The E-commerce Manager is the professional figure behind every e-commerce site, web store or social commerce platform. The literal meaning is “director of electronic commerce” and the field in which this professional works is one of the few to grow more than 20% annually.
For this reason, the figure of the E-commerce Manager is one of the most sought after by the job market.
We decided to discover the secrets of this new digital profession and to interview two successful E-commerce managers: Maura Frusone of the Karpesky group, and Fabrizio Malpighi of the Goodyear-Dunlop group.
If you want to know more about how to become an ecommerce manager, keep reading the article! Instead, if you’ve already decided to embark on the path of becoming an e-business professional, and you want to do it quickly, take a look at the Online E-commerce courses.
Who is and what does an e-Commerce Manager do?
The eCommerce manager is the supervisor of the management of the online sales department of a company or a digital store. He is the e-commerce expert, the one who manages the decision-making process for the website, social accounts and web advertising. In addition, he is responsible for researching and developing new online marketing strategies and, in the case of large companies, hiring and training the rest of the Ecommerce division.
In short, the fields in which it operates are many, let’s see them together.
The e-commerce manager develops and implements the strategic online marketing plans for companies and organizations that do business on the Web. He must always stay current and adapt the strategy to best serve his company’s interests to keep pace with the competition.
Given the 24/7 nature of online shopping, ecommerce managers can work irregular hours and be available to handle any issues.
The duties of an ecommerce manager include:
- website design – in contact with web designers, is responsible for the development, modifications and features of the site, in order to maximize clarity and ease of navigation for users;
- Research and development – keeping up with new developments in the world of e-marketing, study the key demographics of the company and how to best reach users, in order to maximize both search engine traffic and the effect of Targeted company ads.
- Supervision, hiring and training – in the case of large companies, supervises the entire e-commerce division;
- Financial planning and budgeting – plan e-marketing expenses well in advance and develop a financial plan to maximize resources.
Ecommerce Manager Wanted … Probably any large company, with an online presence, will employ an ecommerce manager and as more and more businesses operate online, the job outlook for this profession is very strong. Stay up to date on job requests from e-commerce companies and professions by subscribing to the Job Alert. You will receive the latest job offers in the digital world every week.
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How to become an e-Commerce Manager in 5 steps
How do you become an ecommerce manager? This is a very complex profession, we have seen that it requires both good technical knowledge and knowledge of economics and marketing.
But don’t be discouraged, you can also become an ecommerce manager without a degree! You can acquire ecommerce marketing skills and aspire to the profession of ecommerce manager for a virtual store, or within an agency that carries out e-commerce management for its clients.
I summarized them in 5 steps:
- Create an ecommerce site;
- Bringing traffic;
- Train and experiment;
- Selling on Amazon;
- Tools and skills of the sales manager of an online business.
1. Create your e-commerce site
The first thing you need to learn is to create an ecommerce site. I’m not saying you have to learn to work with code. Luckily, today you can create sites quite easily with free software. Once you’ve chosen the right one for your business, you need to learn how to set it up.
Obviously, after configuration you have to put it online, and even in this case, there are services that offer both the software and the hosting server and the domain at a very low cost.
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2. Drive traffic to the store
Once the e-commerce site has been created, you’re only at the beginning! As you well know, today there are millions of sites on the net that sell online. To be able to sell you have to create traffic, that is, you have to make users aware of your products/services.
I’ll give you an example, if you have to open a physical store, your choice for the location will fall on a high-traffic street. In the virtual universe, it is you who must know how to bring traffic to your e-shop.
So, the key to success in an ecommerce is knowing how to do digital marketing. You need to know how to bring qualified traffic to your site and turn it into sales.
To do this, you need to learn what all traffic channels and sources are and how to use them, including:
- SEO ;
- advertising on Google – Google Ads;
- Facebook advertising – Facebook Ads;
- do email marketing.
It is important to understand that advertising is essential. From my point of view, I’d rather spend more money on advertising than on designing a site.
3. Train with practice
The third step to becoming an Ecommerce manager is training. This means that the ideal would be to find the opportunity to work for free at an online store to practice.
By practicing, after a few months, you will feel confident in the job you are doing and the more you practice, the better you become.
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4. Learn how to sell on Amazon
At this point, I can also advise you to complete your apprenticeship with selling on Amazon. If you want to make the leap in quality as an e-commerce manager, you need to know this platform.
In this way you also integrate your strategy on the Amazon market, i.e. you take your products, or those of your customer, and put them on Amazon’s e-commerce. Obviously, there is a procedure to do. and some things to learn, and you can do it quickly by following the dedicated course.
Starting to sell with Amazon has its advantages, you will have two sources of income: proprietary ecommerce and sales on Amazon. You may find that your products work best on the Amazon platform or complement each other well. Keep in mind that the Bezos giant already has traffic, you pay him a 20-30% fee and in exchange the system provides you not only with traffic, but also with the warehouse and delivery management. Simply put, it frees you up from tons of activities.
5. Use the Analysis tools
We have created a site, brought traffic, now you have to learn how to structure, read and interpret management control analytics. You need to be able to figure out what’s working, for example what works better between Google, Facebook or YouTube. Where do you make more sales in Lombardy, Piedmont or Sardinia? Are your customers mostly young? What generation do they belong to?
All this information is processed by the software available online and which helps you to continuously improve the quality of your decisions. This is the difference between an average ecommerce manager and an expert: the ability to continuously improve thanks to Analytics data.
Finally, if you want to level up, another useful step to take is to know how to manage logistics, customer service and suppliers. Of course, these are offline tasks, and are usually delegated to others. But it is important to understand the underlying logic. Especially in customer service you need to understand what customers expect and want.
By downloading the Free GA4 Guide you will understand how to make the best use of this new data analysis tool
How much does the eCommerce manager earn
Do you want an idea of the salary of an e-commerce manager? Like all professions, there is no single answer. There are several factors to evaluate such as experience and the sector in which you operate. Surely it must be said that, lately, this is one of the most requested professions on the web, consequently the salary also rises.
To give you an idea, a junior ecommerce manager has a gross annual salary of around 30,000 euros, while a senior manager, with over 10 years of career behind him, can reach up to 100,000 euros annually.
E-commerce manager skills
The main objective of an e-commerce manager is to increase the company’s sales. But what are the strategies that should be adopted? Surely, he must always be updated on current trends and must know how to exploit the resources of the digital market to obtain the best results.
The ideal candidate for the Ecommerce Manager position is an organized and analytical individual with strong technical skills. He must be able to successfully manage a team of people, be a problem-solver, creative, pragmatic and eager to learn. Here are some skills that great ecommerce managers have.
Expert written and verbal communication is the key to getting ideas across.
Communicate – much of an e-commerce manager’s job is effective communication, they must be able to clearly describe job duties to those they supervise and collaborate with.
Technical Knowledge – An excellent understanding of e-marketing techniques is essential to the job of an e-commerce manager. In-depth knowledge of spreadsheets, databases, financial analysis, website design, search engine optimization and e-marketing strategy are essential to fulfilling the many functions of the job.
Flexibility – The job of an e-commerce manager is unpredictable. Applicants must be willing, when necessary, to work long and irregular hours. The market changes rapidly and new developments may require a quick review of the company’s strategy. Therefore, the ecommerce manager must be up to the situation, that is, to change strategies and rethink everything at any time.
Courses to become an E-commerce Manager
The Digital Coach E-commerce Management training program includes various training courses, to be chosen according to your professional or entrepreneurial needs. We invite you to be wary of a free online e-commerce course, since in this type of course it is not possible to put into practice what you learn in the theoretical lessons, thus remaining only theoretical training. This is not the case in Digital Coach courses, which include hours of real practice of what has been learned, so as to train an experienced professional.
E-commerce courses are designed to sell online or dedicated to teaching you how to create, manage and promote an online store. You can become an E-commerce Specialist or Certified Manager by following the Digital Coach courses; follow them live online, in the classroom in Milan or on demand whenever you want.
Here’s what you’ll be able to do after attending the course:
- Knowing how to distinguish and choose the best technology/platform for your business;
- Use the software features and plan the optimal strategy;
- Generate and convert traffic for ecommerce through the main online sales channels.
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Insight: eCommerce Manager interviews
Interview with Maura Frusone
As we know, online sales are spreading enormously, in fact the market increasingly needs figures such as the E-Commerce Manager who manage this type of activity. We wanted to explore the role of this professional through an interview with Maura Frusone, Business Development Manager & Online Sales at Kaspersky Lab Italia.
What is the role of the E-Commerce Manager?
In my opinion, the E-Commerce Manager is an all-round figure since, in addition to defining the sales strategies of an online store, he is obviously also responsible for achieving the sales objectives. In addition, he has very specific digital skills that allow the management of online sales. He is certainly the figure who oversees the development and management of all the online channels where, in recent years, the Mobile channel has also been added to a channel that was typically the Web.
Another important element is the ability to control all the touch points which carries out its target customer both in the digital and in the physical world, since some Web Roaming phenomena have now become very common.
What is the average salary of an E-Commerce Manager? How much does he earn?
Another important tool that exploits the conversion attribution model, therefore the possibility of understanding what the customer’s touch point is compared to the classic Funnel which contributes most to the conversion of the user into a customer. I think these are the basic tools for this profession, then obviously there are those related to the Social part, another channel that is increasingly growing also on the e-commerce channel (not to mention the obvious knowledge that an E-commerce Manager who respect must have regard to the CMS, which are the structural basis of an online sales site, such as Magento, WooCommerce, Shopify, Prestashop, etc.)
Obviously also the entire IT world, because we work on technological platforms. Finally, the E-Commerce Manager works with outsourcing companies, because since the management of an e-commerce site is so complex, often you don’t have all the skills in house and therefore you rely on third parties.
Interview with Fabrizio Malpighi
To better understand who is pulling the strings of e-commerce, we interviewed Fabrizio Malpighi, E-commerce Manager of the Goodyear – Dunlop group which manages the B2B site of the tire giant.
So who is an E-commerce Manager?
The E-commerce Manager, by definition, is ‘the one who must constantly answer the question: “how to increase online sales“?. Anyone who occupies this position within a company deals with the development of strategies for the launch of a product or service and is responsible for everything that happens from when a customer sends the order to when he receives the goods.
Furthermore, the E-commerce Manager decides which goods or services can be sold online, which types of advertising campaigns to carry out, how the web pages of the reference site must be organized. He is a person who knows new technologies, is flexible, capable of keeping himself constantly updated and above all works and coordinates all departments of a company. Furthermore, he is gifted with negotiation and relational skills and has a natural aptitude for problem-solving.
What are the skills he must have?
Economic-managerial and more strictly technical skills are also required, such as SEO, SEM, affiliation, logistics, transport and payment methods. Specifically then the E-commerce Manager deals with the management of the online catalog, pricing, monitoring KPIs, acquiring new customers and increasing online traffic. Furthermore, he must liaise with the company’s Legal Department to take care of the aspects related to privacy and the various legislations of the markets in which he operates.
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