Another ‘Made in China, sold on Amazon’ merchant loses 54 stores, with US$6 million frozen by the e-commerce giant

The parent company of Shenzhen-based Tomtop Technology said many of its Amazon shops have been down since July, possibly because of ‘inappropriate reviews’

Amazon has removed several Chinese merchants this year over incentivised reviews, an unprecedented move that has bruised Chinese cross-border e-commerce

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Amazon boxes stacked for delivery in New York on January 29, 2016. Thousands of Chinese merchants have been affected by a sweeping crackdown on practices the platform considers an abuse of its terms of service, including offering incentives to leave positive product reviews. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:40pm, 6 Aug 2021Updated: 4:21pm, 11 Aug 2021

Amazon.com has removed dozens of stores from yet another large Chinese company using the platform to sell overseas, with millions of dollars having been frozen since late July amid a continuing crackdown from the US e-commerce giant on violations of its product review policies.

A total of 54 Amazon stores operated by Tomtop Technology, founded in Shenzhen in 2004, have gone dark, and Amazon has frozen more than 41 million yuan (US$6.3 million) in funds, parent company Yiwu Huading Nylon Co said in a corporate filing on Thursday.

“The reason could be the inappropriate reviews for some of the products, which is allegedly in violation of Amazon’s platform rules,” Yiwu Huading Nylon Co said.

Tomtop is now one of several Chinese merchants to be caught up in a campaign from Amazon to weed out violations of its terms of service, especially incentivised reviews. Using what’s been dubbed the “made in China, sold on Amazon” model, Chinese manufacturers have seen booming cross-border e-commerce sales by selling on Amazon during the pandemic. The platform’s crackdown on review abuse, though, has been a huge blow to the industry.

Amazon is Tomtop’s biggest sales platform, according to the company, and the suspended stores accounted for 18 per cent of its total sales in the first half of 2021. The company sells “hundreds of thousands” of products, from gaming gadgets to garments, to overseas consumers through different channels, according to its website.

Tomtop has filed an appeal to the Seattle-based online retailer to restore the stores and to unfreeze its funds, and it has hired lawyers to prepare for an arbitration with the platform. The merchant also plans to expand its business through its own website, eBay, AliExpress and Lazada, it said.

AliExpress and Lazada are operations of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the South China Morning Post.

Tomtop did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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