30% of employees were laid off at the beginning of the year, and cross-border layoffs began again

In 2023, the cross-border e-commerce industry will see major changes. Some companies that mainly operate Amazon businesses will see their performance or profits shrink and begin to reduce staff or cut salaries. Other companies are optimistic about new platforms such as SHEIN and intend to expand their channel layout and improve the personnel deployment of new platforms. The turnover of cross-border e-commerce operators will accelerate.

Affected by the business conditions, a wave of layoffs hit at the end of the year, and operations staff often posted that they were fired. But overall, Amazon's operations recruitment in 2023 was 177% higher than the previous year, but the salary of the position did not increase significantly, and operations staff still had a large space for employment options. In addition to operations positions, other positions in the Amazon industry can also be used as job search options. For example, Amazon's product development recruitment is doubling.

Amazon sellers are cutting staff

Just after the New Year's Day holiday, on the first working day of 2024, employees of a cross-border e-commerce company in Shenzhen received a layoff notice from the company. The content of the message is as follows:

" The market environment has changed greatly in 2023, and the operation is far from expectations. The company has suffered losses. In the foreseeable future, it will be increasingly difficult for Amazon (sellers) to survive. After considering the overall efficiency issues, the company is considering laying off 30% of the employees, and the laid-off colleagues will be uniformly implemented with N+1 salary subsidies. If all colleagues recognize the company and hope to stay and develop together with the company, please write a self-recommendation letter. "

Employees of the company said that the company's salary and benefits are acceptable, and they were a little confused by the sudden layoff notice. Another Amazon operator with four years of experience is also facing unemployment: " Amazon's policies change all the time , and the company continues to lose money. Finally, it can't bear it anymore and has begun to optimize its personnel. A grain of sand in the era is like a mountain on everyone . I feel a little confused about the future . "

In the cross-border e-commerce industry, this wave of layoffs is quietly underway:

"Resigned. Leaving on December 22nd."

"The leader was laid off and asked for favors and took the initiative to ask for a pay cut."

"I was fired as well. Last month I was told I would get a raise, but yesterday I was fired."

"Amazon's performance really hasn't improved this year. It's finally getting laid off."

"It feels really difficult this year. My colleague was laid off two weeks ago, and I think it's almost the same for me."

An operator said that he had been working in the company for more than half a year. In October, his colleagues were asked to postpone restocking, and in November, he was also told to postpone purchasing. After that, the company laid off three operators, and he was also laid off at the end of the year. A week after leaving, he only received four interview notices, two of which offered jobs, but both were on a week-long schedule and the salary was lower than before.

Peak season is an important node, especially the sales performance during Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday, which makes it easier for cross-border companies to decide whether to stick with this business. An operator complained that at the beginning of the year, the company said that it would stop doing Amazon if it couldn't make it, and then continued to operate in June when the order volume continued to rise. Now the account is stable and only needs to be replenished regularly, but after Black Friday, the boss thought that the order volume was mediocre, so he prepared to lay off the Amazon business department and switch to offline business, and has currently stopped replenishing.

An industry insider revealed that as far as he knows, a lot of people will be laid off by the end of 2023, including both operations and management positions, and they may not even get the Black Friday commission.

Therefore, for the operations staff who were laid off at the beginning of the year, colleagues consoled them, saying that it is rare for companies to proactively offer compensation for layoffs. "There are really not many companies willing to pay compensation. Most companies use various means to force you to leave." One operations staff member was hit: "Our company chose to move to a very far place and wanted us to leave on our own. They were not even willing to compensate us. The commute used to take half an hour, but now it takes two hours to move there."

In addition to direct layoffs, cross-border companies will also adjust employment costs by cutting salaries. Some companies are currently considering reducing capital, and relevant operational personnel are also facing the issue of whether to stay or leave.

Although some companies have reduced staff due to business adjustments, as one of the largest cross-border platforms, Amazon's overall operating demand remains high.

As the market picks up, Amazon's annual recruitment volume increases 1.8 times

Zhiyouji counted multiple recruitment websites and searched for "Amazon operations" positions. There were 22,841 positions in 2023 , an increase of 177% over 2022. After experiencing a shrinking demand in 2022, the demand for Amazon operations has rebounded strongly. Since March 2023, the number of Amazon operations recruitment positions has far exceeded that of the previous year. In the past two months, there were 3.2k positions in November 2023, an increase of 69% over the same period last year; there were 3.5k positions in December, an increase of 661% year-on-year.

The ranking of regions with the largest demand for Amazon operations is relatively stable. The top ten regions are Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Dongguan, Xuchang, Hangzhou, Zhongshan, Ningbo, Shantou and Jinhua. As for Shenzhen, which has the most recruitment, there will be 5,695 Amazon operation positions in 2023, an increase of 147% over 2022. In 2022, there were only 2.3K recruitment positions, a sharp decline of 70% over the previous year. Market demand is recovering.

However, although the number of recruitments has increased, the salary of the position is difficult to increase. According to statistics from more than 50,000 salary samples in the past year, the average monthly salary of Amazon operations is about 10.6K, of which 6-8K is the most, accounting for 27.8%. The average salary of Amazon operations in 2023 is 9.7K, a slight increase of 1% over last year. The salary for this position in 2022 is 9.6K, and the salary in 2021 is 10.1K, which is the highest in recent years.

In Shenzhen, the average salary for Amazon operations in 2023 is 11.9K, a 2% increase from 2022. But considering that this is public salary data, the actual growth may not be optimistic.

In the industry, there are often operations people who are tired of their jobs and want to change careers, but after leaving the industry, they find that compared with other fields, the salary in the Amazon industry is "really good", so they give up the idea. There are also operations people who changed their careers for a year and then returned to the Amazon industry. For operations people who are interested in changing their positions, industry insiders have given several directions for change, such as upstream products, switching to the second party, or switching to a related industrial chain, so that they can adapt to the new position as soon as possible based on the original business.

Amazon product development is a popular transferable position. Compared with operational positions, the overall demand for product development positions is relatively small, but the demand will double in 2023, and the salary increase will be slightly higher.

In 2023, the number of Amazon product development job openings will reach 3,014, an increase of 218% from 2022. Shenzhen has the highest demand for Amazon product development recruitment, accounting for 20.9%, ranking first in the country; followed by Guangzhou at 7.2%, Xiamen at 6.0%, and Dongguan at 3.9%.

Job salaries have risen significantly. According to 6,220 sample data from the past year, the average monthly salary for Amazon product development is 10.8K . Among them, 23.5% of people get 6-8k, 24.3% get 8-10k, and 32% get 10-15k. The average salary for Amazon product development in 2023 increased by 5% compared to 2022.

As platforms such as SHEIN, Temu, and TikTok Shop become increasingly popular overseas, Amazon will face more intense external competition in 2024, and sellers will also face huge operational challenges. The barriers to entry for ordinary products under multi-platform bidding are almost zero, so many sellers will increase product development as a focus in the new year, and product development positions may see greater demand.