|
This year, the cross-border e-commerce industry has been in turmoil. Not only are small and medium-sized sellers facing many challenges, but even the situation of the industry's big sellers has begun to become unclear. First, several big sellers had their accounts blocked, and then a listed big seller filed for bankruptcy. All of these seem to indicate that the cross-border e-commerce industry this year is uncertain. During the big promotion, account security is the top priority for sellers. However, just before the Member Day, another Shenzhen seller’s account was banned by Amazon. Another popular product in Shenzhen has been removed from shelves On the afternoon of June 16, a seller discovered that three brands under Taobao, a popular online shopping site in Shenzhen, were blocked by Amazon, and posted screenshots of their product links turning into a dog. ▲ The picture comes from the seller communication group When further verifying the news, some sellers reported that when searching for several of the best-selling main brands on Amazon, they found that the products of several of the brands had either become obsolete or could no longer be searched. It is reported that the group was founded in 2007 and has now developed into an industry-leading e-commerce company with six internationally renowned consumer brands. This year, the group has completed the performance bet with its parent company for three consecutive years. In this incident, three accounts of this big seller were suspended by Amazon, and some product links have been disabled.
This is not the first time that a big seller’s account has been blocked, but due to its special status, every disturbance in the big seller company always attracts attention and discussion from a group of small sellers. We have previously reported that the account of a major seller in South China City was blocked. Just over a month has passed since the last blocking incident that shocked the cross-border circle, and Amazon has once again extended its "blocking claws" to this well-known cross-border seller. Subsequently, the news quickly spread in the cross-border circle and aroused discussions among many sellers. In connection with the previous cases of several top sellers being blocked, many sellers speculated that this incident might be related to illegal acquisition of reviews. ▲ The picture comes from the seller communication group
A report from foreign media added a cloak of mystery to it, and it became shrouded in doubt as to why the best-selling product was banned. Is the account being blocked related to the “good review card”? In 2021, fake orders and reviews seem to be sensitive words for all cross-border sellers. In the environment where the platform has always strictly investigated and cracked down on sellers, as long as sellers have any illegal operations, troubles such as small red flag warnings and account suspension will follow. Amazon's vigorous and resolute momentum has frightened many sellers. In addition, as Amazon has been banning accounts of big sellers one after another, many sellers have stopped reviewing. So why did Taobao get stuck in the quagmire of account bans this time? Recently, in a foreign media report, taking Taobao as an example, it was pointed out that inside its product packaging, there was an orange card that read: Congratulations on becoming our lucky customer, you will receive a $35 Amazon gift card.
On the back of the gift card, there are instructions for redeeming the gift card: contact us via email, attach a screenshot of your order ID, and then click the Review URL after completing the review to receive the $35 gift card. In response to this, some sellers said that because Amazon encourages buyers to report violations in exchange for rewards, after Amazon detected that a certain company was obtaining reviews through praise cards, its brands were also blocked. ▲ The picture comes from the seller communication group Although it cannot be proved at present that the best-selling account was blocked due to the praise card, we can already see some clues from this foreign media report. As the leading e-commerce platform, Amazon does not allow third-party sellers to do anything behind the scenes. Previously, Amazon had issued a related announcement regarding the ban of big sellers, indicating that the platform will continue to regulate non-compliant operations. Coincidentally, not long after the news of the closure of a certain treasure account spread, Amazon officially issued another announcement, which was enough to prove its determination to crack down on violations. Amazon's official response: Bring bad actors to justice Yesterday afternoon, Amazon Global Selling’s official account released an announcement titled “Creating a Trustworthy Customer Review Experience.”
Amazon said it has invested a lot of resources to prevent fake or incentivized reviews from appearing on its store. In 2020, Amazon blocked more than 200 million suspected fake reviews before customers saw them , of which more than 99% were actively monitored and removed by Amazon. Amazon has made its position clear regarding the illegal use of reviews by sellers on its platform : Amazon spares no effort to protect our marketplace. No matter how big the business of these bad actors is or where in the world they are located, we will take action to prevent fake reviews. Amazon said it will continue to strengthen proactive control, increase industry collaboration by optimizing processes and tools, and hold bad actors accountable for their actions, and hold these bad actors and service providers who provide false reviews accountable. Amazon has filed lawsuits against bad actors who purchased reviews and service providers who facilitated them, and will continue to pursue bad actors through legal channels. At the same time, regarding the account blocking issue, the platform emphasized that Amazon will not easily make the decision to cancel sales permissions, and will also strive to ensure high accuracy in identifying false reviews. Protecting the rights of customers and honest sellers is Amazon's bottom line, and bringing bad actors to justice is one of the purposes of its work. Therefore, many sellers who have violated regulations to obtain reviews have been punished to varying degrees. To a certain extent, this also shows that Amazon will only become more stringent in its crackdown on illegal activities, and compliance operations will be the overall trend for sellers in the future. At the same time, the sellers’ evaluation environment is once again facing a blow. Top sellers are blocked one after another, where will small and medium sellers go? A study shows that fake online reviews led to approximately $15.2 billion in purchases. The 2021 Fake Online Reviews report shows that the average rate of fake reviews based on platforms such as Amazon, TrustPilot, Yelp, and Tripadvisor is 4%. The global e-commerce market is expected to be worth nearly $4.3 trillion in 2020. It breaks down to about $28 billion in U.S. consumer spending affected by fake reviews, $6.4 billion in Japan, $0.5 billion in the U.K., $2.3 billion in Canada, and $0.9 billion in Australia. Meanwhile, researchers discovered a misconfigured database containing personal details of around 200,000 such commenters. In the huge fake review market, there is no shortage of "data contributions" from Chinese sellers. In addition to Amazon's official review method and buyers' proactive review, sellers using other means to obtain reviews have certain risks. As mentioned above, although Amazon has banned the use of praise cards to obtain reviews, many sellers still take the risk and try. Amazon is also cracking down on this behavior more strictly. Some sellers reported that there is no smoke without fire, and that a service provider they knew had already started taking on the "small card violation query" service. ▲ The picture comes from the seller communication group The following content appeared in the service provider’s circle of friends: [Small Card Violation Inquiry] You can check the Amazon warehouse to investigate the ASIN status of the small card. It is possible that your store is being investigated and the seller who stuffed the small card cannot be confirmed. Now you can check whether it has been investigated by Amazon. If it is too late, your store may be closed! ▲ The picture comes from the seller communication group
Various signs indicate that this account blocking incident is not groundless. It is imperative for Amazon to crack down on fake reviews. Sellers who have taken related actions or thoughts recently must pay attention! Seeing that the accounts of top sellers are blocked one after another and the power of the platform is only increasing, how should small and medium-sized sellers deal with the current situation? With the frequent occurrence of big sellers being banned, many sellers who have engaged in fake orders are trembling with fear, worrying that their accounts will be affected one day. However, no matter how difficult the road ahead is, the only operating rule that sellers should adhere to is "compliance". What do you think about this big-selling account suspension? We have set up a discussion group. Welcome to scan the QR code below to join the group and speak freely~
|
