With the end of the National Day holiday, Amazon's autumn Prime Membership Day kicked off as scheduled on October 8, officially firing the first shot of the peak sales season in the fourth quarter of 2024.

According to media reports, during this year's autumn Prime Day promotion, 19 Amazon sites including the United States, Japan, Italy, and France participated in this autumn carnival, and many sellers successfully welcomed a surge in orders on the first day.

Some sellers said on social media that within just a few hours of the promotion, the store's sales were close to 2,000 orders, and the overall sales were expected to increase tenfold. Some sellers even posted excellent results of thousands of orders and increased sales, saying that "the effect of adding coupons is too obvious."

Screenshots of explosive orders posted by some sellers Source: Know everything

However, from the overall situation, a larger proportion of sellers failed to enjoy the joy of the explosion of orders. They waited from the 8th to the 9th, but the backend order data did not change significantly, and they once again became "bystanders" of the big promotion. For these sellers, not only did their sales fail to exceed that of normal days, but their advertising investment costs were even higher than usual.

Based on feedback from sellers, the overall traffic of the 2024 Prime Member Autumn Sale is lower than that of Prime Day in July. Analyzing the reasons, on the one hand, during the same period, other e-commerce platforms such as Walmart and Wayfair also launched promotional activities, diverting some potential consumers.

On the other hand, consumers’ lack of awareness of Amazon’s autumn promotion is also an important factor. Compared with Prime Day, the status of autumn membership day in consumers’ minds does not seem to be that important.

Looking back at last year's fall promotion, Amazon's official data showed that Prime members ordered more than 150 million items from third-party sellers, slightly more than 100 million items in 2022, but the growth was limited, and about 60% of the items were priced below US$20, which also shows that consumers are more inclined to join in the fun rather than make large purchases.

Crucially, many consumers prefer to shop on the following Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday in the hope of getting deeper discounts and better quality merchandise.

• Amazon order payment delays

Recently, some Amazon sellers reported that their stores were experiencing delayed payments, with the payment delay lasting 7-10 days. At the critical juncture of the peak season, many sellers said: "I am afraid that there will be business later but the capital turnover will not keep up."

It is understood that since October 2, many sellers on North American sites have found that all orders in their stores have been delayed in settlement, prompting the "delivery date policy".

For small and medium-sized sellers, funds are relatively tight. Basically, goods are delivered and funds flow back for the next step of replenishment and operation. Now, delayed payments directly disrupt the business line.

Some sellers believe that this is a disguised form of withholding payment. In the past, the amount was directly reserved, but now the reserved amount is 0, but the full settlement is delayed, which seems to be more than the previous reserved amount. By delaying the settlement, more interest can be earned.

However, some sellers believe that this is to stop some sellers from taking advantage of the situation. Previously, Amazon reserved funds for 14 days, and there were fake shipments or empty packages, and the money was withdrawn after 14 days, and the sellers took the money and ran away before the store was closed. This policy seems to be Amazon's intention to plug this loophole.

In response, Amazon's seller support team responded: " The platform will move the sales that used to be displayed under "Account Level Reserves" to the "Deferred Transactions" section. When an order is waiting for delivery or the buyer's payment confirmation, the transaction will be deferred. "

This is a retention policy based on the delivery date, which is designed to ensure that the proceeds will be distributed to the seller only after the buyer receives the eligible goods. This policy can further prevent some sellers from maliciously taking advantage of the time difference to withdraw money.

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