If you’ve been running an e-commerce store for a while, chances are your store grew over time. While you could realistically handle everything yourself at the beginning now, it seems that if you want to expand, you’ll have to get a team. But where do you even start?
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You have to #assign jobs, split into teams, #hire experts in their field of work, etc. The list goes on and on. Click To TweetWhat you need is a good plan. In today’s article, we’ll give some quick tips about creating and maintaining a highly efficient e-commerce team. So, grab a pen, and let’s get straight into it.
Think about how Many People You Have To Hire
No two businesses are the same, and even though you have plans of expanding in the future, you’re hiring now. Take some time to consider how many employees you need as well as which positions you have to fill ASAP. Hiring over your financial limit can leave you at a loss and slow down the growth of the business.
Once you have all the calculations and are confident of the number of employees needed, make sure to position them strategically. This is the only way your business can advance long-term. Hire more as you grow, and don’t bite off more than you can chew.
Managers and Responsabilities
Just like a traditional brick-and-mortar store, e-commerce has to have some sort of operational hierarchy. A manager ensures that everything is running smoothly and directs the team. Depending on the size of the business, this may not be a full-time position but a part-time one for the time being.
This can change eventually, but someone has to be in charge; otherwise, nobody is. The responsibilities of a manager may vary, depending on the industry you’re in. However, there are some common ones you should take note of.
The responsibilities of a manager:
- monitoring sales
- implementing new strategies
- overseeing the team
- managing relationships with the suppliers
- gathering feedback and monitoring user accounts
- often even to create a paystub
Workflow and Work Culture
Each and every member of the team must know what’s expected of them. If that’s not the case, you’ll end up with mixed results and many, many mistakes along the way. Online teams use collaboration tools or team management software.
This is also advisable for in-house teams. Using a collaboration tool allows you to make everything clear, assign tasks and deadlines, and also improve communication. When it comes to managing employees, teamwork is the key.
In addition, keep in mind that a team is made up of individuals, each with their unique skills and talents. Be ready to accept that each team member will add to your business in a unique way. Create a welcoming work culture where the employees are appreciated for their talents. We know this may sound a tad cheesy, but you get what you give.
Staff Education and Tools
When implementing new systems into any business, it’s of vital importance that every staff member is equipped with the knowledge of how to operate them. If the change is substantial, there’s a high chance you’ll have to make room in the budget for staff training.
Navigating shipping rules and tracking can be a demanding job, and you might even need two people for it. But if you’re using something like WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping, you’ll be able to set up shipping rules across countless zones and customize them by weight, item count, etc.
By utilizing a proper shipping plugin, you could take hours out of the setup process, as well as avoid costs in the development stage.
The same thing applies to data. We all know data is vital for growing a business. But exporting order data can be a tedious task. Making the export easier with the help of WooCommerce Order Export, you’ll not only make a time-consuming task faster but connect it to other essential tools like Google Analytics in a manner of minutes.
Website Maintenance and Development
It doesn’t matter if you’re just expanding or building a new business from scratch; if you’re going big, you’ll need someone to take care of everything tech-related. However, if your business is still small, a freelancer willing to do this on and off when needed is worth considering.
This won’t cost as much, but your tech needs will be taken care of. Two things you need to consider are the back-end and front-end.
Now, some experts possess a skill set that could handle both. However, these people charge a pretty penny for their services. So, if only one is immanent for you right now, asses which one it is and take it one step at a time.
Hire a Digital Marketer
Digital marketing takes many forms, email marketing, PPC, SEO advertising, etc. You cannot possibly hire one of each, and no one person possesses all of the necessary skills to encompass all of them. In order to find out which one to hire, assess what your primary marketing objective is and go from there.
Do you want to get more organic traffic and rank better on Google – employ an SEO expert. Is your primary goal to collect and convert more leads – an email marketing specialist it is.
Reassess
As your business grows, so does your need to hire more people. Large companies invest heaps of money into HR departments to ensure they have the correct number of people and everything is flowing smoothly. This is one of the main reasons why you should consider using an HR management tool.
While the business is still small, you’ll be able to assess when more people are needed organically. But once the team starts to grow, it’s a lot harder to keep things in check.
Final Thoughts
Putting together a competent and effective team takes time and planning. But it does, in the end, ensure the success of the business long term.
Make sure you know what your business needs and hire accordingly. In addition, automation software and the utilization of proper tools can help the team work more smoothly. When a store is well-operated, customers do like it more and keep coming back, time and time again. If you want to learn more, check out Gepard PIM software.