Amazon's Difficult Operational Journey

I got into the pit right after graduation, and my brother-in-law abused me thousands of times

After reading many stories of people who started their own businesses on Amazon, I feel that they are still a long way from the stories of most of us working in operations. Like entrepreneurial sellers, we may be cheated by our brother-in-law and Amazon, but it is often not Amazon that troubles us more.

Let me start with my first company. My major in college was international trade, and after graduation I went directly to an eBay company. It seemed like a good match for my major, but only those who have experienced it know. I learned all kinds of FOB and CIF in school for several years, but after I started working, they were of no use at all. I had to learn everything from scratch.

When I first joined the company, it happened to be expanding its Amazon department. There were a few colleagues who transferred from the eBay department to work with me. I thought that we were all learning from scratch and could explore and improve together. I didn't expect that I would be abused by my brother-in-law later, and it was because of these colleagues from eBay that I was betrayed.

Brother-in-law in front, colleague in the back

When we started exploring Amazon, the first problem we encountered was that several colleagues from eBay were particularly keen to use their "old" experience to test this new platform. In other words,

At that time, I didn't understand it either. I thought it was the right approach and took notes and followed along with it with great interest. In fact, the result is predictable. I even suffered from the problem of the white background several times.

There were a few times when I was trying to figure it out, and even though I had found the official requirements, the eBay operations still had to follow their previous practices. The entire store had single-digit orders for several months in a row, and there were even problems such as overlapping promotions.

During the probation period, I can be said to be "a brick of socialism, moved wherever needed". I learned by myself from scratch and figured out the batch forms on my own, trying over and over again to see which items were required.

Even so, I didn’t even pass the probation period at my first company. At that time, I felt that the store was in a bad state and I had a lot of responsibility. I even felt that I was not suitable for this industry. Now I think it is really important for graduates to have a high-level supervisor or colleague to bring them in.

Later, thanks to my fluent form uploading, I passed the interview at another Amazon company (this shows how important it is to have a technical background, even if you are good at just one aspect). This company already had two stable stores, and I thought I could learn something from the senior operators, so I came to work there. Unexpectedly, what I gained was another painful experience.

Unlike the previous one, which was a cross-border company with clear division of labor among departments, my new company was more like a small workshop. The operations department was responsible for a lot of miscellaneous things. From the beginning, I helped the senior operations staff of the store to pack and ship goods.

This kind of job really allows me to learn a lot. Plus, the seniors are very nice and willing to teach me. When they are selecting products, they will also ask me to look with them. Soon, I will be able to be responsible for a new small shop on my own.

I took charge of a new store and left my role as a helper. I felt that I really wanted to run this store well, not only for the boss but also for myself. When I first uploaded it, there were seniors who helped me watch it, but later on, almost all the decisions were made by me alone.

My initial idea was to imitate the thinking of my predecessors, first launch a low-priced product to attract traffic and increase sales, and then use other variants to make profits. I didn't expect to be cheated by the logistics department, because the boss wanted to save money and refused to send express delivery, and only allowed me to send postal parcels, which was very frustrating for me due to several negative reviews about lost packages.

Then I discussed with my boss whether I could find a service provider to delete it, but he thought it was too expensive and asked me to just evaluate a few orders to dilute it.

After I contacted the assessment service provider, I filled out the form according to their requirements, showed my boss several variations of the assessment before sending it to the service provider, and then talked to him about the price. He replied "OK" and I arranged it.

The store started to improve slightly, but it was still far from enough to make enough money to pay for the goods.

Later, my boss talked to me about my excessive advertising expenses and some issues with my work attitude. I could tell from what he said that he wanted me to leave. Although I was reluctant, as an employee, I had no choice. After handing over my work, I left. But something strange happened when I was paid for leaving.

I found that the salary my boss transferred to me was obviously less. When I asked him the reason for the difference, he actually said that I should not have given the product directly to the buyer when I was testing it, and deducted the cost of the product from my salary.

Whether it was my previous company or the information I read online, there was no requirement to return any reviewed products. However, as it was just an established rule, I had no room to argue as long as the boss refused to budge.

The second company really disappointed me. Later, when I talked about this with my senior, I found out that this boss was very ruthless and even included the cost of office supplies in the commission. My senior also planned to resign.

I didn't argue with this boss. Instead, I quickly cut my losses and found another company. Although the boss was rather cold, he did things very strictly and by the rules. Although the store I'm in charge of is a new one, it's a product I'm quite familiar with. After I optimized the words and advertisements, there was some upward trend.

Although colleagues are not particularly enthusiastic about each other, they will discuss and learn from each other about anything. This appropriate sense of distance is quite comfortable.

For those of us working at Amazon, we may not necessarily get screwed by our brother-in-law. We may also be cheated by people around us.