I flirted with 200 people, but got 0 responses! Seller: Recruitment is really difficult this year

Zhiyouji shows that the market demand for Amazon operations positions will increase by 24% in 2023 compared with the same period in 2022 , and the salary will also increase by 4% compared with the same period last year . It can be seen that even under the pressure of economic downturn, the recruitment demand of sellers is still rising steadily.

However, judging from the feedback from sellers, their recruitment situation is not ideal. Whether it is the golden months of March and April or the recruitment near the graduation season, the feedback from the job seekers is relatively cold.

Job seekers who join in the morning and leave in the afternoon should not run too fast

Amid layoffs at various large companies, the cross-border circle has ushered in a wave of recruitment. While waiting for all personnel to arrive and complete this year's "small goals", many sellers suddenly discovered that it is difficult to recruit people this year.

Recently, a seller shared his company's recruitment situation and said that his company hired an operations assistant. He filled in the registration information in the morning, and sent a message in the afternoon saying that he was leaving. As soon as I saw the message, before I had time to ask the reason, I found that the other party had left the group, and his QQ and WeChat were also deleted quickly. He left very decisively, without any hesitation.

However, for sellers who have a need for people and have invested a lot of time in recruiting, it is a bit difficult to accept. Especially when recruitment fails one after another. Therefore, the seller also decisively suspended the recruitment plan this year, saying that he did not want to waste time any more.

In fact, this situation is not an isolated case.

The person recruited by the seller mentioned above stayed for a whole morning. Some sellers said that someone from their company came, but only took over the work for an hour and then said he quit.

Many sellers are very confused. Isn’t the unemployment rate very high now? Why is it so difficult to hire someone?

This is not just a problem of not being able to retain people. During the recruitment process, the attitude shown by job seekers is not very enthusiastic.

One seller expressed frustration at the “cold” attitude of job seekers: “Why is it so difficult to recruit someone? I contacted 200 people, but not a single one responded.” Faced with this situation, another seller was also very confused: “After contacting, the response rate was extremely low. Some have not been responded to for four or five days, and the status is even still ‘unread’.”

Moreover, the recruitment problem this year is not only the "no rush" attitude of job seekers, but also the shrinking space for sellers in the entire recruitment market. According to sellers' feedback, the number of resumes submitted this year is much lower than that of the same period last year.

Where have all the people gone? The answer may be revealed from this year's graduation season.

According to statistics, the number of college graduates in China in 2023 is expected to reach 11.58 million, an increase of 820,000 over the previous year . This is a huge number, and if it flows into various companies, it will be a new force that cannot be underestimated.

However, according to the 2023 College Student Employment Survey Report recently released by Zhaopin.com , the proportion of employment in units has increased .

It rose from 50.4% last year to 57.6% , and the slow employment rate also rose from 15.9% last year to 18.9% .

Analysts believe that with China's economy still in the recovery stage, graduates are more inclined to choose employment in units, while the preference for relatively less stable freelance jobs has declined significantly.

Another reason is that the current economic situation is still not optimistic and many people dare not quit their jobs easily.

However, the difficulty in recruiting people may be better in cross-border e-commerce companies that have two days off a week.

The temptation of two days off a week is so great that one ordinary position received 200 resumes

Due to the particularity of the industry, cross-border e-commerce companies rarely have a two-day weekend, but the two-day weekend has always been the focus of discussion in the industry. In 2021 , many cross-border e-commerce giants such as Tongtuo Technology, Saiwei Times, and Yibai Network even took the lead in implementing a two-day weekend system.

After the big sale, some sellers followed suit. It felt like all the major cross-border e-commerce companies were in a rush to implement the two-day weekend system. At that time, the discussion about the two-day weekend system in the industry was unprecedentedly heated. As we all know, cross-border e-commerce companies have always been the "leaders of overtime work". Faced with the sudden two-day weekend system, many cross-border workers felt that it was unreal.

However, some big sellers and other vendors later cancelled their two-day weekend and re-implemented long and short weeks or one-day weekend, which quickly brought them back to reality.

However, cross-border workers' desire for a double day off has not stopped.

Earlier this year, a seller who was recruiting lamented: “It turns out that having two days off a week is the core competitiveness.” The reason for his sigh was that he received more than 200 resumes for an ordinary warehouse management position with average salary.

Another senior seller also said that they used to have a long and short week, but since they changed to a two-day weekend last year, recruiting has indeed been easier.

In recent recruitment efforts, sellers who did not implement a two-day weekend system were also clearly hindered.

Some sellers said that because of the long and short weeks, they were repeatedly rejected by job seekers when recruiting on a domestic recruitment website, but the two-day weekend was not compatible with the startup team, which made them feel helpless.

Working from 9 to 6 without overtime has always been the dream of cross-border workers. However, we know that e-commerce work requires 24- hour online work and mobile office, but it is difficult not to work at all, especially when facing overseas markets with time differences.

Therefore, the work system of long and short weeks and one day off per week is still the mainstream in the cross-border circle. However, this does not prevent cross-border workers from considering two days off per week as the light of life and pursuing it diligently.

Perhaps because domestic recruitment is becoming increasingly difficult and labor costs are rising, some sellers have turned their attention to the target market.

Thailand requires operation at 4,000 yuan / month, and the cost is greatly reduced

Industry insiders have observed that more and more sellers are now forming teams abroad, especially in Southeast Asia, where salaries are not high and the quality of job applicants is acceptable, which can save a lot of costs.

According to him, some sellers can hire an operator in Thailand for only 4,000 yuan a month. In Malaysia, an experienced and excellent operator only costs more than 5,000 yuan.

Compared with Shenzhen, employment costs have dropped significantly.

According to Zhiyouji, the most common positions in Amazon Shenzhen's operational salary range are 10-15K (accounting for 31.1% ), which is a two to three times gap compared to the two.

Of course, Shenzhen is a gathering place for cross-border e-commerce sellers, and it is also a first-tier city, so high salaries are a given. Except for Shenzhen, salaries in other cities are not that high, and there are many people who make 4,000 or 5,000 yuan a month.

However, in addition to being cheap, local teams have an obvious advantage that domestic teams cannot match, and that is that they understand the local market better.

In terms of distance, they are closer to the target customers. At the same time, they speak the same language, have the same consumption habits and culture as the target customers, so they can better understand what the other party needs, which is conducive to some operations and marketing methods to play a greater role.

However, the disadvantages are also obvious. Because of the distance problem, there will be some deficiencies in management, and problems will be out of reach. In addition, the communication cost will also increase accordingly.

Recently, the General Office of the Zhejiang Provincial People's Government issued the "Several Measures to Expand Markets, Increase Orders and Stabilize Foreign Trade", proposing to launch the cross-border e-commerce " store opening globally ", " brand going overseas " and " independent station leading " actions, and to add more than 10,000 new cross-border e-commerce export online stores in 2023 .

As the number of related companies increases, the demand for jobs will also increase. Whether to recruit people domestically or to build teams in target markets has become a question that more and more sellers need to think about.