[Crew Review] Deja vu for sellers as China returns to lockdown

Rehash

A recent COVID flareup in China has infected more than 15,000 people across 28 different provinces. China has fallen back on its zero-COVID strategy, with major production regions being hit by lockdowns…again.

Here’s what it means for your business.

Amazon Top Terms

We have done some digging and taken data from February 27th to March 12th to show you the biggest moving keywords in the space.

Gas prices are skyrocketing. Western countries have been avoiding Russian oil purchases due to Ukraine’s invasion, which, along with growing post-pandemic demand, has choked the global supply of oil.

As prices soar, police in the US and Canada are warning car owners to buy locking gas caps for their vehicles after an increase in gas thefts. For this reason, "gas cap lock" is our #2 keyword in today's top movers and has gone from selling from 30 units per day to 270 units per day over the past few days.

Amazon Splits Stocks

Amazon surprised Wall Street this week after it announced a 20-for-1 stock split and a $10 billion share repurchase authorization.

A stock split is when a company splits its number of existing shares to boost a stock’s liquidity. If you owned 1 share of Amazon at $20 before the split, that means you’ll be owning 20 shares at $1 each in a 20-for-1 arrangement. The overall dollar value of all shares stays the same, but this is generally regarded as a sign that the company is thriving.

This stock split could make Amazon shares more enticing to individual investors, as it lowers the company’s per share value—1 Amazon stock hovered at just over $3000, and the stock split is scheduled to go through on June 6.

Also announced was a $10 billion buyback allowance, suggesting that the company will be more friendly to shareholders and will double down on its own strengths under Andy Jassy’s new CEO-ship.

All-Time High

Speaking of Amazon thriving, the ecommerce and tech giant commanded a whopping 56.7% of all US ecommerce in 2021, an all-time high for the undisputed leader in online retail.

The data was gathered using a gross merchandise value method which backs out things like revenue from Amazon Web Services but includes the full dollar value of everything sold, even when an item is sold and fulfilled for a third party for a 10-15% selling commission.

Walmart is still second place, but CEO Doug McMillion has said that the brick-and-mortar giant’s business model is changing—thousands of Walmart stores now double as fulfillment centers, all to suggest that Amazon will not be the only major marketplace for online sellers moving forward.

The Name’s Bond…

More antitrust pressure could be coming Amazon’s way (or not), as Reuters reports that it could be days away from closing a deal that would have it acquire MGM Studios, the media production company responsible for blockbuster franchises like “Rocky” and “James Bond”.

Antitrust agencies in the US and EU have to determine if Amazon's $8.5 billion deal to acquire the nearly century-old studio breaks antitrust law. On the EU side, antitrust regulators are set to clear the planned acquisition without conditions. Afterwards, the US Federal Trade Commission will face a mid-March deadline to decide whether the deal violates antitrust law.

Amazon is already a formidable force on the ecommerce and cloud computing fronts, and this acquisition could have it trading blows with streaming giants like Netflix and Disney+.

Etc.

No-go. Antitrust authorities in India have decided not to pursue an inquiry that charges Amazon of rigging the marketplace to copy products from third-party sellers and favor its own private label brands.

Caught in the middle. Amazon and UPS are pointing fingers at each other in cases involving the former’s Buy Shipping Services, with sellers being caught in the middle.

Relocation. Amazon is moving its employees outside of downtown Seattle due to a recent spike in violent criminal behavior.