"Li is too expensive" angers the public! Operations salary is reduced by 30%. Is it not enough effort?

Recently, related topics such as #李佳琪直播货对网者# have been flooding major social platforms.

▲ The picture comes from Weibo

Tracing back to the source, on September 10, when Li Jiaqi was promoting a certain brand of eyebrow pencil priced at 79 yuan in the live broadcast room, netizens complained that "the price is getting more and more expensive." While he was out of control of his emotions and emphasized that the product had not increased in price, he also made wild remarks to netizens: "Sometimes you should look for the reasons in yourself. Has your salary increased over the years? Have you worked hard?"

This arrogant statement full of meritocracy quickly made him the target of public criticism, and the other protagonist in the controversy - the price of Huaxizi's eyebrow pencil - was also ridiculed as the new currency unit for workers: "Huaxi Coin" .

Under this circumstance, cross-border sellers who have always been "keeping pace with the times" are discussing the topic of "how much Huaxi currency can be earned a day" , while also asking a soul-searching question: Is the lack of salary increase really due to lack of effort?

Survey data shows that as of April 2023, nearly 90% of cross-border practitioners have a monthly income between 3k and 15k, of which 44% have a monthly income between 5k and 10k, and only 12.37% of cross-border practitioners have a monthly income of more than 15k, which is rare.

▲ Image source : "| 2023 Cross-border E-commerce Workplace Research Report"

Using "Huaxi Coin" as the unit of measurement, as of April 2023, nearly 90% of cross-border practitioners earn less than 6.4 Huaxi Coins a day (calculated based on 30 days a month and a monthly salary of 15k) .

After the popularity of “Huaxi Coin”, cross-border practitioners on major social platforms posted their daily salaries, which also confirmed the above data:

"I've been running Amazon for three years and got 400,000 euros today. Is it because I haven't worked hard enough..."

"Located in Wuhan, two years of experience, 3.8 yuan today, but I don't have time to find a partner. Am I not working hard enough?"

"I received my pay slip today and found that the finance department calculated that I still owed the company 31 Huaxi yuan. So I finally got the loan to work."

In addition, the daily salary of some cross-border practitioners not only did not increase, but was even reduced by the company's sudden salary reform: the company's sales have been declining this year, and the comprehensive salary of operations has also dropped by 30%-40%.

Based on this, many cross-border practitioners could not help but ask the same question as Li Jiaqi: The salary has not increased but decreased, is it because they are not working seriously?

I think that talking about individuals without considering the environment is, in a sense, irrational behavior.

From the perspective of the macroeconomic environment, since the cross-border industry entered a conservative growth transition period in 2022, facing multiple challenges such as sluggish demand and soaring costs, more and more cross-border companies have increased revenue and reduced expenditure, streamlined staff, and rushed towards the "small and beautiful" trend. As a result, the overall cross-border recruitment market has shown a cooling trend, and the demand and salary of cross-border positions have also declined accordingly.

Taking Amazon's operations positions as an example, data from Zhiyouji shows that the number of Amazon's operations positions in 2022 fell by 70% compared with the same period last year, and salaries also fell by 4% compared with 2021. As of August 2023, the demand for Amazon's operations positions has increased compared with the same period in 2022, but salaries have not recovered.

It is obvious that the fact that the wages of cross-border practitioners have fallen instead of risen is not simply the result of "personal lack of effort". What it reflects is that the entire cross-border industry is facing severe challenges.

As time goes by, the cross-border e-commerce industry will slow down overall due to the continued high inflation overseas, which has led to conservative consumer spending. According to the industry financial report data in the first half of this year, not only the performance of many small and medium-sized sellers has declined, but also the revenue of some large cross-border sellers has declined.

As the industry's leading platform, Amazon has been frequently complained by sellers this year about its "decline in both traffic and sales."

The root cause is the intensified market competition and limited inventory:

In recent years, the number of Amazon sellers has increased dramatically, and market competition has become increasingly fierce. The platform traffic is not enough to share the market, and sellers have sufficient inventory, resulting in supply exceeding demand and a low-price spiral.

At the same time, the rise of platforms such as Temu, TikTok shop, and SHEIN is stirring up the overseas e-commerce market, which is in line with the trend of consumption downgrade and the development of social e-commerce, and has attracted some consumers.

The second reason is that Amazon sellers are overwhelmed by frequent changes in platform policies:

Since the beginning of this year, Amazon has frequently adjusted its platform policies, either in an effort to break through the slowing growth or under the "threat" of competition from emerging platforms. In addition to the changes in various rules displayed on the front desk, changes such as consumer law verification, high incidence of brand abuse, and stricter new account reviews have also had a significant impact on the operations of Amazon sellers.

A senior seller pointed out sharply: This year is the most difficult year. This difficulty is reflected in the fact that 70% of Amazon sellers are not worried about how to improve their performance, but about coping with the platform's endless policy adjustments and audits.

Whether from the perspective of the intensity of market competition or from the perspective of platform adjustment policies, it can be seen that the cross-border e-commerce industry in 2023 is undoubtedly at an important juncture of a major reshuffle.

Given the support of national policies and the new growth points brought by emerging platforms and markets, the prospects for the cross-border e-commerce industry remain broad. Based on this, cross-border sellers seem to be in a besieged city: people in the city are trying desperately to escape, and people outside the city are trying desperately to squeeze in.

The ancients paid attention to "the right time, the right place, and the right people" when accomplishing things.

In other words, "To achieve great things, both hard work and luck are essential . "

Looking back at 2020 to the first half of 2021, the profits of the entire cross-border e-commerce industry have been skyrocketing, and there are cross-border sellers everywhere who are making a lot of money. The recruitment of Amazon operations is extremely hot. Not only are there so many positions that the operators are dazzled by the choices, but there are also endless situations of poaching people with high salaries.

The reason why domestic cross-border sellers have been able to grow wildly on e-commerce platforms with a sharp increase in traffic is not only due to their own strong strength and unremitting efforts, but also due to contemporary factors such as the change in online shopping habits and the timely recovery of the supply chain after the outbreak of the epidemic.

Many sellers admitted that a big part of the reason they became rich overnight was that they relied on luck to ride on the high-growth era of cross-border e-commerce.

This seems to confirm what Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun once said: If you stand on the wind, even pigs can fly.

However, times have changed. Since 2022, the frenzied market demand for cross-border e-commerce has gradually returned to rationality. The previous profit model of barbaric expansion boosted by the epidemic is unsustainable. Unstable factors such as stricter platform policy supervision and turbulent international economic situation continue to affect the cross-border industry, making it full of unknown risks under the surface of strong growth potential.

Therefore, in a market environment where growth rates are generally declining, it is undoubtedly difficult for cross-border sellers to replicate the high-growth myth of previous years. There are even many big sellers that were once at their peak and have fallen to the bottom due to their failure to adapt to the new era in time.

Some sellers believe that it is difficult for new cross-border sellers to get rich in a short period of time. This does not mean that the industry has no room for growth, nor that new sellers have not worked hard, but in the transition period of industry integration and reshuffle, the development trend is more inclined to sedimentation and deep cultivation, and the requirements for cross-border practitioners' comprehensive personal ability, market judgment and acumen have increased.

Currently, cross-border e-commerce is moving towards refinement, branding and compliance. As it is in a period of transformation and reshuffle, the industry is inevitably turbulent, but the overall trend remains positive and there is still a lot of room for growth.

If cross-border sellers want to seize the upward development opportunities, they can only follow the market trends, build a strong moat, and wait for the arrival of the next high-growth trend.

I wonder what the sellers think about this, and how much "Huaxi Coins" do you earn per day? Welcome to share in the comment area~