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Although Amazon is a global leader in e-commerce, it has been criticized for being " unpopular ". Not only third-party sellers have been dissatisfied with Amazon, but even its employees have complained about it. Even though Amazon has repeatedly advocated improving employee benefits, it has been unable to ease the tensions between it and its employees, and waves of employee strikes and protests have taken place many times. And just on the eve of Black Friday, these employees are brewing a new storm due to dissatisfaction with Amazon. Amazon workers plan to strike on Black Friday It is learned that Amazon employees have recently launched a global strike called "Make Amazon Pay" and are preparing to stop working during Black Friday (November 26). Amazon employees hope that through this event, they can threaten Amazon to increase wages, improve unreasonable employee systems, and provide them with better living security. It is understood that employees who will participate in the event said that on Black Friday on November 26, employees will launch strikes, protests and actions "from factories, warehouses, data centers to data centers, and then to company offices in countries around the world. " Black Friday and Cyber Monday mark Amazon's biggest sales events of the year, but for Amazon's warehouse workers and delivery drivers, it means increased quotas, longer workdays and a higher risk of injury, Vice reported. According to a 2019 report from the Reveal Center for Investigative Reporting, warehouse worker injuries surged between Black Friday and Christmas. It is learned that in recent years, Amazon's rapid development has led to increasingly intense employee dissatisfaction, with one strike or protest after another following. On one hand, the crisis of the supply chain has erupted, and on the other hand, workers have continued to strike and protest. Labor shortage is becoming a major pain point for Amazon. If this situation continues to not improve, logistics, warehouse operations, and cargo distribution will be affected during the peak season. It is reported that the strike may seriously affect Amazon's peak season sales, especially after the decline in profits in Q3. If there are further mistakes in Q4, Amazon's annual revenue may be "shocking." Amazon’s predicament is difficult to resolve, and the sellers’ situation is deteriorating. Unlike the booming peak seasons in previous years, this year’s peak season is even colder. ▲ The picture comes from the seller communication group In addition to suffering from the large number of orders, there is also the "unpredictable" performance of Amazon's backend and the sudden drop in inventory capacity. Sellers’ inventory capacity drops sharply, is Amazon’s algorithm a mystery? Yesterday, Amazon’s backend inventory capacity was updated again, and some sellers were happy while others were worried: Seller A: I did nothing and the storage capacity dropped by 1,800. Seller B: The storage capacity has increased, but the account has been blocked! Seller C: After weeks of falling prices, I was looking forward to a refresh. It's falling again... ▲ The picture comes from the seller communication group On the forum, a seller said: In the new week, Amazon's maximum inventory has dropped again, which has troubled us for more than half a year. Dozens of SKUs are out of stock. When we apply for a quota, we are told that we don't meet the requirements and the application is not approved. The account was opened in 20 years, and the IPI score is also very poor. It seems that we have entered a vicious circle... ▲ The picture comes from Zhiwubuyan As such, Amazon's inventory restrictions are still troubling many sellers. As the seller mentioned above said, the worse the IPI score, the lower the inventory capacity, resulting in a lack of goods to ship and a decline in sales, which will cause the IPI score to drop again, thus falling into a vicious cycle. However, some sellers also said that the change in inventory capacity is not necessarily positively correlated with the change in IPI score. Under the premise of unchanged sales volume, even if the IPI score increases, the inventory capacity may decrease. "The IPI is over 600, but we are still reducing the inventory capacity. Over 100 SKUs are out of stock with the three numbers combined." "Storage capacity is decreasing. My IPI has been rising, but storage capacity still dropped by 20% this week." "It dropped by another 4,300 yesterday, but the IPI still rose to 642. It's really disgusting." ▲ The picture comes from Zhiwubuyan Looking back at last week, Amazon emphasized in its announcement that Amazon has made significant investments in its operations centers and delivery networks, and has launched a number of powerful new tools and high-quality services. The capacity of Amazon's US operations centers has more than doubled to help sellers grow their businesses. But at present, the inventory capacity and transportation capacity of some Amazon sites are still very tight. Therefore, many sellers complain: Amazon's inventory capacity algorithm is really a mystery. When will the inventory capacity be fully opened? Amazon is about to update its seller code of conduct Amazon US has announced that it will update its sales policies and seller code of conduct, including explicitly prohibiting price monopoly and manipulating search rankings. The following is the content of the announcement: Cross-border navigation , should you be cautious about peak season promotions? Amazon strictly prohibits price monopoly and ranking manipulation! #Amazon##Cross-border headlines#Cross-border e-commerce video account ▲ Video account focuses on cross-border navigation- Starting from November 26, 2021, the US site will update its sales policies and seller code of conduct, including an explicit prohibition on price monopoly and manipulation of search rankings.
- Section 313 of Amazon’s Seller Code of Conduct requires fair conduct and prohibits any form of violation of price-fixing laws or engaging in conduct to manipulate sales rankings.
- Amazon welcomes and encourages sellers to use coupons, discounts, flash sales and other methods to lower product prices and boost sales. However, attempts to influence search results by manipulating keywords to improve search rankings or incentivizing buyers’ searches to appear as natural behavior are considered violations of the Amazon Seller Code of Conduct.
- We remind sellers that you are responsible for actions taken on your account, including actions performed by third-party service providers.
As soon as the announcement came out, sellers were all agitated and began to speculate on Amazon’s intentions, interpreting it as a signal that Amazon’s risk control was being upgraded again. According to the sellers’ interpretation, the key information revealed in this announcement is as follows:
1. Amazon now has higher requirements for sellers and stricter inspections. In the past, the main inspections were for fake orders and artificially created false orders and reviews. Now, in addition to the above behaviors, the manipulation of specific keyword rankings and ultra-low prices in exchange for sales in a short period of time are also classified as violations. 2. After Amazon’s new policy is implemented, a large number of links may be blocked due to these two behaviors next year, especially the second one, which is very common among sellers. 3. To crack down on "price monopoly" is to crack down on ultra-low pricing that destroys reasonable market prices, so sellers should not blindly increase sales by offering low prices. It can be seen from this that Amazon is determined to nip all illegal operations in the bud. In the future, sellers will have fewer and fewer promotion channels and black technologies available, and Amazon will eventually return to the era where products are king.
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