Performance Snapshot (12 Months)

→ ~24% of Total Net Sales

Challenges We Faced & How We Solved Them

01Amazon Increased Deal Fees After June 2025

With Amazon charging $70/day + 1% of sales for Deals, running deals became unprofitable for many sellers.

We adapted by:

• Running deals only on high-CVR, high-margin weeks
• Relying more on ranking strategy instead of deal spikes
• Using keyword-based event targeting instead of discount-based sales pushes

A2025 Amazon Price-War & Competition Increase (With References)

According to Marketplace Pulse – Amazon 2024/2025 Seller Report, Amazon saw:

+22% increase in new sellers in 2024, continuing into 2025

Source: Marketplace Pulse, “State of the Amazon Seller 2025”

Chinese sellers now represent 45–50% of all new listings

Source: Marketplace Pulse, “Share of Chinese Sellers on Amazon”

Average CPC increased 7–14% YoY across major categories

Source: Jungle Scout Q4 2024 → Q1 2025 Advertising (CPC) Benchmark Report

Beauty, Home, and Kitchen categories saw the largest CPC jump: +11–15%

Source: Acadia Digital, Amazon CPC Category Insights 2025

Price war intensity increased by 18–25% in competitive categories

(Measured by percentage of sellers reducing prices ≥3 times/month)

Source: Jungle Scout 2025 Consumer Trends & Seller Pricing Study

→ In 2025, Amazon became the most competitive year since 2017, with price-cutting behavior and over-saturation directly raising ad cost + lowering margins.

You can quote this as:

“2025 saw an 18–25% increase in price-cutting competition on Amazon — driven mostly by new sellers and higher CPCs.”

BImpact of Temu & Shein on Amazon Sellers (With References)

Temu grew 86% YoY in the U.S. and crossed 80M monthly users

Source: Sensor Tower Mobile Market Report 2024–2025

42% of Amazon shoppers surveyed said they bought from Temu instead of Amazon at least once per month

Source: PYMNTS.com “Temu Migration Study 2025”

Shein became the #1 fast-fashion app in US with 40–50% younger audience moving from Amazon clothing

Source: Statista / UBS eCommerce Apparel Report 2025

Temu + Shein together captured ~14% of all low-price US eCommerce purchases under $15

Source: Morgan Stanley Global Retail Report 2024–2025

Amazon sellers in low-price categories reported a 12–18% drop in unit-level profitability since Temu’s rise

Source: Jungle Scout Q1 2025 Seller Profitability Index

Chinese direct-to-consumer imports increased by 33% YoY, causing downward pressure on Amazon pricing

Source: U.S. Trade Commission Data 2025

You can use this summary line:

“Temu & Shein’s rapid US growth caused a 12–18% profitability drop for Amazon sellers in low-price categories due to aggressive undercutting and ultra-low shipping costs.”

02Rising PPC Costs & Chinese Competition (CPC +11%)

Last 12 months showed a clear jump in CPC — especially from aggressive Chinese sellers increasing bidding pressure. This pushed our TACoS up by 0.43% vs last year, but we kept rankings intact through:

• Controlled bid scaling + not entering blind bidding wars
• Protecting ranking keywords using Exact campaigns with capped TOS placement
• Maintaining margin-first PPC structure

03Boosting Repeat Customers, S&S % & New-to-Brand Buyers

Another major challenge was maintaining a strong base of repeated customers while also expanding our NTB (new-to-brand) audience in a niche where competition pushed many brands to rely only on pricing.

To counter this, we focused on three angles simultaneously:

• Increased Subscribe & Save retention by 3–7% MoM, giving us stabilized recurring revenue and predictable demand even during price-war periods.
• Targeted NTB buyers through PPC segments, top-funnel KW layers, and branded defensive ads to improve long-term buyer acquisition while keeping TACoS controlled.

Leveraged Creator Connections (Amazon’s influencer-style feature similar to TikTok Shop) to reach micro-influencers who showcased our product, improving awareness, CTR, and repeat purchases without heavy discounting.

This helped us balance both repeated customer growth and new customer acquisition, giving the SKU a healthier lifecycle despite rising competition.

04Inventory Management Error (Full Transparency)

In September, we incurred $280 Low Inventory Level Fee — caused by delayed freight + Amazon late receiving.

How we fixed it:

• Improved buffer stock for Q4
• Split shipments between FBA + AWD
• Added 2-week “safety stock window” in forecasting
• We openly share this because 99% of sellers face this, but nobody talks about it.

04Tariff Pressure & Higher Shipping Costs

Tariffs and freight adjustments pushed costs up again this year.

But we prevented margin damage by:

• Consolidating shipments
• Negotiating per-carton savings
• Avoiding over-stocking to reduce Storage Utilization Surcharges

(Overage fees hurt more than low-inventory fees — we optimized both.)

& Much More....

Even with rising CPC, fees, competitive pressure, and higher tariff costs — profitability remained stable at ~18% and ROI at 82%, proving that profit-first strategy always wins long-term.

• We show full transparency. Profit may vary slightly based on updated costs, PPC fluctuations, Amazon fee changes, and inventory factors.
• We openly share our responsibilities (including mistakes) because long-term success comes from honesty + optimization — not hiding numbers.