Analysis of Amazon sales and seller status: challenges, changes and prospects

Recently, a series of noteworthy phenomena have emerged on the Amazon platform, involving the decline in sellers’ sales and the dynamic changes in the number of sellers. These situations have had a significant impact on the Amazon seller group and the entire e-commerce ecosystem.

1. Abnormal sales drop

1. Common Dilemma for Sellers

• Many sellers reported a sharp drop in sales, saying that this year was a difficult year, with orders not only staying at a low level for a longer period of time, but also falling more sharply. Many sellers said that this was the worst year in many years of operation, such as some sellers' sales from May to August fell by 60% compared to April, and some sellers' sales fell by almost 100%, with zero page clicks.

• Some sellers have reported that traffic in the auto parts category seems to have disappeared. One auto parts seller said that the number of orders has dropped by 30% - 50% compared to last month. The situation of other sellers in the same category is not optimistic either. This abnormal decline means that Amazon's auto parts market has seen a large drop in orders in a short period of time. Previously, the accounts of rival companies were reviewed and they should have freed up market share. However, the number of orders has decreased instead of increased, which is puzzling.

2. Causes

• Consumer factors and competitive pressure : One view is that consumers are downgrading their consumption and are more inclined to buy products on lower-priced platforms such as TEMU, SHEIN, TikTok, etc. The low-price strategies of these platforms have snatched Amazon's traffic and orders. At the same time, Amazon's own fees are too high, including advertising fees, logistics fees, warehousing and configuration fees, etc., which has led to the compression of sellers' profits and the transfer of costs to consumers, putting Amazon at a disadvantage in the competition.

• Platform’s own rules : Another view is that a decline in orders before the peak season is normal, especially in the first half month of a big promotion, when weekends have a greater impact. As long as the ranking is stable, there is no need to worry too much. If the ranking is unstable, consider adjusting it.

2. Changes in the number of sellers

1. Overall number and active sellers

• It is estimated that by the end of 2024, Amazon will have 9.7 million sellers, including 1.9 million active sellers, and the number of sellers is increasing. In 2024, 839,900 new sellers have poured in, with about 3,700 new sellers joining every day. It is expected to surge to 1,350,500 new sellers by the end of the year.

• The US site leads by a large margin in terms of the number of active sellers, with about 1.1 million active sellers, and its Prime members are close to half of the US population. Chinese merchants account for about 40% of Amazon's global stores, and their share is even higher in certain sites such as Canada and Spain.

2. High replacement rate of old and new

• According to the data, there are only 1.9 million active sellers among the 9.7 million sellers, and a large number of sellers have disappeared. Among the more than 400 competing stores collected by sellers, only more than 60 are currently operating normally, with a closure rate of over 80%. Even considering that some sellers have multiple stores and re-shell operations, hundreds of sellers have withdrawn from the Amazon platform. This reflects the fierce competition among sellers on the Amazon platform. After going through different stages, many sellers eventually left for various reasons, such as the impact of the overall environment, the disillusionment of the growth bubble, etc., and it is not easy for sellers to continue to make profits on Amazon.

Although Amazon is still attracting many sellers, the challenges it faces cannot be ignored. When facing declining sales and fierce competition, sellers need to constantly adjust their strategies to adapt to market changes. For the Amazon platform, how to solve the problems faced by sellers and improve the overall operating environment while maintaining its attractiveness is also an important issue that needs to be considered and resolved in the future. I hope that in the upcoming promotion, sellers can overcome difficulties and achieve their sales goals.