A cross-border company: If the operating performance does not meet the standards, the salary will be 0!

At the beginning of the new year, new flags are flying all over the sky. Has your company set any unattainable goals?

2022 is here! The new year is always endowed with beautiful imaginations by many people. Cross-border workers are quietly setting their own wishes for getting rich, and various cross-border e-commerce companies have also set small goals of annual sales of tens of millions or hundreds of millions.

Can these small goals, which carry infinite beauty, be easily achieved?

Cross-border e-commerce companies may only achieve one-tenth of the goals they set at the beginning of the year by the end of the year? Is sales more important or profit more important? Compared with blindly expanding the scale, is it actually more beneficial to have a small and beautiful Amazon team?

Cross-border e-commerce workers made a wish at the beginning of the year, full of confidence at the beginning of the year , worked hard in the middle of the year , and resigned at the end of the year ? What is the true portrayal of Amazon operators in 2021? Will workers be able to earn more basic salary and commission in 2022?

A cross-border company: If the performance does not meet the standards, the employees’ basic salary will be 0!

As we all know, the salary system of cross-border e-commerce companies generally adopts a base salary plus commission model, in which the base salary is generally paid according to personal work experience and ability. The higher the ability, the higher the base salary. As for commission, some companies calculate commission based on sales, while more companies calculate it based on gross profit.

Recently, an employee of Amazon stated that their company's commission calculation method adopts the gross profit model. The gross profit here refers to the deduction of platform commissions, platform delivery fees, advertising fees, fake orders, product costs and first-mile costs. However, starting from January 2022, the company will adopt a new salary system. The gross profit is a tiered model (that is, deducting all the company's cost expenditures, including employees' personal wages). According to different levels, employees can get commissions ranging from 8 to 15 points.

This commission calculation method has been praised by many industry insiders as being very high, but it is time-limited. It is reported that the above commission calculation method was adopted in the first three months. Starting from the fourth month, if the company's gross profit for the month is only 6,000 yuan, then the employees will not only not receive any commission, but also their base salary will be reduced to 6,000 yuan even if it originally exceeded 6,000 yuan. If the gross profit is 100 yuan, the employees will not receive any commission, and their base salary will be reduced to only 100 yuan. If the gross profit is negative, the employees will not receive any commission, and their base salary will be directly reset to zero. After working hard for a month, the employees will not receive a dime.

After the commission system was exposed, a large number of operators started to complain, "The pie is so big, but I just can't eat it", "I want the horse to run, but I don't want it to eat grass", " I never thought that the minimum salary for workers is 0 ", "This operation is really unbelievable"...

The above-mentioned companies are going to adopt a new salary system in 2022. Whether the system itself is impractical or not, everyone has different opinions. From a superficial point of view, every cross-border e-commerce company will set a new goal at the beginning of each year. After the goal is achieved, employees can get a certain attractive reward. Behind this tradition, the company is essentially mobilizing the enthusiasm of employees so that the company can make more money.

Now is the beginning of the year, and many cross-border companies are also releasing their full-year performance targets for 2022.

An Amazon operator said that their company's performance target for 2022 is 100 million yuan . Now each operator has 4-5 products, and each person has an average performance of 20 million yuan . It is reported that many cross-border e-commerce companies believe that there is still room for improvement in 2022, so they have set small goals of sales of over 100 million yuan.

Many companies have targets below 100 million. An Amazon operator said that their company's annual sales target is to reach 50 million yuan, with 45 million yuan of sales tasks for existing operations staff and the remaining 5 million yuan to be absorbed by new businesses and new personnel next year.

What operators need to do is to quickly formulate their own performance goals and propose their own constructive practices to achieve the company's performance goals. The editor learned that many operators are currently working hard to write the 2022 "Goal-Plan-Decomposition" plan.

According to feedback from Amazon operators, many companies have set their sales target for 2022 at RMB 50 million. 50 million a year means an average daily sales of nearly RMB 140,000. Some people think that the figure of nearly RMB 140,000 can be easily achieved, while others think it is impossible, because whether the product can be sold depends not only on the personal ability of the operator, but also on whether the company provides the operator with sufficient supporting resources.

An operator said that their company only has two operators, and the daily sales of the account he is currently in charge of is just over 10,000. He is not sure whether the company will provide sufficient funds and resource support. However, even if the funds are in place, based on the company's current operating staff and the daily sales of the stores, it is really difficult to achieve annual sales of 50 million.

Many industry peers also said that the 50 million target is a bit too high. "The current daily sales are too far from the actual target," said an operations colleague. Annual sales of 50 million means daily sales of nearly 140,000 . With a customer price of about $20 , it would take about 1,000 orders per day . To achieve this number of orders, the cash flow required to support it is 3-4 months of product costs and first-leg freight, which is estimated to be around 5 million . If there is no hit product, this target is impossible to achieve , and even if there is a hit product, it will be difficult to achieve .

Another operator said that if the company does not have sufficient financial support, 50 million in sales is just a thought. It is reported that their company's overall sales in 2021 is 35 million. During the peak period of stocking in the peak season, the pressure alone accounts for about 10 million. Therefore, Amazon requires extremely high funds. Let's put aside whether the company has enough funds to achieve the sales target of 50 million. Even if it does, the company may have to reserve some funds to prevent various emergencies such as logistics, spoofs, platform policies, etc. "Doing Amazon is not as simple as selling goods. If an accident occurs, it will cost a sum of money to settle it. Nowadays, making money or not is a small matter. Not losing money, not being in debt, and not going bankrupt are big matters."

It is reported that in the past 2021, many cross-border e-commerce companies were in a difficult state of survival, and the goals set at the beginning of 2021 were not achieved.

"In 2019, we achieved sales of 10 million yuan . The company's target for 2020 was 40 million. Although we did not achieve it, the achievement rate was 95%. In 2021, the company's sales target directly increased to 160 million, and we only achieved half of the goal in the end." The operator said that if the goal was not achieved, there would naturally be no year-end bonus every year.

Another operation also said that the boss sets extremely high goals every year and has never completed even one - tenth of them . "The annual sales target is difficult to achieve. The company 's sales target for 2021 is 100 million, but the actual completion rate is only about 10 million." Even so, in the new year, the New Year's goals of many Amazon companies are still soaring.

There is always a goal, what if you achieve it? Every industry has the Pareto Principle. In the cross-border e-commerce industry, there will always be some Amazon companies that exceed their annual goals. However, according to the established rules, the profit goals of many Amazon sellers in 2022 may change as follows:

January 1, 2022 goal: make a lot of money

February 1 , 2022 goal: just get back the investment

March 1 , 2022 goal: less losses, more wins

April 1 , 2022 goal: Find a way to make money

May 1 , 2022 goal: Live, no matter how you live

Amazon sellers: Sales volume is not important, high profit is king!

Is it considered hooliganism to only talk about sales and not profits?

"Now our company no longer focuses on sales, but on profits." It is reported that after reviewing the achievements made in 2021, many cross-border e-commerce companies gradually began to feel that compared with the sales volume that looks good on the surface, the actual profit is the most important.

"It doesn't make much sense to just look at sales volume. What really supports us is profit." An Amazon seller said that they once pursued sales volume, thinking that if the scale was bigger, they would have more say when negotiating with factories. However, in the process, they gradually discovered that blindly pursuing sales volume would actually cause many problems. For example, high unit prices and large-capacity markets will cause sales volume to soar after such products are promoted, and even if the performance reaches 50 million, it will not be a problem. The problem they overlooked is that while the shipment volume is steadily increasing, the inventory volume is also gradually increasing invisibly. At this time, the control of operations and potential risks will also become infinitely larger. If the product becomes inventory by mistake, clearing the stock will be a big trouble.

Nowadays, more and more Amazon sellers have realized that finding profitable product directions and models and gradually expanding and expanding the company's scale is more practical than simply setting tasks and targets.

Amazon sellers have changed their mindset from simply pursuing sales to pursuing profits and focusing on long-term development. Ultimately, the reason is that there are too many uncertainties in cross-border e-commerce exports, which drives them to constantly seek the best way to survive.

Do it for a longer time > become stronger > become bigger. In the view of many Amazon employees, some small teams are "small and easy to turn around" and can quickly regroup in the face of sudden changes.

"It's good to be a small seller who makes money quietly. Why do we have to expand the scale? Which is more important, making money or scale? It's not that you can make money by expanding the scale, but that you can expand the scale only after you make money. The bigger the scale, the less money you can make." A solo seller feels that company expenses and labor costs are a bottomless pit. The cross-border e-commerce industry is suitable for a small and beautiful operation model. A team of only two or three people can do well. One person is responsible for sales, one person is responsible for procurement, and one person is responsible for packaging and shipping. If the seller's personal comprehensive ability is strong, in fact, one person can do well on Amazon. It is a bit tiring, but it can save hundreds of thousands of labor costs every year .

In 2021, the true portrayal of many operating dogs...

Is it better to have a small and beautiful team, or is it more popular to have a cross-border e-commerce company with thousands of employees? Behind the discussion of the scale issue, it actually comes back to the issue of making money itself, so cost control is undoubtedly the top priority for the operation of cross-border e-commerce companies. To a certain extent, the less a company can control costs, the less money it can make.

It is reported that many Amazon sellers made huge profits in 2019 and 2020, and they were ambitious to make a big move in 2021. After investing a lot of money, Amazon's business environment took a sharp turn for the worse, and Amazon sellers were unable to turn around and failed one after another. Countless Amazon sellers who failed have also become Amazon's Person of the Year in 2021, providing countless materials for people inside and outside the industry to talk about after dinner:

January-March: Wu Sangui! One cabinet is for sale, one cabinet is for free, and another cabinet is for flash sales;
April-June: Zheng Chenggong! As long as the things can be given away, it is considered a success;
July-September: Zhang Sanfeng! Blocking accounts, funds, and brands;
October-December: Li Siguang! Comments, traffic, funds, and hair are all shining;
We must persist in bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new: Aobai! After enduring for a while, all the family assets were lost.

For the majority of Amazon workers, 2021 was also an unusual year. Changes in the working environment made their lives relatively difficult last year. They earned a few thousand yuan in salary and were worried about the performance of millions. After working for Amazon, they haven't had a good night's sleep for a long time.

"I can only blame myself for not studying hard, which has led to my fate as an Amazon employee." One operator looked at his empty pockets and regretted for the Nth time that he had chosen the wrong career. Another operator wrote down his hard work in 2021 into his 2021 annual summary:

Dear Amazonians, twelve months have passed and you still haven’t created a hit product. Let’s first take a look at your work performance this year!

You wrote 88 POAs this year , a lucky number, and 64 of them you had no idea how you wrote them.

This year, you followed the sales 364 times in the middle of the night , greeting people in beautiful Chinese, like a telegraph operator. On August 26, at 5 a.m., you were still placing test orders for the follow-sales.

This year, you worked overtime for a total of 365 days. On a quiet night, you were sitting in front of the computer, gritting your teeth and cursing the rising freight rates, while calmly planning the next delivery schedule.

October 6th must be an unforgettable day. You talked to Amazon customer service for a full hour and a half, dictating a POA that would never be executed, until your phone died.

On November 20, your twelfth call to the freight forwarder was finally connected. It felt like the freight forwarder who had made all kinds of promises with his chest was kidnapped by aliens and made into soup. The freight forwarder told you that he didn't know where your goods were and needed to look for them. You still owed the supplier 100,000 yuan, 20,000 yuan in rent, and the property fee and heating fee had been asked to be paid 800 times.

In 2021, what are your annual keywords: "Where's my shop?", "I'm selling dogs", "Where's my link?", "Amazon doesn't even do stupid things", "Where's my inventory?"
 

I was probably sick as I couldn't sleep anyway, so I sat up and pressed F5 for a while . I felt sad for no reason and stared at the two stores on the monitor dejectedly. One of them had no orders, and the other had no orders either.

Although the above content is full of sarcasm, it contains all the elements such as order volume, follow-selling, account suspension, appeal, inventory, logistics, etc., which also covers all aspects of the daily work of Amazon workers. The operators' hard work for a year is vividly presented on paper. The annual summary of this operator is also called a very heartbreaking and true portrayal by his peers. In 2021, there will be tears and gains. What are the most accomplished and most regrettable things for operators in 2021? The editor has collected some real feedback:

What do you think is the most successful and fulfilling thing in 2021? The most popular answers are:

1. Help your boss buy a house

2. Switching from other platforms to Amazon

3. Pick up bottles to hedge against Amazon

4. Change company...

What do you think is the most regrettable thing in 2021? The popular answers are:

1. I only bought one house for my boss, but it’s not enough.

2. Living a tough life relying on basic salary all year round

3. The profit from picking up bottles is higher than the profit from Amazon products...

4. No change of company

In order to better plan for 2022, what is the one key thing that must be completed? What will you do? The most popular answer is:

1. Run away and buy your own house

2. Make money on Amazon

3. Don’t do Amazon and switch to street stalls and barbecue, and you can still have a stable flow of wine bottles
4. Don’t be a service provider for Amazon. Freight forwarding and training are all ways to Rome.

No matter how well 2021 was, no matter what New Year's goals Amazon employees have in 2022, it all comes down to one purpose: to make money.

Are you optimistic about 2022?

The question that many Amazon sellers are generally thinking about now is: Will the working environment for cross-border e-commerce exports in 2022 be better than in 2021?

"Anyone who bought a house in Shenzhen Bay No. 1 in 2020 must have made money from Amazon. Someone committed suicide in 2021 and couldn't live anymore. He must have been working for Amazon. 2021 was so bad, it may be the best year in the past 10 years. I don't think 2022 will be better than 2021," said many Amazon sellers. 2021 was the most difficult year in recent years, but they did not hope that Amazon's environment would improve in 2022. It might be a luxury to maintain the status of 2021 .

"In 2022, we will continue to cut costs and shrink our front line, and make long-term plans after the cold winter is over," said an Amazon seller who is not optimistic about the market in 2022. In 2022, Amazon will continue to roll back its volume , " Newbies are still entering in a steady stream. Newbies with no operational skills will fight a cost war and roll you to death . Old sellers are forced to cut prices and clear their inventory, and major categories have fallen one after another ... The price rollback that frightened many Amazon sellers in 2021 may be even more intense in 2022."

Not everyone is pessimistic about 2022. Amazon sellers who continue to be optimistic about Amazon believe that the Amazon environment in 2021 has dissuaded a large number of newbie sellers, and the Amazon craze has gradually cooled down. Old sellers are cautious and dare not devote themselves to Amazon. In addition, the platform’s account suspension wave has cleared out some people who used shady means, and the number of "bad" Amazon sellers has decreased. 2022 is actually a good time to make money.

Are you optimistic about Amazon in 2022? This question is certainly worth discussing, but Amazon sellers have more important things to do now: instead of hoping that the Amazon environment will improve in 2022, we might as well change our mindset and make ourselves stronger enough to survive in any harsh environment .

Operational performance

Cross-border e-commerce