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Prime Day As the big promotion draws near, preparations are in full swing. However, logistics issues have recently become a major obstacle for sellers. Last week, we reported that since May, many of Amazon's popular warehouses in the western United States have experienced serious warehouse overflows, temporary closures, and frequent rejections, resulting in delays in the entry of goods into warehouses for a large number of sellers. To add fuel to the fire, the shipping costs have skyrocketed even before the peak season has really arrived. For sellers who are preparing for the peak season, this has added another huge cost.
It is the off-season for the shipping market, but a new round of freight price increases has arrived unexpectedly. On the eve of May Day, shipping companies such as Maersk, CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd announced price increase letters one after another, and the originally "calm" off-season was temporarily disrupted by the soaring freight rates: - Maersk: Increase the peak season surcharge (PSS) for routes from mainland China, Hong Kong, China and Taiwan to several African countries, 20 feet dry container 1000 US dollars, 40 feet and 45 feet dry container 2000 US dollars
- CMA CGM: From April 29, a peak season surcharge will be imposed from China to West Africa and other places
- Hapag-Lloyd: Peak season surcharge imposed on flights from Asia to various destinations in Africa
Recently, a new round of price increase notices from major shipping giants have come one after another, announcing that the Nordic FAK will be increased from June 1. The rates are as follows: Maersk charges up to USD 5,900 per 40-foot container and CMA CGM charges USD 6,000 per 40-foot container. In addition, Maersk will also levy a peak season surcharge of USD 2,000 per 40-foot container in the East Coast of South America. According to a Linerlytica report, the Shanghai Container Freight Index ( SCFI ) rose sharply by 18.8% after May 1st, reaching its highest level since September 2022. According to feedback from the industry, container supply has been in short supply on many routes recently, and it has been difficult to get a cabin. At one point, cabin space to South America was scheduled until the end of June. A freight forwarder has issued a notice that the price increase trend on the South American route is expected to continue until early June; the Middle East is relatively stable, with a slight decline or maintenance; European shipping companies have a strong desire to increase prices, supported by a small amount of cargo volume; Southeast Asia has increased slightly, with an estimated increase of US$50 per week; Africa is affected by the reduction in capacity and the general increase in shipping companies, and East Africa is expected to increase by US$3,500-4,000. Not only that, the port congestion problem is even worse . The survey report shows that many ports around the world are currently facing congestion and delay crises, among which the challenge is most severe in Asia, including Singapore, Shanghai, Ningbo and other ports, where ship turnover delays are as long as 3 to 6 days. Based on comprehensive analysis, this round of freight price increases is mainly affected by the following reasons: 1. Peak season is approaching and freight volume is rising We are currently on the eve of the summer peak season. With the approach of various major overseas promotions, the demand for cross-border transactions has rebounded strongly. Many merchants have increased their inventory in batches during this period, driving up the demand for sea freight further. 2. The Red Sea crisis continues to have an impact It is reported that the current idle capacity in the market is limited, and a large number of ships are sailing around the Red Sea, which not only significantly extends the transportation time, but also leads to major challenges in ship scheduling and a significant shortage of space. 3. Shipping companies collectively raise prices Major shipping companies collectively cut capacity and reduced shipping space, resulting in tight ship space, and further used this to launch multiple rounds of price increases, pushing up the freight market. 4. US imposes additional tariffs With the US election approaching, it has been announced that a 50-60% tariff will be imposed on some Chinese goods, causing some Chinese companies to increase their investment in South America, driving up freight rates on South American routes. Due to the recent overheating of the shipping market, the imbalance between supply and demand and the soaring freight rates have reappeared, and many cross-border sellers are facing huge logistics pressure. On the one hand, the transportation time is greatly delayed, and on the other hand, the logistics costs are rising. For this reason, many sellers have to adjust their shipping plans. As the peak season approaches, obstacles are coming one after another for cross-border sellers. In addition to the ongoing logistics crisis, the recent number-scanning controversy has also affected the pace of many sellers' preparations for big sales. It was previously reported that Amazon launched a new wave of variant illegal number scanning on May 11. A large number of sellers had their Amazon accounts deactivated and their listings deleted in batches on the grounds of violating the platform's ASIN creation policy. Similar to the previous two rounds of illegal sweeps of variants, this round is mainly aimed at sellers who have a history of illegally merging variants, or who have admitted to violations in disguise after being warned. However, during this process, many sellers found that their product links were forcibly split by Amazon without any illegal operations, and the templates could not be merged and error 8036 was reported. For this reason, doubts about the wrongful suspension of accounts have also arisen one after another. And things have indeed taken a turn for the better. According to feedback from a large number of sellers, accounts that were recently found to have violated variant regulations and were banned are being automatically restored in batches. “This time, I only responded to the data for May, not March and April. I won’t open a case to ask the customer for the link. If you have a backup, just upload it directly.” "The store was incorrectly sealed on 5.10 variant, and it was suddenly unsealed today, but the products are gone." "I tried to merge the split variants again using the template merge compliance, and it was half successful, but it failed with error code 8040." “It was restored, but all my links were deleted at the time. Now I am restoring them one by one through Amazon’s logistics inventory, and some of the information is being retrieved from the shipment.” According to analysis by industry insiders, this round of variant scanning may be due to an upgrade of Amazon's algorithm, and the scanning mainly adopts a combination of manual and machine scanning, which has led to large-scale misjudgments. Regarding the continued surge in variant number scanning, some sellers speculate that there may be many hidden meanings behind Amazon's move. 1. Purify and standardize Amazon’s business environment and optimize and upgrade the user shopping experience 2. Increase revenue, stimulate more new links and increase advertising revenue 3. Give new products and small sellers opportunities to prevent old and big sellers from monopolizing categories by bringing in new sellers and co-evaluating However, as of now, the scale of this account-sweeping storm is large and its impact is wide-ranging. It has obviously affected the normal operations of some compliant sellers, so automatic recovery is reasonable. It is worth noting that although accounts are being restored in batches, a large number of sellers have had their links deleted. Therefore, if you have a backup, you can upload it again, but be sure to avoid any violations again. As Prime Day is just around the corner, Amazon sellers have experienced many twists and turns recently. But as the saying goes, there is no rainbow without wind and rain, and there will be a rebound after hitting the bottom. I believe that all sellers will be able to usher in a boom in orders during the peak season.
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