Big gap in year-end bonuses! Luxury hotel meals may become Shaxian snacks

This year, the entire cross-border industry has been hit hard by the cold weather, with most companies experiencing declines in both revenue and profits, layoffs, and even more so, bankruptcy. Under such circumstances, the cold weather has undoubtedly dealt a fatal blow to cross-border workers, with news of salary cuts or delays, reduced benefits, and downgrades in year-end bonuses.

The gap in year-end bonuses in the cross-border industry is huge

Unlike some companies whose performance soared and used equity, cash and even luxury cars to motivate their employees to continue to work hard and achieve new performance, most companies did not receive any good news this year. These two completely different phenomena seem to confirm the saying: human joys and sorrows are not shared.

"Last year's year-end bonus was 15 days of paid vacation + 14 days' salary + a luxurious dinner at the Hilton Hotel, but this year, I guess only Shaxian snacks will be left," said an operator on a social platform.

The disparity in year-end bonuses can be said to be linked to the company's performance. On the Amazon platform, we can find that the overall traffic of multiple product categories is in a state of decline. The cold is invading a large part of cross-border enterprises, and the company where the above operation is located is no exception. The company's main category BSR had a monthly sales volume of about 2,400 orders at the beginning of 2022, but it has dropped to about 600 orders in October.

The decline in orders, coupled with the decrease in overall platform traffic, has led to a sharp decline in the company's performance, which has almost broken the sellers' backs, and there is no talk of year-end bonuses. Not only is the boss frowning every day, he also joked: "If this continues, the company can only go to Shaxian downstairs for a dinner party at the end of the year . " Although the words were said in the form of a joke, judging from the reactions of many workers, the boss's words were not a joke, but a true portrayal of the cross-border circle.

Last year the company organized a tour for all employees, and this year the company laid off 20% of its employees.

We had dinner parties every month last year, and this year, even though we didn’t eat until 11pm after the package was delivered, the boss only ordered two pizzas for us.

I think we'll have a raffle like last year and give away some of the unsold products in the warehouse.

Last year I won the third prize, a Supor shabu-shabu hotpot.

There are no year-end bonuses, no raffles, no dinners, and there is even a spring cleaning.

The responses of some of the above workers also reflect that they are not optimistic about the year-end bonus. In their view, the year-end bonus in the cross-border industry is a pie in the sky that can never be filled. Every year, they say there is pie, but every year, they cannot eat it. Some workers even reported that their companies are still planning to cut salaries, and frankly said: "What conditions, I can still afford to eat Shaxian, and I am lucky to keep my job."

According to a survey conducted by an institution earlier, more than 70% of Amazon operators believe that they will not receive a year-end bonus in 2022 , while less than 30% believe that they can receive a year-end bonus of more than 20,000 yuan. In their view, year-end bonuses are only given by companies with good performance or bosses willing to use money to encourage employees, and small companies mostly think of various deductions.

Looking at the year-end bonus data of many companies last year, some companies issued bonuses of tens of thousands, and some companies issued bonuses of hundreds of thousands, but these companies accounted for a relatively low proportion. More practitioners said that their bosses did not mention year-end bonuses at all. When talking about year-end bonuses, they looked gloomy and even joked to themselves: "What is a year-end bonus?"

With last year’s experience and this year’s environment in mind, most workers said: “If you still want a year-end bonus, think about whether you will have a holiday this year. I didn’t go home for the Chinese New Year last year due to the pandemic, and I don’t know what will happen this year.” In today’s society, they believe in one principle: love can be yellow, but health codes cannot be yellow. The three most important things every day: keep your job, keep your life, and keep your green code.

Adding insult to injury? Sellers: Even with the peak season, the number of orders has not improved

In fact, workers’ concerns about year-end bonuses are not without reason. According to recent feedback from many sellers, the big promotion is almost at a critical juncture, but the number of orders has not improved much, but has become worse and worse, and there seems to be a trend of price war.

Xiao Li, who operates the pet category, has a deep understanding of this. He took over the old store in July, just in time for the Prime Day event, and sales increased several times. In September, he thought that sales would at least increase a little, but the performance dropped by about one-third at the beginning. He could only comfort himself that foreigners might save their money for Prime Day in the fall . In October, the overall sales were similar to that in September, but the cash collection was half of that in September. The peak season in November is about to come, and the number of orders is indeed very few.

In their opinion, it is normal for October to have low traffic, and it will probably be better in November when it is the peak season, but unexpectedly, it is worse than October. Every night when they look at the single-digit orders every day, and think about the boss's requirement of 500 orders per month, they don't know what to do?

Coincidentally, a seller lowered his head when talking about the order volume: " I thought the week of Halloween was cold enough, but I didn't expect it to be slower every week , and this week was even worse. Is it too late to change my career now? "

With online sales cooling down and orders hitting a freezing point, some sellers have begun looking for new ways out, and price cuts and promotions have also become a means for many sellers to increase their orders. One seller revealed: "I haven't looked at the BS list for a while. When I opened it today, I found that the prices are almost the same as those in China. The same product is 66 yuan on Taobao , but 12 US dollars on Amazon. " Excluding commissions, delivery fees, and first-leg shipping costs, the profit of this seller is probably an imaginable number.

In fact, there are many sellers who are also doing charity. They offer large coupons and sell products at 50% off, hoping to take advantage of the peak season to sell goods at low prices, so as to alleviate the dismal sales in the first three quarters of this year. However, they did not expect that there are many sellers who are clearing their inventory at a discount, and low prices cannot seize the opportunity.

At the same time, as the epidemic situation abroad is relaxed, many online consumers have returned to offline, and many offline stores in the United States have also tried to launch large holiday discounts to divide up consumers' shopping funds. The huge promotional efforts have dealt a heavy blow to online sellers.

Obviously, under such circumstances, the profits of Amazon sellers will be greatly affected, and the year-end bonus issue closely related to employees is also highlighted. After all, most year-end bonuses are linked to the company's performance. If the company's performance is good, some companies may issue some year-end bonuses to encourage employees to continue to work hard next year; but if the company's performance is sluggish, employees' year-end bonuses are probably not going to be settled.

The peak season has begun, and I hope all workers can make concerted efforts to strive for their year-end bonuses.

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