Having an e-commerce business these days could be one of the most lucrative things to do. E-commerce is leading in the tech industry because buyers prefer to trade online rather than going to a store. It is so successful that in terms of revenue, a US shopper spends $1,804 on average on online shopping, according to Invesp. This explains why most retailers are moving to the online storefront.
If you are here, maybe you are one of them or are looking to move your retail business online. Know that competition is high and you need to have tools and tech talents in your arsenal to stay ahead. Here, we will identify some of the most essential tech talents you should have in your e-commerce business.
Director of E-Commerce
The director of e-commerce is a professional that acts as oversight of sales management. He or she creates strategies to generate sales while ensuring everyone is on the same page, achieving the same goals. The director of e-commerce also handles how company resources are invested and delegate tasks to every member of a team.
When working on a big project like establishing an e-commerce website, having some in a birds’-eye-view of every process is important. In a big company, a director of e-commerce could exclusively handle leadership tasks, but in retail companies, the person works with marketing strategies and administration.
Web Developer
A web developer is a person in charge of developing the e-commerce website. The job of an e-commerce web developer might not entail the same tasks as that of a regular web developer. E-commerce-oriented websites require a storefront-like look. Therefore, catalogs must continuously be updated and be synced with the store’s inventory system. At the same time, web developers here are required to make an aesthetically pleasing website.
These days, most e-commerce websites, like Amazon and eBay, are implementing machine learning and AI-driven segments to improve the customer experience. Some of these segments could be chatbots or a hyper-personalized catalog. By having these features, an e-commerce website has the opportunity to recognize customer preferences through the data they provide. This way, the website will show users the items they might be interested in while browsing. This process is done by using sentiment analysis and machine learning techniques, which we will cover in another topic.
Digital Marketer
A digital marketer is someone who manages social media efforts to generate more traffic to the website and build brand engagement with the customers. A digital marketer’s function is not only to post content on social media but also to create strategies that will drive more people to a company. It is also important for them to analyze data generated on the website and social media to spot errors in the digital marketing performance, study patterns in customers, and come up with the best strategies based on that information.
In terms of positioning your e-commerce website, digital marketers will work on this as well, by creating SEO-oriented strategies and content marketing. For an e-commerce business, it is crucial to implement digital marketing methods.
IT Manager
The IT technician or IT manager is someone who makes sure everyone on your e-commerce team can work with the company’s IT infrastructure. This person trains all team members to use the latest tools in the industry, handle data storage, and the overall security of your company.
Today, having a protected website from cybercriminals is one of the most fundamental things a company must do. That’s why having an IT manager is so important. These professionals work closely with others like cybersecurity engineers and cloud architects.
Remember that you’re working with a lot of data on your e-commerce website. All of this data must be stored safely and efficiently. Most e-commerce companies today work with cloud services because they’re safer and provide easy access to data no matter the location where you are. An IT manager will handle all these operations related to data storage.
Data Analyst
Today, businesses that don’t efficiently manage their data are doomed to fail against their competitors. Data can provide incredible insights that could exponentially elevate your company’s potential. That’s why it is important to have someone who knows how to handle it and most of all, how to create actionable insights. This is the job of a data analyst or a data scientist, who collects and scrapes the company’s data to identify patterns that could be valuable to form new strategies. Data analysts also spot errors that could be happening in a company’s operation.
Once the data analyst has studied and analyzed data it is time for them to show the other members of the team their discoveries through data visualization. Data analysts are especially important in sales companies, including e-commerce.
UX/UI Designers
Your website was created only for customers, so you need to make sure it is oriented into making them feel comfortable with browsing through it. First impressions matter and UX/UI designers work along web developers to create great experiences. They study customers’ behaviors when interacting with the platform to spot what aspects of the website are successful and which others need to be updated to improve customer experience.
Having a team of designers experienced in creating a functional user interface is vital for your e-commerce business.
In Conclusion
Every company today, no matter the industry, is allocating its resources to hire tech talent. This is especially important for e-commerce companies because they specialize in working in an online environment.
