reddit-study 361 posts · 6 shown

Amazon margin compression from 10.79% (2017-2020) to 6.71% (2023) caused by return scams, storage fees, increased seller fees, black hat competitor tactics locking profitable ASINs, and Chinese knockoffs with deceptive titles; organic search visibility degraded (page 2 ranking despite name/SKU searches) without paid ads; product pages flagged, suspended, or deleted with hours spent restoring.

Investor miscommunication and unrealistic profitability expectations led to $55k+ second inventory order being only half-funded after investor pulled out in November, despite operator delivering $200k revenue in 8 months with stable 20% ACoS and clear written forecasts showing break-even impossible before Q4 2025.

Suspended seller account with $71k/yr hero product blocked, inventory seized and destroyed without retrieval option, 90-day fund hold while paying monthly fees, lifetime account ban preventing re-entry, appeals rejected by different reps who don't read case history or provide investigation reasoning.

PPC CPC is prohibitively high for desired search terms in supplement space; auto campaigns perform better but still represent major ad spend leakage at ~25% of revenue; A/B testing at current volume takes too long to reach statistical significance, forcing intuition-based decisions.

Private label sellers face IP violation threats from original product makers, causing discouragement and business risk despite successful revenue growth.

Amazon FBA sellers face a 3.5% surcharge on fulfillment fees effective April 17, 2026, justified by fuel and logistics costs, with seller concern that temporary surcharges become permanent fee increases eroding profit margins.