Black Friday 2025: Amazon Sellers Hit by Plummeting Orders & Profit Meltdown

The much-anticipated Black Friday has arrived, but a large number of Amazon sellers have fallen silent. Touted by the platform as its "longest-ever" Black Friday event (running for 12 days from November 20 to December 2), this sales bonanza turned into a profit disaster rather than a revenue-boosting peak season for them.

Plummeting Orders Across the Board

" I thought Black Friday would be a sales sprint, but it turned out to be a fruitless race where I even lost money," said Wang Xinxin, an Amazon seller whose experience mirrors that of many peers this year. Contrary to the platform's claims of record-breaking sales, most small and medium-sized sellers (SMS) saw their orders fall far short of expectations, with some categories underperforming their usual promotional levels.

"Black Friday kicked off with cold traffic and lackluster demand. I hoped things would pick up, but the slump only worsened over the 12-day period. Many fellow sellers agreed that the first day had the best order volume," Wang added.

Li Pingzhi, a five-year veteran who has gone through four Black Fridays, was dumbfounded by this year's performance. "It makes no sense! In previous years, we could sustain high order volumes for 3–5 days. This year, the first day was barely better than regular days, followed by a sharp drop on the second day. Today, orders are only a third of our usual volume."

To gear up for the peak season, Li stocked up over a month in advance and ramped up ad spending. However, the investment failed to yield corresponding returns. His ad budget burned daily with no growth in orders. Suspecting click fraud, he paused many ads, only to find that order volumes were normal after data updates—leaving him with a loss of several thousand US dollars in ad costs.

"Top brands are engaged in cutthroat price wars that SMS can't withstand. They slash prices below their cost thresholds. If we don't follow suit, we get no orders; if we do, we lose money on every sale. In the end, it's better to skip the event entirely," Li sighed.

The competition has spiraled out of control this year. Platforms like Temu, SHEIN, and TikTok Shop launched extended promotional campaigns ahead of time, siphoning massive traffic away from Amazon. To retain customers, price wars intensified on Amazon, with record-high discounts in many popular categories—costs that ultimately fell on third-party sellers.

Widespread Glitches & Forced Price Cuts

Amid plummeting orders, recurring glitches on Amazon during the event pushed sellers to their breaking point.

For Wang, the final straw was the massive glitches with Prime Exclusive Discounts. She spent over $1,000 to enroll in the program, but shortly after the event started, the platform displayed errors that forced her to slash prices by an additional 5% on top of the 30-day lowest price—otherwise, her products would be disqualified from the event.

"I set prices based on the 90-day lowest price when I signed up. The sudden rule change after paying the fee felt like a trap," Wang said. She had no choice but to comply. Two days later, another glitch hit, forcing an additional 1% price cut. When she reached out to her account manager, she only received a dismissive response: "This is a widespread issue. Please wait for the tech team to resolve it."

By the end, Wang's flagship product had a 21% discount, leaving her stuck in a lose-lose situation. After accounting for enrollment fees, price cuts, and post-event returns, losses were inevitable.

This issue wasn't limited to the US. Similar glitches occurred on Amazon's UK and Germany sites. Japan and Canada also reported system bugs during the event.

Li described this year's Black Friday as a "total collapse." In the US, he faced both falling orders and forced price cuts. In Canada, his list prices failed to refresh, and the platform imposed a mandatory event price of 85% of historical transaction prices—leaving him with zero profit margins.

Multi-Platform Competition Reshapes Black Friday

The setback for Amazon sellers this year isn't an accident but a result of evolving industry competition and shifting consumer behavior. Amazon's dominance is under severe threat as cross-border e-commerce platforms fight fiercely for market share. Meanwhile, consumers have become more rational, with unprecedented price sensitivity that adds to sellers' operational pressure.

Black Friday is no longer an Amazon monopoly. Temu's ultra-low pricing strategy has lured a huge number of price-sensitive shoppers. SHEIN followed closely, while TikTok Shop leveraged its short-video traffic to launch extended promotions, achieving explosive growth in the US market. Walmart and AliExpress also extended their promotional periods to seize market share.

To counter this competition, Amazon extended its Black Friday event to 12 days—a move that backfired. The longer timeline scattered consumer purchases, weakened daily sales surges, reduced impulsive buying, and encouraged more rational decision-making.

US consumers have also grown more cautious, viewing Black Friday as a chance to buy cost-effective essentials rather than a spending spree. Browser plugins that track historical prices have made it easier for consumers to spot fake discounts (artificially inflating prices before slashing them), forcing sellers to offer deeper discounts that erode profit margins.

This shift in market dynamics has created a distorted scenario: platforms celebrate record sales while sellers suffer heavy losses.