On the morning of September 14, many sellers were stunned in social media and seller groups — North American marketplace order data showed a bizarre anomaly: the backend orders page would not refresh and only displayed orders from several hours earlier, stuck at around 1 a.m. US time the previous night.

Moreover, the front-end shopping cart could not place orders. Clicking "Buy Now" directly showed no inventory, but strangely — ads were still burning money as usual.

Some sellers described the disconnect: "Ad data looked great, but something was wrong."

Based on seller feedback, the anomaly showed several typical characteristics:

1. Order page freeze

The backend order management page no longer refreshed in real time, and order timestamps remained hours old. A seller managing two North American accounts saw orders drop to zero within about three hours. The front-end Listing itself showed no obvious issues, but the conversion chain was broken — shoppers could click in but could not place orders.

2. Buy Now button failure

Multiple sellers reported that the front-end shopping cart could not complete purchases, and clicking the buy button showed no inventory. Backend inventory appeared normal, but the front-end purchase entry was stuck.

3. Ads and organic orders severely disconnected 

Some sellers said they usually had 30 organic orders, but that day organic orders dropped to zero and all sales came from ads. Ads were consuming budget normally, but the backend could not show corresponding order data, leaving sellers confused about whether orders were actually placed. Some even suspected competitors were sabotaging them.

In the first few hours after the anomaly, panic spread through seller groups. Some worried accounts were restricted, others feared Listings had been suppressed, and some began checking whether their own operations had caused problems.

Only when more sellers compared "symptoms" in groups and found everyone's situation exactly the same did they relax. "So it wasn't my problem" became the most common reassurance in seller groups that day.

Some sellers joked: "I'm relieved to see everyone else is down too." Behind this dark humor is Amazon sellers' certain familiarity with platform system instability.

Based on current information, this incident was more likely a backend order data delay or display anomaly rather than actual lost orders. Some accounts gradually recovered after several hours, and the backend began updating order data, but whether all orders generated during the delay period will be fully backfilled still needs further observation.

(Source: Cifnews Editorial Team)

SellerHome Review

Amazon's sudden system anomaly caused organic orders to drop to zero, the front-end could not place orders, yet ads continued burning money, causing heavy seller losses. It is recommended to immediately check ad budgets and order data, retain screenshots to claim compensation from customer service, and be alert to platform technical risks.

Source: Cifnews
Original link: https://www.cifnews.com/article/188832