May have to close up shop - Amazon becoming another Temu

I’ve noticed many other sellers who have experienced this, but i’ve struggled badly on Amazon this year due to copycat chinese sellers coming in (essentially copying my product design and pricing me out of the market). I’m also struggling due to the difficult year we’ve had with the cost of living crisis (like many of us), plus Temu and Shein are really targeting my niche, and the price increase on fees has made it really difficult.

I stupidly restocked my inventory in the hope things would pick up, but things have only gotten worse over the last 30 days, and I can go days without selling a single unit on what used to be my best selling product.

I feel angry that we have to give up to the Chinese sellers who copy designs, but there’s no way I can compete, and I think in the back of my mind I knew this day would eventually come. I used to be secretive about what I sell, but now it has become so hard that I wouldn’t even expect anyone to see it as an opportunity.

I sell hen party items and bridal gifts - My best seller used to be a set of hen party bags, but the Chinese seller in the amazons choice spot basically has a price i can’t compete with.

I’ve created variations because I currently sell a pack of 15 which used to be popular, but I can’t even compete on the smaller pack of 5 or 10 prices vs the competitors so I’m not sure it’s worth the risk of buying in the items. I can’t even sell my pack of 15 by reducing the price down - still no sales. Currently this is set to 9.99 but that’s still a £1 loss overall.

My guess is that Amazon will become a local temu / shein in the future. I’m going to post another discussion about this, but my guess is that many UK sellers will have this issue I have, will close up shop, and all that will be left of amazon will be chinese brands - and then Amazon will be competing directly with Temu and Shein, and the UK will only have the choice of shopping with these brands.

I’m sad that Amazon haven’t done more to protect UK based sellers. Reduced fees for Uk brands, or rather than everything being price driven vs quality on amazon could have helped.

Anyways, Im currently deciding now how much it will cost to pull all of my inventory out of amazon and find a way to wholesale it off. Sad times