I worked in Amazon operations for 7 years but didn’t save any money

In recent years, more and more people have started to choose to do a side job in order to increase their income. Amazon operations are no exception, and they have natural advantages in doing side jobs.

For Amazon workers, running their own store while working is considered a safer option than quitting their jobs and working on their own.

However, although this approach is less risky, it may sometimes lead to a situation where you are boiling a frog in warm water.

After working for seven years, I invested all my savings in Amazon

As the end of the year approaches, sellers will usher in the traditional peak sales season, but Amazon operations manager Xiao Hu is not happy at all.

It is understood that Xiao Hu has been working in a cross-border e-commerce company in Shenzhen for 7 years. Like many operators, Xiao Hu also secretly operates his own store in his spare time.

According to Xiao Hu, he had the idea of ​​doing a side job in the second year after joining the company. At that time, Xiao Hu had already figured out the main work content of Amazon operations and the various matters that needed to be paid attention to when working for Amazon.

After preparing the necessary materials, Xiao Hu quickly registered the store and started his sideline business. Due to professional ethics and the risk of being held accountable, Xiao Hu did not choose to sell the same products as the company, but started from scratch to select products. After learning and communicating with colleagues who were engaged in product development, Xiao Hu initially selected several products.

Although Xiao Hu's idea is worthy of recognition, he obviously underestimated the difficulty of running Amazon.

In the early days of opening the store, Xiao Hu's sideline business was not smooth. On the one hand, because he had to work during the day, he had little time to manage his store. In addition, funding was also a major problem that Xiao Hu was worried about.

As Xiao Hu had just started working, he did not have much savings. In this case, he could only choose the lower-investment FBM model.

Xiao Hu was very excited to open his own store soon, but after the product was put on the shelves, he found that there was no traffic at all, which was far from his expectations. Seeing this, Xiao Hu gritted his teeth and took out the last bit of savings to open an in-site advertisement.

At the beginning, Xiao Hu would feel a little painful every time his advertisement was clicked, but the surprise after receiving an order made him immediately forget the pain of advertising expenses. Xiao Hu’s shop remained in this lukewarm state for a while.

Another year passed, and Xiao Hu had saved some money. He thought that it was not a good idea to continue doing small things like this. If you want to gain something, you must pay first. With this idea in mind, Xiao Hu decided to start trying FBA. After all, the logistics time of the self-delivery model is too long. Most consumers can't wait for such a long time, and Amazon will not give FBM sellers additional traffic support.

Xiao Hu contacted the previous supplier and placed an order for a batch of goods to be shipped to the overseas warehouse. At the same time, Xiao Hu also increased the advertising budget, hoping to take advantage of this opportunity to attract a wave of orders.

However, Xiao Hu gradually realized that something was wrong. After each payment, Xiao Hu found that he could not cover the expenses of advertising, logistics and other expenses, and he had to use his salary to fill the gap.

But at that time, Xiao Hu thought that Amazon was a long-term business, and it was normal to lose some money in the early stage, and he could make it back later. As time went by, Xiao Hu found out that he was wrong.

The store's order volume did not accumulate and increase over time. Instead, the various additional expenses made him feel overwhelmed.

One day, Xiao Hu accidentally heard the news that his colleagues bought a car and a house. He then looked at his own savings and found that he had less than 10,000 yuan. Xiao Hu couldn't hold it anymore.

Amazon seemed like a bottomless pit, and Xiao Hu hesitated whether to invest more money in it. If he gave up now, all the previous investment would be wasted.

Finally, Xiao Hu decided to try one last year, and if it still didn’t work, he would give up completely.

Can Amazon operators open stores privately?

In the cross-border circle, there are actually many Amazon operators who own their own stores like Xiao Hu, but different people have different opinions on the issue of opening private stores.

From the perspective of workers, many people think that working is not a long-term solution. For "older" Amazon operators who are 30+, it will be very difficult to find a job once they are laid off.

Some people also believe that as long as one completes one's job duties and does not sell the company's products, opening one's own store will not harm the company's interests at all, and there is no need to make a big deal about it.

But in the eyes of the boss, operating a store privately is another matter.

First of all, many operators say that they will not sell the same products as the company, but who can guarantee that? Secondly, if employees do not properly operate the company's account during working hours, but spend time on their own stores, I am afraid that no boss will accept this situation.

However, a small number of bosses expressed understanding of this situation.

Mr. Wu, an Amazon seller, believes that it is understandable to want to earn extra income as long as it does not affect the interests of the company. Mr. Wu said that he also started by running his own store and worked his way up to where he is today. For the company's employees, Mr. Wu directly tells them that they can run their own stores and that he will not interfere with the rest of the work as long as they finish their daily work.

Of course, Mr. Wu said that it might also be because his company is relatively small. If it were bigger, it would be difficult to manage.

Indeed, judging from the situation in most companies, the tolerance for opening stores privately is basically very low, and there are also cases where operators have been fired for being found to have stores.

Regarding this issue, in order to avoid subsequent disputes, the company can make it clear in advance when the operations staff joins the company. If opening a store privately is not allowed, signing an agreement in advance or conducting background checks are both preventive measures.

However, some industry insiders believe that as a company boss, instead of keeping a close eye on whether employees are opening private accounts or stealing company products, it is better to focus on the business level and think more about how to make the company bigger and stronger. This is a more long-term development approach.

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operations

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