Mask seller confesses! Don’t get too excited if you don’t have the ability

I am a self-employed seller, but I don’t even dare to call myself a small seller at the moment. I can call myself a micro seller. Now I only have a large account for FBA and a small account for self-delivery. I usually purchase and operate by myself, and my family members help me pack and ship the goods.

Now the two stores have a monthly net profit of about 10,000 to 20,000 yuan. Although I am not rich, I am relatively free and have time to spend with my family. I am quite satisfied with my decision to start my own business.

After the Chinese New Year, the shutdown caused by the epidemic made it almost impossible to sell small-sized self-delivery products. Although FBA had some inventory of large-sized products, many popular products had already been out of stock. The situation was very urgent, but I had no choice if the factory did not open. It was around the end of February, and the cross-border circle also started to sell masks at that time.

Both accounts were facing a sales gap, and I kept seeing people on WeChat Moments and forums talking about how masks were being sold at dozens of times the price and still receiving hundreds of orders a day. In addition, my family often talked about whether or not I should sell masks, so I gradually came up with the idea of ​​making masks.

Masks are not on sale yet, so pay thousands of tuition fees first

I had never come across similar products before. I did some research online and learned that masks belong to the category of medical devices. If I use FBA, I must provide FDA certification. Even uploading products requires category review first.

Many sellers should remember that some time ago, the advertisements of service providers for interface mask category review in WeChat Moments were overwhelming, and people appeared in various WeChat groups all day long to sell masks. At that time, I thought that even if the masks could not be made, I would store them for my own use, so before the review was done and the products were not put on the market, I contacted someone who claimed to have ready stock and could be shipped directly to buy a small batch of masks.

Then I tried to upload new masks on a small account, and found a cheap service provider to pass the review. I didn’t expect that the masks that were in stock had no logistics information. When I contacted the seller, he kept finding excuses to delay. Later, I saw the exposure on the official account and learned about the cash trading method. At that time, I thought that the order might be issued soon after uploading, so I quickly asked an acquaintance to buy some to meet the emergency.

Although this batch of masks has been sent to me, the price of masks has also dropped. It is much lower than when I bought them. I still relied on buying masks from acquaintances to get through the first wave of selling masks.

The ideal is very popular, but the reality is very cold

Because I see many sellers whose products become very popular as soon as they are put on the shelves, I am particularly looking forward to the few days after the products are put on the shelves. When the upload is just completed, I want to stare at the store all night and refresh it every few seconds to see how many orders have been placed.

We did receive orders on the night of uploading, but the price was a bit high, so by the time I couldn’t hold back any longer and went to bed, only a few orders had been placed. This was a big blow to me as I was full of expectations.

The next day I opened advertisements and coupons, hoping that the promotion and publicity could bring more traffic to the new product.

In the following days, there was a slight increase in the number of new masks, but at most there were only about 40 orders. In addition, the cost of express delivery and small packages was relatively high, so the profit was very limited, far less than those service providers and forum users who placed hundreds of orders a day.

And as time goes by, the sales volume of masks is gradually declining, and recently only about ten masks are sold every day. In fact, it is easy to understand why this situation is happening. There are more and more sellers of masks, and it is getting cheaper to buy them domestically. Masks will definitely become more and more difficult to make.

A few days before the manufacturing, I suddenly received a letter from Amazon saying that some products were suspected of price fraud and my small account was blocked.

I hurriedly looked for a way to appeal, and then I found that there was a group of service providers in my circle of friends who accepted "price fraud and store closure appeals". After a careful search, I found that the service provider who previously accepted my category review was also accepting appeals. I suddenly felt like I was being tricked. "Proclaim that masks are selling well, then accept a wave of reviews, and then accept another wave of appeals when your store is closed." This is the current situation in the mask category.

Of course, there are definitely people who have achieved hundreds of orders per day from selling masks, but their success is definitely not something that we small and micro sellers can replicate. The right time, right place, and right people are all essential. Small and micro sellers like me should not take this muddy water lightly!