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New Year’s Day is over, is the Spring Festival far away? As 2024 opens a new chapter, Cross-border's sales in the past year have gradually entered the final stage: summarizing the achievements of 2023, looking forward to the goals of 2024, and formulating sales plans for the new year in advance. But people do not share the same joys and sorrows. Faced with the upcoming Spring Festival, some are forced to take a holiday early, while others have no choice but to attend the festival in full. As the year draws to a close, an Amazon seller is in a crisis of unemployment. It is reported that the seller's company was originally a factory, and he started working on Amazon in 2021. Due to lack of experience, he lost nearly 300,000 yuan in one year. It was not until the seller joined the company at the end of 2022 that he saw a turnaround in profitability. "The first thing I did was to clear the inventory and received some payments. This year, I cleared the inventory and started developing products. I made four or five links and sold more than 50 orders a day. The profit from the low customer unit price is not high. I didn't receive any payments in the first two months, but the profit gradually increased as the number of orders increased. Now the monthly net profit is 20,000 yuan." The seller revealed. According to the seller, the total cost of developing the product is estimated to be 120,000 yuan + 40,000 yuan for shipping, and the cost has been recovered so far. However, a few months ago, the boss forced the seller to take back the money to buy the product, and the company would not pay any more money, which put the seller in a dilemma of difficulty in developing new products and hindering inventory turnover. Due to unsatisfactory overall profitability, the company may start layoffs in January, or even eliminate the entire Amazon department. This not only means that the seller will not receive a year-end bonus after working hard for a year, but may even not receive the compensation he deserves. In fact, similar situations have happened to many sellers. 2023 is a year of change and turmoil. The increasing uncertainty in the market environment has fed back to sellers, resulting in sluggish sales and performance that falls short of expectations. The cold reception of the Black Friday online promotion became the last straw that broke the camel's back. According to a survey conducted by the company, 38% of sellers saw a decline in Black Friday orders compared to the same period last year, while another 36% saw no significant sales boost, and only 24% of sellers saw sales growth. As a result, many small and medium-sized companies fell into operational difficulties, which in turn triggered a chain reaction of year-end layoffs and early long holidays . Just as a group of sellers were preparing to go home for the Chinese New Year, many sellers turned into model workers and fought to the last lesson. One seller shared his company's holiday notice: No holiday on New Year's Eve, 7 days off, 8 consecutive days (two days off), and 9 consecutive days for those with one day off. "I am a little dissatisfied with this holiday arrangement, but there is nothing I can do. I can only take leave when the time comes." The seller said helplessly. "We had a holiday on January 26 and returned to work on the tenth day of the first lunar month, but we only had paid leave for the statutory days, and the rest were unpaid." "Do factory workers get paid for the New Year? We get 18 days off, but no pay. And we have to keep an eye on the shop ourselves." "The holiday is early, the whole holiday is 14 days, but except for the statutory holidays, the rest are unpaid, which is no different from taking leave." Judging from the feedback from sellers, many cross-border companies arrange their holidays according to the statutory Spring Festival holidays. Although many companies have longer holidays, "unpaid leave" accounts for a large proportion, and the phenomenon of arranging compensatory leave, deducting annual leave, and even deducting wages is extremely common. The 2023 performance was mediocre, and the year-end welfare care was not satisfactory. In such a situation, even though the Spring Festival is getting closer, for many sellers, the personal sadness is quite confusing and indescribable. Both salary and year-end benefits are closely related to the performance of cross-border people throughout the year. The 2023 performance survey initiated by the company showed that 32.1% of sellers had annual sales of less than 1 million, accounting for the highest proportion, while sellers with annual revenue of more than 100 million accounted for only 12.7%. Judging from the survey results, many sellers have not been able to successfully achieve their annual sales targets and have fallen into different predicaments such as inventory backlog, increased revenue but no increased profits, and a sharp decline in performance. "The money I earned this year is not enough to cover my expenses. At the beginning of the year, it was -450,000, and at the end of the year, it was -550,000." "This is my first year working on my own, and I made a warehouse full of goods." "My performance is only half of last year's. I haven't received any commission for several months. I am living on my savings from the past two years. I plan to change jobs in the second half of next year." "Except for the first quarter, the rest is hard to describe. Next year, the company will lay off a lot of operations and development personnel, and the year-end bonuses and red envelopes will probably also shrink." It is learned that due to the sluggish performance, many sellers will not receive any commission throughout 2023 and basically live on basic salary. Correspondingly, there are many cases where the year-end bonus is empty. One seller revealed: "The performance in 2023 was not as good as that in 2022, and the second half of the year was particularly bleak. There was no profit, no commission, and no year-end bonus. Although I am determined to fight again next year, I am already anxious about the performance every day." Overall, for many sellers, 2023 is a year of escalating internal competition. On the one hand, there is pressure from the platform: frequent policy changes and a wave of twists and turns and endless account suspensions; on the other hand, there are challenges from the market: the foreign trade environment is complex and changeable, and the mainstream consumer market is becoming increasingly saturated. Since the beginning of the year, cross-border merchants have been besieged by internal and external troubles such as a sharp drop in orders, soaring operating costs, and intensified price wars. Under heavy pressure, higher requirements are also placed on overseas merchants: product innovation capabilities, brand upgrade routes, and in-depth supply chain digging. Sellers who fail to find differentiated advantages and build solid competitive barriers are bound to lose out in this fierce cross-border race. Therefore, at the end-of-year harvest season, some people make a lot of money, while others get nothing. Looking ahead to 2024, some sellers are ambitious and have formulated ambitious sales plans; some sellers have a mixture of hope and anxiety, and their operational plans tend to be conservative; some sellers are bold in seeking change, choosing to find new opportunities by changing jobs or working alone; and some sellers have suffered setbacks and have retired sadly, resolutely changing careers. Did all the sellers complete their sales in 2023 smoothly? What kind of New Year's plans have you made? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area~
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