Lost 200,000 in 3 months, the operations director with 4 years of experience went solo...

Some people say: Amazon was a gold mine in 2015, where you could make money even if you did nothing; in 2017 it was a gold rush beach, where you could make money as long as you put your heart into it; and in 2019 it has become a gold-eating beast, where it is easy to spend money but difficult to make money!

Amazon is notoriously difficult to work in 2019, especially if you quit your job and start your own business! There was a guy who complained about his situation after starting his own business in a forum, which resonated with millions of sellers!

Here is his own statement:

I have been working at Amazon for 4 years, from sales to supervisor, and then to operations director . I am familiar with all the routines of Amazon. But I never dare to say that I am an expert. After all, Amazon is changing with each passing day, and there are many powerful people, and those who pretend to be powerful don't show their talents, so I rarely dare to speak carelessly.

Let me tell you about my old-fashioned operating method:

Seeing that each account has less than 20 orders, 100% loss, and not enough advertising fees, I doubt my life. Sometimes I want to go to work. However, if I go to work, what can I do in Shenzhen with a monthly salary of 10,000-20,000 yuan? Buying a house is impossible with a salary of 10,000-20,000 yuan. It's just a waste of youth and experience of life...

The complaints of the operations director aroused heated discussions among the netizens, especially the sentence: What can you do in Shenzhen with a monthly salary of 10,000 to 20,000 yuan? Many friends felt that this question was beyond the scope, because after all, the author's level was already far better than many people!

With 4 years of operation experience and having created a hit product with a profit of RMB 800,000, why did he fail in his solo career? I think this is the question that makes people entangled!

When we create a new account, we usually choose a category and try small batches of multiple types. Some people think that the operation method of the original poster is too desperate. The inventory pressure is too great with a single SKU starting at 500 pieces; the cost of advertising at $80 a day is too high, plus the evaluation, fake orders and other expenses, who dares to do this as a single seller?

But then I thought, since he once held the position of Director of Operations, he must have a certain degree of confidence and would not look down on small things. It’s just that there are too many variables that can lead to failure on Amazon!

If any link such as advertising, conversion, ranking, product selection, capital, logistics, supply chain, inventory, etc. fails to keep up, the seller working alone may fail!

I agree with what a seller said: big companies use massive resources to expand the capacity of the entire plate and dilute the impact of uncontrollable factors. However, for small sellers like us, every uncontrollable variable may give us a blow.

In summary, the following four points are most worthy of attention when working alone:

An experienced operator can still start over after failure, after all, he has accumulated capital over several years. However, a newbie who rashly works alone may lose even more!

The following is the experience of a novice seller working alone:

I have been working for more than a year after graduation, but I don’t have much savings. I have a 20,000 RMB online loan, 14,000 RMB from JD Finance, 20,000 RMB from Bank of China, and a credit card from Alibaba, and China Merchants Bank...

I did a good job for the company last year, so I started doing it myself this year. The goods I chose at the beginning were all small items, so I didn’t invest much. I started to operate slowly in February, which was actually just fake orders! By May, I had already started to make a small profit!

However, Amazon has done two things in succession. First, a batch of goods was judged as second-hand goods, and the products were removed from the shelves. After the appeal was returned, the links could not be sold;

Second, another batch of goods was complained of infringement, so I refurbished the LISTING, but I didn’t dare to promote it, so I could only rely on external sources to digest it! Although the monthly storage fee is more than 2,000 yuan, and I still have debts, overall, I haven’t lost money this year, and I will start all over again next year!

Again, there are too many variables on Amazon. If you don’t pay attention to Amazon’s rules, you don’t even know when you will die! Infringement, follow-selling, and anti-counterfeiting may also become the straw that strangles the seller. I hope this seller can learn from his mistakes!

We can all deeply feel that the current Amazon trend is towards platform compliance, store branding, fierce competition, and category barriers, and the threshold has become higher and higher!

So, is it impossible to start a business on Amazon in 2019? Not really. It can only be said that the platform’s bonus period has passed, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to start a business on Amazon!

But in fact, in cross-border e-commerce, there are no outdated industries, only outdated people. One seller shared his current experience:

It seems that using multiple platforms and a small number of links to try and error and share risks is a good method! Of course, this seller may be just an example. But what I want to say is that the most frightening thing about cross-border e-commerce is to just follow the crowd and dive in! In fact, sometimes, it is more important to understand the current situation of the industry, who you are, and what you are suitable for than to work hard blindly! What do you think?