After working alone at Amazon for three years, I am still an employee after returning

On May Day this year, Xiaoke (pseudonym), who is 32 years old and has only ten months of Amazon operation experience, resolutely submitted a resignation application in order to achieve relative independence in his career in the future and prepare to work alone. This courage to act immediately has won the admiration of many people.

In fact, there is no shortage of Amazon sellers like Xiaoke in the cross-border circle. The reasons why they work alone are nothing more than these: 1. The career ceiling is not high; 2. They want to earn more; 3. The workplace threshold is 35 years old; 4. They want to work more freely.

However, the era of making money has long faded, and starting a business has become more difficult. Many sellers are in a loss-making state, and some even run out of money and leave the market in dismay. It is said that the end of Amazon operations is to work alone, but the end of working alone may also be to continue working for a living.

After three years of entrepreneurship, I am still an employee after returning

It is undeniable that Chinese sellers occupy a very important position on the Amazon platform. In the US market, according to Marketplace Pulse, Chinese sellers account for nearly 50% of the best-selling sellers on Amazon in the US, and this group may account for nearly half of the total third-party commodity transactions. This is why so many people have come out to work alone. With so many role models in front of them, everyone wants to be one of them. But today's market environment is cruel to entrepreneurs.

At the end of last month, an Amazon seller said that he had been working alone for three years and now only earned tens of thousands of yuan a month. It was difficult for him to make a living in Shenzhen with his family. In addition, it was becoming increasingly difficult to do business on the platform and it was difficult to see any hope. So he decided to flee Shenzhen and return to his hometown to find another way out.

In fact, among many solo sellers, being able to make money is considered a success, and there are many sellers like this:

An Amazon operator with 5 years of experience in boutique operations thought that his operational capabilities were not bad. However, after working alone for 3 years with full confidence, he lost all his savings and ended up bankrupt. In the end, he had to go back to work.

Another solo seller also had 5 years of Amazon operating experience and worked for a large selling company. After working alone for 3 years, he not only lost 2 million yuan, but also owed 800,000 yuan in foreign debt.

If you succeed in working alone, it is better than working for others. You can even earn hundreds of millions of yuan a year. It is not impossible to expand the scale from one person to a team of dozens of people. However, high returns also mean high risks. You must be prepared for failure before entering the market. After all, there are many sellers who suffer huge losses in the process of working alone. For example, a seller said that he lost more than 300,000 yuan in half a year, and another seller lost more than 1.7 million yuan in the first year alone. And the torment and anxiety in the process, and the cautiousness of every step must also be endured.

A seller who has been working alone for four years said: "It's not impossible to make money on Amazon now, it's just very difficult, and those who post about their huge orders all day are most likely trying to take advantage of you."

At present, Amazon sellers are facing many difficulties. In addition to the soaring costs, it is also an indisputable fact that the competition is becoming more and more crowded.

According to research from Marketplace Pulse, Amazon has added nearly 5 million new sellers since 2018. About 40% of these sellers joined the marketplace in the U.S., while the rest joined one of 20 international marketplaces (sellers who sell on multiple marketplaces are counted only once) .

Not long ago, another survey report from Marketplace Pulse found that the overlap rate between Amazon sellers and Walmart sellers was close to 80% to 90%, and the overlap with SHEIN and Temu was 20%. Sellers looking for new possibilities on other platforms shows a problem: the competition on the Amazon platform is too fierce. In order to continue to develop their cross-border e-commerce business, sellers have to try new platforms to find a new growth curve.

Amid fierce competition, sellers may suffer losses if they make a small mistake. A seller who lost 200,000 yuan in one year of entrepreneurship found that he made some minor mistakes in product selection, first-leg logistics and financial planning, but it was these mistakes that ultimately led to such a huge loss.

However, from the current situation, going it alone is only one of the options for Amazon operations, and not every operation is suitable for going it alone. After working alone for 11 months, an Amazon operator said: "Don't go it alone unless you have strong product selection capabilities and, most importantly, supply chain and sufficient financial support."

Even if you have all these abilities, not everyone has the courage to take a chance. Not long ago, an operator said that he had been working for Amazon for five years and had learned everything he needed to learn in terms of product selection, design, and operation. He had also found a supply chain that matched his business, had freight forwarding resources, and nearly a million in start-up capital. However, under such conditions, when it came to going it alone, he was still a little hesitant and uncertain.

 
Therefore, in addition to working alone, some Amazon operators switched to become freight forwarders, some prepared to take the civil service exam to get a job, and some went to Luckin Coffee to make coffee.

A number of operations have changed their career direction

We all know that the technical threshold for Amazon's operations is not high, so it is highly replaceable. If you are not promoted to a management position by a certain age, you will face the workplace threshold of 35 years old. In addition, the career ceiling is not high, so changing careers has been a hot topic in recent years.

Earlier this year, an Amazon employee expressed his intention to change his career direction and said: "Amazon operations is a job that requires young people. It doesn't require much technical skills. The company can replace you by hiring a cheap rookie and training you for a few days. If you work alone, you don't have the funds. Amazon is already asset-heavy and has a serious inventory backlog. The current profit is already very thin, but various expenses are still rising. In addition, this is a 365-day job. You have to watch ads during holidays and worry about links being down, rankings dropping, or being copied. So even though I know it's not easy to change careers, I decided to give it a try. I hope I can find a new way when my career bottleneck comes at the age of 35."

From the current observation, the directions of Amazon's operation transformation mainly include the following:

1. Continue to work in a familiar field, just change the job type, such as product development, freight forwarding, promotion, art design and procurement, etc.

2. Take the civil service exam to get a stable job. For example, some people work in legal affairs in state-owned enterprises, some take the teacher qualification exam and work as hard-working gardeners, and some take the civil service exam to work in government departments.

An Amazon operator with five years of experience and a monthly salary of over 20,000 yuan said that for the sake of stability and future marriage life, he has taken the civil service exam in his hometown.

3. Those who focus on trying more and experiencing life. Some of them interviewed for company administrative /clerical positions, some went to work as stock clerks in supermarkets, some went to work as screwdrivers in factories, some are learning to cook and preparing to set up street stalls, and some are preparing to make coffee.

At the beginning of last month, an Amazon operator with four years of experience shared his experience of changing careers. He said that he started working for Amazon in Shenzhen after graduation, but the company cut its salary and he did not accept it, so he resigned. Because he really didn't want to work for Amazon anymore, he went to Luckin Coffee for an interview.

A few days ago, an HR said: "Have all the Amazon operations staff changed their careers? I looked through resumes for a long time but didn't see many people!"

However, some people went out for interviews and eventually came back to continue working in Amazon operations. The reasons are nothing more than the following: 1. Lack of experience in cross-industry work; 2. The salary of other jobs is too low. Therefore, you must anticipate or prepare for these difficulties before changing careers.

Going it alone on Amazon