The double blow of fund orders and volumes, have you been cut off today as a cross-border person?

Cross-border people, did the fund you bought fall today?

The No. 1 national topic in 2021 is undoubtedly funds. Looking back to the year before, it seemed that all the topics on social software were funds. When you click on the Moments or group chats, you can see people talking about funds. According to data from Tiantian Fund Network, the average return of fund investors in 2020 was 14%, far exceeding the 3.6% return of stock investors for the whole year announced by institutions.

The seemingly favorable market has attracted a large number of people to the fund market, including cross-border investors . In 2021, the popularity of funds has not diminished, and they have been on Weibo's hot searches several times. Everyone also expected that the fund would have a good start after the New Year and maintain the momentum before the New Year, but unexpectedly, what they waited for was a green .

The mother of the fall does not admit it, and cross-border people are cut off

If we have to use one word to describe the dismal fund performance after the new year, it would be “the mother of decline does not recognize it” .

At the beginning of the Year of the Ox, the three major indexes all fell sharply, with the ChiNext Index falling below 3,000 points, and the entire market was in the red. Liquor, pharmaceutical, military and other fund-heavy stocks were tested by the market, and active equity funds also turned green .

With the market in the red, many cross-border traders lamented that they were being ripped off. Some sellers said they could only eat instant noodles and could only blame themselves for being too greedy. Now they are afraid of the word "fund".

▲ Picture source: seller communication group

Some sellers have learned their lesson and regretted their decision, saying they should have sold when they were making a lot of money.

In the seller communication group, the greetings from cross-border people have also changed from "Have you placed any orders today?" to " Has the price dropped again today? "

▲ Picture source: seller communication group

▲ Picture source: seller communication group

Good fortune never comes alone, and misfortune never comes alone. Cross-border people were severely injured by the fund, and then they were hit hard by the orders. After the cross-border people resumed work, the fund page that originally carried the road to wealth for cross-border people turned into a green vegetable garden. The fund lost so much money, cross-border people should have devoted themselves to work, but they didn't expect that the order volume was even worse than the fund .

Snowstorm caused a sharp drop in orders

In the seller communication group, sellers communicated about order status as usual, and many sellers reported that they had not received any orders for several days.

▲ Picture source: seller communication group

Some sellers said that in this case, 0 orders is a normal operation, because the United States is currently facing large-scale logistics delays, and the American people's desire to shop online has also declined .

Logistics is a problem, but freight rates are rising

According to U.S. media reports, the United States has been hit by extremely cold weather, with temperatures in many places hitting record lows. Snowstorms have paralyzed power grids in many places, leaving more than 4 million residents without electricity. In addition, the extremely cold weather has caused Amazon to announce the closure of some warehouses; truck delivery companies have suspended cargo acceptance in some areas; and rail transportation in the western United States has been suspended .

Land transportation was severely affected by the snowstorm, and the port congestion problem has not been solved.

Recently, the CEO of the American Consumer Suppliers Federation told the media, "We can still see Christmas goods arriving in batches! Unless retailers are able to handle this batch of goods, they will be forced to deal with these goods at a huge discount."

The CEO of Sea-Intelligence, a US shipping consultancy, expressed his opinion, “The current situation is that due to the impact of the epidemic, the sudden surge in demand has led to a large backlog of goods at many ports. Port congestion has caused ships to wait a long time to berth, and the punctuality of liner services will drop sharply .

The congestion at the port has made it difficult for sellers to restock, and freight rates have risen again !

According to the latest XSI index report released by Xeneta, a shipping market intelligence company, contract rates increased by 9.6% month-on-month, following a 5.9% increase in January, reaching the highest level since the index was created. Xeneta's CEO said that this means that the current hot freight rates will be further pushed up .

At present, sellers will not only face longer replenishment cycles, but also higher shipping prices. But there is more bad news for sellers, the recent trend of the US dollar exchange rate is not good.

The arrival of the severe snowstorm has made the already weak US economy even worse. The current trend of the US dollar is not optimistic. Some experts have analyzed that the US dollar will continue to fall before the second quarter of 2021. The continued decline of the US dollar means that the profit space is compressed for sellers.

In addition to logistics, freight rates, exchange rates and many other issues, insurance is also a huge challenge for sellers. Sellers who have received emails from Amazon notifying them to apply for insurance must apply for an insurance order with a coverage of $1 million . For details, please refer to "Follow-up to the Amazon insurance incident! It turns out that only these sellers need to purchase it?"

It is understood that this new policy is a new measure proposed by Amazon to regulate the behavior of sellers, aiming to regulate the market, screen high-quality sellers, and promote high-quality products. It is actually a good thing and can help sellers resist risks, but it also means that the operating costs of sellers have increased in disguise.

For now, profit margins have fallen due to the depreciation of the US dollar; operating costs have risen due to increased insurance and freight rates; and port congestion and snowstorms have made it difficult for sellers to restock and deliver goods.

What do sellers think about the current situation? Feel free to share with us in the comments section~