For the first time ever I’ve been in negative balances and I’m just trying to make it through this year.
Competition, copycats and the cost of living crisis has really impacted my business.
I’ve had to drop my price by half to compete and get any sales at all.
The fba warehousing fees are smashing me because my stock just hasn’t shifted, even when I lower my price. Considering for the first time ever giving up.
I wondered if I’m the only one? Been selling since 2018
I think it depends on what products you’re selling tbh, some sellers are doing well others are really struggling. I’ve noticed a lot of “randomers” popping up on a lot of my products who seem to get the buy boxes as their prices are so low!
I’m in the events and party space. Even on Etsy my sales are down by half and i have no copy cats on there. Been a really tough year!
It’s been a similar story with me but I have accepted its not a long term business. Chinese sellers ship directly to UK and US centres, Amazon are pushing hard to onboard them as vendors as they have all of our selling metrics and data. Just recently I’ve heard one of the largest Amazon aggregators has gone bankrupt.
You’re not alone! Been a shit year, had 2 x VA’s and have let them go. I’ve reduced the number of ASINs considerably as the more I listed the more account issues I got. Reducing everything down has massively reduced my stress and focussing on fewer, better, products has increased my profit quite a bit. I’m clearing everything out over Q4 and going to have a less is more attitude next year
Yes I’ve really struggled this year
The system is designed to keep you hooked and restocking their warehouse, while draining you dry of any profit. İf you make money, they’ll then start competing against you on your listings.
I’m lucky I sell a hair product brand that the sales are very consistent all year round but my sales volume defo dropped in 2023 by about 10-12%
I have a guy who looks after my ppc who might be able to help but I know he does take on anyone that’s not doing high 6figs per year
My profits are down from £4k a month in March to - £700 this month. It would be great to hear from people who are doing well as I’m seriously wondering if it is worth continuing.
No. You are not alone.
I sell toys. People have stopped buying toys for the kids. It has never happened before.
While people do come here to buy my products, prices are down. The majority of our sales are coming through our website. Even so, we can barely meet expenses.
Struggle is a very weak word. Amazon and the European Union keep introducing new burdens and compliance requirements making it more and more difficult for an ordinary person to sell online.
Every month, there are new hassles I have to waste my time on dealing with. Amazon is deactivating and removing listings at such a pace it’s impossible to save them, especially if the listings were originally created by a different seller who put incorrect brand name into the brand field or used wrong barcode.
Oddly enough amazon has not been that bad, considering we are down to just a few items on amazon. Its ebay that has turned toxic on us. They appear to be using AI to throttle everyones sales, 100 sellers and each one will sell one item. We are at 1/10 of what it should be on that site, we actually have had days that amazon outperformed ebay, just a few items on amazon compared to a few hundred on ebay…that is bad.
I do feel sellers are much better off with amazon since amazon is advertising and we have seen it numerous times. Will you make money on amazon, highly doubt it, that’s the problem.
eBay is too busy manipulating sellers and some other issues that the government(s) need to investigate. Have not seen any external ebay promotions, on their site it seems they are more interested in selling flash cards and auto parts. The car parts marketplace is imported goods from China…
Something is extremely smelly with amazon and ebay. Think about this @FunkyMonkey and myself have our own domains and are relying upon that for income. Very sad, we have 5,000,000 page views on ebay. If I had 5,000,000 page views on our website I would have a bigger yacht than Bezo. Point is something smells really bad with both sites…
Amazon burned the bridge with my company around 10 years ago, ebay just did it this year. I am most certainly not the only one that has been burned by them. When they burn the wrong people it only leads to trouble down the road. Making the issue even worse is a bad economy and no friends to help rally the buyers to the marketplaces appears to be biting both sites.
Judging from how steeply are the Amazon fees going up, I can imagine that soon you won’t find anything else on the platform apart from overpriced Alibaba private label trinkets. It’s impossible to sell there ordinary branded products purchased wholesale and absorb all the extra expenses + return and refund conditions honored by Amazon. When you buy a product for $2 and sell it boxed and branded for $50, all is good. But if you sell a major brand product bought for $20 with a $25 RRP it’s a problem.
Yes, that sure does look like the direction they are headed.
I overlooked this in yesterday’s post. Launched several new designs earlier this year on ebay and our website.
Within 24 hours our website had sales of an item that was previously unknown.
eBay, crickets. It is just now starting to get some sales on ebay. That is the other point our view counter runs around 5,000,000 and NOTHING. My website traffic is so low compared to that its not even funny, yet it is generating sales. Have not listed anything new on amazon for years, so who knows over their.
For some reason ebay smells like amazon in regards to the level of manipulation and how products are displayed. It would be nice if a whistleblower would pop the top on that mess and let the world know what is actually going on.
Blame Temu and recession.
I was a whistleblower, remember? There were two of us. Nobody wanted to hear what we had to say. Nobody!
Yes, remember that very well.
I was hoping someone directly on the payroll with first hand knowledge of what is being done to manipulate sellers would come forth. That is about the only way a case will ever be examined by the law. Until then, not much can be done.
That might be a factor.
With the recession, our website would be down to nothing and its not, plus my market penetration relative to the ebay and amazon marketplace can be assumed to be zero. It is down, not nearly as much as eBay and I don’t have enough active products on amazon to say anything about that site relative to our own.
Yes. I understand.
Whistleblowing on Amazon doesn’t go anywhere. We had irrefutable evidence, and were in contact with the highest levels of government, investigative reporters, and high-profile attorneys.
Nobody would touch it.
Caribbean cruise on a private yacht is very inspiring… 