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"Sales volume increased, profits decreased" is troubling a group of cross-border sellers. Taking the recent Black Friday promotion as an example, the record sales of sellers contrasted with the declining profit data. Survey data showed that during the Black Friday in 2024, among the 1,219 sellers surveyed, more than 50% of sales doubled compared to normal days, but at the same time, more than 80% of sellers' profits fell short of expectations. From the in-depth review of cross-border sellers, high logistics costs are one of the "culprits" of the profit problem in the big promotion in 2024. The survey shows that nearly 50% of sellers said that the cost expenditure of logistics and warehousing fees in 2024 increased most significantly. The reason is that, on the one hand, the surge in cargo volume during the promotion period stimulated the increase in air and sea freight rates, and on the other hand, the freight industry as a whole showed an upward trend due to factors such as geopolitical conflicts and capacity losses caused by strikes . It is understood that shipping companies recently announced a freight rate adjustment plan for January 2025, and shipping companies such as Maersk and HMM have once again raised the rates of some routes. In 2025, facing the general trend of rising prices in the freight industry and the tariff policies that may take effect when Trump takes office, many cross-border sellers are worried that logistics costs will rise again, reducing profit margins. Under this circumstance, Amazon's previous official announcement that it would not increase FBA fees and launched a series of preferential policies have once again become a hot topic in the industry because they have alleviated the cost pressure of sellers to a certain extent. It is learned that according to the notice previously released by Amazon, Amazon will not increase sales commissions and Amazon logistics fees in the United States in 2025, nor will it introduce new types of fees. At the same time, Amazon will also reduce some fees and provide additional discounts. Among them, the most noteworthy is the reduction in the storage configuration service fee for large and bulky items: starting from January 15, 2025, the average reduction for large and bulky items in the case of single-point storage is $0.58 per item. This change is undoubtedly a big benefit for cross-border sellers selling large items. It is understood that in previous years, Amazon FBA fees would be adjusted, and the resulting cost increases have caused some objections from sellers. This year, Amazon announced the 2025 sales commission and logistics fee notice for the US site, which is expected to not only ease the cost pressure on sellers, but also provide more room for operation to optimize inventory, marketing strategies, and product selection and development. Therefore, many sellers were surprised by this and began to wonder about Amazon’s motives. It is observed that Amazon’s reverse fee reduction is mainly based on three considerations: sellers, consumers, and market competition : One is to retain and attract sellers to join: in recent years, sellers have generally faced profit pressure, and even some small and medium-sized sellers have begun to "back out". Therefore, Amazon intends to retain old sellers by "reducing fees" and attract more new sellers to join. The second is to improve consumer experience: platform fees are stable or even reduced, and third-party sellers will be more willing to maintain competitive pricing, which will indirectly benefit end consumers. The third is to cope with market competition: Faced with the rapid rise of other e-commerce platforms, Amazon needs to maintain the attractiveness and competitiveness of its platform. Although there are still a small number of sellers who are not happy with Amazon's price cut, more sellers believe that with the current trend of rising prices in the freight industry, Amazon's move has reduced sellers' operating burden and costs to a certain extent, and pointed out that Amazon is "adding services without raising prices" , and has increased investment in logistics network upgrades while not raising FBA fees. It is learned that on December 10, at the 2024 Amazon Global Selling Cross-border Summit, Amazon announced that Amazon Managed Service, an intelligent supply chain hosting service, will be launched in 2025. According to Amazon, this is an end-to-end cross-border supply chain hosting service. Sellers only need to provide product details and pick-up locations, and Amazon will be responsible for completing product pickup, inventory integration, cross-border transportation, warehousing, distribution and warehousing, strategic replenishment, last-mile delivery, etc., and continuously analyze customer demand, inventory levels and cost data to optimize overall processes and efficiency. In other words, the service integrates Amazon's cross-border logistics solutions from the first leg to customs clearance and inventory in the target country, which will greatly simplify the operational process of sellers' supply chain management , allowing them to focus more time on business growth and product and brand innovation. FBA fees have decreased instead of increased, and prices have not increased for additional services... Amazon's recent series of policy adjustments for 2025 have rekindled the hopes of many sellers in the industry to grow bigger and stronger on Amazon. It is learned that Amazon's global seller group will continue to grow in 2024. The latest data forecast shows that Amazon will add about 3,700 sellers every day, and it is expected that by the end of the year, Amazon will have 9.7 million sellers . Among them, Chinese sellers occupy an important position on Amazon, accounting for 40% of the world . The latest data released by Amazon also shows that in the past year, the number of goods sold by Chinese sellers through Amazon's global sites has increased by more than 20% year-on-year. It can be seen that although the industry has complained about some of Amazon's adjustment policies in recent years, based on its huge user base, extensive market coverage and complete cross-border e-commerce service system, Amazon is still an excellent choice for new sellers to expand overseas and increase their business . However, in an environment where traffic and profits remain a mystery and logistics costs are rising, Amazon sellers should be more cautious in choosing the platform's logistics service model. Some senior sellers make the following two judgments: In 2025, it will still be a general trend for sellers to choose FBA after entering Amazon. On the one hand, Amazon is responsible for warehousing, distribution and after-sales service in FBA. Thanks to its powerful logistics network and perfect after-sales system, Amazon's distribution service advantage is still difficult to match by other e-commerce platforms . On the other hand, judging from Amazon's policy adjustments and feedback from sellers on the site, FBA is more likely to help sellers increase traffic and sales . ▲ The picture comes from Amazon Global Store Some sellers said that Amazon sellers using FBA often get higher exposure and higher consumer satisfaction with their products, which leads to an increase in sales and conversion rates. Data shows that FBA can help sellers reach more than 200 million Prime members worldwide, and sellers using FBA can get an average sales increase of 20%-25%. At the same time, in the first half of 2024, Amazon also refreshed the Prime delivery speed, with more than 5 billion items delivered on the same day and the next day worldwide, an increase of more than 30% year-on-year. This upgrade also increased the sales conversion rate of FBA sellers by an average of 20%. In addition, at the 2024 Amazon Global Selling Cross-Border Summit, Amazon also released more than 30 new initiatives around the three strategic priorities of innovation support, opportunity expansion, and local empowerment. One of the core initiatives is to strengthen the construction of the logistics system and upgrade the supply chain fulfillment services , such as the Amazon supply chain intelligent hosting service mentioned above. From the perspective of the support policies for new sellers, Amazon FBA is also particularly eye-catching. It is understood that new sellers who choose FBA on Amazon will enjoy five benefits : unlimited FBA storage capacity, no low-volume inventory fees, no storage utilization surcharges, over $50,000 in cash back, and "0-cost trial FBA product testing" . In 2024, in order to seize traffic and orders with high cost-effectiveness, cross-border sellers have almost paid a certain cost, and therefore are facing more stringent profit challenges. At the same time, according to a survey, more than 30% of sellers believe that intensified market competition and rising operating costs will still be one of the biggest challenges facing cross-border e-commerce in 2025. Under this circumstance, Amazon FBA's price reduction notifications, preferential policies, and more investment and upgrades in logistics services are undoubtedly extremely attractive to sellers. It is foreseeable that in 2025, a large number of Chinese sellers may once again flock to Amazon, and most of these sellers will choose FBA and take the first step towards their cross-border e-commerce growth goals.
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