before.
In terms of FBA, in addition to the increase in costs, incidents of lost parts have also occasionally occurred.
Difficulty in claiming compensation,sellerMissing FBA inventory quantity
Recently, a seller revealed thatFBAThe phenomenon of missing inventory quantity.
According to the seller, there are several discrepancies in the quantity of the completed shipments she has recently sent, some of which are more than actual and some are less than actual,Amazon has chosen to directly compensate for the smaller number of losses.
The above situation is quite smooth,Sometimes, when the shipment is closed, there may be discrepancies between the received quantity and the shipped quantity, with a difference of several to more than ten items. The backend shipment difference query directly displays that the investigation has been completed without any operation by the seller, and the seller can only open it in the backendContact customer service for case inquiries.
Due to the frequent occurrence of such situations, the seller found suspicions by querying the received inventory data report on Amazon's backend,Suspected to have been lost during transit to another warehouse after Amazon received the goods.
During the communication process,Customer service also acknowledges thatIt may have been lost during the warehouse transfer process,For further verification, customer service will require the seller to provide, for example, the supplier's original invoice, which should include detailed information such as the purchase date, the name of the lost product, the total quantity purchased, and the full name and address of the supplier.
After the seller provided the requested information, Amazon did not find the lost product and replied to the seller“We do not have any records of receiving related products. We suggest that you communicate with the shipper or carrier of the shipment regarding the actual product shipped and the corresponding quantity.”
The seller did not approve of such investigation results and has repeatedly initiatedThe case requires Amazon to conduct an investigation. Subsequently, the seller discovered that different customer service representatives had different explanations for the received inventory reports on Amazon's backend.
If the seller does not directly mention the loss of goods, but only asks about the positive and negative numbers of data received by Amazon, customer service will acknowledgeA positive number represents the received quantity. If the seller believes that there is a loss of goods, they will be informed that this value only represents the backend shipping plan, not the actual received quantity,Perhaps due toThe box corresponding to the previous product was received by the machine according to the backend packing information. However, during the actual reception, it was verified and confirmed that the corresponding product was not received, so the corresponding received quantity was deducted.”
After some communication, the seller not only failed to retrieve the lost item, but also felt confused by the two sets of customer service statements.
According to feedback from other sellers, it is not uncommon for the quantity to be inconsistent. Sometimes the data decreases, but it will return to normal after a period of time, and there may even be situations where the number of recipients exceeds the actual number, which makes the seller very upset.
Although there are many trivial matters, they do not affect the overall development of Chinese sellers.
Platform crackdown on illegal behavior, overall stable development of Chinese sellers
Just recently, Amazon stated in its press release that,althoughIn 2021, Amazon launched a large-scale crackdown on positive reviews and other violationsCausing thousands of Chinese sellers' accounts to be closed,But overall,In 2021, the Amazon business of Chinese sellers will basically maintain a healthy growth state.
Amazon since last yearThe crackdown that began in May hit some of the largest Chinese brands on its platform, including Aukey, Mpow, and Shenzhen Youkeshu Technology Co., Ltd. As a result, funds exceeding 130 million yuan (20 million US dollars) were frozen for a tree, and 340 accounts were closed.
In September 2021, Amazon closed approximately 3000 seller accounts supported by 600 Chinese brands during its crackdown on seller manipulation of comments and other violations.
butVice President of Global Sales, Amazon AsiaCindy Tai's video at the recent Amazon Seller Conferenceexpress,The number of Chinese sellers on Amazon platform shows double-digit growth in 2021.
Additionally, throughout the entire processDuring 2021,Sales reached50% year-on-year increase in the number of Chinese sellers with $1 million or moreAmong them, the number of sellers who achieved this sales revenue for the first time increasedMore than 20%.
He also stated:“The large-scale crackdown on illegal behavior on the Amazon platform has not affected the proportion of Chinese sellers in Amazon's overall sales, and China's business has maintained healthy and rapid growth.”
He pointed out that Amazon will prioritize cooperation with Chinese merchants and operate within the rules. Good compliance is the bottom line for the brand to survive in any market or platform.
In addition, Amazon also encourages Chinese businesses to target emerging markets such as Singapore and India to gain new growth potential. Amazon last yearIn September, the first seller training center in Asia was established in Hangzhou, targeting global sales.
As an Amazon seller, protect personal information and data, comply with platform rules, timely pay attention to changes in policies released by the platform, as well as popular videos on major social media platforms, and grasp the traffic trend of best-selling productsI believe that in the wave of cross-border e-commerce, Chinese sellers still have strong marketing capabilities!
In addition to Amazon, multiple e-commerce platforms around the world are also intensifying their efforts to attract Chinese sellers.
According to Marketplace Pulse, Wal Mart opened its market to international sellers in March, attracting more than 6000 sellers from China, accounting for 20% of Wal Mart's new sellers by the end of 2021. At the same time, some Chinese sellers are also starting to invest more in other international online retail platforms such as eBay and AliExpress!