Merciless Amazon! Platform algorithm has left tens of thousands of people unemployed

Sellers who have studied Amazon’s algorithm to a certain extent will have this feeling about the logic of the algorithm - this algorithm must have been written by a cold-blooded, profit-oriented person.

Of course, it is impossible for one person to write the code. Instead, it is the brother-in-law who has excellent business thinking and the shareholders behind him who make Amazon operate like a profit-oriented money-making machine.

The e-commerce business in China is not profitable? Just shut it down and leave; the advertising business is growing rapidly in profit? Just launch a few more paid advertising models to reap the profits; the advertising budget has a bug and extra money is deducted? If you don’t tell me, I will pretend it didn’t happen and will never take the initiative to refund the money.

It is understandable that as a commercial company, everything is profit-oriented, but Amazon's algorithm has been collectively criticized by foreign netizens for being "callous and ruthless."

Foreign media reported that Amazon has specially developed a set of inhumane AI algorithms to automatically track the work efficiency of employees in the logistics and warehousing departments and automatically dismiss inefficient employees.

This algorithm system not only monitors the number of goods packaged by each employee per hour, but also collects statistics on employees' on-duty/off-duty status and off-duty events.

This has forced Amazon employees to drink less water and even be afraid to go to the toilet in order to avoid being fired by the algorithm.

Under this strict algorithmic supervision, Amazon's warehouse logistics employees face extremely high-intensity work every day. Criticisms from both inside and outside the company are intensifying, but this cannot stop Amazon from stopping such behavior.

It is reported that in an Amazon FBA warehouse with 2,500 employees, the algorithm can lay off more than 300 employees each year on the grounds of low work efficiency, and the layoff rate exceeds 10%.

This ratio is very scary when you consider the total number of employees in nearly 100 FBA operation centers in North America, which number more than 120,000. Every year, more than 10,000 people lose their jobs at Amazon, and whether they are unemployed or not is entirely determined by a cold automated algorithm.

Although various unions and organizations have condemned Amazon's behavior, the official attitude remains extremely firm, believing that the purpose of this system is not to dismiss employees, but to motivate them to work better and more efficiently.

We sellers are no strangers to Amazon’s behavior, which always gives a legitimate excuse for its harvesting behavior.

We have discussed in depth the platform's ruthlessness in product recommendation algorithms.

That is to take 80% of the traffic

Allocated to the top 20% of sellers

This is Amazon’s 80/20 rule . Only if you can bring transactions to the platform are you eligible to get traffic allocation.

What about the remaining 80% of sellers who perform poorly? It doesn’t matter. Although these sellers can’t sell their products, they pay a lot of inventory fees , and Amazon can still make a lot of money from these sellers.

As for their life or death, just like those workers who were fired by algorithms, what does it have to do with Amazon?

Amazon's ruthlessness has victimized both sellers and employees. But this ruthlessness has brought Amazon real profits , and even made Amazon the world's number one at the beginning of this year.

If you can't work hard to get into the top 20% of sellers, then being an Amazon seller is like working for your brother-in-law. How can you make money in the gradually maturing post-Amazon era? I will summarize three points for you.

First, we need to be in the top 20% . Dayone’s algorithm logic allows even new sellers to have the opportunity to get close to that 20%. On the contrary, some old sellers who have let down their guard may have a hard time this year. They will clearly realize the cruelty of the algorithm.

Second, avoid selling at low prices . Amazon is more sensitive to prices than you might expect. Those who want to sell at low prices in the early stages to create a hit and then raise prices to make money have already failed. The inventory pressure and capital turnover rate can crush cross-border giants like Jiazhilian. We small and medium-sized sellers are simply not good enough.

Third, high-profit boutique routes are the future . Why must high profits be pursued? The second point above has already restricted you from raising prices later, and judging from the current trend, our costs will only get higher and higher.

The US tax incident has just passed, and it is still unknown whether it will start tax compliance like Europe. Only with sufficient profit margins can we withstand the risks of possible cost increases in the future.

In addition, sufficient profit margins also allow more room for various discount activities, and even a 50% discount can make a small profit (this is quite terrifying) . With low profits, it seems that consumers are treated as gods, but in fact they are strangling their own retreat.

Regarding the high-profit boutique profit route, we have also sorted out the corresponding operation skills and complete strategies for everyone to share . Sellers who want to make money can scan the QR code and find me to receive it~

PS. If you want to join the seller discussion group, you can also private message me to let me add you to the group

Source: Cross-border Business School

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