The boss has a difficult time with nearly 70 million in sales but no year-end bonus!

At the end of the year, Amazon's operations team achieved sales of 10 million US dollars, but did not receive a year-end bonus, and even commissions were very few. Looking back on the past year, many operations staff felt that commissions, year-end bonuses , and sales were not proportional...

However, as the helmsman of the company, some bosses found out at the end of the year that in addition to the regular operating costs, there were many costs that were unknown to employees, and these costs added up to lower the company's overall profits.

Annual sales of 100 million yuan, with more than 70% of operations completed

At the beginning of 2022, some operators set themselves a small sales target of 100 million. Have you achieved your goal now?

Recently, an operator said that he had achieved 71% of his small goal, and the sales in 2022 reached more than 70 million yuan. The operator also shared the performance of other colleagues in the company. His colleagues found that his company's sales in July reached nearly 8 million, which is excellent! The operator said that in July, the sales reached 3.22 million yuan on Member Day.

Judging from the performance, the company where this operator works had good sales in 2022. The company's products are old products. None of the eight operators resigned from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. The performance has been developing steadily. The company's goal for 2023 is to achieve steady victory.

After seeing the sales performance of other companies, an operator was jealous: "Some operators' monthly sales are higher than my annual sales."

A closer look at this company shows that its sales in a single month of operation is close to 2 million yuan. Some colleagues expressed their envy and tried to ask: "Excuse me, is your company still short of people?"

In addition to this company, there are many other excellent companies in the industry.

Another operator said that he had achieved sales of about 9 million US dollars (equivalent to about 60.48 million RMB) in 2022 , which was the total sales of old and new products accumulated over the years. He couldn't help but praise himself. He further explained that because the company is small and has limited resources, all operators in each category are involved in the melee, and it is really great that they can still achieve high sales in this situation.

There are indeed many companies in the industry with fierce internal competition. Perhaps the boss’s logic is that if his own people don’t compete, their competitors will, so it is better for him to have his own people compete first.

Achieved nearly 70 million in sales but no year-end bonus

Seeing the relatively high sales volume, some colleagues believe that operators must be able to get a lot of commissions, but this may not be the case.

A cross-border operator received a sales performance of 2 million, but only received a commission of 4,000 yuan, and his commission was withheld for two months . There are many similar cases, and many operators said that their commissions were not proportional to their sales performance.

In addition to commissions, year-end bonuses are even harder to get. One operator’s company had sales of 300-400 million yuan, and the year-end bonus was 50% of the basic salary multiplied by 20% of the years of service, which totaled to more than 500 yuan. Another operator introduced that his company was engaged in the 3C category of blood sea, with annual sales of 10 million US dollars (equivalent to nearly 70 million yuan), but there was no year-end bonus.

The commission and year-end bonus of operators are mostly related to the company's profits. In the past year, the costs of many sellers have risen sharply, and their profits have been pulled down by the sudden increase. An operator said that the company achieved a sales volume of 100 million yuan a year, but the profit was only more than 3 million yuan, and all the money earned was eaten up by loss-making products.

In the bloody category of 3C mentioned above , many 3C sellers are engaged in fierce price wars. One 3C seller said frankly that he has been struggling for a whole year. Old products have no profit, many products are in a low-price spiral, new products cannot be promoted, factories do not give credit terms, and funds cannot be turned around. Several seller friends around him in the same category are ready to withdraw at any time.

Another 3C seller said that a friend of his has stopped doing business on Amazon, and only one person out of the team of more than 20 people has left to work on other platforms.

Due to severe internal competition, there is no profit at all. Small and medium-sized sellers in the 3C category are not having an easy time, and some well-known sellers in this category are also facing a cold winter.

Recently, Amazon 3C seller Black Shark Technology has been caught in a layoff vortex, and the news that its employees are asking for compensation has continued to spread through various channels. Previously, Black Shark had laid off nearly 50% of its employees. After several rounds of layoffs, the team has been reduced from more than 1,000 people in August 2022 to more than 100 people at present. The company's former employees asked the CEO for compensation online, and some employees held banners in the company to demand wages. This company's multiple products have more than 5,000 reviews on Amazon.

Apart from the 3C category, not all categories are unprofitable. One operator's company achieved sales of 170 million last year, with a net profit of more than 8%, and some other companies had a net profit of around 10%. Combined with the situation in 2022, the profits of many categories are declining, and some profitable companies are already excellent.

The company's hidden operating costs are high, and the boss bluntly said that profits have been reduced

However, there may be a discrepancy between the profit seen by the operator and the actual profit of the boss.

In the view of some seller bosses, there are often many hidden costs in company operations. Most employees can only see their own wages and sales, and think that the rest are all pocketed by the boss. In fact, the reality is not the case. The costs that some employees cannot see or pay attention to are actually very high.

An industry insider said that after looking at the accounting records, it was found that the company's operating costs are very high every year, but 60% of them are visible to employees, and other hidden costs account for about 40%.

Some costs that employees cannot see include social insurance and provident fund partially borne by the company; rent, water, electricity, property management fees, and broadband fees; company financial agency fees; computer replacement and repair, notebook and other office supplies; store server fees, trademark, appearance, and patent registration fees for service software; Amazon store insurance premiums; appeal services after the store is closed, overseas warehouse relocation and rebranding, and other fees.

Many independent sellers feel the same way. There are too many miscellaneous fees in cross-border e-commerce, and the hidden costs are very high. In addition, 2022 is a turbulent year. Amazon's inventory adjustment and rising advertising costs have had a great impact on sellers' costs.

In 2022, Amazon's inventory capacity has changed repeatedly, and sellers have to take into account the costs of adjusting shipments and overseas warehouse fees. If there is unsalable inventory that is difficult to digest, it is possible that all the profits will be lost by the end of the year, and high storage fees will be charged. A seller opened up Amazon last year and invested more than 200,000 yuan, but found that there was still about 70,000 to 80,000 yuan in inventory at the end of the year.

Another major expense is advertising. Over the past year, the proportion of advertising expenses of many companies has continued to increase. Some sellers' advertising costs have already reached more than 30% of the total cost. In the past holiday season, sellers' advertising costs will be higher than in previous years. Due to the economic instability in Europe and the United States, consumers' willingness and budget for purchasing certain products are prone to change, and sellers must be fully prepared.

For Amazon sellers, the cost of running a company continues to rise, and there are some hidden costs that are unknown to employees, so their net profit is also being reduced, which will inevitably affect employees' commissions and year-end bonuses.

Year-end bonus

Amazon Operations