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Amazon shoppers are fed up with those third-party sellers on the site at levels rarely, if ever, seen, according to data culled by Juozas Kaziukenas, chief executive of e-commerce research firm Marketplace Pulse. Shoppers, who can register opinions about the service received from third-party merchants as negative, neutral or positive, are clicking “negative” at the highest levels Kaziukenas has ever recorded.

“How much it broke and how quickly it broke is much larger than people realize,” he said.

More than 11 percent of reviews left for sellers in the past 30 days are negative. That’s nearly twice the level of frustration vented by shoppers regarding Amazon’s third-party sellers during the holidays, when customer anxieties spike over not getting presents on time, Kaziukenas said.

Kaziukenas has seen that sort of frustration mount. Of the 913,000 seller reviews left worldwide in the 30 days that ended May 18, shoppers clicked “negative” 11 percent of the time, up from 6 percent of the 350,000 reviews a year earlier. Even during the holiday season, negative reviews rarely top 7 percent, according to Kaziukenas’s data.

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The company started informing third-party sellers on Saturday that it would no longer limit new shipments of nonessential goods by quantity. Previously, Amazon had placed a “Limited Restock” tag on products shipped to Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) warehouses, but as of this weekend, the label had been removed, meaning sellers can send in as much inventory as they want, said Juozas Kaziukenas, who runs the e-commerce market research firm Marketplace Pulse.

Next-day delivery is now starting to come back online for select cities in the U.S., Kaziukenas said, signaling that delivery times appear to be improving. However, until Amazon can restore its normally speedy one- and two-day shipping options for Prime subscribers, warehouses won’t be fully recovered, he added.

“Amazon has been in a race against the clock to restore fast shipping as without it it sent customers to look elsewhere,” Kaziukenas said. “It’s not done yet, but they appear past the April multi-week-long deliveries, at least for the most popular items.”

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Long delivery times were beginning to erode Amazon’s stellar brand reputation among consumers, said Juozas Kaziukenas, founder of the New York research firm Marketplace Pulse that monitors the site. Shoppers left 800,000 negative reviews on Amazon’s shopping site in April, double the number in the same month a year ago, with much of the increase attributable to longer delivery times, he said.

“Amazon is known for great selection, low prices and fast shipping,” Kaziukenas said. “These all broke during the pandemic. Selection was not always there, prices were not lowest because Amazon sold out, and fast shipping was gone.”

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Amazon didn't provide details on its shipping times, but Juozas Kaziukenas, founder of the Marketplace Pulse research site, said two-day and one-day shipping is still spotty throughout the US and Amazon appears to be a long way from nationwide two-day shipping. However, he said an order he placed on Saturday in New York City arrived the next day, a positive sign that faster shipping times, including for nonessential items, are coming back. Kaziukenas earlier reported the improved delivery times.

Kaziukenas found other signs that Amazon's operations were stabilizing. He said the company is again accepting new daily deals and coupons, pointing to increased capacity for nonessential goods. These features were temporarily restricted during the pandemic as Amazon attempted to curb nonessential purchases on its site so it could manage all the incoming orders.

"Very clearly, they're silently opening things up," he said.

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Wie das E-Commerce-Portal marketplacepulse.com in einem Beitrag offenbart, stammen nach aktuellem Stand etwa 29 Prozent der Top-Verkäufer in den vier wichtigsten Kernmärkten des US-Riesen Amazon (nämlich die USA, Deutschland, UK sowie Japan) aus China. Im Vergleich zum Januar ist dieser Wert zurückgegangen – vor vier Monaten habe er demnach noch bei 35 Prozent gelegen. „Der Prozentsatz entspricht dem Durchschnittswert der vier Marktplätze, gemäß der Marketplace Pulse-Analysen von fast 90 % der Top-Verkäufer, deren Geschäftsadressen zuverlässig ermittelt werden konnten“, schreiben die Spezialisten.

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Separately, data sourced last week from Marketplace Pulse -- which tracks Amazon marketplaces globally, showed overall sales were down by 80-90% on Amazon India compared to pre-lockdown days. The data further shows a sharp decline in sales when compared against the last festive season sales and Christmas.

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Juozas Kaziukenas, founder of e-commerce research site Marketplace Pulse, called Amazon's online sales growth "pretty staggering" and expects that growth to be even more impressive in the second quarter. He said he now expects Amazon is working to bring back its two-day and one-day shipping capabilities as quickly as possible so it can "completely obliterate the competition."

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Indeed, Khazi noted that seller concerns have been around for a long time, but the number of third-party sellers continues to grow—according to ecommerce intelligence firm Marketplace Pulse, 292,000 new sellers have joined so far this year alone.

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The extra scrutiny by Amazon could make it harder for some China-based sellers, who have registered multiple accounts using private internet networks or fake utility bills. China-based merchants accounted for 40% of the top 10,000 Amazon sellers in Europe, according to 2019 research from firm Marketplace Pulse.

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“Es una marca en la que confían muchas personas y este no es el momento en el que los clientes estén comparando precios entre diferentes vendedores: optan por quien más confían”, observa Juozas Kaziukenas, de la consultora Marketplace Pulse. Y añade: “Para muchas personas eso es lo que significa la empresa de Bezos”.

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