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Reflecting on 2024: How Was This Year for Your Amazon Business?
Hi everyone,
As we approach the end of 2024, it’s a perfect time to reflect on the year and share our experiences. Whether it was a year of growth, challenges, or somewhere in between, we can learn a lot from each other’s journeys.
Without sharing any confidential details, I’d love to hear your thoughts:
- How did 2024 compare to previous years for your Amazon business—more successful, about the same, or less successful?
- What do you think influenced your experience this year (e.g., product changes, new strategies, market trends)?
- If you faced challenges, what lessons did you take away, and how might they shape your plans for 2025?
Looking forward to hearing your stories.
All the best, Ezra 😊
75 replies
Seller_Nprc5XWvdLYk9
To be completely honest (which I what I hope you want).
There are too many unnecessary stresses caused by Amazon.
The stresses from Amazon far exceed those from other aspects of our business.
For example at the moment we have
A/Z claims granted for us apparently using an invalid tracking number. (but shipping bought from Amazon with Amazon Shipping as the courier - it seems the A/Z claim team and customer support do not recognise the new UK12341234 number sequence in use by Amazon Shipping as valid).
We have orders with shipping bought via ship.amazon for amazon shipping that are not included in any reports or tracking searches on the ship.amazon portal.
constant email reminders telling us we are not compliant with COO (country of origin) but the COO team who we emailed directly - say we are - and to ignore the emails .....
since the vat was charged from August on seller fees the reimbursement calculations for lost fba items does not work (it would normally deduct the vat from the selling price and also deduct fees from the selling price to calculate what a seller would have earnt if the item was not lost and had resulted in a sale) - but it deducts fees gross of VAT which is incorrect as this vat cannot be reclaimed elsewhere as it does not exist - whereas on a completed sale it does exist and is reclaimed from HMRC by the seller as a business expense. It might not be much in the scale of things but with the margins some of us have to work on it is required!
so long/short is that every reimbursement of this type for a UK VAT registered business since August 1st is wrong - but the amazon team insist it is correct.
the list goes on. . . . .
Seller_kKOdRZuhZIPPS
I've pretty much gone out of business.
I'm having to switch to FBM (the last of my FBA stock will be removed on the 10th December) because of not being able to block NI on FBA - as a result, my sales are down by about 80%.
Ezra_Amazon
Hi @Seller_kKOdRZuhZIPPS,
Thank you for sharing your experience. Transitioning from FBA to FBM is a significant adjustment.
If there are any specific aspects of the FBM transition you’d like insights or support with, please let us know.
I hope the changes you’re making now help you rebuild and find success in 2025. Take care, Ezra.
Seller_g1iS3CyD4zQ2y
Why are you blocking NI? If its because of GPRS then I don't think you need to. This was Amazon's statement a couple of months ago:
"Under GPSR, it's important to look at the order creation country, not the destination country as order creation country indicates the exact county where listing takes place. UK is not a part of EU therefore if the order is created on amazon.co.uk and sent to NI, that order doesn't need to comply with GSPR. If the order has been created in any other Amazon EU MPs and sent to NI, those listings will need to comply with GPSR. "
Seller_kKOdRZuhZIPPS
I did see that but having looked at the legislation itself and all other articles that I can find, I don't believe they are correct.
I've also noticed on other company websites (that I buy from) that they have a notice saying 'we can not ship to Northern Ireland because of EU regulations).
It wouldn't be the first time Amazon were incorrect (by a long shot!) and I'm not prepared to take the risk of fines.
It is, of course, personal choice as to whether any other sellers are okay with Amazons statement.
Don't think I'm allowed to post a link on here but if you google 'New rule to hit GB small businesses selling to NI' and click on the BBC article, it explains things on there. I am hoping it's wrong
Seller_K8edOfPu9HEmN
Seems we can't block NI at all unless someone has found a way to do it. I've tried but can't find a way
Seller_K8edOfPu9HEmN
Well if you know how please feel free to tell us how because I've tried. All I get is the following message in red
ADD REGIONS
Please add following regions that you have enabled in the Shipping Settings Automation preferences: Northern Ireland
Seller_kKOdRZuhZIPPS
I went into my shipping template, clicked on 'edit' and then 'add regions'.
The regions are listed and i unticked Northern Ireland
Seller_tQCfsb3zoC4AP
Q1 I have been a seller on Amazon since 2008 this year has been my worst sales ever on the site our daily Christmas sales this year is what I would expect more for Aug /Sept sales
Q2 Amazon red tape which caused us to end all International sales. Amazon blocking products from being listed despite sending dozens of LOAs leicence agreements etc suppressing items mostly for no colour attribute no one has permission to simply add colour ie red on Amazon less than 10% of my inventory is available for sale. Lack of seller support the last case they understood and answered was in Aug 2019
Q3 main challenges is the extreme levels of theft with Amazon sending out messages saying products are lost and to ask for a refund which results in A-z claims which in turn leads to ODR which in turn leads to less sales so we get punished from people stealing from us . No seller support they do not understand English so you have to try and speak to them as if they are 5 years old which is demeaning to both me and them. No tools to fix any problems even for brands I am authourised for cannot fix
Lessons learned from 2008 to 2019 Amazon was top of the class service sales etc ever since the site has become extreme in its hostility towards 3rd party sellers no support no tools to do even the most basic of tasks daily punishments and threats and now worst of all dreadful sales. for 2025 downgrade on Amazon and upgrade and concentrate on other sales channels as on here I am flogging a dead horse. I have several repeat customers who now buy from us on other channels as they cannot find the products on Amazon most due to being either blocked or suppressed one however when told that item was on Amazon they did an experiment my product was on page 38 this was despite me being the only seller with this product most of the search results had nothing to do with my product
2024 on Amazon has been a horrific experience
Seller_mxez2L8QjE6WW
2024 has been quite a tough year (we sell used & O/P books). On the one hand you have the recyclers such as WoB, Awesome & the like driving down prices to a level that is totally uneconomic. On the other you have Amazon's policies which make life more difficult: the 'potential price violation' which is a blunt instrument, not comparing like with like; the corruption of the catalogue by the likes of the myriad Turkish sellers creating duplicate listing in direct (& unchallenged) violation of Amazon's rules; the utter uselessness of Seller Support. A straightforward request to - for example - remove 'Signed copy' from a title should be quite simple as it quite obviously will not apply to all copies of that book. Instead the SS bot-machine asks for invoices for 5 copies of the book within the last 6 months. Pursue the matter, and just get a load of cut'n'paste non-replies that the algorithms throw up. There are so many similar errors in the catalogue that we have to spend quite a bit of time contacting buyers to make sure that they are aware of such issues. If SS functioned properly such problems would diminish.
Lessons learned? Stop being a silly optimist and hoping that Amazon will listen to suggestions / complaints, let alone act on them. That's just pie in the sky.
Seller_SooKfqYdUflLd
Just more and more hoops to jump through like everything to be sent tracked regardless of value in the new year.
Waiting over 2 weeks for funds to be available in your account whilst they make interest on your money
Seller_fLJ3Hdgrt17Ze
Dear Amazon Seller Forum / Community,
After being with Amazon for several years, we are facing some of the most difficult challenges we’ve ever encountered in our business. The expenses associated with running FBA have become unsustainable, and we’ve made the difficult decision to pull out of FBA and explore other options.
We currently find ourselves in a tough spot, running the business with borrowed money while trying to figure out how to survive. A major issue we’re encountering is the high cost of sending and returning goods. We’ve opted for a "signed for" delivery service to ensure our products reach customers securely, but the delivery and return costs are eating into our margins.
Additionally, many customers order multiple sizes (from S to XXL), try them on, and return the sizes that don’t fit, leaving us with the burden of covering return shipping costs. Despite offering free returns on unwanted sizes, the fund we receive from Amazon is not enough to cover these sending and return costs, which is making it increasingly difficult to keep the business running profitably.
We’re now looking for advice on how to better manage these challenges. Is there a more cost-effective way to handle returns? Or perhaps there are other strategies that have worked for other sellers in similar situations?
We are doing everything we can to survive the next few months, and we would greatly appreciate any advice, suggestions, or support from the community. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers during this challenging time.
Thank you in advance for your understanding and support.
Best regards,
Smart Fashion
Seller_d8YGbIjNqwFxn
I have to say that our business goes from strength to strength. Sales are up on the previous year.
Our strategy has been to move away from FBA due to increased costs which makes our items unprofitable.
Challenges we currently have is other sellers being very competitive. There are some underhand tactics involved here as well which our competitors seem to get away with.
Challenge for early next year is increased RM24/48 postage costs in January which makes it harder to compete. Also GPSR is a worry as Amazon stance on Norther Ireland is unclear and appears not to be inline with the regulations.
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