Sellers’ Voices丨The Hardships of Small Sellers and Prime Day

My deep impression of Prime Day

Before I started working on my own, I worked in a small company for almost 2 years. I wanted to find a major related to foreign trade right after I graduated from university, and I ended up in this company by chance. When I really started working, I realized that there was a big difference between traditional foreign trade and cross-border e-commerce. The process was relatively simple, and there were no steps like following orders.

Under the guidance of seniors in the company, I gradually became familiar with some basic operations and started to run a new store on my own. The sales of the new store increased relatively quickly, and basically reached about 20,000 US dollars in about two months. Then it was stuck at 20,000 US dollars for a long time.

I remember it very clearly at that time, because sales had reached a bottleneck and there was no improvement, I was very anxious. I tried various methods, but basically they could only increase it temporarily, and soon it would drop back to more than 20,000.

After that, my senior said to me, "Let's give it a try on Member's Day," and guided me through the preparations from submitting the activity to stocking up and ranking. Our sales in July of that year reached about twice the usual level. Moreover, after Member's Day, our usual order volume was much higher than that in the first half of the year, and our monthly sales began to stabilize at around 40,000.

This opportunity made me remember this window of opportunity firmly, and also dug a not-so-small hole for me later on.

After working on Amazon, I realized how difficult it is

Around the beginning of last year, I resigned and started my own business. Out of self-discipline, I did not choose the same category as my old employer, but switched to a more niche vertical product. The category is small and the competition is small, but it was really hard in the early stage. Although the orders were fast, the improvement was really slow. After 3 months, the monthly sales were only about 8,000 US dollars, which was far from what I had expected.

It was almost time to prepare for Prime Day. I had a very good impression of Prime Day when I was in the company. It might be because I had never suffered a loss from a big sale. I applied for flash sales for two main listings, and used new free activities for other products, which were exclusive discounts and Prime Day coupons. Then I sent a lot of inventory, fearing that it would sell out overnight.

After the goods arrived, I prepared for the ranking and evaluation as usual. I didn't expect the scheduling to be particularly ideal. Although I knew that the scheduling would affect the final effect, I didn't expect the difference to be so big. I thought that even if the time and effect were worse, it would still bring a wave of sales and rankings. So I didn't choose to cancel LD. It wasn't until LD started that I realized how miserable it was to not be able to schedule the Member Day event on that day. I didn't even have the order volume during the peak period of the usual weekend. On the contrary, the sales of several small products that participated in the free event on Prime Day were very good, and they were almost sold out on the same day.

During Prime Day, the sales of the two main products were slightly higher than usual when there was no LD event. Having learned this lesson, I can tell you for sure that scheduling is the most important factor in participating in Prime Day! No doubt about it! If the scheduling is not good, everything else is out of the question! If my two main products canceled the LD and participated in the free event, maybe they would have taken off during last year's Prime Day.

Afterwards, I often reflect on this experience. The biggest difference between small sellers and large or even medium-sized sellers is that they don’t have many opportunities for trial and error. A mistake can have a fatal impact, so the operating strategy of our small sellers should be based on stability.

I know that many people will say that the bold will die of overeating and the timid will die of starvation, but behind the boldness often there must be the support of funds to play fancy tricks. It is not that the timid do not want to be bold, but that there is simply no financial and resource support to be bold.

I was lucky in this mistake last year. I didn't put all my money on LD. I also participated in the free activities and the results were good, which avoided heavy losses. The most important opportunity I should have seized last year was the exclusive discount, but I made the mistake of choosing LD. At the end of the year, the exclusive discount effect of Cyber ​​Monday was not as good as in the middle of the year.

It is said that this year's Primeday has been postponed to early October. Although the free event may not be as effective as last year, as we all can see this year, Amazon's overall traffic and demand are really skyrocketing. I am very much looking forward to what kind of grand occasion this year's Primeday will create.