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#156 - American Sellers Lost Amazon to China, 2025 Title Policy Update, and more

Amazon emplyee at the warehouse
We hope you all enjoyed a joyful Christmas and a fantastic start to the New Year! As we look forward to the vibrant celebrations of the upcoming Chinese New Year Festival, we’re excited to present Issue #156 of the FBA Monthly Newsletter. After a refreshing holiday break, the FBA Monthly team is back and eager to share a selection of the latest news and trends from the Amazon landscape. This issue is packed with essential insights, actionable strategies, and updates to help you navigate the selling season ahead. Let’s make this month a memorable one as we work together towards a prosperous year!

Hot News

In 2024, China-based sellers increased their market share to more than 50% on Amazon. American sellers have dropped below 50% nearly two years ago. However, Chinese sellers have grown above 50% only recently, as there is a small percentage of sellers in other countries. Based on Marketplace Pulse research, Chinese sellers now represent more than 50% of the top sellers on Amazon.com, with U.S. sellers representing roughly 45% and the rest in the U.K., Canada, or other countries. China’s share of all active sellers is even higher. (Some international sellers incorporate in the U.S., so American sellers’ actual share is lower than 45%)

marketplacepulse.com

Titles have long been considered the most important piece of structured data on a product detail page for Amazon SEO. This is especially true as the title appears not only on the search engine results page (SERP) and product detail page but also as the advertising copy for most ad types. In the private label Amazon spaces, in particular, title construction has prioritized exact keyword phrase matches in titles, leading to an increase in lengthy and unclear titles as sellers try to squeeze in as many keyword phrases as possible – a practice Amazon now aims to address through these policy changes.

searchengineland.com

Amazon is the largest online store in the world based on sales and market value. This online business has changed how people all over the world do business. Jeff Bezos started the company in Washington, USA on July 05, 1994. He was the CEO of the company till July 2021. Andy Jassy took over as the President and CEO of Amazon on July 05 2021.

simplilearn.com


Good to Know

Amazon recently extended its pursuit of third-party online sellers to move and store their products to freight forwarders using airfreight, but its latest move is prompting users of its Fulfilment By Amazon (FBA) service to consider alternative providers. Private networks like Amazon or Walmart have been increasingly chasing third-party volumes to bolster utilisation. Amazon’s most recent push came in November when it invited freight forwarders to move air cargo on its freighter networks in North America, Europe and Asia.

theloadstar.com

Amazon not only boasts a hugely successful online retail platform but also a thriving digital marketplace which is seamlessly integrated with the main retail shopping experience. That being said, in the third quarter 2024, 60 percent of paid units were sold by third-party sellers. There are many ways of selling on Amazon. Firstly there are first-party (1P) vendor sales, where vendors send their inventory to Amazon, who in turn control the pricing and include “ships from and sold by Amazon.com” on product listings. The benefits of 1P sales on Amazon are wholesale purchases from Amazon, priority selling and brand trust through Amazon’s credibility as a seller. Amazon also permits third-party (3P) sales on its marketplace.

statista.com

During the third quarter 2024, Amazon generated total net sales of nearly 159 billion U.S. dollars, surpassing the 143 billion U.S. dollars in the same quarter of 2023. Launched in 1995 in the United States as an online bookshop, Amazon has since grown into an international e-commerce giant. In April 2023 worldwide visits to amazon.com amounted to over two billion considering both desktop and mobile traffic. Although a global company, Amazon truly thrives in the United States where the company is the leading e-commerce platform by sales value. In the North American country, the number of subscribers using Amazon Prime services has been growing steadily over the last several years and is forecast to reach new heights in 2024.

statista.com

PartnerBoost has announced a strategic collaboration with Partnerize. The move aims to unlock promotional opportunities for PartnerBoost’s Amazon brands through UK-based publishers on the Partnerize platform. The partnership provides PartnerBoost’s clients with access to Partnerize’s extensive publisher network. Publishers can now create tracking links for over 1,700 Amazon sellers and 200,000 products directly within Partnerize.

hellopartner.com

An Amazon seller has shocked internet users after revealing what happens with incorrect returns, and why customers can "do whatever they want." Rebecca Martinez, 26, has spent the last three years as a full-time Amazon retailer, selling everything from clothes, shoes, household items, food, and beauty items. There is no doubt it has been a fulfilling experience, but she told Newsweek that one of the most frustrating elements of the job is when customers "try to scam" her out of a refund.

newsweek.com

In the third quarter of 2024, Amazon.com saw a nine percent increase in global net revenue across online stores when compared to the prior quarter. In terms of profitability, the online stores segment was followed by retail third-party seller services, with net revenues of 37.9 billion U.S. dollars. Amazon.com, world’s leading online retailing company based in the United States, enjoyed unprecedented growth in net revenues in 2020 and 2021, also because of the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. This growth was again repeated in the annual net sales across different global markets, with the United States being the most prominent one.

statista.com

Amazon will stop offering prep services for sharp products through its FBA fulfillment service in April, and it’s updating its packaging requirements for such items. It’s making the move “to ensure the safety of our associates and customers.” Sellers will be required to “own” the end-to-end packaging of all sharp products before sending them to Amazon fulfillment centers. Sellers must also package all sharp products in secure, cut- and puncture-resistant packaging, such as hardened plastic or blister packs.

ecommercebytes.com

In 2024 — again — nearly a million new sellers joined the Amazon marketplace. There is no shortage of interest despite Amazon’s slower growth, increasing competition, and more complex rules to achieve profitability. Marketplace Pulse data shows that Amazon added over 900,000 new sellers across its twenty-two marketplaces in 2024 and more than four million over the past five years. Roughly a third of them joined the Amazon.com marketplace in the U.S.

marketplacepulse.com

According to estimates, Amazon claimed the top spot among online retailers in the United States in 2023, capturing 37.6 percent of the market. Second place was occupied by the e-commerce site of the retail chain Walmart, with a 6.4 percent market share, followed in third place by Apple, with 3.6 percent. Amazon has long dominated the e-commerce market as the world’s favorite online marketplace. In 2022, company hit over half a trillion U.S. dollars in net sales. The United States is by far Amazon’s most profitable market, as the U.S. branch generated over 356 billion U.S. dollars in sales in 2022.

statista.com

Hours after the Eagles receiver was spotted reading Inner Excellence by Jim Murphy on the sideline of the team's playoff win over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, fans made the book the number one best seller on Amazon. "After seeing AJ Brown reading this book on the sidelines during the playoff game against the Packers, my wife and I researched it a bit and both bought a copy. I can't wait to start reading it," an Amazon review read.

fox29.com

Since its founding in 1994, Amazon has undergone exponential growth. Initially an online bookstore, the company has evolved into a global e-commerce powerhouse. Yet its reach extends far beyond retail. Amazon is also a dominant force in technology infrastructure (Amazon Web Services, or AWS), digital entertainment (Prime Video, Twitch, Kindle), logistics, and online advertising. Amazon’s annual revenue skyrocketed from nearly $7 billion in 2004 to $574 billion in 2023. AWS, launched in 2002, has become a major profit driver, generating $90 billion in 2023.

theconversation.com

In 2013, Amazon posted a loss of approximately 1.5 million euros, which improved considerably in the following years. Specifically, the online retail giant had a net income of more than 13 million euros in 2020. However, the following year, it returned to a negative financial position, primarily due to underperforming results from its data center unit. In 2022, Amazon incurred a net loss of approximately 21.3 million euros.

statista.com

Dwight Oliver, 40, of Grand Prairie, Texas, has been sentenced to 15 months in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release after pleading guilty to mail fraud. Oliver has also been ordered to pay $1,435,954.62 in restitution. According to court documents, from May 2021 to August 2022, Dwight Oliver worked as a facility supervisor for a company that operated a warehouse in Plainfield, Indiana.

giant.fm

Best Buy plans to launch a new third-party marketplace in the U.S. in mid-2025, and the opportunity to sell on the platform is gaining attention from brands, even those outside of consumer electronics. CEO Corie Barry told investors about the new marketplace on an earnings call in November, saying it would give its customers access to a larger assortment and new categories. It will also give sellers and advertisers a new avenue on which to increase their reach and build their brands, she said. In December, Best Buy’s chief marketplace and e-commerce officer, Frank Bedo, posted on LinkedIn that the marketplace began accepting applications.

modernretail.co

Between January and September 2021, Brazil and Mexico were by far the Latin American countries with the highest number of visits to Amazon portals. With nearly 700 million visits, Amazon was the second most popular e-commerce site in the North American country, surpassed only by Argentine online marketplace Mercado Libre. Founded at opposite poles of the American continent, U.S.-based e-commerce platform Amazon and Argentina's Mercado Libre have grown exponentially in several Latin American economies. In June 2020, amid the online sales boom triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, Mercado Libre ranked as the most visited e-commerce website in Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico.

statista.com


Tips and Tricks

As with Google, YouTube, and many other places on the internet, if you want your products to rank well on Amazon, you need to ensure that you follow good SEO practices. There are many Amazon SEAO tools and services that you can use to help you. Amazon is much more than just an eCommerce store. It acts as a marketplace, and you can sell your goods via the platform. However, you often face fierce competition as a seller. And despite the potential size of an Amazon audience, nobody will buy your goods if they can't see them.

influencermarketinghub.com

Becoming an Amazon FBA seller is one of the most interesting, unique businesses you can start. FBA stands for Fulfillment by Amazon, and it’s a program offered by Amazon to third-party merchants that allows you to get your products on Amazon’s website and leverage its global fulfillment network to scale your e-commerce business. This is a huge simplification, but lots of people have made a healthy living, even small fortunes with Amazon FBA, and it is built on one of the most trusted brands in the world.

upgradedpoints.com

At an average conversion rate between 10% and 15%, Amazon surpasses all other eCommerce platforms. But to get to this rate, you have to advertise your product listings to get more eyes on them. The most effective way to do this is through Amazon's pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Even better, the good news is that the average CPC of Amazon ads in the US is $0.91, which is the highest, so other countries definitely have lower CPCs. So, it's a cost-effective way to get your products noticed on Amazon.

influencermarketinghub.com

If you're looking to sell on Amazon it can be challenging to find profitable products due to oversaturated markets and unprofitable items. However, selling on Amazon can still be a highly lucrative venture. However, selling on Amazon can still be a highly lucrative venture for those who approach it with the right strategies and tools. So, how do you find the best products to sell on Amazon while still maintaining your competitive edge?

influencermarketinghub.com


Podcasts

Join us for an inspiring conversation with Santiago Gelvez of PetCultures.com, a Colombian-born entrepreneur whose heartwarming journey to save his dog Tango sparked an innovative adventure in the pet product industry. Santiago’s transition from a career with giants like Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo to founding a thriving e-commerce brand is a riveting tale of passion and perseverance. Discover how a personal crisis and a collaboration with a veterinarian friend led to the creation of a groundbreaking pet probiotic that not only improved Tango’s health but also caught Amazon’s attention, turning Santiago’s entrepreneurial dream into a flourishing reality.

helium10.com