With an annual salary of 300,000, these new positions in the cross-border circle are really attractive!

Common cross-border e-commerce positions include: operations, art design, promotion, graphic design, product development and procurement, logistics specialists, inventory analysis specialists, etc.

Among them, the operation position is what we talk about the most and is the one we come into contact with the most. When it comes to cross-border e-commerce operation positions, many people's first reaction is "good salary". According to the big data of Zhaopin.com, in the first quarter of 2021, cross-border e-commerce operation recruitment had the highest salary, reaching an average of 8755/month.

As we all know, China's cross-border e-commerce industry has been developing at a very fast pace. According to iMedia Research, in 2019, the scale of China's cross-border e-commerce transactions reached 800 billion yuan, and has been on an upward trend since then. By 2021, China's cross-border e-commerce export transaction volume has reached 1.97 trillion yuan. It is expected that in 2024, the overall scale of China's cross-border export e-commerce transactions will exceed 2.95 trillion yuan.

As the cross-border e-commerce industry surges forward, new ecosystems have emerged one after another, and new positions often accompany the new ecosystems. Therefore, in recent years, in addition to the above-mentioned positions that we are familiar with, some new positions have also begun to be recruited. In order to recruit talents, companies are also willing to spend a lot of money. It can be said that these positions are a new batch of blue ocean positions /occupations.

The emergence of new positions and the high salaries offered to talents by companies prove that the cross-border e-commerce industry is gradually maturing. Therefore, in addition to new positions, the importance of some existing positions that have not been valued or neglected is becoming increasingly prominent and contains broad career development prospects.

It can be said that as the industry develops and changes, job requirements have become very different.

New positions emerge in the cross-border circle with a base salary of 25,000 yuan

"Today we have prepared a lot of great earphone covers for everyone. You can only get such a favorable price in our live broadcast room." A TikTok anchor who just joined a new company said during the live broadcast.

“Hello, we are interested in your brand XXX. Are you willing to sell it?” An Amazon brand aggregator is communicating with the seller about the sale of the brand/store.

…

In the past two years, I believe many people have been paying attention to two ecosystems of cross-border e-commerce. One is cross-border e-commerce live streaming, and the other is the acquisition of Amazon third-party seller brands /stores by aggregators.

With the development of new business forms, new positions have emerged. These new positions are in short supply, have high salaries and good prospects, but also require applicants to have high comprehensive qualities.

Amazon Brand Acquisition Manager: Annual salary of $300,000, familiar with Amazon, those with resources have a competitive advantage

The total amount of funding raised by Amazon brand aggregators has now exceeded $15 billion, and 32 of the 98 active aggregators have raised more than $100 million. The leading aggregator Thrasio has raised $34 billion on its own, and in just two years, it has become one of the top five Amazon sellers worldwide by aggregating brands.

In 2020, Chinese sellers accounted for an average of more than 42% of Amazon's nine major sites worldwide. Therefore, a large number of aggregators have made China their main market. In particular, last year, domestic and foreign aggregators such as BBG, Olsam , Markai , and Nebula Brands launched a wave of acquisitions.

Along with this wave, some new positions have come. Through searching on recruitment websites, it can be found that some aggregators are recruiting Amazon brand acquisition managers /BD managers (i.e. business development managers), consultants and other related positions.

From the recruitment information of a certain aggregator, we can see that they clearly require applicants for the position of Amazon Brand Acquisition Manager to have 1 to 2 years of cross-border e-commerce related work experience, excellent cross-border business knowledge reserves, familiarity with cross-border e-commerce operating procedures, and certain English proficiency. At the same time, they emphasize that those who are familiar with the Amazon platform or have accumulated resources in the cross-border e-commerce field are preferred.

After joining the company, Amazon brand acquisition managers need to tap into seller resources, find excellent acquisition targets, connect with third-party service providers, participate in business cooperation communication and negotiations, assist in acquisitions, etc.

Of course, in order to recruit such a comprehensive talent, the salary offered by the aggregator is not low. A recruitment information shows that a certain aggregator is recruiting a business development manager in the East China region and the base salary is 15~25k, commission is not included. Judging from the base salary alone, the highest annual salary has reached 300,000 yuan. Compared with the salary of business development managers in other industries, the salary offered by the aggregator is still very attractive. For example, in the medical device industry, which is generally recognized to have a higher salary, according to a certain recruitment website, the highest salary is only 11~20k/month.

In addition to positions such as business development managers who assist in acquiring Amazon brands, aggregators also recruit positions such as purchasing assistants, logistics specialists, Amazon operations managers, etc., which are also recruited by cross-border e-commerce sellers. The salaries offered are also slightly higher than those of their peers. For example, a certain aggregator offers a salary of 15-20K base salary + commission + dividends for the position of Amazon operations manager in Shenzhen. However, the job requirements also clearly state that more than four years of Amazon operations experience and at least one year of Amazon operations team management experience are required, and past experience must be knowledgeable in white hat tactics.

Cross-border e-commerce anchor: The base salary is up to 15K/month. You need to be able to speak foreign languages ​​and sell goods.

Another wave is cross-border live e-commerce. Live streaming is nothing new in China, and the market has gradually become saturated, but it is a business field that is in urgent need of development and has unlimited potential abroad. Coresight Research, a US research company that studies retail data , predicts that the US live streaming e-commerce market is expected to exceed US$25 billion in sales by 2023. Overseas live streaming e-commerce is still a blue ocean.

In recent years, although Amazon, AliExpress, Lazada, Shopee and other platforms have entered the live broadcast field, the first to achieve breakthrough development is the short video social media TikTok with rich experience and "prophetic" advantages. As Douyin's overseas brother, TikTok started to test the live broadcast e-commerce business in Indonesia and the United Kingdom in April last year, and launched the live broadcast shopping yellow car (TikTok Shop) function. According to its official news recently, TikTok Shop will also launch cross-border business in four Southeast Asian countries (Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines) on April 25.

In China, the budding of cross-border live streaming e-commerce is gradually reviving. According to data from iiMedia Research, the scale of China's cross-border live streaming e-commerce market was 24 billion yuan in 2020, 36 billion yuan in 2021, and is expected to reach 111.6 billion yuan in 2022, and is expected to grow to 828.7 billion yuan by 2025.

Since last year, many cross-border e-commerce sellers have been planning to enter TikTok, and this popularity has also led to a strong demand for cross-border anchors.

Judging from the recruitment information on a certain recruitment website, the job requirements all require English proficiency, and some sellers even said that American pronunciation, or those with a background in studying or working abroad in English-speaking countries will be given priority. Other requirements include the ability to respond on the spot, being good at mobilizing the atmosphere, strong interactive skills and camera performance, good image and temperament, and strong stress resistance. Their job responsibilities generally include improving sales efficiency, formulating monthly live broadcast plans and live broadcast sales plans with operations, and participating in product selling point refinement, improving user participation, and enhancing fan stickiness.

The salary structure of "cross-border anchors" is also base salary + commission. The base salary ranges from 6K to 15K, depending on ability, experience and city. Shenzhen and Guangzhou have higher base salaries. Cross-border e-commerce sellers usually offer a base salary of 8K to 12K, and some even offer a high price of 15K. For example, a cross-border seller of digital products in Bantian, Shenzhen, offered a base salary of 10K to 15K when recruiting for a TikTok English live broadcast anchor on a recruitment website.

At present, in terms of social media, not only TikTok has developed the live broadcast business, but Youtube, Facebook, etc. have also laid out live broadcast sections. Therefore, some cross-border e-commerce sellers with cross-border live broadcast needs have almost covered all platforms.

I believe many people have already felt that due to the impact of the epidemic, the development of cross-border e-commerce has encountered some obstacles this year, but from the overall trend, the upward trend of cross-border e-commerce will not change . As the head of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce said: Cross-border e-commerce is the fastest-growing, most potential, and most powerful new foreign trade format, and it is still in a period of rapid development.

In this process, in addition to new positions, the importance of some existing and neglected positions has become increasingly prominent, and they contain broad career development prospects.

The importance of these 6 positions is increasingly prominent, and the prospects are broad

Cross-border e-commerce has developed to this day and is no longer a small branch of the foreign trade industry more than ten years ago. The public account "A Want to Promote a Brand" once pointed out that these positions will definitely occupy an increasingly important position in the development of sellers, both now and in the future:

1. Brand Marketing Manager

When cross-border e-commerce was first launched, the dividends were considerable. Sellers could make money as long as they put their products on the shelves. But now that competition is intensifying, the space for making profits by relying on products, supply chains and marketing capabilities is constantly shrinking. The market tells us that brands can be premium, and a strong brand not only means market position, but also represents lucrative profits.

In the past ten years, sellers could get rich returns from market dividends, but now the dividend period has passed, and sellers can only find growth from brands. Now many platform sellers have begun to build independent sites. In addition to spreading risks and reducing dependence on platforms, they have also realized the importance of brands.

Under this general trend, the importance of the brand marketing manager position is self-evident. However, as can be seen from the name of this position, the person who is competent needs to be a comprehensive talent who not only understands branding, but also marketing and the market. Such a person is not so easy to find.

2. Risk Control Specialist

This position is more common in financial institutions such as banks. Some cross-border e-commerce giants have set up this position, but it has not received much attention. However, since last year, this position has suddenly become popular, and some sellers have even poached people from large Internet companies with high salaries. As for the reason, everyone knows that it is due to Amazon's compliance rectification.

Amazon's sudden rectification has taught sellers a lesson, and they are also trying to cope with it. Risk control specialists are one of the ways. Previously, the responsibilities of this position may have only focused on negative review control, account association, etc., but after this incident, it has expanded to the research, investigation and analysis of platform rules and regulations.

Nowadays, many platforms have gone through the initial extensive development stage, and compliance is an inevitable trend. Not only Amazon, but other platforms are also likely to rectify non-compliant behaviors at any time. In addition, platform policies are constantly changing, so the position of risk control specialist will only become more and more important to sellers in the future.

3. Product Manager

It is said that "product is king". Everyone is selling on the same platform, with the same channels and the same convenience for consumers to buy, so the only thing that matters is the product. For the same product, the one that pays more attention to product personalization, quality and meeting personal needs will definitely be more favored by consumers.

Moreover, the cornerstone of cross-border e-commerce sellers is products. The saying "70% depends on product selection and 30% depends on operations" shows how important it is to sellers. It can be said that good products are the key to sellers' success in this war without gunpowder. Therefore, the position of product manager can be said to determine the life and death of sellers' cross-border business. If he cannot develop competitive products, then no matter how well he does in operations, logistics planning, inventory management, etc., it will be in vain.

However, it is not easy to become a qualified product manager. He must not only have the ability to discover the pain points of potential customers, but also have the ability to research industry categories. At the same time, he must not lack marketing awareness. When choosing a product, he must consider which operations can be used as selling points or hot spots when doing terminal sales.

4. Digital Marketing Manager

Digital marketing is "advertising". In today's increasingly competitive world, the business philosophy of "good wine needs no bush" is no longer applicable. Even if you have a good product, if you don't promote it to the public, it will be forgotten. For cross-border e-commerce sellers, traffic is often equal to the number of orders, and advertising is always based on traffic, which is the core of sellers.

In addition, there is a famous saying: "I know that at least half of my advertising expenses are wasted, but I don't know where exactly they are wasted." This is referring to the huge waste caused by improper advertising. How to spend money on advertising so that every penny of the seller can play a role is a great test of the ability of digital marketing managers.

Amazon sellers often say: "If you don't spend money on advertising, you will die. If you spend money on advertising, you will become poor." This sentence also indirectly shows the importance of advertising and marketing managers to sellers. If the right person is selected for this position, it can not only directly increase the seller's GMV, but also save a lot of costs. Now that the competition on the platform is becoming more and more fierce, and the cost of advertising is constantly rising, under this situation, the demand for advertising and marketing managers will only increase.

Although it seems to be a simple advertisement placement, sellers who are recruiting for related positions have said that advertising and marketing managers need to have three abilities at the same time, namely data optimization ability, upstream and downstream thinking ability, and new advertising channel development ability. Currently, advertising and marketing managers are also a scarce position, and many sellers will poach them at high prices.

5. Content Marketing Expert

The content marketing mentioned here mainly refers to social media operations. We should all have discovered that consumers are less and less willing to buy hard advertising, but soft advertising is popular. In this case, the advantages of content marketing positions are highlighted, which is why some cross-border sellers are now increasing their social media operations.

High-quality posts and videos can not only be widely disseminated, but also touch the hearts of consumers and have a subtle effect. Some people may complain that content marketing is too difficult and slow to take effect, but don’t forget that its effective reach rate is very high and the investment cost is relatively low.

At present, the advertising input and output ratio of sellers is very inconsistent. The advertising costs are rising, but the output is decreasing. If you can make a breakthrough in content marketing, it will undoubtedly save costs and open up new traffic channels for sellers. More importantly, if you create high-quality content, you may be able to surpass those companies that spend money on marketing in Google search results and get a higher ranking than them.

6. GTM (Go to Market) Manager

GTM is commonly known as the trader. In large cross-border e-commerce companies, the importance of this position will be more significant. The larger the company, the more departments are involved. From the development of a product to the hands of consumers, it will go through multiple departments in the middle. If there is no one person in control of the whole process, it is very likely that the product received by the buyer will be completely different from the original design. This role is GTM.

His job responsibilities are to control the entire process of product design, R&D, production, promotion and sales, and to connect the departments involved in these processes. Therefore, the person in office must not only have the ability of the position itself, but also the ability to cross positions.

Now when it comes to this position, it is more associated with independent sites. As we all know, starting to deploy independent sites in 2020 has become the choice of more and more sellers. According to incomplete statistics from the Ministry of Commerce, the number of cross-border independent sites in China has exceeded 200,000 in 2021. At this rate of development, the demand for GTM will also increase.

In conclusion:

Cross-border e-commerce jobs are often associated with high salaries. In addition to the characteristics of the industry itself, talent scarcity is another factor that pushes up salaries. When it comes to cross-border e-commerce talent, there is often a word that corresponds to it, that is, "large gap". Data shows that the current cross-border e-commerce talent gap is as high as 6 million.

Take the cross-border e-commerce operation positions that we are familiar with as an example. The " 2021 Foreign Trade Talent Situation Research Report" released by Zhilian Recruitment Platform shows that in terms of the demand for foreign trade industry positions, cross-border e-commerce operation positions account for 14.4% of the core foreign trade positions, but its recruitment demand has increased by 135.7% year-on-year, and talent demand has doubled.

The main reason for the shortage of cross-border e-commerce talents is that the industry prefers compound talents. As can be seen from the many positions mentioned above, many not only require applicants to have multiple abilities at the same time, for example, a cross-border e-commerce anchor requires applicants to not only be able to speak English, but also have sales skills, which is very demanding for practitioners.

At present, the entire industry is eager for talents in many positions, and the competition for talents has become fierce. Although the job requirements are very different now, the shortage of talents still exists. If sellers want to make relevant arrangements, solving the talent problem is the key. However, more and more colleges and universities are beginning to pay attention to the training of cross-border e-commerce talents. Some schools have also established cross-border e-commerce colleges or set up related majors. These actions are believed to alleviate the problem of talent shortage to a certain extent in the future.

Amazon Brand Acquisition Manager

Cross-border e-commerce anchor

TikTok anchor