E-commerce platforms continuously increase fees, sellers suffer

Recently, trading floors have continuously increased fees, causing small retailers to lose revenue. Many have even decided to leave the floor because they are worried they won't be able to survive.

Shopee recently unexpectedly announced that it will charge an additional infrastructure fee of 3,000 VND/order, on all orders created from July 1.

Previously, from April 1, Shopee and TikTok Shop also increased the floor fee for sellers. TikTok Shop calls it "commission fee", increasing from 1 - 3% to 1 - 4% for regular stores (regular shops) and 1 - 5.78% to 1.21 - 7.7% for genuine stores (mall shops).

Shopee's adjustments apply to regular shops, with a maximum floor fee - called a fixed fee - from 4% to a maximum of 10%. In addition, Shopee also stopped providing free support packages for other related sellers, and charged a fixed fee for return shipping.

Faced with this information, small retailers are worried that it will be difficult to survive as taxes and fees from e-commerce platforms increasingly "erode" their profits.

Mr. Le Dat ( Hanoi ) said that with the sudden increase in fees, cheap products are the most affected because "if you sell a few thousand, you will lose 3,000 VND", not to mention other expenses.

"The items priced from 10,000 VND after deducting all taxes and fees only earn 3,600 VND, and the items priced at 20,000 VND earn 11,850 VND. This amount is probably only enough to cover the cost of importing the goods, packaging, and labor. Some items will even lose money." Mr. Dat said.

E-commerce platforms continuously increase fees, sellers are struggling. (Illustration photo)

Mr. Tran Trieu Long (HCMC) used to be a traditional trader. But a few years ago, he quit his job renting a house to sell goods and switched to selling online on social networks and e-commerce platforms.

At first, he made a big profit because he saved a lot of money on rent and the fees of the trading floors at that time were also very "reasonable". Later, the fees increased and increased, Mr. Long's profit gradually eroded and almost only had insignificant profit.

" I'm depressed, I've been closed on the floor without selling for several months now. Now I hear about the additional infrastructure fee, I think I'll leave the floor forever, " he complained.

Mr. Long calculated: " Currently, on average, I sell about 1,700 orders on Shopee and 800 orders on TikTok Shop each month. So on average, I lose more than 5 million VND per month on Shopee's infrastructure fees. In addition, I also have to pay other fees such as a fixed service fee of 10%, tax of 1.5%, PiShip insurance package of 1,600 VND/order, and extra voucher fee of 3%. That's not including import fees, advertising fees, tax payments, packaging materials and labor costs ."

Mr. Long believes that if e-commerce platforms keep changing their fee calculation methods like this, it won’t be long before the advantage of e-commerce platforms over traditional stores is gone. Because these increasingly expensive fees, if calculated based on the number of orders sold in a month, are equivalent to the cost of renting a space.

" To cope, sellers like us can only increase product prices to avoid losses, but that makes it difficult to compete and easy to lose customers. Not to mention that for Shopee, there must be at least one product with an indefinite low price or the cheapest products to be prioritized for display on the homepage.

Now I have to cut down on advertising and consider selling on the trading floor as a secondary source of income and switch to selling via Facebook, with the relationships I have built up before," Mr. Long said.

Similarly, Ms. Hoa (Ha Dong district, Hanoi) also shared that she sells more than 1,000 orders on Shopee every month and is now struggling to find a way to cope. " I am thinking of having to remove products under 10,000 VND or increase the price of products, sell cheap products in combo form. But this will lead to the price of products on the e-commerce platform being more expensive than when buying directly at the store, which is no longer an attractive point for customers," Ms. Hoa wondered.

She said that if this situation happens, she will switch to selling on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Zalo. " From finding sources of goods, then importing, taking pictures, packaging, and introducing the products, it takes a lot of effort. Now that profits are increasingly eroded, we are no longer interested in e-commerce platforms ."

Meanwhile, Ms. Hau is a new seller entering the e-commerce platform and was immediately worried when she first opened her store and encountered many difficulties. " I have just opened my store on Shopee for a while and on average I only sell 100-200 orders/month, but with this small number of products, I have to face countless taxes and fees. This makes me worried that I don't know if I can stay on the platform for long. Or should I leave the platform early to avoid having to bear the above expenses without any benefits? ", Ms. Hau expressed.

Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/san-thuong-mai-dien-tu-lien-tuc-tang-phi-nguoi-ban-hang-lao-dao-3363301.html