In the first four months of 2026, China’s foreign trade imports and exports increased by 14.9% year-on-year, and exports increased by 11.3%.
However, “The company’s performance has increased year by year, but my salary has not changed in three years.” “I have been working in foreign trade for five years, but last year’s commission was not as high as it was three years ago. The boss said, ‘The environment is not good.'” “I am 35 years old, and I submitted more than a dozen resumes. The interviewer asked me: ‘Can I still stay up late talking to customers at this age?'” These real messages from foreign trade workers reflect their current situation of stagnant wages, unabated anxiety, and confusion about their future in the context of industry market growth, policy promotion, and the emergence of new tracks.
Why do foreign trade workers become more tired the more they work, but do not make more money?
The main reasons are as follows.
First, the industry is changing, but the style of play remains the same.
The traditional high-volume, low-cost, extensive foreign trade development model has been gradually phased out, and digitalization, localization, branding, and greening have become the mainstream of industry development. However, many companies are still using the same methods of business ten years ago, resulting in workers becoming less motivated the harder they work.
Second, AI is coming, but the dividends do not belong to workers.
Over 98% of the Chinese sellers surveyed have used AI tools in their operations. The bosses have saved labor costs, while the workers are still using the old method to compete with AI for work.
Third, the company does not lack people, but “people who can be used”.
Foreign trade salespeople are highly mobile, and companies would rather spend time recruiting new people than giving salary increases to old employees.
So, what are the options for foreign trade workers?
Way out one: go up – from “salesman” to “manager”.
This is the most traditional and stable path. It is suitable for people who have been doing foreign trade for 3-5 years, have stable performance, have led new people, and want to get rid of the “hands stop talking, stop talking” state.
Start as a front-line salesperson and gradually be promoted to supervisor, manager or partner. After working for three to five years, you can reach the level of foreign trade manager, leading the team, managing customer relations, and setting business strategies. After that, you can develop into a foreign trade director.
After promotion, the focus of work shifted from personal business to team management. The core change was from “personally negotiating orders and charging forward” to “experience empowerer”.
However, many companies only have two levels: “salesperson” and “boss”. If there is no promotion path in your company, change as soon as possible.
The second way out: go outwards – from “wage earner” to “partner”.
It is suitable for people who have core customer resources, understand products, and understand the supply chain, but do not want to bear all the entrepreneurial risks themselves.
The new cooperation model is that foreign trade companies no longer pay the salesperson’s basic salary and change to a cooperative system; they can also cooperate with factories, and SOHO is responsible for helping the factories export their products.
However, factory owners are often very powerful and must write profit distribution, decision-making rights, and exit mechanisms into the contract before cooperation.
Way out three: Go inward – from “worker” to “super individual”.
This is the most popular path in 2026 and is suitable for people with more than 3 years of experience, stable customer resources, a certain amount of savings, and who can accept fluctuations in income.
With the popularization of AI technology, OPC (one-person companies) and “super individuals” are experiencing explosive growth.
If you want to do foreign trade SOHO alone, you must first create a basic display page, use your own domain name to match the corporate email, social media account and other information to unify, and choose the “small but beautiful” track.
But not everyone is suitable to work alone. Before resigning, use your spare time to complete a complete small order.
Way out four: move forward – learn new skills and change tracks rather than industries.
It is suitable for people who still want to work in the foreign trade industry, but do not want to continue to be a “low-level salesman”.
The talent gap for new positions such as cross-border e-commerce operations and new media brand marketing continues to expand.
You can learn specific skills such as AI tool application, data analysis, cross-border e-commerce operations, etc., but you should choose one direction to stick to it to avoid failing to learn everything.
In addition, there are three “life-saving suggestions”.
First, don’t leave your destiny to your boss, leave it to yourself and establish your own “irreplaceability”.
Second, don’t wait until you are “ready” before taking action. The foreign trade industry iterates quickly, so if you want to transform, start now.
Third, don’t put all your hopes on one company, but lay out your own “spare tires.”
In short, the foreign trade industry is still worth exploring, but the “part-time job” model is being eliminated.
Foreign trade workers need to upgrade their way of survival and choose a way out that suits them.
