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It is learned that since January, due to large-scale severe weather impacts in many parts of the United States, Amazon has had to announce temporary closures of several warehouses in the United States, and has not yet reopened, which has had a great impact on cross-border logistics. However, not only are there unexpected events, but the platform system is also subject to unexpected changes. The temporary closure of warehouses and the long delay in the listing of goods have already made sellers anxious. Recently, Amazon has also had a sudden bug, which has made the sellers' already unsuccessful logistics and delivery plans even worse. It was learned that on the afternoon of January 25, a large number of sellers reported that they were unable to successfully create FBA shipments: "Is the Amazon system down? I can't create a shipment after trying for a long time." "When creating a shipment, it either says 'Slower than expected, please be patient' or it simply says 'An error occurred, please refresh the page and try again'." "I thought it was an account problem, so I opened a case and asked customer service, but they said it was a system problem and asked me to wait." ▲ The picture comes from the seller’s disclosure At the same time, some sellers also received relevant emergency notifications: Due to the abnormality of Amazon's shipment creation API interface, FBA shipment creation will now be slow or even error. Amazon has received a large number of error feedback and is making emergency repairs. ▲ The picture comes from the seller communication group Generally speaking, slow shipment creation does not have a big impact on Amazon sellers. However, it is learned that at the beginning of this year, Amazon issued a new logistics regulation: for shipments created after February 1, 2024, if the shipment is not delivered within 45 days domestically/75 days internationally (originally 90 days), the shipment will be automatically closed. Therefore, many sellers choose to create shipments before February 1st to avoid the impact of the shortened automatic closing time of shipments after the new regulations come into effect. Some sellers also speculate that due to the new regulations, a large number of sellers concentrated their shipment creation time at the end of January , which is likely to be the main reason for the problem with Amazon's system this time. Fortunately, at 10 am on January 26, based on feedback from multiple sellers, Amazon has successfully fixed the system problem , and sellers can now create shipments smoothly. Therefore, this system problem did not have much impact on sellers. In addition, the unpredictable Amazon's recent series of changes to the page also concerns sellers. The increasingly fierce competition in the industry is urging Amazon to change, which in turn affects cross-border sellers. 1. Display the country location logo on the store page It is learned that recently, many sellers have discovered that the country where the company is located is prominently marked on Amazon's store pages . That is, Amazon has marked the location of the company that opened the store and displayed it to consumers. ▲ The picture comes from the seller’s disclosure According to the investigation, some big sellers have opened companies in the United States, so the country displayed on the store page is "United States", but the vast majority of cross-border sellers are companies opened in China, so the country label displayed is "China". In this regard, most sellers believe that this will have a great impact on Chinese cross-border sellers who have set up companies in China: "This is not very friendly to Chinese sellers. Foreign consumers are prejudiced against Chinese products..." "It wasn't so obvious before, but now you can see it at a glance, which is more beneficial to local brands." However, some sellers also said that in fact many products in the world are made in China, and in recent years more and more consumers in Europe have liked Chinese products, so this label should not cause too much negative impact. Currently, many stores on Amazon US have displayed this address label, but Amazon has not yet issued a relevant notice. It remains to be seen what impact it will have on cross-border sellers in the future. It is foreseeable that this change may be more beneficial to cross-border sellers who have already implemented a localized layout. 2. Listing or displaying multiple images of the same product It is learned that on January 25, Amazon's North American and European sites issued an announcement stating that starting from January 31, 2024, product details pages may display pictures of the same products from multiple sellers to help sellers make wise purchasing decisions. The announcement shows that each product detail page should contain at least three pictures: a photo of the product on a white background, a photo of the product in the environment, and a photo with size and fit information. If the product detail page lacks the required pictures, Amazon will automatically add pictures from other sellers or Amazon's own brand products. ▲ The picture comes from Amazon announcement It is worth noting that before this, the product detail page would only display pictures of the products sold by the seller. After the new rules come into effect, if the seller fails to fully display the three required pictures on his or her product detail page, Amazon will force the seller to add relevant pictures of the same products that are not sold by the seller. From a dialectical point of view, on the one hand, this new regulation is beneficial to supplement the completeness of product image information, which can help sellers improve listing weight and allow consumers to obtain more product information, thereby increasing purchase rates; but on the other hand, automatically adding pictures of other people's products is not only "suspected of infringement", Amazon cannot guarantee that the automatically added product pictures are compatible with the seller's own products, which may cause misunderstandings among consumers and lead to an increase in return rates. As of press time, Amazon has not yet made further explanations on this new rule, and how it will be implemented remains to be seen. But there is no doubt that Amazon is paying more and more attention to product images. Here, we would also like to remind all sellers that if they want to take control of their own destiny, they need to pay more attention to improving the three pictures on the product details page to avoid being affected by this new regulation. What do you think about this? Welcome to discuss in the comment area~
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