Layoffs at the end of the year! A number of operators have lost their jobs

The end-of-year personnel movement is in progress ...

As usual, the end of each year is the time when cross-border people focus on "thinking about life". Among them, Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday can be said to be related to the next decisions of many cross-border people. Many workers jokingly say that if their performance is not good, they will consider resigning, changing careers, moving to another city, etc. In fact, a number of cross-border companies also use this as a basis for personnel optimization. Therefore, in recent times, resignations and layoffs have occurred one after another, and it is predicted that in the next two or three months, they will continue to happen...

As the choices increase, when it comes to cross-border e-commerce, Amazon is still the focus, and there are also many cross-border people who are considering platforms such as TikTok Shop, Temu, and SHEIN; when it comes to choosing a workplace, Shenzhen is still the destination of choice for many people. However, benefiting from the increasingly rapid development of cross-border e-commerce in various parts of the country in recent years, people in the game have already had many "Shenzhen alternatives."

At the end of the year! More layoffs and layoffs

Recently, an Amazon operator posted a labor contract termination agreement, announcing that he was fired by the company.

According to the operator, three operators were fired. He had worked in the company for half a year. In October, his colleagues were told that restocking was on hold, and then he was told that purchasing was on hold. He was still thinking that "something was out of the ordinary" when he received layoff news a while ago. He has not found a suitable job since he was laid off.

Another operator who has been working in Beijing for 6 years has just encountered a layoff . After much thought, he decided not to stay in Beijing any longer, but to return to his hometown to start his own cross-border e-commerce business.

Xiao Zhang, an operator, said that the sales of the company's various sites during Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday were inconsistent. Sales in Europe were impressive, but sales in the US market were still poor. Soon after Cyber ​​Monday ended, the US market team was laid off. Xiao Li, an operator, also said that the company's products did not perform well during the peak season, and the company once again proposed a layoff plan. Several colleagues were fired. From the beginning of the year to now, the company has optimized half of its employees.

There have been many similar news reports recently. A large number of cross-border workers seem to have become accustomed to the phenomenon of "layoffs" and even optimistically express that being laid off is better than voluntarily laying off.

Many cross-border e-commerce bosses said that they are always prepared for layoffs. During the monthly salary payment period, they will analyze the revenue of employees' stores, and those employees who continue to fail to help the company make a profit after deducting their personal wages will be the focus of observation.

Especially for some small sellers who are just starting their business, their team size may be only two or three people. Faced with the current situation of poor performance, they often choose to cut operations to save costs and return to the state of running all matters on their own.

It can be found that many cross-border e-commerce companies are currently reducing staff and increasing efficiency, and are unwilling to develop new categories . Instead, they are "shrinking" in existing categories and seeking stability. As a result, there are basically no new products on the new product lists of many Amazon categories.

The overall market situation is very complicated now. Various e-commerce platforms are increasing their cross-border business, and Amazon is surrounded by wolves. A large number of factory-type sellers have entered the market in various categories, and the products are highly homogenized. The fierce competition has eaten up the profits. Cross-border players have great doubts about whether the money-making is sustainable. Although the revenue has gradually increased in recent years, the profit margin has declined year by year, and the problem of "increasing revenue but not increasing profits" is lingering.

Li Shuai (pseudonym) clearly found that cross-border business is becoming more and more difficult this year. After calculations, the company's overall revenue in 2021 was nearly 7 million yuan, and the profit margin was almost 20%. In 2022, the company's revenue increased to more than 10 million, but the profit margin dropped to below 15%. In 2023, the revenue increased slightly year-on-year, but the profit margin fell again by 3 points (the profit margin includes tax refund). He predicts that the profit margin will fall below 10% in 2024.

Zhang Wen (pseudonym) also felt the difficulty this year. He entered the cross-border industry three years ago, built the Amazon platform in the first year, and his performance increased rapidly in the second year. During the peak season, he did not even participate in Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday, but his product sales were still very gratifying. At the beginning of this year, he blindly developed a lot of new products with confidence, and his sales far exceeded that of last year. However, he has not seen any cash flow so far, and the financial pressure brought by launching new products and replenishing stocks has increased sharply.

A number of cross-border companies are having a hard time, and a number of factories are not immune. This year, news of factories closing down has been reported one after another, including some large factories that have been in business for 30 years.

A nearly 30-year-old factory in Dongguan said that due to the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic that has lasted for nearly three years, the number of orders for the molding factory has dropped sharply since the beginning of 2021 and has been in a state of continuous deficit. The company has been unable to continue to operate until today, so the molding factory will be completely closed on December 31, 2023.

Another 31-year-old hardware factory in Dongguan, Hu*, has gone bankrupt. In recent years, it has also been constrained by severe losses in orders and the company's difficulty in maintaining normal operations. It decided to close down and stop production in batches from October 31 and November 20.

This was only a short time after the news that "On September 28, a well-known factory in Dongguan announced its official closure."

As early as August 18 this year, a well-known large factory in Shenzhen, *An Electric, ceased operations. Under the sluggish global economy and reduced orders, the factory claimed that it had experienced the impact of the global epidemic one after another, and the operating conditions further deteriorated, so it was helpless to lay off employees.

Public information shows that *An Electric was established in 1985. Its licensed business items include household appliances, electric dryers, beer machines, knife sharpeners, coffee makers, tea makers, canning machines, curling irons, electric ovens, etc. It has won honors such as "Top 100 Processing Trade Exporters" awarded by many local institutions.

Some Amazon operators have switched to Temu!

An important part of the salary of workers in operations, development, etc. is commission, and the decline in product profit margins is eroding their enthusiasm for this industry.

The first job that Xiao Liu got after graduating this year was Amazon operations for a company in Shenzhen. It didn't get off to a good start: he applied for boutique operations, but was actually doing boutique warehousing; he was responsible for more than 50 SKUs, and was basically clearing inventory during his tenure, so he couldn't expect any commission; his colleagues kept leaving the company, and 10 people have left so far.

Feeling that the future was bleak, Xiao Liu recently took the initiative to resign and planned to move to a different city next year.

Xiao Wang is also currently unemployed and has no plans to look for a job. He will wait and see after the Spring Festival.

Say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new year. The Spring Festival can be said to be an important node for cross-border people to "say goodbye to the old and welcome the new year". It is foreseeable that around the Spring Festival, there will be waves of resignations of cross-border people. After resigning, will they continue to find a new company to work for? Or change their career? Or start their own business? Cross-border people have a variety of choices, and each path will surely see a large number of "newcomers".

Xiao Li chose the first path. His current performance is dismal, orders are neither increasing nor decreasing, and there is still a pile of inventory to be cleared. He will not resign from the company for the time being, but will consider changing jobs after the new year.

Xiao Liu plans to resign after the Spring Festival and will never touch cross-border e-commerce again. Fortunately, he has not entered the market too deeply and is still young. In the future, he plans to focus on preparing for the civil service examination.

Those workers who have been working in the cross-border industry for a long time are more inclined to switch to another platform to operate, and Temu has become one of the alternatives for many people.

An Amazon operator said that when relatives around him wanted him to help introduce related jobs, he would usually refuse. Now, actively recruiting people to Amazon is undoubtedly harmful. His current profit is so low that he wants to run away overnight. Compared with Amazon and Temu, he thinks Temu operation is simpler and less troublesome!

Nowadays, people across borders are gradually beginning to accept the existence of Temu. Many cross-border companies want to get a piece of the pie, and many of those who have already entered the market are thinking about expanding their business scale, which has given rise to the cross-border market's demand for Temu operations.

It is understood that in the past, some cross-border companies would only let existing employees do Temu as a side job, but now, many cross-border companies are recruiting full-time employees to operate Temu.

According to Zhiyouji data, the number of Temu operations recruitments has increased nationwide in recent months, with salaries ranging from 3K to 30K, of which 55.6% earn 6K to 10K per month, or 7W to 12W per year. In terms of regions, Shenzhen has the highest demand for Temu operations recruitment, accounting for 21.1%, ranking first in the country; followed by Guangzhou at 11.3%; Dongguan at 5.6%; and Taizhou at 5.6%.

The fully managed nature of Temu determines the simplicity of Temu's operation. Therefore, among the employment requirements posted by recruitment companies, 43.7% are not limited to experience, and 4.2% are fresh graduates. Only a small number of cross-border companies said that job seekers with experience in operating platforms such as Wish and AliExpress and who are good at product development and selection will be given priority.

What is the prospect of Temu operation? A person who has switched to Temu operation personally thinks that it is not bad at present. A friend who works on Wish is watching and plans to join the Temu army next year.

In addition to joining the Temu platform, many cross-border e-commerce companies have expanded into the market this year and have joined SHEIN third-party platforms, TikTok Shop, Meikeduo, Allegro and other e-commerce platforms, which have increased the platform options for workers.

Top 100 foreign trade cities! Cross-border people find "Shenzhen alternative"

In addition, as cross-border e-commerce continues to prosper in various parts of my country, cross-border people have more and more choices of work locations.

Since the beginning of this year, Shenzhen's foreign trade exports have maintained a steady upward trend. In the first three quarters, the total foreign trade exports increased by more than 15%. As an "international hub city for cross-border e-commerce", its cross-border e-commerce data has performed even better, with a year-on-year increase of more than 70%, ranking among the top in the country.

It can be said that Shenzhen has always been the "ideal paradise" for cross-border people . It gathers top talents and top supply chains, and industry information spreads quickly. It is the best place for cross-border people to accumulate experience. However, for cross-border people, Shenzhen is no longer their only choice.

In addition to Shenzhen, foreign trade exports in many cities have risen.

Data shows that among the top 100 cities in China's comprehensive foreign trade competitiveness in 2022, the eastern region still leads by a large margin, with 60 cities shortlisted in 2022, one more than in 2021. Among them, Shenzhen, Guangdong, Shanghai, and Suzhou, Jiangsu have been ranked in the top three for two consecutive years, and the eastern cities have taken the top 10, with a solid leading advantage. There are 26 cities in the central region shortlisted, three more than in 2021, among which Wuhan, Hubei, ranked the highest, ranking 14th, up three places. There are 10 and 4 cities in the western region and the northeastern region respectively, which are two fewer than in 2021. The highest rankings are Xi'an, Shaanxi, ranked 20th, and Dalian, Liaoning, ranked 42nd.

Many people in Kuajing see possibilities beyond Shenzhen and believe that the regional differences in cross-border business are not that big now.

"Starting your own business" is a classic and common choice for operators, and it seems that it has not been affected by the "extremely difficult 2023". The editor has observed that in 2024, there are many cross-border operators who want to work alone. Many people who have moved to Shenzhen often plan to leave Shenzhen after "recharging" in the city, and choose second- and third-tier cities as their entrepreneurial destinations.

Li Fang (pseudonym) has 4 years of Amazon operations experience. In 2024, he plans to leave Shenzhen and return to his hometown of Yiwu to do FBA boutique business. The benefits of starting a business in Yiwu are obvious: Yiwu is not only one of China's largest small commodity distribution centers, but also one of the country's largest cross-border e-commerce export bases, with abundant sources of goods and convenient product selection; logistics and other aspects are very developed; but the cost of rent and other expenses is lower than that in Shenzhen; it is close to home, so he can balance family and work.

At the same time, there are still many operators who plan to return to their hometowns to start businesses in 2024, such as Shanghai, Sichuan, Zhengzhou, small counties in Shandong, Shanxi, Hainan, etc. The cross-border trend has changed. People in the current situation do not necessarily want to return to small cities to work, but they really want to return to small cities to work.

The editor learned that many sellers live very comfortably in small cities. Zhang Shuai (pseudonym), a cross-border seller who has been in his hometown for a year, said that this year's net profit can reach one million. Compared with doing cross-border business in big cities before, the pressure has dropped sharply, and the money is more and the home is closer. Compared with big cities, small cities may be less flexible in shipping and product selection, but the overall impact is not great. In addition, he often goes to big cities to visit, which also allows him to keep up with the latest market information and market conditions.

Amazon's single platform data once again confirms that cross-border e-commerce is growing rapidly overall. Amazon's latest data shows that in 2023, among the top 35 Chinese cities in terms of total Amazon sales, more than 80% of the cities saw sales growth of more than 20%, and the number of Chinese sellers with sales exceeding US$1 million increased by more than 25% year-on-year, and the number of Chinese sellers with sales exceeding US$10 million increased by nearly 30% year-on-year.

Cross-border e-commerce data from all over the world hit new highs again!

In addition, judging from the latest import and export data from various regions, many places have once again achieved good results in 2023.

Guangzhou Customs supervised a total of 760 million cross-border e-commerce retail import and export lists by November 2023, an increase of about 44% year-on-year. Among them, the cross-border e-commerce retail export list reached 700 million.

In the first 11 months of 2023, the total import and export value of Hunan Province was 561.66 billion yuan, of which exports were 368.12 billion yuan and imports were 193.54 billion yuan. At present, Hunan has 6 national cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones in Changsha, Yueyang, Xiangtan, Chenzhou, Hengyang and Zhuzhou, ranking eighth in the country and second in central China. There are 8 cross-border e-commerce sellers in Hunan with transaction volume exceeding 100 million yuan. 5 companies including Anker Innovations and Dianyang Information have won the title of "National E-commerce Demonstration Enterprises", ranking first in central China in terms of the number of recognized enterprises.

Hainan 's total foreign trade volume reached 210.1 billion yuan in the first 11 months of 2023, up 15.5% year-on-year, exceeding the full year of 2022. Among them, exports were 66.83 billion yuan, up 4.3%. Hainan's main trading partners are ASEAN, the EU and Australia. Danzhou, Haikou and Sanya are the three cities with the highest foreign trade volume in Hainan.

In the first 10 months of this year, the total import and export value of Shanghai was 3.51 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.9% over the same period in 2022 (the same below). Among them, exports were 1.44 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.3%. There are more than 50,000 import and export companies in Shanghai, and the concentration of service trade companies is also very high, most of which are small and medium-sized enterprises.

In the first 10 months of this year, the scale of Sichuan's cross-border e-commerce import and export transactions was 94.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.4%; among them, imports were 4.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 151.6%, and exports were 90 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.3%.

In the first three quarters of this year, the total import and export value of Yiwu reached 432.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22%, of which exports reached 383.13 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.9%. At present, Yiwu has more than 145,000 third-party cross-border e-commerce platform accounts, and the density of foreign trade online merchants ranks second in the country. The number of overseas trademark registrations of cross-border e-commerce companies exceeds 4,000, and the average daily cross-border e-commerce export packages in the city exceeds 2 million.

Henan's total foreign trade imports and exports in the first three quarters of this year amounted to 571.96 billion yuan, of which exports were 373.08 billion yuan, imports were 198.88 billion yuan, and the trade surplus was 174.2 billion yuan, an increase of 20.2% over the same period in 2022 (the same below). In September, Henan's foreign trade imports and exports amounted to 79.61 billion yuan, a sharp increase of 46% from August, and the monthly import and export value was the second highest in the year.

In the first three quarters of this year, Hangzhou's total foreign trade import and export value was 559.15 billion yuan, up 3.1% from the same period last year, accounting for 15.1% of Zhejiang Province's total foreign trade import and export value. Among them, exports were 383.53 billion yuan, up 1.9%, accounting for 14.1% of Zhejiang Province's exports.

As of now, there are 832 cross-border e-commerce enterprises in Hangzhou with an output value of over 20 million yuan, 157 cross-border e-commerce enterprises with an output value of over 100 million yuan, 4,371 registered trademarks of cross-border e-commerce enterprises, and 107 listed cross-border e-commerce companies, unicorn companies, and quasi-unicorn companies.

Qingdao's imports and exports in the first three quarters of 2023 reached 663.07 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.3%. Among them, exports were 360.59 billion yuan, an increase of 2.5%.

In 2022, the export, import, and import and export scale of cross-border e-commerce in Fujian Province all achieved an increase of more than 20%, which was higher than the national growth rate. Among them, exports were 128.64 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.1%. According to information disclosed by the Fujian Provincial Department of Commerce, the number of cross-border e-commerce sellers and seller sales in Fujian Province ranked third in the country in 2021.

Behind this series of impressive data is strong support. In order to promote the development of local cross-border e-commerce and encourage various business entities to carry out cross-border e-commerce business, various regions have increased their cross-border investment.

Hunan proposed that by 2025, it will strive to have 20 cross-border e-commerce companies with transaction volumes of over 100 million yuan and 5 companies with transaction volumes of over 1 billion yuan in the province, and 20 cross-border e-commerce independent brands with annual transaction volumes of more than 50 million yuan.

Hangzhou has made it clear this year that it will strive to foster 10 cross-border e-commerce companies to go public within three years and attract 30 cross-border e-commerce companies with annual transaction volumes of more than 100 million yuan.

Chongqing aims to have 100 enterprises with annual cross-border e-commerce transaction volumes of more than 20 million yuan, 20 enterprises with annual transaction volumes of more than 100 million yuan, and 5 enterprises with annual transaction volumes of more than 1 billion yuan by 2027, and the number of cross-border e-commerce business entities will reach 2,700.

Cross-border e-commerce across the country is entering a new high tide of rapid development, with opportunities and challenges coexisting. A group of cross-border people have unfortunately been eliminated, but it has also given more people a broader imagination space.

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