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▶ Video account attention cross-border navigation It is the peak recruitment season of March and April every year. However, the heavy hammer of layoffs and salary cuts has hit all walks of life in recent times . Many leading Internet companies have been reported to have laid off 10%-30% of their employees, and salaries have shrunk significantly, with thousands of people competing for one job.
Under the hammer of layoffs, age seems to have become a key competitive asset, and "older" employees over 30 are the first to be abandoned. Recently, a blog post by an Alibaba employee sharing the situation of his colleagues aged 35+ sparked heated discussions. Starting their own businesses, setting up stalls, selling insurance, delivering food, etc., the former elites of large companies were forced to switch to other fields after being laid off. ▲ The picture comes from Weibo In fact, it is not just programmers. Nowadays, young people are more and more popular in various industries, especially in the cross-border e-commerce industry. For many cross-border sellers, 30 years old is like a hurdle. If you can cross it successfully, you can make a living as a solo entrepreneur. Otherwise, you will be on the verge of unemployment. 30 is a hurdle? Amazon operators are worried about "getting older" A 30-year-old Amazon operator who has been in the industry for five years revealed his recent confusion on the forum: he entered the market in 2018 and recklessly worked alone and got into debt of more than 100,000 yuan. Although he is quite satisfied with his current job, he also faces hidden dangers such as high pressure, low commission, low income and instability. ▲ The picture comes from Zhiwubuyan "I'm worried that I'll suddenly lose my job after I turn 30, and what to do next. Is the end of the universe really going to be a civil servant?" the operator sighed helplessly. This operator also expressed similar concerns: I am less than 30 years old and I have such anxiety. I don’t know what other work I can do besides cross-border work. More and more young people are pouring into the cross-border industry, and my qualifications are not good enough. I am afraid that I will be eliminated one day. The sellers' anxiety is actually not without reason. It is learned that the recruitment content of a big seller in the industry is as follows: 1. Operations specialist: expected to be under 28 years old 2. Operations Manager: Under 30 years old 3. Operations Manager: Expected to be married with children In the current domestic employment situation where there are too many people and too few jobs, age anxiety has become a hurdle that most job seekers have to overcome. For Amazon operations, if the ability cannot keep up with the increase in age, as the learning ability gradually declines, the competitive advantage will no longer exist. Moreover, the cross-border e-commerce industry has experienced constant shocks in the past two years, with many former big sellers cutting staff and reducing salaries, cutting off arms to survive, and even scattering like monkeys when the tree falls. As the tide of "digging for gold everywhere" recedes, the middle and lower reaches, especially the start-ups that followed suit, are also facing severe survival tests. Under this circumstance, more and more cross-border companies are increasing revenue and reducing costs, downsizing their structures, and setting off a "small and beautiful" trend. The fate of operators is becoming increasingly uncertain, and they are always worried about being fired in the name of "structural optimization." However, the ancients said: I was born with talents that must be useful. Behind the age anxiety, it actually reflects the lack of core competitiveness. Instead of self-deprecation, sellers should calm down and improve themselves and clarify their goals. There are also many groups that are late bloomers, so never measure your own value by age. The age-related confusion of Amazon operators also reflects the current undercurrent situation in the cross-border industry. Layoffs and losses, where is the cross-border wind blowing? According to a seller, a cross-border company in the industry has laid off 80% of its employees, with only more than 100 people left, and has lost more than 30 million yuan in the past year. Although the company has been reflecting and making continuous improvements over the past year, the loss is still getting bigger and bigger. Once upon a time, the spark of cross-border e-commerce spread rapidly in Shenzhen, and a large number of cross-border sellers, such as the Four Young Masters of South China City and the Five Tigers of Bantian, emerged, driving the explosive growth of this track. The seller said frankly that in the peak era of cross-border e-commerce, experienced talents were in short supply, and it was common for a college student who had worked for three years to earn an annual salary of 300,000 yuan, and it was easy to make money and opportunities were everywhere. The outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, the formation of the "stay-at-home economy" and the rapid recovery of domestic productivity have made cross-border e-commerce all the rage, and many startups with Pinduoduo and Taobao styles have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. However, now that the trend has faded, the profit shrinkage of the entire industry seems to be expanding, and the top sellers are facing losses of hundreds of millions. According to the 2021 performance forecasts released by major sellers, Tongtuo's parent company Huading shares is expected to achieve a net profit of -520 million to -780 million, and Youkeshu is expected to see a net profit drop of 107% to 187%. In addition to the impact of the account blocking wave, it is also an indisputable fact that a series of negative effects have been generated by increased logistics costs, intensified industry competition, and turbulent international situations. During this process, many sellers tried to transform into independent sites and explore other platforms, but the results were not ideal. "I have worked on the Meikeduo and Newegg platforms, and it is pretty good. I can get two or three orders a week." "Shopee is pretty good. We can get a few orders a week, just enough to maintain a huge turnover of plus or minus dozens of dollars." "Our company has been operating Meikeduo for almost two years now, and we have only made a loss every month, but overall we have been able to hold on." While making fun of it, it also points out the difficulty of deploying on multiple platforms. Nowadays, not only Amazon, but sellers on major cross-border platforms are facing the dilemma of severe price wars, plummeting profits, and declining traffic. Although the deployment of multiple platforms is conducive to dispersing regulatory risks, it also means greater resource investment, and even leads to a situation where there is no time to take care of everything and everything loses. Has the trend of expanding by taking advantage of the victory dissipated? The new trend is to settle down and cultivate deeply A seller revealed that his company had opened up a bunch of platforms such as eBay and Walmart, but this caused many problems such as distraction of staff attention and re-adaptation to new platforms. These new platforms were not as uncompetitive as the marketing accounts boasted. The reality is that there are fewer people and less traffic, and the more they do business , the more painful it becomes. Therefore, compared with the large-scale expansion of business and the layout of new platforms, the trend in the cross-border circle now tends to be more focused on sedimentation and deep cultivation. More and more unstable factors such as platform policy supervision, international political and economic situation, exchange rate fluctuations, supply chain, etc. are affecting the cross-border industry. Beneath the surface of strong money-making ability, there are minefields everywhere. Amid industry consolidation and reshuffle, building a strong moat is the basis for long-term development. Currently, specialization, compliance and branding are emerging as new development benchmarks. One seller admitted that although the sellers have been going through a difficult time in the past two years, they still have a promising future after a few years of settling down. It is not appropriate to expand now, but it is not necessary to leave the market either. The limelight has passed, and it has returned to the normal business market with losses and gains. "From a dialectical point of view, the trough of the industry cycle is not entirely a bad thing. First, the stock of competitors will decrease, and many players will be washed out; second, the incremental number of competitors will be zero, and many potential competitors will not enter the market again; third, you can re-understand and reflect on yourself. " Some sellers are still optimistic. Today, the Internet industry is undergoing massive layoffs, and the myth of high growth is no longer seen. Competition in the civil service industry, which is the end of the career universe, is becoming increasingly fierce. As one of the three major drivers of the country's GDP, foreign trade is enjoying more and more policy support and still has a large room for growth. Even though it has been undergoing a major reshuffle in the past two years, the overall trend is still positive. When the wind comes, take advantage of your fortune to soar; when the wind goes, calm down and wait for the next opportunity to explode. What do you want to say about this? 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