Quitting their job to work for Amazon, a couple earns $600,000 a year

There is no shortage of couples in the business world, such as SOHO founders Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin , Dangdang.com founders Li Guoqing and Yu Yu ( divorced ) , and Zara founders Amancio and Rosalia .

In the cross-border circle, it is not uncommon for couples to start a business together . The leading sellers such as Chainlink and Tongtuo Technology that we often mentioned in the past are both husband-and-wife teams. Even Amazon, the platform where everyone gathers to go overseas , was jointly founded by Bezos and his ex-wife MacKenzie .

Stable relationship, good cooperation and lower costs are some of the reasons why they choose to start a business with their partners. Today, husband-and-wife stores are still a business model chosen by many Amazon sellers.

A couple quit their jobs to start Amazon, and now they earn 600,000 yuan with 20,000 yuan in starting capital

Perhaps for some Amazon entrepreneurs, a small but fine model is more secure than constantly expanding the scale and finally going to capital. Therefore, in the cross-border circle, husband and wife teams have become the representatives of this model.

In 2014, Justine and her husband were both engaged in foreign trade in Dongguan. As cross-border e-commerce began to gain popularity at that time, their company also tried to get involved in platforms such as Amazon, but the start was not smooth and they suffered losses one after another, so the company focused on foreign trade again.

But Justine saw the possibility. At the end of 2015, Justine and her husband quit their jobs and decided to start a business selling products on Amazon.

With 20,000 yuan of start-up capital, Justine changed her identity to a cross-border person.

It wasn't smooth at the beginning. After Justine registered the store, she encountered difficulties in product selection and operation. After visiting many industrial belts, Justine found that supply was a very difficult problem to solve. "We dare not purchase too much, for fear that we won't be able to sell it all, and the cost of holding inventory is too high. However, many factories think that the quantity we want is too small and are unwilling to cooperate."

Justine later thought of the wholesale platform 1688. "I really didn't think of it at first. We also had this platform when we were doing foreign trade, but I was not responsible for it."

The operation process made Justine and her husband even more worried. "Because we are all foreign trade professionals, we have no experience in cross-border e-commerce. There are many things that are confusing to us. It took us a long time to figure out how to register a store."

After spending some time finally solving the basic problems of product selection and operation, Justine and her husband began to put products on the shelves and sell them.

"We started out selling clothing, including women's clothing, swimwear and the like, because these were easy to sell and obtain."

Cross-border sellers must be aware of the return rate of clothing. The clothes in Justine's store are indeed sold quickly, but " our return rate exceeds 30% . After calculating the cost, I feel very disappointed. I have lost all my capital. "

Just when they were struggling to choose new products, they were influenced by the North American cartoons their children were watching and started to make peripheral products. The products became an instant hit and sold out as soon as they were put on the shelves. After tasting the sweetness, they sold a lot of peripheral products, but they were soon complained of infringement, their store was closed, their funds were frozen, and they lost all their money again.

After that, they tried home and office products. Although the profits were good, the competition was too fierce, with too many people and too little resources. Justine found it difficult to continue.

After this, they decided to open a brand store and began to squeeze into the maternal and infant track. With the excellent quality of the products and the differentiation in design, Justine 's maternal and infant products have gained a group of loyal users on Amazon. He said that the annual net profit can now reach 600,000 , "not as good as the best, but better than the worst."

A couple started a business and earned 80,000 yuan a month in half a year, but now their store is closed

Different from the Justine couple mentioned above , Ada and her husband have been running Amazon for 4 years, from being successful as soon as they entered the market to being in a miserable situation now.

In 2018, Young, who had a technical background, had the idea of ​​leaving his original company because he had no hope of promotion or salary increase.

Coincidentally, his wife Ada, who had experience in e-commerce reporting, had the idea of ​​starting her own e-commerce business.

"The domestic e-commerce industry was so hot at that time. Crowds of people rushed in and it was almost easy to make money," said Ada.

Therefore, the couple, unwilling to let their fate be "controlled" by others, started a domestic e-commerce business. However, they failed before they even started. Before they even registered a domestic store, they encountered a series of difficulties in product selection and supply. "The domestic competition is really too fierce. There is no profit. We calculated that it would take about 8 months to make a profit ."

When she was at a loss, Ada thought of cross-border e-commerce again. "I have a friend who is doing it with her husband, and her brother, there are three of us, so we thought we could give it a try."

The story went smoothly. In March 2019, Ada registered three Amazon stores.

They had no experience in the product selection stage, "so we chose to follow the hot-selling products. Whatever sells well on Amazon, has no threshold, and has relatively good profits can become our product target."

In terms of specific division of labor, Ada is responsible for operating the Amazon store, including drawing pictures, listing products, writing listings, etc., as well as managing store accounts, while Young is responsible for procurement and logistics warehousing.

"We adopted the distribution model. At that time, cross-border e-commerce was so popular that as long as you entered the market, you could make money ."

Ada said that they were profitable about three months after officially opening their store on Amazon. " By the fourth month, we had a monthly profit of 30,000 yuan, with a net profit of 30,000 yuan ."

By the sixth month, which was half a year after starting Amazon (September 2019), Ada and Young's store was already able to achieve a monthly profit of 80,000 yuan. During the peak season at the end of the year, the profit soared to 100,000 yuan .

"As long as we make money, life is promising. Young and I work overtime every day to select products, prepare them for shipment, and don't feel tired at all. However, we are short of staff, so we hired another operator and customer service representative."

This good situation will continue until the end of 2021.

In 2022, only one of Ada's five stores remained profitable, and the other four were either losing money or blocked. "Two stores on European sites have been losing money, and all the money earned in the North American market has flowed to the European market. At that time, the brand review on European sites became very strict, with more and more requirements such as packaging laws, and various fees became higher and higher."

After struggling for several months, Ada chose to close the European site, and the team returned to the initial start-up by a couple.

Throughout 2023, Ada's three North American stores were again hit by infringement. "The best-selling store was closed overnight, and the appeal was unsuccessful."

At this point, they were left with an unprofitable store.

Will you continue to work on Amazon this year? Yien.com asked Ada.

She said yes. "At our age, it is not realistic to go out and find a job. Besides, we are used to being the boss of our own family. There are too many things that need to be adjusted when working for others. If we fail, we can start over. We are still very confident in cross-border e-commerce."

Ada and her husband and Justine and her husband had different experiences in starting their own businesses on Amazon, but cross-border e-commerce is still favored by most sellers. How can we conclude at this moment what the future outcome will be?

couple

Entrepreneurship