|
▲ Video account focuses on cross-border navigation As the leader of cross-border e-commerce platforms, Amazon's huge traffic accumulated over the years can be said to be unrivaled, so there is a steady stream of sellers flocking in every year. Among Amazon's sellers, Chinese sellers are a backbone force that cannot be underestimated. However, since this year, with the continuous changes in Amazon's policies, the market structure of the platform has also quietly changed, and this backbone force seems to have been suppressed to a great extent. Due to multiple factors, Chinese sellers' market share on Amazon has shrunk It is learned that according to the Marketplace Pulse survey, the market share of Chinese sellers on the Amazon platform has been gradually declining since 2021, reversing the upward trend of the previous few consecutive years. Data shows that over the past five years, the market share of Chinese sellers has been increasing year by year: from 16% to 22% in 2017, from 23% to 26% in 2018, from 26% to 33% in 2019, and from 35% to 42% in 2020. As of now, Chinese sellers account for 38% of Amazon's total sales. Although this is lower than the 40% at the beginning of this year, this figure has reached the average of Amazon's four core markets: the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan. It can be seen that despite the decline in market share, Chinese sellers still occupy an important position in the platform's seller composition. Of the four markets, the United States saw the largest contraction, while the other three markets were flat for most of the year and have recently started to trend downward. In May 2020, due to the impact of the epidemic on production, transportation and warehousing, Chinese sellers' market share shrank. Although it had basically recovered by the end of the year, it failed to return to the growth trend of the previous few years. In addition to the epidemic, it is also inseparable from the large-scale account blocking wave that Amazon has launched since April this year. Earlier media reports said that about 50,000 Chinese sellers were blocked by Amazon, with a loss of nearly 100 billion yuan. Amazon's high-profile account suspension seems to be mainly aimed at Chinese sellers. Many of the top domestic sellers with hundreds of millions of sales have fallen from grace and withdrawn from the top competition, while other sellers that were not directly affected have also been affected to varying degrees. According to the ranking of Seller Ratings, Anker's main store Anker Direct ranks fifth on the list. It is learned that Anker Direct has been in the top three for a long time and ranked second for most of last year. The latest ranking shows that Anker Direct ranks second in the total number of reviews, but the growth rate in the past month has shown a slight downward trend compared with other top brands on the list. The main store of UGREEN, a major 3C brand in Shenzhen, also saw a drop in ranking, from 58th a month ago to 68th now. It is understood that UGREEN mostly maintained a ranking of around 30th to 40th last year. In addition, many well-known sellers in other categories have also shown varying degrees of decline in recent months. However, the measurement basis of the Seller Ratings indicator is mainly based on the seller's sales volume and customer service, and it only provides a certain reference for the specific performance of the seller. It can be learned that the severe epidemic situation and multiple factors such as the account blocking wave have made the journey of Chinese sellers on Amazon increasingly bumpy, among which account blocking is the most troublesome for sellers. Just recently, foreign media broke the news of a fraud case that attracted widespread attention and was even closely related to the seller's account being blocked. The economic loss exceeded 100 million, and the seller’s account was blocked because of an Amazon insider! Recently, foreign media exposed an illegal service case involving former Amazon employees. It is estimated that the economic losses caused by the fraud gang exceeded 100 million US dollars, including the improper profits of sellers using illegal means, sales losses of competitors and related costs of the Amazon platform.
According to foreign media reports, a former Amazon employee was sentenced by the police for conspiring to participate in a fraud scheme. The plan mainly used illegal means to falsely increase sales for some Amazon third-party sellers and damage the interests of their competitors. It is reported that the employee founded a consulting company after leaving Amazon in 2015. The plea agreement shows that he bribed a former colleague to illegally steal the seller's confidential information, thereby helping his clients gain unfair competitive advantages. In addition, the employee colluded with former colleagues to close other sellers’ product listings and directed buyers to the listings of his team’s clients. He even acted as a middleman to help other market consultants arrange similar illegal services for their clients. In fact, there are quite a few similar gray industries nowadays. Some service providers help sellers attack their competitors through illegal means, causing abnormalities in the competitors' stores or even their accounts to be blocked. Many sellers who operate in compliance with regulations have suffered greatly. What is even more infuriating is that there are also moles among Amazon employees, which has contributed to the growth of this industry. Many sellers have had their stores closed innocently due to malicious negative reviews and attacks on their listings, and even their appeals have been fruitless, causing heavy losses. Nowadays, Amazon’s account blocking trend is still continuing. However, while cracking down on it, we should also eliminate the culture of unhealthy competition and provide sellers with a fair and just business environment. However, sellers do not need to be too anxious. As the peak season is approaching, many sellers' sales have begun to pick up. At the same time, another piece of great news has come to sellers recently: the Shenzhen E-commerce Bureau has issued a notice on applying for e-commerce support policies. With a maximum of 10 million yuan, Shenzhen Commerce Bureau has launched another assistance plan! It is learned that the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Commerce issued a notice on September 8, announcing the launch of three projects including the 2021 E-Commerce Innovation and Development Support Plan e-commerce platform cultivation project , e-commerce platform introduction project and e-commerce live broadcast base support project application.
▲ The picture comes from the official website of Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Commerce Sellers who meet the following conditions can apply for the e-commerce platform cultivation project: 1. E-commerce platform enterprises that have obtained financing of RMB 200 million or more through two or more venture capital or strategic investment institutions or successfully listed on the stock exchange from 2017 to 2019, and whose average growth rate of main business income from 2018 to 2020 exceeds 30% ; 2. E-commerce platform enterprises listed in the top 100 Internet companies in China in 2019 and 2020 released by the Information Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the e-commerce demonstration enterprises in 2020 issued by the Ministry of Commerce; 3. E-commerce platform companies listed in the 2019 and 2020 China Unicorn Lists released by the Torch Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology; 4. E-commerce platform enterprises whose online retail sales of self-operated goods exceeded RMB 1 billion in 2020 and whose average growth rate from 2018 to 2020 exceeded 30% (inclusive) . ▲ The picture comes from the official website of Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Commerce The Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Commerce stated that it will provide enterprises with different levels of reward subsidies based on the specific support content and support standards, with the maximum support fund reaching 10 million yuan and the longest reward period being 5 years. ▲ The picture comes from the official website of Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Commerce Not long ago, the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Commerce held a meeting to provide support for independent website sellers. The series of favorable policies introduced in recent times are enough to show the determination of the Bureau of Commerce to support the cross-border e-commerce industry. However, for cross-border sellers on third-party platforms, there are still many difficulties to overcome at the current stage, especially the obstacle of account suspension.
|
