Since the second half of 2020, the continuous boom in exports has put cross-border e-commerce export enterprises on the fast track of development. With the support of policies and the tilt of capital, the competition in export e-commerce is gradually heating up, shifting from the traditional stocking model of large stores to the 2.0 era of brand building and deepening supply chain advantages. 

 However, most export electronic brands rely on platforms such as Amazon, Temu and Shein to sell their products, and any small changes on the platform can have a significant impact on them. In the past two years, more and more export e-commerce businesses have realized the importance of breaking away from external platforms and building their own independent websites, with the independent website model being favored by merchants. At the same time, with more and more internet giants entering the market, traditional cross-border e-commerce enterprises are also facing new demands for product innovation and brand transformation in the fierce market competition. 

 Every industry change stirs up the talent market, bringing about a chain reaction in the recruitment field, with new demands, new positions, and new opportunities emerging. In order to help everyone better seize these new trends, in this article, we interviewed Henderson China's Guangzhou office, to interpret the new recruitment trends in the cross-border e-commerce field.

1. Which positions are hot these days in the export cross-border e-commerce space?

China Headhunter: From the fourth quarter of last year to the first half of this year, the market has seen an influx of demand for recruitment of heads of brand operations in the cross-border e-commerce sector, heads of independent station operations, and mid-to-high-end heads of departments that have built cross-border e-commerce systems from 0 to 1. The current stock of positions is still dominated by these three categories.

2. What are the skill needs of enterprises for the above mentioned persons?

Although the independent station and self-branding is the trend, but Amazon is still the mainstream cross-border enterprise sales platform, so the most common candidate model is: done Amazon, Sun Walmart and other channels + with cross-border e-commerce 0-1 building experience, English can be used as the working language of the candidate is better.

3. What types of cross-border e-commerce companies are actively sourcing talent?

China Headhunter: Traditional cross-border companies seeking to transform, cross-border companies seeking to rebrand/build, and startups with product-oriented verticals going overseas are actively recruiting outstanding new blood to join them.

4. What are the differences in the needs and requirements of cross-border e-commerce candidates of the above enterprises?

China Headhunter: Traditional cross-border companies seeking to transform their businesses have a somewhat broader range of talent backgrounds in demand, and will be open to looking at talent from different industries, and are willing to consider talent as long as it has new ideas and approaches to business transformation. They are mainly recruiting and reserving talents for business transformation.

Startups that are product-oriented to go overseas in vertical fields may focus their recruitment needs on product development, hoping to recruit people to incubate more new products or improve the strength of existing products.

Companies undergoing rebranding, including traditional big sellers as well as product-oriented companies going overseas, have a need for rebranding. These types of companies will be more inclined to recruit talents who are long-sleeved in brand marketing to help them conduct market research and competitor research and rebrand awareness.

5. What are the main sources of background of export cross-border e-commerce candidates in the market?

China Headhunter: Different companies have different needs for candidates, and we have noticed that there are three types of cross-border e-commerce candidates in the market: traditional e-commerce companies with a background of large enterprises, Internet transformation background, and young executives who have been cultivated by the new e-commerce forces in the past three years.

6. What are the characteristics of each of the three categories of candidates mentioned above?

China Headhunter: Candidates with a traditional e-commerce background of large enterprises, the academic background is relatively uneven, they may be from a small company or a traditional warehouse of the big sellers from the small employees slowly to the head of the department, more familiar with traditional e-commerce laying pattern, more experience. (Candidates with traditional e-commerce enterprise background: mixed academic background, familiar with the store mode, experienced)

Internet transformation candidates, mainly talents of product operation and technology. They know more about some of the ways to play on the Internet and have more new ideas, such as understanding how to place ads in the media and how to broaden new channel providers. These candidates are generally younger, have better academic backgrounds and higher salaries.

The young executives who have been cultivated in the new power of e-commerce in the last three years have a clearer understanding of the pulse of the e-commerce industry, they are more brand conscious and have a relatively clear brand positioning.

7. How many cross-border e-commerce talents have actively approached headhunters so far this year?

China Headhunter: Very much so, on average we receive resume submissions and career development inquiries from cross-border e-commerce candidates every day. We believe that most of the emerging companies in cross-border e-commerce are still in the stage of flat structure and business orientation, and when there is a big impact and change in the industry they are working in, the cross-border e-commerce companies are very fast and agile in adjusting and changing.

8. As a headhunter, what kind of recruiting is expected in the cross-border e-commerce space?

China Headhunter: I think we are waiting for clearer market signals as much as companies and candidates in this industry for what kind of hiring changes there will be in the next quarter. The only thing that is clear is that there will be more and more requirements and restrictions on regulatory compliance from platforms, destination countries and payment channels. For the cross-border industry that has grown up for a long time, it will be a critical period to remove the sand from the sand, and how to strengthen compliance, information transparency and refinement of their own operations will be the key solution to the problem.