The escalating conflict in the Middle East has now reached Amazon. According to the latest report by Reuters, Amazon's AWS data center in the Middle East was hit by a bomb attack and caught fire, causing widespread service disruptions in the region. Although Amazon did not explicitly point out the source of the attack in its subsequent statement, nor did it attribute the explosion to the military actions of the conflicting parties, the incident coincided with Iran's explosive attacks on multiple targets in the Gulf region, with Amazon's data center located near one of the explosions.

The attack on Amazon's AWS data center directly led to partial disruptions in the service network in the Middle East. Some institutions, banks, and online platforms that rely on Amazon's AWS cloud data experienced service obstacles and downtime. Amazon later issued a statement and notice regarding the data interruption issue. Currently, Amazon's AWS team is actively coordinating global engineering resources with local emergency services to accelerate the repair of the local service network and advises affected customers to temporarily switch their business to other available regions.

In addition, the ongoing escalation of the conflict in the Middle East has many impacts on cross-border sellers. Yesterday, shipping giants such as Maersk, COSCO Shipping, and Hapag-Lloyd successively issued notices to suspend shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, with a large number of container ships loaded with goods also experiencing delays in the surrounding area.

The Strait of Hormuz is Iranian territory and the only passage from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean. After Iran announced the closure of the strait, cargo ships that had previously passed through the area had to detour around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa. This detour not only increases shipping costs but also extends delivery times, both of which greatly test the financial chains of cross-border sellers.

Recently, there has been an update to Amazon's features that everyone should pay attention to, namely the launch of Amazon's "Replacement Parts" feature. This feature is not only free to register, but according to data disclosed by Amazon, it can also avoid 71% of returns! After registering for this feature, if a customer wishes to return an item, they can provide targeted support on the return interface, effectively "intercepting" returns and achieving the goal of reducing the return rate.

Sellers who want to register for this free feature can follow these steps: 1. Create FBA or FBM ASIN/SKU for parts in the backend, but do not upload inventory after creation. 2. Log in to the seller platform "Amazon Product Support Registration Portal", select "Provide Replacement Parts", and fill out the registration form. (Copy the link to the browser to open the "Amazon Product Support Registration Portal": https://sellercentral.amazon.com/productsupport) 3. After receiving the confirmation completion email from the Product Support Team (estimated 15 working days), upload the inventory of parts on the seller platform's inventory management page.

Currently, any Asin delivered by FBA can register for this latest "Replacement Parts Plan". Sellers troubled by high returns can try it out.

Source: Cross-border Sellers Concentration Camp