Since last year, the news of various bankruptcies in the cross-border e-commerce industry has been common.

Recently, there is news that the well-known seller of Amazon platform has officially filed for bankruptcy.

01  I can't bear it! Instant Brands officially filed for bankruptcy

Instant Brands, a popular home appliance brand on Amazon, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of Texas.

The main reason for the bankruptcy was that high interest rates, tighter credit conditions and a continued decline in consumer demand left Instant Brands with huge debt.

Instant Brands will be allowed to continue operating while it seeks approval for a plan to repay creditors, according to the company's bankruptcy filing.

In addition to the U.S. bankruptcy proceedings, Instant Brands is also in the process of initiating bankruptcy protection in Canada under the Corporate Creditor Arrangement Act.

According to Bloomberg, Instant Brands has $563 million in debt on its books and is currently unprofitable. S&P Global downgraded Instant Brands last week, warning that it expects it to run short of liquidity in the near term without external funding or debt relief.

Adam Hollerbach, chief restructuring officer of Instant Brands, said that the company has been impacted by the external economic environment and internal operating difficulties in the past three years, which has had a direct impact on the company's business and financial condition.

Instant Brands says it has liabilities and assets ranging from $500 million to $1 billion, and 1,000 to 5,000 creditors. The company currently owes more than $38 million to its top five creditors. To keep the company afloat, Instant Brands closed a debt deal in January to raise new capital.

Instant Brands has raised $132.5 million in funding and will continue to operate during the bankruptcy process.

Instant Brands, once a popular seller of Amazon, eventually went bankrupt, which can not help but make people sigh.

It is reported that Instant Brands was founded in 2009 in Ottawa, Canada, headquartered in Illinois, the United States, the brand sales network now covers 23 countries and regions around the world.

The founder of the brand is Chinese-Canadian Dr.Robert Wang, who has a PhD in computer science and once focused on researching artificial intelligence systems.

Its star product - Instant Pot is quite popular in North America, once launched, it was widely praised, almost a North American Chinese group, has created Amazon Prime Day (Amazon member day) 300,000 pot sold out sales record, and "Black Five" a day sold 320,000 records.

This product is very suitable for young people who are accustomed to fast-paced life, because it has more than ten functions in one, such as pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker, steamer, wok, yogurt maker, baking, heat preservation, low temperature cooking, etc. It can cook accurately in multiple temperature segments, and subsequent functional improvements can also connect Wifi, Bluetooth, and even cook through mobile phone programming. Daily use is very convenient and fast to meet the different needs of consumer groups.

Instant Pot's main single 7-in-1 multifunctional pressure cooker has received more than 160,000 reviews, with a rating of 4.7, and has long ranked first in Amazon's pressure cooker category.

In addition to Instant Pot, a number of Instant Brands' products have long dominated the BS list on Amazon.

But even Amazon's once-hot sellers are going bust.

According to the NPD Group, Instant Brands' sales of electronic multifunctional cookers (mostly Instant POTS) reached $758 million in 2020. But in 2022, that figure fell to $344 million, a more than 50% drop. Data shows that as of April this year, both sales and volume of such products are down 20% compared to the same period in 2022.

According to data published by S&P Global, sales of Instant Brands products in the first quarter of 2023 fell by about 22% compared to the same period in 2022, which is the seventh consecutive quarter of sales decline for Instant Brands.

In the early days of the pandemic, Instant Brands saw breakthrough growth in its products, and while sales climbed, its shipping costs also rose due to port closures in Asian countries.

In the post-epidemic era, American consumers have begun to return to offline shopping, greatly reducing their time at home, and the demand for cookware is also declining sharply.

Another reason for the bankruptcy is that one of Instant Brands' key distributors, Bed Bath&Beyond, declared bankruptcy in April, which had some impact on Instant Brands' business.

More than 02 Amazon famous big sellers leave the field!

The current economic situation has made many big sellers have been hit down the altar, even Amazon's No. 1 seller has gone from bankruptcy to bankruptcy.

Packable, Amazon's bestseller in the US, has filed for bankruptcy protection in a US court, while undergoing liquidation proceedings, laying off workers and eventually shutting down its business. It is understood that the main reason for the bankruptcy of Packable is that the continuous supply chain crisis led to the company's business continued to decline, and the subsequent listing failed to obtain more financing, and eventually went bankrupt.

Packable's Pharmapacks brand was once the largest seller on Amazon's third-party marketplace in the United States, and also the top seller at Walmart, which mainly sells health, personal care, beauty and home products.

In the Amazon platform, search Pharmapacks related products, you can find a number of products top BSR, their products are also up to tens of thousands of reviews.

Packable's eventual bankruptcy was greeted with dismay by many. Even Amazon's top sellers, under multiple blows, can only choose to leave.

In April this year, MillerKnoll announced that in order to further reduce costs and improve operational efficiency, it will stop the operation of its home brand Fully. Before ceasing operations, Fully sold its inventory at half price on its official website.

MillerKnoll also said the closure of the Fully brand will result in cost savings of $37.2 million.

It is understood that FullyFully was founded in 2006, its main products are ergonomic office furniture, which is widely welcomed by North American consumers, and has also won BSR on Amazon platform for many times.

Under the influence of high inflation and the ongoing cost crisis, the demand for household products has also continued to decline, and Fully can only leave the field after 17 years of operation.

Since last year, the home furnishing industry is facing an unprecedented impact, many well-known big sellers and retailers face bankruptcy, bankruptcy......

In November 2022, United Furniture Industries, the parent company of Amazon Furniture seller Lane Home Furnishings, suddenly announced its permanent closure, laying off all of its 2,700 employees.

As far as the current market situation is concerned, the sales growth of enterprises and sellers on this track has also slowed down significantly.

Overall, cross-border sellers still face significant challenges in 2023. The fall of a number of Amazon sellers has also alerted sellers. The market is changing, the demand of consumers is also changing, how to better avoid market risks, to find new growth points has become crucial.