Did anyone else see the latest and greatest venture from Amazon to flood the US in garbage?
I caught this on a post on the NSFE today about 10 minutes ago
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-forums/discussions/t/d6c3da30-32fa-4058-aa43-c598c343b02c
This is the link to the Marketplace story.
# Amazon To Launch a Direct-From-China Marketplace
I saw this earlier and thought this is essentially fake news.
Amazon.com is already more than half chinese sellers. Who cares if they open another marketplace for this?
I like to dream and hope there is a possibility that they move all the cheap crap off the .com site onto the new one.
Wishful thinking and optimism are NOT my strong points so I am figuring on another disappointment from the monsters.
Well that’s not happening, but it’ll probably be the same vendors that sell the same crap on the new site.
I mean, it’s not FBA so I guess if people wanna wait for cheaper stuff which is most likely not vetted for quality they can - this is adding the Temu model to the mix since Temu is gaining market share and Americans really don’t care, as long as its cheap stuff
Don’t think it’s the end of the world as things are already available on Amazon with slow shipping but it tends to be cheaper quality stuff with long ship times - it will now be highlighted.
The UPU reforms that were pushed in 2018 were a boon in this regard - at least from my reading so things can’t be as cheap - I don’t remember how Temu is doing the free shipping and free items, but I think they’re dumping - which will eventually get the eye of a government body.
My theories:
But this appears to be the official rationale: “competition”. 
I do wonder - I do hope some sort of anticompetitive legislation takes place. Temu shouldn’t be allowed to dump product; it’s that simple and the playing field on imports vs exports in favor of cheap stuff is not good for the country regardless of ones’ leanings.
Question is, when?
I have to wonder if “shopping around” isn’t really a thing people seem to do anymore?
Big ticket items such as electronics/appliances are all usually the same MSRP no matter what store you go to (unless you end up with some sort of gift card like Target or Costco like to add to incentivize shoppers).
I think people just “choose” their favorite marketplace to shop on and don’t really worry about how much it costs or where it comes from. I see stuff from Dollar Tree all the time on Amazon’s FBA…but granted there are people who wouldn’t step foot in a Dollar Tree, or they don’t have the location near them and I question who it is that buys that stuff…but then I realize your average person probably either isn’t shopping around or just doesn’t care.
So at this point the choice is “Fast and expensive” or “Slow and Cheap” and it just depends on what it is you are ordering from…often times I can find all the same stuff on Amazon vs Ebay…ebay is cheaper, yet takes longer.
The biggest issue Amazon is going to have is changing the perception of “fast”. A lot of people are “loyal” to Amazon because it’s “fast”…will they still choose items on Amazon if it’s slow? How much time is your average person going to look around to see if what is for sale anywhere else.
I find it all fascinating, because Amazon already has a treasure trove of data of what would be popular sellers, and can easily undercut people who have paid to send in FBA inventory. I think anyone who is a third party vendor who imports stuff from China should be extremely weary as you might be out of a job.
It’s all the same stuff no matter if it’ “sold by amazon, shipped by china”, or “imported from china by an American and sold on Amazon” or “china seller selling on amazon”. It’s just branding and marketing…while Amazon pockets more money with less risk.
But its not.
Electronics have a lot of substitutes now - ecommerce lead to smaller brands and or Chinese-American brands competing with nearly the same quality - for instance Anker vs Roomba vacuums;
The stuff that comes from Temu is dollar tree quality; no way even in China can you match a halfway decent product like Lulu, but there are tons of competing brands that have similar or better quality and are priced better
Building the brand is a real thing - and now all brands have these massive social strategies where they’re creating memes and engaging people constantly or creating content that is infoselling at higher stage in the sales funnel/cone
I don’t have a crystal ball but I don’t think anything changes - we all just keep competing for marketshare via multiple strategies and whomever is able to get it down - wins; obviously with at least a half way decent product
My other guess is to get into highly niched products which can’t easily be replicated - so moving away from the volume game would be my next step - once my ordeal is finally over 
SAS is still a fun place 
It would be helpful as a seller and an Amazon buyer if EVERYTHING coming from China was labeled as so. In FBA, Seller Origin, in FBM, Ships From, AND THE ABILITY TO SORT this way.
As a seller, I am tired of the cheap stuff crowding out the quality, as a buyer I am tired of not knowing where it’s coming from unless I spend time digging. I know enough to look at the Seller’s Address, or spot other clues, but most consumers don’t know anything beyond the first photo and the price.
Consumer protection legislation is the only thing that will reign in the IT’S ALL GOOD IN THE NAME OF COMMISSIONS online marketplace that we have now. Think about this when you vote.
The Chinese sellers now have a way to market on an Amazon platform, but use their own, far, far cheaper fulfillment via China Post, which ships something around the planet for less than I can ship the same parcel within my own state.
So, we might see a slight exodus of “Chinese crap” from the main Amazon marketplace - at least fewer sellers with gibberish “brand names” and identical goods.
But Temu and their ilk do have a place. Here’s something only found on such platforms that I should have bought a dozen of, as everyone who has seen it atop my camera wants one of their own. It takes a certain kind of crazy to travel on a regular basis to Antarctica, so when I say “Watch the birdy” when taking a group photo, I get far more similes and laughs.
Although true, this isn’t really my primary concern. My bigger concern is getting around duty and tariffs. Shipments under $800 (which all of this will be) aren’t subject to duty and tariffs while US sellers have to pay 25% or higher duty/tariff on the exact same merchandise to import.
There is no reason the government shouldn’t change this to equal the playing field for US businesses.
I actually take less issue with platforms like Temu, than chinese sellers doing bad things with FBA. If someone buys something from Temu, they generally know what they’re buying.
Personally I would never buy anything from there, as if I need to wait a month to receive something, then it’s probably some junk I don’t need and just shouldn’t buy.
As for the anticompetitive part, you can blame that on the fact that for whatever mindboggling reason, it’s cheaper to ship something from china to the US than to ship something the next town over.
This is the issue…we have laws in place as a form of national protectionism albeit from extremely unscrupulous trade practices.
If a foreign government subsidizes prices just to dump product or a long term strategy on gaining market share or a combination of many many many variables like sustaining its own population and industry but obviously outside of the normal bounds of market forces (subsidies and or cheap shipping from +100 years ago) - then things have to be changed - I thought they already had under the previous administration but I could be wrong.
DollarTree and Walmart have seen an influx of higher income shoppers in the past couple of quarters.
Temu and Shain are having their greatest success with lower income shoppers than the Prime member.
It makes sense to do this. Temu has a repeat buyer problem, it does not have many. Shain is wear and throw away clothes. Even if this effort fails, Amazon will benefit so long as it is clearly differentiated from the normal business.
The International Postal Union will eventually deal with the postage problem, and when it does the dynamic may change.
The rest of the Amazon marketplace might get a clean out as a result of this initiative which may prove to be a good thing.
Since I have nothing invested in Amazon, I will sit back and watch. Might even make some popcorn.
Isn’t this also partly USPS doing it? They deliver the stuff to people’s homes after it comes into the states I believe.
As I recall it’s the International Postal Union that regulates a lot of the stuff with China yet. After all, they are a “Developing Nation” and gets lots of perks as a result.
Of course that list also include Mexico which doesn’t get those perks. Go figure.
How either one gets that label is a fiction created by the IMF definitions.
Universal Postal Union - the whole thing was set up to help developing nations and China was considered developing way back when.
They have some governing mandate between postal operators from various countries.
Which is why the previous administration threatened to pull out of the UPU unless the rates were renegotiated - but I don’t know to what degree and to what effect.
