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It is learned that Amazon's US retail business is the "fastest growing" and Amazon is expected to surpass Walmart to become the largest retailer in the United States in 2022. Between 2014 and 2020, Amazon's gross merchandise volume (GMV) in the United States grew "significantly faster" than adjusted retail sales and e-commerce. Although the expansion of the Amazon empire is beyond imagination, the troubles and accusations faced by this e-commerce giant have never stopped. Amazon has previously faced antitrust investigations in many countries and has even been fined. The old problems haven’t been solved yet, but new ones have already emerged. Recently, the U.S. House of Representatives proposed five new bills that are still in draft form, which may be aimed directly at Amazon. What changes will the new bills bring to Amazon?
The United States announces new bill Targeting Amazon and other tech giants It is learned that last Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives released five new draft bills, which will send a strong signal to technology giants, and Amazon, which is most familiar to sellers, will also be on the list.
▲ The picture comes from Weibo 1. End Platform Monopoly Act 2. American Choice and Innovation Online Act 3. Enhancing Compatibility and Competition through the Access to Enabling Services Exchange (ACCESS) Act 4. Platform Competition and Opportunity Act 5. Modernization of M&A filing fees It is understood that four of the five drafts mentioned above "only target large technology companies", and only four technology giants, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google, meet the criteria. Sellers on Amazon have long been troubled by Amazon's own brands. Amazon's official self-operated products not only have platform traffic support, but also target third-party sellers, using methods such as following sales, suppression, and acquisition to engage in unfair competition with third-party sellers, which has been boycotted by a number of sellers. The recently announced "Ending Platform Monopoly Act" will require Amazon to split itself into two businesses so that it can no longer offer other companies' products while competing with these sellers with its own private label goods. On the surface, this is good news for third-party sellers. Not having to compete with Amazon's own brands is a boon for third-party sellers. At the same time, the bill will require large technology companies, led by Amazon, to undergo structural separation in order to split, sell or divest their own brand businesses, which may change Amazon's retail business. According to the content of the above-mentioned bill, if the bill is officially implemented, the unfair competition behaviors and market environment of the above-mentioned platforms will change, and sellers will also greatly reduce the pressure of competing with Amazon's own operations. In addition to the good news that the passage of the above-mentioned bill can bring to sellers, as Prime Day approaches, in order to better manage logistics and goods, Amazon is also encouraging sellers to clear inventory and has introduced relevant favorable policies for this purpose. Amazon's latest announcement Exemption from FBA clearing fees for the following European countries It is learned that Amazon Europe has announced that inventory located in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, France, Spain and Italy will be exempted from FBA liquidation fees. The free trial period ends on September 7, 2021. The following is the content of the announcement: In order to reduce the storage costs of low-selling products and improve the utilization of warehouse space, Amazon will waive FBA liquidation fees in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, France, Spain and Italy . The free trial period ends on September 7, 2021. It is understood that FBA liquidation not only helps sellers remove overstock or inventory returned by buyers, but also recovers certain costs at 5% - 20%* of the average selling price. If inventory needs to be liquidated, sellers can choose liquidation when creating a removal order. Amazon previously announced that it would start charging FBA liquidation fees from June 8, 2021. Now it has announced an extension of the free use period, and all clearance orders submitted before 11:59 pm (CET) on September 7, 2021 will enjoy free use of the service. However, this fee waiver does not apply to inventory stored in the UK. Note: The 5% - 20% recycling fee is only an estimate based on Amazon backend data (such as the seller's sales history, the average FBA sales price on Amazon, and the sales history of the specific product). Amazon cannot guarantee that the recycling price will always be between 5% and 20% of the sales price of a specific product. As the peak season approaches, many sellers have reported that the order volume has not been good recently. In addition, due to the price war in the cross-border circle, cross-border sellers have begun to clear their inventory at low prices. Sellers should clear redundant inventory as soon as possible to prepare for a good inventory status for Member Day. In general, the new US bill and the exemption of European FBA liquidation fees are both good news for sellers. Although the sellers are suffering from the unsatisfactory sales during the current promotion, there is no rainbow without wind and rain. I hope that the suffering of the sellers can be washed away by the explosive sales on the Member Day.
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