Seller Snap recently reached out to clients following the current global COVID-19 situation. We opened up a forum for them to express their concerns (if any), and inform us of their future plans.
We spoke to Matt K who had some very interesting insights…
Running a successful apparel Amazon business has recently become a lot more challenging due to the instability of the global economy following COVID-19. Matt, a Seller Snap client whose products don’t fall within the “essential” categories that Amazon is continually referring to, informed us about the impact that COVID-19 is having on his business.
Matt informed us that since the COVID-19 situation began, his sales have steadily been decreasing and they are averaging about 60% than prior to COVID-19. As well as this, since the Amazon FBA inventory announcement that they are freezing non-essential-product shipments from third-party FBA sellers, Matt has been restricted to sending 5,000-10,000 products, which is a big decrease for them.
We asked Matt about his FBM listings and if they have been impacted. According to Matt, they have also been impacted, but more so due to the categories that they are selling in. Since it’s very seasonal garments and now no one is able to travel, and the U.S. has cancelled big sporting events, it has affected the number of orders. However, they don’t have large FBM warehouses and are not set up to move everything over to FBM right now. Sticking to FBA is their plan and Matt is confident it will eventually pass. His advice to other sellers is to try as much as possible to streamline business for now.
Matt and Seller Snap also spoke about potential concerns in the coming months and according to Matt, regardless of the drop in sales and instability of the market, Matt and his team are confident things will return to normal in due time. The plan is to maintain for now, tread water and run a more streamlined operation for 6-9 months. Even though Matt is in the non-essential category, they are still getting sales.
They are working on sourcing more food and essentials until they are back up and running to full capacity. It’s not all bad news, remember, everything is so accessible and the beauty of online businesses is that you are able to maneuver and diversify.
According to Stephen R, COVID-19 has impacted his store as well…
Stephen’s Amazon store is arbitrage resale and he sells a bit of everything. He has been successfully selling on Amazon for some time and has really seen how the current pandemic is impacting Amazon and Amazon sellers.
Previously, Stephen had been selling primarily FBA items but as the Amazon restrictions came into place, Stephen switched his items to FBM. This was a huge change for him and his team as they are now fulfilling their own orders.
Stephen says that the biggest changes he has seen in terms of categories are that Beauty has greatly increased. The major concern he is now facing is supply chain issues. Stephen’s store needs to be able to continue sourcing profitable merchandise in order for his Amazon business to stay up and running.
Seller Snap will be updating this blog post weekly with more seller feedback.
