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The road to overseas markets is fraught with dangers. Cross-border sellers must not only beware of external storms such as logistics and exchange rates, but also comply with the internal policies and regulations of the platform. Once caught between the two, sellers are like floating duckweed, at the mercy of others.
Amazon seller's 30,000 inventory suddenly went down the drain! Among Amazon's many golden rules, there is a rule - automatic inventory abandonment , that is, if the seller's inventory in the operation center is not in a sellable state, the system will change its status to unsellable. If the seller fails to remove it within the 30-day period, the inventory may be automatically abandoned.
Last year, Amazon's warehouse policy also changed: starting from April 15, 2022, overage inventory will be automatically removed. This change applies to inventory that has been stored in the operation center for more than 365 days, and inventory that has been stored in the operation center for more than 180 days and has not been sold for six consecutive months or more.
Under such policy constraints, once a seller’s inventory is restricted or not cleared in time, it is likely to be automatically abandoned by Amazon, resulting in maximum losses.
Recently, a seller reported that his 30,000 inventory was lost and urgently asked for help. According to him, one of his products was complained of infringement on the second day of the Chinese New Year, and nearly 30,000 inventory had been in a reserved state until last Thursday when he successfully appealed.
However, what caught him off guard was that Amazon created a disposal order over the weekend, and all 30,000 stocks were automatically removed. The seller desperately cancelled and only saved more than 6,000, and Amazon continued to abandon them. According to the customer service response, the more than 5,000 stocks that have been successfully abandoned cannot be recovered.
Can the remaining pending inventory be successfully cancelled? Can the abandoned products be recovered and compensated by Amazon? Will Amazon settle accounts with the seller later? In this regard, the seller still has some hope.
However, the reality is cruel. On the one hand, it violates Amazon's policy and has exceeded the Amazon inventory retention period; on the other hand, FBA warehouses belong to independent departments and once abandoned, they cannot be reversed.
It is understood that many sellers have encountered similar situations recently:
"I had the same problem last Friday. Fortunately, I checked the backend order inventory and found a few links that were misjudged as unsaleable. I cancelled them and am now appealing the link." "It happened to me too. A large number of orders were abandoned on the weekend. Fortunately, my boss found out early, otherwise it would be game over. The key is that I set the removal date to be 5 and 25, and the abandonment time was 11. After opening a case, the customer service could not provide any help except an apology." "A friend of mine went to Amazon to file a claim, but his store was eventually closed, so you still have to be cautious."
Here we would like to remind all sellers that if you want to avoid Amazon automatically disposing of over-age inventory, you need to select [ Automatically remove unsaleable items] . If you choose to return, you need to fill in an overseas warehouse address in the destination country. Then, after the inventory exceeds the age limit, it will not be automatically discarded by Amazon, but will be returned to the warehouse first.
If the product has been automatically abandoned by Amazon, you can try the following methods to cancel the unprocessed inventory:
- Immediately turn off the setting of [Automatically remove items that are not available for sale for a long time]
- Cancel across sites and set up in small sites such as Mexico and Canada
- Consult the investment manager or related service providers
In any case, under the platform's rules and regulations, sellers are ultimately in a weak position. Only by strictly abiding by various guidelines and operating in compliance can they avoid being "liquidated." Another platform suddenly collapsed? In addition to Amazon, sellers on another platform have also been suffering from platform policies recently.
According to foreign media reports, Etsy has been attacked by merchants for forcibly withholding funds. Hundreds of sellers have received emails from Etsy, informing them that the account funds will be used as reserves to ensure the safety of the market and pay any possible refunds.
A seller named Zhang, who mainly sells ceramic products, said that a few hours after he received the notice, the balance of 899 pounds in his account was automatically withheld. This sudden change also caused the seller to fall into financial difficulties and was unable to purchase related production materials. It is learned that Etsy's payment policy stipulates that the reasons for suspending payments include a sudden increase in sales, the store has recently completed its first sale, the store "violates the policy" or "there are other risk factors." Another seller who sells custom wooden furniture had about 7,000 pounds of funds withheld by Etsy, about 64,000 yuan. For this reason, the seller had to use credit cards and family loans to maintain business and daily expenses. If he is unable to cancel the payment reserve within 90 days, he will face bankruptcy.
Feedback from multiple parties shows that Etsy has set a 90-day holding period for seller accounts. Some sellers have had up to 75% of their sales deducted as a result. Even if the store has not been involved in any violations and has lifted the holding period in accordance with platform rules, the account has not been restored to normal. It is reported that Etsy currently states that it "does not accept any complaints" on this issue. Once the seller fails to comply with the relevant terms, the account is likely to be disabled.
In fact, Amazon has also implemented a similar policy, but the funds withheld are much lower, usually about 3% of sales. Etsy's sudden large-scale deductions have also caused a cash flow gap for many sellers. Hundreds of sellers are currently planning to stop operating in protest of Etsy's practices.
It has been observed that the conflict between Etsy and third-party sellers had been escalating long before this.
One reason is that the influx of a large number of mass-produced non-handmade goods, and even fakes, has squeezed the living space of sellers of genuine handicrafts, forcing them to cut prices to compete.
The second is that Etsy has been pressuring sellers to offer free shipping, which, combined with the increasing fees, led some Etsy sellers to go on strike last April.
The third is the Silicon Valley Bank bankruptcy , with Etsy becoming the first e-commerce platform to be hit – delaying payments to sellers.
Due to a combination of factors, many Etsy sellers are fleeing the platform.
It is worth mentioning that on April 26, 2021, Etsy closed the entry channel for sellers from mainland China. As a platform with a high average order value and handmade original design as its core, it was once one of the sales channels for many domestic sellers with product advantages. Overall, from the rampant counterfeits squeezing the living space of original sellers to the current forced large deductions and even account suspensions, we still have no way of knowing whether this will be the last straw that breaks the camel's back for Etsy.
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