之前我们所熟悉的亚马逊中国，是由电商巨头亚马逊在2004年8月以7500万美元收购卓越网后改名而来，起初叫「卓越亚马逊」，到2011年才正式更名为「亚马逊中国」。入华十五载之后，2019年7月18日，亚马逊官方宣布不再运营亚马逊中国电商业务，并停止在亚马逊中国网站提供卖家服务，也就是去年新闻媒体报道的“亚马逊退出中国”。亚马逊称，自此将中国业务的重点转移至更有盈利空间的海外购和云服务上，此举可以说是电商巨头面对中国市场在消费端的重大战略调整。其实，对于中国广阔的上游供应链以及外贸卖家来说，更为熟知的是亚马逊在2012年于中国市场推出的「全球开店」业务，现如今这个供给端的业务依然存在，且意义愈加重大。

在亚马逊等跨境电商平台带动下的出口跨境电商，已经成为我国外贸出口的中坚力量。然而，突如其来的疫情让整个行业蒙上了一层阴影。虽然近来国内湖北地区以外的疫情得到了十分有效的抑制，情况已经开始扭转，复工也在紧锣密鼓的逐步展开，然而复杂庞大的供应链及物流、运营的全面恢复还有待时日；与此同时，海外疫情的扩散数据其实更令人担心。如果欧美等出口目的地的主力市场在消费端出现问题，那么，比亚马逊更受伤的，是严重依赖资金快速周转的亚马逊卖家。

2020年2月27日的华尔街日报评论员文章，也关注到了这个问题。作者Jon Emont以简单直白的标题“Coronavirus Squeezes Amazon Sellers”（新冠病毒挤压亚马逊卖家）阐述了当下的情况。这里简单翻译，与大家分享。

译者  混沌超

文中蓝字部分为原文，黑字部分为译文，下划线部分为译者注释或补充说明。

Thousands of Amazon.com Inc. sellers whobuilt theirbusinessesusing China’s cheapand efficient manufacturersare on the spot as the coronavirusshuts factoriesthere.

成千上万的亚马逊卖家，他们的生意都是建立在中国廉价而高效的制造商的供给之上。然而，新冠病毒使这些工厂不得不暂时关闭。

Sellers say Amazon’s rankingalgorithm demotes products that are out of stock. To avoid that painful fate,many are raising prices to slow sales and attempting to shift production toother countries.

卖家们深谙，亚马逊的排名算法会将缺货的产品降级。为了避免这种悲催的命运，许多人甚至不惜提高产品价格以减缓销售（防止缺货），并试图将生产转移到其他国家。

Larger corporations such as Apple Inc. also facedifficulties in getting goods made on time in China. But merchants say that assmall buyers they will be low on the list for merchandise when productioneventually revives. And once stock is replenished, they say they will need tospend big on advertising to regain their Amazon rankings, which make productsappear higher in site searches.

即便苹果这样的大公司也面临同样的中国供应链问题。而商家（小买家）表示，即使生产恢复，作为小买家，他们在订单上的优先级也很低。并补充道，一旦库存得到补充，他们仍需要在广告上投入大量资金，以重新获得亚马逊的排名，让产品在网站搜索结果中排名更靠前。

“I don’t think the Amazon platformhas seen such a massive amount of inventory problems as we are about to see,”said Patrick Maioho, a Michigan seller of kitchen products who also advisesothers on manufacturing in China.

密歇根的厨房产品卖家Patrick Maioho向同样倚赖中国制造的其他人表示：“我认为亚马逊平台还从未见识过我们将要面临的如此巨大的库存问题。”

Mr. Maioho said a supplier insouthern China warned him that even if the local government allows its factoryto reopen, it will be short-staffed for weeks while workers from otherprovinces self-quarantine. He recently ran out of two products that account for30% of his monthly revenue, and said his product rankings are dropping onAmazon. “There’s not much you can do,” he said, adding that it would bedifficult to move production elsewhere.

Majoho先生提到，位于中国南部的一家供应商提醒他，即使地方政府允许其工厂重新开张，由于其他省份的工人还在自我隔离期，所以工厂在人工方面仍然面临数周的短缺。最近，占他月收入30％的两款产品已经缺货，并且他的产品排名在亚马逊上正在滑落。他说：“我对此无能为力。”并表示很难把生产转移到其他地方。

There is some good news, though:One supplier had excess inventory from his last order, which Mr. Maioho saidwill keep him in stock for that product for a few weeks longer.

不过也有一个好消息，Majoho先生说，由于一个供应商的上一批订单有冗余，这样他的库存还能多维持几周。

The third-party marketplaceaccounts for more than half of Amazon’s retail sales, and a growing share ofsellers are based in China, according to Marketplace Pulse, a data researchfirm.

数据研究公司Marketplace Pulse的数据显示，第三方卖家占亚马逊零售总额的一半以上，并且中国卖家的份额越来越多。

Amazon said it has worked withsuppliers to secure additional inventory and provided sellers with guidance onprotecting the health of their accounts. It said product availability is justone of many factors it considers when displaying shopping results forcustomers.

亚马逊表示，它已与供应商共同合作以确保增加库存，并为卖家提供了维护账户健康运营的指南。亚马逊还表示，产品是否有货只是影响产品客户展示结果的众多因素之一。

Chris Davey, a British seller ofaudio products based in Shenzhen, generates more than $1 million in annualrevenue via Amazon. He said he is checking in with his suppliers regularly—mainly to see how they are coping with the public health emergency. The hope isthat when production restarts, “they remember who we are and that we’re thepeople that asked how is your family, not where are our orders,” he said.

Chris Davey先生是一名销售深圳（生产）的音频产品的英国卖家，他通过亚马逊的年销售收入超过100万美元。他说，他会定期与供应商联系，主要是聊聊他们如何应对这次突发的公共卫生事件。他希望，当生产恢复时，“他们会记住我们是关心他们和其家人的人，而不是只关心我们的订单。”

Some Amazon merchants areapproaching smaller competitors to see if they will part with extra inventory.Others are seeking out U.S. wholesalers with excess stock. That is costlierthan buying directly from factories, but may be cheaper than selling out and havingto effectively relaunch products later.

一些亚马逊卖家会与规模较小的竞争对手接洽，看看能不能搞来些库存。其他人则在寻找有多余存货的美国批发商。这比直接从工厂采购要贵，但可能要比因断货而不得不以后重新当新品推要合算。

To preserve stock, many sellersare pulling online advertising campaigns as well as raising prices.

为了保库存，许多卖家都在收紧在线广告投放并提高产品价格。

“The worst thing that can happenin a product business is you run out of stock,” said Michael Michelini,a partner at Alpha Rock Capital, which manages around 10 brands on Amazon.“You’re never really sure your ranking will come back the way it was.”

“做产品生意时可能发生的最糟糕的事莫过于库存不足了，”Alpha Rock Capital的合伙人Michael Michelini先生说，该公司在亚马逊运营着大约10个品牌。“你永远不确定自己的排名是否会回到原来的位置。”

It can be difficult for smallcompanies with specialized products to quickly move manufacturing out of China,said Nathan Resnick, chief executive of Sourcify, which helps businesses findmanufacturers in Asia. He has helped connect Amazon sellers with alternativesuppliers in India and Vietnam, he said, but manufacturing costs outside Chinacan be much higher, and factories in Vietnam often won’t accept small ordersfrom Amazon sellers.

Sourcify是帮商家找寻亚洲制造商的企业，其首席执行官Nathan Resnick先生表示，对于做特殊产品的小型公司而言，将产品制造迅速转移到中国境外会很困难。他说，他曾帮助亚马逊卖家与印度和越南的替代供应商建立联系，但中国境外的制造成本可能更高，而且越南的工厂通常不会接受亚马逊卖家的小订单。

Garland Sullivan, whoseJacksonville, Fla.-based Amazon business sells an average of $350,000 a monthin multiple categories, with many products made in China, said he could be outof some goods as soon as early March. In a last-ditch bid to prevent that, hebegan making one product in India this month and is in talks to have othersmade there as well. In the future, he says he will try to be less dependent onChina.

Garland Sullivan先生位于佛州杰森威尔的亚马逊业务覆盖了多个品类，每月平均销售35万美金，其中大多产品为中国制造，他提到他的一些商品最早可能会在3月初售罄。为了避免这种情况，他本月已经开始将一种产品放在印度生产，并展开关于在印度生产其他产品的谈判。他说，将来会尽量减少对中国的依赖。

“It’s a big wake-up call rightnow,” he said.

“当下敲了个大大的警钟，”他说。

Some sellers are already startingto worry about inventory for the holiday season— the most-important few monthsof the year—which requires a long lead time.

一些卖家已经开始担心节假日的库存了，这是（卖家）一年（销售）中最重要的几个月，这需要很长的交货时间。

—▼—

前些日子，美股科技股的代表苹果、微软率先受到疫情影响发布盈利警士，纷纷表示受疫情影响很可能不能达到原有业绩预期，并应声陷入下跌趋势，与中国供应链联系紧密的亚马逊当然也无法独善其身。不过看起来，比亚马逊更受伤的，还是亚马逊的卖家们。不过，相比海外卖家来说，中国卖家更贴近产品供应链，曙光也许不远了。

以上。