It’s no secret that to win online you need a strong team supporting the company’s ecommerce efforts. Everything related to product content, from its creation, management, syndication and updating is crucial to driving sales on sites like Amazon, Walmart, Target, and hundreds of others have started realizing the importance of having an effective team in place that can ensure consistency, quality and growth of the product lines. In fact, according to a recent study commissioned by the Cleveland Research Company on Best Practices for Ecommerce Teams revealed that 66% of brands in ecommerce are planning to hire professionals in the field before or during 2019.
So, what are winning and growing brands looking for in an ecommerce team? What skills and abilities are they looking to hire for in the next year?
Experienced Leadership & Niche Roles
Brands that are looking to continue growing in 2019 have recognized the need for an experienced and knowledgeable industry professional that has a strong grasp of the growing market. This role must be filled by someone who can lead the team in the right direction --towards sustained ecommerce growth and success, but they aren’t just looking for generalists. Almost half of the brands surveyed said that the three most sought-after positions for the upcoming year were data analysts, account managers and content managers, all niche positions that require a higher degree of skill and technical background. Some other niche roles that will see an ecommerce hiring bump in 2019 include marketing services experts, day-to-day project managers, and content creators.
Channel-Specific Expertise
In addition to searching for specific ecommerce-related skills, brands are also looking for professionals with channel-specific experience, mainly Amazon and Walmart, the two largest online retailers in the country that are projected to keep growing in 2019. Being able to understand the nuances of each retailer, anticipate changes in requirements and build relationships with potential partners is crucial to these brands, especially considering over 67% of them are looking for professionals that can bolster their online presence and increase product page conversions.
Quality Vs Quantity of Talent
Even though the Cleveland Research Report suggested that ecommerce teams grow by 1-3 employees in 2019, it may be more beneficial for brands to make a smaller or larger investment in talent in the upcoming year. The magic number of people for a successful ecommerce team varies greatly by industry and company size a brand finds itself in and will depend almost entirely on the maturity of a company’s ecommerce initiatives. Larger, more digitally developed brands may want to invest in growing their team exponentially and harnessing that to deliver sales while smaller brands may want to instead invest in technology and software that allows a preexisting team to automate processes and increase individual employee output.
Increasing Product Page Visibility
At the end of the day, if a brand’s products are not visible online, it’s ecommerce efforts have failed. Making sure products are discoverable and visually appealing is quickly becoming one of the most popular and in-demand jobs in ecommerce. This means that professionals skilled in online advertising, Amazon Marketing Services (AMS), paid ads and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are becoming commodities in the market. In 2019, brands are prioritizing visibility, which means knowledge of the online advertising industry, optimization, and metrics reporting will become even more valuable to future employers in the space.
Building an adequate ecommerce team is not an easy task, but everyday there are more professionals in the field looking to help brands deliver superior product experiences and deliver sales. With 2019 poised to be one of the biggest years in ecommerce, companies need to start looking for the best talent and skills to win online.
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