Orders plummeted 75% overnight

Sunny Worldwide LogisticsIt is a logistics company with more than 20 years of transportation experience, focusing on markets such as Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, and Southeast Asia. It is more of a cargo owner than a cargo owner~

So far, 30 states across the United States have declared a state of emergency, more than 10,000 flights have been canceled, and airports in Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, North Carolina, New York and New Jersey have been affected. Society has almost come to a standstill.

While air transport is blocked, road transport is also facing tremendous pressure. Freezing rain caused icy roads, forcing some interstate highways to be restricted or even closed, significantly reducing the efficiency of long-distance trucking. Drivers do not dare to take risks on the road, and goods are frequently stranded at transit nodes.

Affected by this, Amazon sellers are divided into two groups: most sellers are trapped in the predicament of a cliff-like decline in orders, burning money on advertising and no conversion; a few sellers in urgently needed categories are experiencing a boom in orders, and the situation is both hot and cold.

First, there was a pile-up of 100 vehicles on I-196 in Michigan. This logistics channel, which is the core of the Great Lakes region, was closed, directly cutting off the key path for cargo transportation, and a large number of packages were stranded on the way.

The USPS updated its service alert on January 21, local time, to include the Southwest, Southern Plains, Midwest, Ohio Valley, and Southeast regions of the United States, indicating that winter weather may affect the processing, transportation, and delivery of mail and packages in these areas.

Many buyers simply gave up placing orders because the delivery cycle was significantly extended, and online traffic conversion almost stagnated.

More importantly, Amazon's own operation centers were damaged, and many core operation centers such as Dallas FTW1 and Chicago MDW2 were forced to temporarily close due to heavy snowfall;

According to online reports,More than 70 FBA warehouses across the United States are temporarily closed, causing a large number of sellers to delay their warehousing appointments and hinder their listing.

Many sellers are trapped in the embarrassing dilemma of "not being able to ship goods and not be able to put them into storage."

For many cross-border sellers, this winter storm not only significantly reduced the delivery time, but also caused a direct hit to order volume.

Judging from the actual feedback from sellers, orders for home decoration, leisure products, general clothing and other categories have declined significantly, and some have even "stopped" orders. One seller said:

While many sellers are lamenting the decline in order volume, another group of sellers are quietly increasing their orders. In categories such as energy storage, emergency lighting, and heating equipment, orders have grown significantly, and some sellers have even experienced short-term outbreaks.

Some sellers posted backend data and said frankly that due to the impact of the blizzard in the United States, the daily order volume of one of its related products exceeded 2,000, an increase of 200% from the previous day, and sales even surpassed the peak period of Black Friday.

The search data of Google Trends also confirms this market change: the search volume of the keyword "heater" has shown a significant upward trend in recent days, among which the search volume of "power outage heater" has soared by 1,600%, and the urgent demand is clear at a glance.

Currently, the U.S. Meteorological Department predicts that the extreme snowstorm will gradually ease in the next few days, but the recovery of the logistics system will still take some time.

For all Amazon sellers, the current core is to reduce anxiety, remain rational, and follow the response principle of "move less and watch more":

First of all, according to the advice of industry experts, currently sellers should not blindly adjust advertising bidding or reduce prices at will. They can appropriately reduce advertising budgets but not shut down completely, and maintain low-cost traffic monitoring;

Secondly, pay close attention to weather forecasts and logistics dynamics, pay attention to the support policies that Amazon may introduce, and plan in advance for subsequent stocking and operational adjustments to pave the way for seizing traffic and making up for losses after the market recovers.