Been selling things on shopping platforms online for the past 3 yrs. although i dont get slap as hard by returns compare to other sellers. But still…sometimes is just very annoying dealing with them. In the past we can just blacklist buyers to stop them from buying from other shops again, but it seems like the platform has remove this function.
And its especially when what they brought is preordered. And as local sellers we have to pay for many things from service charge, commission, GST and delivery fees that many buyers dont seems to be aware of and take for granted.
And when there is a return, we only get back part of the product price after deducting the return cost.
And running a shop that is barely earning, 1 single return eats in. And sellers get panelty points for returns. And is calculate by percentage. With a shop that get less than 5 orders a week, i get penalise the same as those whose shop gets over 2000 orders a week.
And what is even worse now is the fact that, online shopping platforms is using the sales data they get from sellers and start selling the exact same thing in their own shop at just 1/4 of what we sellers is selling and yet still manage to profit from it.
Really… it’s hard to be a seller now with overseas competitors as well as platform competition.
Hi @user1446
I hear you and get it
Sounds frustrating… returns and fees cut into profits, especially with preorders, and the penalty system feels unfair when small sellers get treated like big ones…
Is there any way to reach out to someone in charge of the platform? maybe they can help with some of these issues.
Hang in there you’re not alone in this.
Hopefully, you find ways to navigate through the challenges and keep going strong
Wow thanks for sharing this I honestly didn’t know all these behind-the-scenes struggles sellers go through. As a buyer, I think we often take the convenience for granted and don’t realise how much stress and cost sellers are absorbing just to keep things running.
It really does sound super tough, especially with the return policies, platform fees, and now even having to compete with the platform itself?? That’s so frustrating and unfair. And the penalty system sounds so discouraging for small shops… like one return can already hit so hard
I really respect the resilience it takes to keep going despite all that. Thanks again for being so open — it’s really eye-opening to hear what the experience is like from the seller’s side
its sad to also say that the shopping platform charges different sellers fees for local and overseas sellers. Which allowed overseas sellers to be able to sale thing even just 10 cents while local sellers minimum order should be around $5 to $6 and 2/3 of the amount goes to all the fees and charges.
But sadly…that also makes people rather buy the cheaper ones from overseas sellers instead of supporting local sellers.
And with 1 of the online platform shut down and making online shopping scene less competitive. They are finding ways to earn more from sellers but adding up charges and make sellers pay for add on services to help reduce the charges.
can you even imagine our retail shop scene if online local sellers is suffering too? And now more and more brands are selling directly via shopping platforms. So, there is lesser need to buy from retails shops.
That sounds so tough, and small businesses deserve so much love and respect! I’m sorry you have to go through dealing with returns and extra fees. It’s not just an administrative hassle, but this business and is your heart work :”)
Do you hear from other small business owners like yourself about how they deal with this issue? I hear you still wish platforms can protect you like before but there are no policies currently that do so
you’re not alone in this.
