The Amazon 2022 U.S. Seller Summit was held last week at the Seattle Convention Center, and nearly 10,000 sellers and brands from across the United States attended the conference. Hui.com also participated in the conference and accepted a video interview with Amazon as a representative of Chinese sellers. In the 2-day conference, we shared with you in real time through Huiwang Douyin, the new services launched by Amazon, and these services also showed the retail weather vane of the entire cross-border e-commerce and the United States as well as various Western countries. In today's article, we will take you to an in-depth interpretation.

Conference Focus #1: U.S.-based sellers are steadily growing their sales

It may be because this is the US seller summit, so Dames, vice president of Amazon seller relations, focused on sharing the performance data of US sellers on Amazon. However, from the perspective of Hui.com and Chinese sellers, these data seem to have a clear contrast with the performance of sellers outside the United States:

Amazon China and the U.S. "Seller Size" Comparison

1. The number of domestic sellers in the United States has increased steadily by 100,000. If you look at one brand per store, this number seems to represent the new number of American sellers last year.

2. The annual sales growth is greater than 25%, and from the performance and feelings of general Chinese sellers, it seems that sales have been declining since June last year.

3. At least 70,000 U.S. sellers have annual sales of more than $100,000. This figure also seems to be representative of the overall size of U.S. sellers, because $100,000 in sales per year means that many sellers have less than $100,000 in sales each month. To 10,000 US dollars, this figure is far lower than the performance of Chinese sellers and most Huiwanghui members

4. Amazon U.S. sellers have created 1.5 million jobs, which should also be far lower than the number of Chinese sellers, because conservative estimates suggest that there are at least 5 million Amazon-related jobs in China.

From the above aspects, we can roughly see the gap between American sellers and Chinese sellers. However, Marketpulse's U.S. seller rankings are interesting.

Comparison of "Number of Top Sellers" between China and the U.S. on Amazon

Anker is counted as a U.S. seller, ranking #7 in U.S. sales. However, among the top 20 sellers in the United States, there is no Chinese seller, and only 3 Chinese sellers in the top 50 sales are:

#21 Ailun-US: 3C mobile phone accessories, mobile phone film, mobile phone bracket, etc., the number of listings is 528

#27 uxCell: Home improvement, tools, fashion, other categories, more than 100,000 listings

#35 LiCB: Normal battery, Listing Quantity 40

In addition to the above Chinese sellers, 47 of the top 50 sellers in the United States are all American companies . Here we only use the top 5 to make an analysis for you:

#1 Pattern-iService: Health products, more than 10,000 listings

#2 Zappos: Clothing, shoes and hats, more than 90,000 listings

#3 Asurion: Product Insurance

#4 Phamapacks: Cosmeceutical products, more than 30,000 listings

#5 Carlyle: Health Supplements, Listing Quantity 741

A Comparison of the "Operation Models" of Amazon's Chinese and American Sellers

The data above are interesting because they can tell the difference between Chinese and American sellers or Chinese and American companies operating:

1. Operation mode: American companies basically help brand merchants operate on behalf of them, while Chinese companies mainly sell their own products under OEM

2. Quantity of goods: American companies mainly distribute goods, while Chinese companies focus on high-quality goods

3. Commodity pricing: American companies basically do not sell at low prices, while Chinese companies mostly focus on low-price competition

Conference Focus #2: “Local Companies” Will Get More Traffic Support

1. Special Logo for Small and Micro Enterprises

Helping local sellers in the U.S. is another focus of this conference. Damishi, vice president of seller relations at Amazon, said during the first day of the conference that U.S. local sellers will receive a "Small Business" mark . According to Hui.com, this mark is only for local companies in the United States. With this mark, consumers can see at a glance which products are sold by local sellers, which will effectively improve the conversion rate of products and avoid price competition. And the mark played a huge role in the July Prime Day sale.

2. Black business special logo

In addition to the "Small and Micro Business Mark", Amazon has also launched the "Black Business Mark". No matter how we view the world in China, the ethnic integration of Western countries has become mainstream. Most of the CEOs in the US technology industry are already Indian, and most of the Amazon executives who came to power at this Amazon conference are also Indian. At the same time, whether it is justices, state governments, police officers, or businessmen, the influence of black people has been growing in the United States and even in Western countries. Amazon's "Black Business Marker" will also allow buyers to make purchases based on ethnic preferences. And half of the successful Amazon sellers shared at this seller conference are black businesses.

3. U.S. seller circle grows

In addition, we can see from the speech of Kate, the head of the Amazon Seller Community in the United States, that Amazon is actively cultivating and developing Amazon's seller circle in the United States. According to Hui.com's understanding, American sellers have begun to spontaneously conduct regular discussions and sharing in various regions. Different from sharing with Chinese sellers, American sellers have obvious advantages in local resources, and they can often exchange many experiences in social media and offline retailing in the process of sharing. Under the official guidance of Amazon, it is believed that the number of American sellers and the size of the seller circle will expand rapidly.

Conference Focus #3: Online and offline integration is rapidly forming

Huiwang believes that a major highlight of this conference should be Amazon's "offline and online retail integration function". The point here is:

Amazon will provide sales and distribution services for offline supermarkets in Europe and the United States

1. All offline stores including supermarkets can post products directly to Amazon

2. Amazon offers a “local business” mark

3. Amazon helps offline brick-and-mortar stores deliver, or curbside pickup

Considering the ratio of offline stores and offline retail in the US and Europe (4-5 times larger than Amazon's current sales), this service will explode Amazon's SKU count and will directly hit Walmart. What we need to pay attention to is that if the project can be successful, it is very likely that Amazon will guide the products of Chinese sellers into offline stores, and at the same time lay out an online and offline sales network.

Conference Focus #4 Amazon Advertising Dilemma, Content Marketing Is More Important

On-site advertising has always been a particular concern for Chinese sellers, but as we have shared over the past few weeks, Amazon US sellers are increasingly rejecting on-site advertising on Amazon because the cost of on-site advertising is too high and increasingly unaffordable. . Amazon seems to be very aware of sellers' concerns, so at this conference, Amazon's seller care, global stores, brand registration, FBA and other departments have announced new functions, and set up a platform at the exhibition to communicate directly with sellers at the same time, Amazon The most profitable advertising department, with no sharing and no booth.

Hui.com has conducted in-depth exchanges with several very large sellers in the United States. In their view, Amazon's advertising can only have two purposes, that is: either to increase sales (to increase ACoS), or to reduce ACoS (to decline in sales) ), but these two purposes cannot be in effect at the same time .

In the three main Amazon sharing sessions and several sub-venues, Amazon highlighted several trends:

Video Content Marketing Becomes the Key to Conversion Rates

1. Video promotion is unstoppable

2. Amazon Live will become increasingly important

3. Platinum A+ will be the key for sellers to further improve the conversion rate

4. Videos and pictures of overseas lifestyles (not P pictures) are the guarantee of high conversion rate

5. The combination of brand flagship store, post, video pictures of overseas real usage scenarios, and Amazon live broadcast will effectively reduce sellers’ reliance on on-site advertisements.

In order to help sellers create higher-quality content, Amazon has launched an influencer platform and brand content creation service providers, but the influencer platform is temporarily closed to sellers, and the price of brand content creators is now very high.

Conference focus #5 FBA warehousing is relaxed, multi-channel distribution becomes the focus

I believe that what everyone is looking forward to this time is that Amazon will relax the restrictions on FBA warehousing. On this issue, Amazon didn't surprise all sellers, but it didn't disappoint. Amazon FBA Vice President Biu Shi shared a few key points:

1. Sellers can now start to actively apply for a position increase in the seller center

2. Although there may be fees for Amazon's name-initiated upgrade, in most cases no additional fees are incurred.

3. The new function STA (Send to Amazon) no longer requires sellers to spend more time packaging, the warehousing and packaging work will be completed by Amazon, and the listing time is faster than the seller's own delivery

4. The new AWD (Amazon Warehousing & Distribution) will allow FBA goods to be fulfilled for orders on more platforms under the "white label" (no Amazon mark), and there is no warehousing restriction under the AWD project

5. Amazon has newly acquired a local logistics company in the United States, which allows sellers to directly get the lowest delivery fee in the United States, and can quickly send products to ETSY, eBay, Shopify and other platforms

The FBA page of Amazon Seller Center has also launched 4 new features:

1. Inventory performance

2. Warehousing invitations for outstanding ASINs

3. Judging inventory warnings according to the inventory market

4. Get the inventory status of Amazon's unlisted products in real time

Hui.com also conducted in-depth exchanges with relevant personnel of Amazon's FBA department. We learned that Amazon should not completely cancel the IPI index, but will relax the restrictions on warehousing to varying degrees, and at the same time, it will start to make Amazon's FBA warehouses more platforms. distribution channel. The reason for this is that before Amazon introduced the IPI indicator, there was a lot of redundant inventory, which caused Amazon to spend more to build FBA warehouses. And all Amazon’s current problem around FBA is not to limit warehousing, but to improve inventory turnover.

Conference focus #6 Fast payment, avoid the ban function online

In response to the problem of Amazon's long payment processing period, Katie, the head of Amazon's seller community, announced at the conference that Amazon will launch a 24-hour fast payment function for accounts received by banks in the United States. This feature will also be launched soon for other regions.

Regarding the seller's feedback on the problem that the Amazon seller support department cannot solve the problem, David, the head of Amazon seller support department, announced at the conference that Amazon will provide the Case upgrade processing function from now on. If the seller needs to communicate with the actual personnel, you can also directly call Call Amazon. Relevant functions have been listed in each seller's back office.

At the same time, the issue of title bans not only troubles Chinese sellers, but also American sellers. At this conference, the head of Amazon's compliance department announced the launch of the Account Health Assurance function. If the account performance is green and the seller's emergency contact number is left at the same time, Amazon will not review the account without warning, but will first fully communicate with the seller through email and phone.

Conference Focus #7 Amazon's new plan to promote new products

In response to the increase in sales, Amazon has recently launched a brand-new brand analysis tool. Now the seller center can provide comprehensive data and promotion suggestions for brands, flagship stores, ASINs, prices, inventory, and promotions from more dimensions. Another feature that Amazon is about to open to sellers is that customer search keywords counted in Amazon’s Alexa voice function will also be available to sellers for the first time.

For repurchase, Amazon will launch a new function of revolving door for customer repurchase in the brand panel of seller center in the near future, where you can learn more about customer behavior and customer needs. The focus of customer repurchase lies in the flagship store, which includes:

More functions are concentrated in the brand flagship store

1. It is very important to pay attention to the number of customers in the flagship store

2. It is very important to post in the flagship store, and the post needs the actual overseas life scene

3. After following, customers will be able to see the flagship store's posts and discount coupons on the mobile phone for the first time

4. Posts will also showcase your products on your competitor’s booth via mobile

5. At the same time, Amazon will soon launch a marketing email template function similar to MailChimp, so that everyone can send emails directly to buyers who follow the store

Special focus on the Latin American market

In terms of the growth rate of the global market, Amazon advises sellers to pay more attention to Latin America.

Amazon's official "new push plan" to help new products start

In the operation of the US station, Amazon announced that it is particularly aware of the difficulty of sellers in promoting new products, so sellers are especially advised to go through Amazon's official new product promotion plan (Amazon Launchpad) when new products are launched. The details of the plan are:

1. This program is only for small and medium-sized sellers and new seller accounts with annual sales of US$750,000 (5.25 million RMB).

2. Focus more on new product promotion (more than 5 reviews, more than 3.5 stars, and FBA delivery)

3. No need to check historical A+ performance, get platinum A+ function directly

4. Obtain the Launchpad category rankings with less competition, plus Launchpad and other common accurate category rankings, and introduce multiple traffic into Listing at the same time

5. More free site event invitations

6. Free recommendation on Amazon's homepage and keyword search pages

Conference Highlight #7 Buy with Prime, a must for sellers

The real highlight of this summit is that "the development of independent stations will be unstoppable." It is for this reason that Amazon has launched the "Buy with Prime" (independent station settlement and delivery) function. And on the first day of the conference, Beth, the head of the Buy with Prime department, made a special sharing. Its main contents are:

1. Buy with Prime will be easy to install on any standalone system

2. Buy with Prime will accept payments via Amazon Pay

3. Buy with Prime can be connected with Amazon FBA and AWD systems, and will automatically ship immediately after the independent station receives the order

4. Buy with Prime can be promoted by allowing social platforms to directly target Amazon's Prime customers

5. Buy with Prime keeps all Amazon customer data forever

6. More importantly, after the independent website has the Buy with Prime function, it will be able to advertise directly on the Amazon platform!

The last event of the conference was when Amazon invited several independent sellers of Buy with Prime in the United States (social beauty, Amazon tools, pure independent sellers) to share their experience on the spot. Their summary is:

1. Buy with Prime is very easy to install

2. The conversion rate is at least 30% higher than other payment methods (note that their independent site has already had a lot of sales)

3. Buy with Prime drives a 30% increase in sales of other payment methods

In a word, Buy with Prime can seamlessly integrate your Amazon store with an independent website, greatly increase the inventory turnover rate of FBA, and increase the conversion rate of independent websites quickly!

Standalone front-end effect using Buy with Prime

Summary of the conference: Huiwang will help Hui members to seize the opportunity

Overall, Amazon’s seller conference has indeed solved many pain points for sellers. To quickly summarize the above information:

Summary of Amazon 2022 Seller Summit Highlights

1. Amazon will give more support to local sellers. Can you consider using American companies to operate like Anker?

2. The combination of online and offline retail will be closer to us

3. Rapidly increasing Amazon advertising costs are causing enough alarm for every seller and Amazon

4. Pictures and videos on the theme of overseas life and specific use will play a huge role in combination with Amazon's main picture, video bar, FAQ, flagship store, post, celebrity, live broadcast and other functions

5. Everyone can start to apply for FBA upscaling independently

6. Amazon will give sellers a clear guarantee in terms of account security and the speed of solving cases

7. More data analysis tools will be quickly listed in Seller Center from now on

8. Repurchase is the focus of Amazon and sellers

9. New product promotion needs to use Amazon's new plan Launchpad

10. The seller's self-built website combined with the Buy with Prime function will be the new focus of each seller's operation

The new functions and account application of the conference will be implemented first for Huiwang members

But Hui.com also needs to remind everyone here that overseas life pictures, videos, Amazon Live, Amazon's new plan and Buy with Prime are basically exclusive services for American sellers. But through Huiwang, we will provide Huiwang Smart Camp members with:

1. Overseas life pictures, videos, and Amazon live broadcasts will be free for Huiwang Zhiying Hui members who send products to Huiwang Vancouver (free, if you need models, there will be additional costs)

2. Amazon launches new plan application, Huiwang Zhiying Hui members open (free)

3. Amazon Buy with Prime is open for Huiwang Zhiying Hui members (free)