Daily tasks for an e-commerce manager

Online stores have given us a whole new set of habits as consumers. If in the past we used to keep an eye on our mailbox to see the advertising of our favorite store and go to see what’s new, now things work differently. And that’s why it’s important to know the daily tasks of an e-commerce administrator.

Consumer: what and how we’ve changed

Times have changed and we’re no longer waiting for the news to reach our mailbox, because in fact, we’re bombarded at all hours with newsletters, promotions and, very often, plain spam, so we no longer wait for anything: we’re approached every single day. We just have to choose what we want to see and when.

This means that we no longer go to a store to see what’s new, but, knowing the new products we want to buy, we search for the online store that sells them. The brands themselves are responsible for giving visibility and promotion to their products, so the influence or importance of that sector in retail is merely anecdotic (depends a bit on the sector, as in the technological one things are slightly different). People (potential customers) are looking for a product. And whoever sells it, as long as they’re trustworthy, it doesn’t matter.

On the other hand, what is true is that, just as we used to “flee” from all advertising mail, now it’s very common that we sit quietly to see emails about the news of a store (especially if it’s an online fashion store, decoration or technology products), or even subscribe to e-commerce newsletters, to keep abreast of what they’re doing and publishing. We can also decide to follow them on social networks, to keep us informed, comment and share the content they upload. This, 10 years ago, was unthinkable for any brand (and we’re not even talking about an SME).

Some e-commerce have managed to surpass themselves as a brand, and get a social value and community that, to date, was almost anecdotal within the commercial world. Their costumers come to establish a personal relationship with the brand, to the point of considering it a “friend” more within their personal contacts, something for which there were virtually no precedents in the business world before the digital age.

The reality is that the massive and continuous use of the internet has transformed the economic reality like no other previous phenomenon (except, perhaps, the industrial revolution), and it has been in such a short period of time, that the changes are happening faster than society is able to process. It isn’t only that consumers are overwhelmed by so much supply and new ways to sell things, but also that the companies themselves aren’t able to keep up with an industry that, every day, is trying new ways to try to grow.

New functions of the “shopkeeper”

As we mentioned in the previous section, e-commerce and, in general, the Internet as a communicative concept, has totally changed the way we buy products and relate to the brands that sell them. The reality is that, in a very short time, we’ve gone from 0 to 100. From “discovering” how Ebay worked, to, in less than a decade, buying and returning products online in a more habitual way than we do physically.

The consumer has evolved a lot in just a few years, and while it’s true that it has been the companies whom have been paving the way, today we’re all growing with each other, whether we’re companies and consumers, because everything is born and evolves depending on the use that we all make out of it. So there are technologies that start being used in a particular company, for whatever reason, and if they’re good, it can lead to general changes in all consumer habits (for example, what happened in his day with PayPal or e-commerce that work by subscription).

All these changes lead us, ecommerce administrators (“shopkeepers”), to a series of guidelines, routines and daily tasks that, although related with the same ones we did before (selling things through our store), they’ve made our range of daily activities increase significantly.

So, if in a physical store the daily tasks consisted of raising the shutter, cleaning the premises, placing products on shelves and doing the daily checkout before closing the shutter again, now we find ourselves with a whole world of activities that, although we can organize and manage them perfectly, it’s also true that they never seem to be totally done, because, being immersed in such a changing society, our routine never stops changing and adapting to that rhythm.

Daily tasks

Taking into account what we always warn that each e-commerce is a world by itself, because it responds to the needs of its sector, the demands of its public and its particularities as a company, we can make a small list of tasks that, although they’re not universal, they’re generic enough to be shared by virtually any type of e-commerce.

Here are the 12 main tasks that every online merchant has to perform on a daily basis:

• Check the customer service system and answer all pending queries on a daily basis.

This seems the most obvious, and that’s why it’s the first on the list. Once we start our daily activity, before we start doing anything else, the first thing to do is to check our inbox (whatever it is), to check if we have any direct contact from customers, either regarding an order or a query about anything else, so we can plan from there.

And then, there are a series of daily tasks that are a huge “MUST” to do every day. Remember: consistency is key in customer service.

1- Participate and interact with people on social networks

Of course, the less we can do it to answer if they’ve asked about a particular product in our catalog, or a new product they’ve heard about and want to know if you’re going to sell it as well. Don’t hesitate to comment on the photos they upload showing the products they’ve bought in your online store (never comment on their personal pics, though!). Interact with them and show them the latest new products you’ve added to your catalog, ask them for advice for new products, opinions about the ones you already have…

2- Read and answer emails

If a customer has taken the trouble to write you an email to ask more details about a product or service you have in your online store is because, have not doubt, hat person is really interested in it. Solve all their doubts by making clear why they need your product, what problem it’s going to solve, so that they can’t resist buying it.

3- After-sales customer service

Take all the orders that have been placed in the last hours, and send them an email thanking them and suggesting them to leave an opinion to improve the service or to let other users know about the product/s that they’ve ordered.

• Check the bank account to see which orders have been paid by bank transfer to put them in process as soon as possible and not delay deliveries.

The next thing you should do is enter the website of your bank (or in the app), and check if you’ve received bank transfers from all those customers who have opted for this payment option. The sooner you do this, the sooner you can start preparing their orders, not to lose time. Keep in mind that a bank transfer takes, as a general rule, one or two days, and therefore, we’re already late.

Although this should only be done if you have this type of payment in your online store. If you don’t have it, then well, one less task for you.

• Check the shipments made the previous days that are pending delivery to see if there’s any incident with any of them, in order to avoid possible claims and customers’ anger.

Sit down. Make yourself a coffee, a tea or your favorite hot drink. Breathe and, calmly, get ready to read the opinions of your customers, whether on the sales platform itself (i.e. your online store), or in the marketplace where you usually sell. Or in your social networks, your blog…wherever. Thank the good opinions, of course, but pay special attention to the bad ones, especially those in which indignation is the protagonist and try to compensate, explain or solve them as much as you can.

• Check all the new orders that have come in, to be able to make the shipments before 13:00

As the morning progresses, and as you make time for all those tasks that we’ve already mentioned, you can start to do what was supposed to be the main objective of your store: prepare the orders.

Not only you must prepare all the orders you already have in the queue once you enter the store first thing in the morning, but you should also prepare the orders from that very same day. Usually, if you do it before 13:00, the customers will receive them the next day, or at least within 48 hours. But if you wait until the afternoon to send them, they’ll arrive most likely within 72 hours. That is, 3 whole days.

• Check the returns that customers have requested, to make the return or exchange of products as soon as possible, so dissatisfied customers can go back to be happy with the service.

The day is progressing, so grab another coffee if necessary and now get ready to check the returns that have been requested by customers. It’s important that we do thins, it doesn’t matter how boring or “angering” this daily is. It’s a figure of speech, but yes, we both know that the inconvenience caused by the returns will make you work harder: you have to check that orders are properly packaged and that its contents are what they’ve requested, to avoid unnecessary returns or that are our fault.

• Check statistics to see if the store has a good growth and has no penalties

One of the most important areas for the achievement of the objectives of your online store is the analytical area, as it will let you know if the rest of the work you’re doing in your e-commerce are having an effect or if, on the contrary, you should review them to steer them in another direction.

1. Followers on social networks

It’s very important to regularly check the number of followers you have on each of your social network profiles. This will help you to know if you’re attracting new potential audience and in which channels you’re doing better or worse, which ones are worth boosting, and which ones aren’t worth investing in.

2. Number of sales

This number is basically the goal of all your work. Not only will it tell you if you’re doing it right, but it will also help you know the reach and impact of all the work you’re doing.

3. Best-selling products and brands

Knowing which products and brands sell the most in your online store will help you forecast future purchases as you can boost your sales by increasing your catalog of those brands. Or even increase your investment by buying more units of those specific products.

Conversely, you should also do the same. I mean, you should check which products and brands are hard to sell, as this data will give you a clue about the parts of your catalog that have less output and therefore, you should reduce investment on it or, directly, abandon these brands or products.

• Optimize the content (text) of top sellers products, to improve positioning

Well, just to make it clear, it’s practically impossible to position all the products in a big online shop. But if you work every day on the most important or interesting ones for customers, – and/or those that give you the most profit – you can at least position them.

To do this, bear in mind this series of tasks and do them as often as possible on a daily basis.

1- Update products and descriptions

You most likely receive new products from time to time. So add them to your online store with good descriptions and images that suit them. Check also products that maybe you uploaded in a hurry at the moment, and you might need to rewrite now, complete their features, update the information to make them more attractive to your customers… Try to improve, in general terms, everything you can.

2- SEO on Google

SEO positioning for an online store is fundamental. On a daily basis, you should select which are the keywords of your online store and place them in descriptions, titles or even in content pages such as your online store’s blog, in order to boost its positioning. This task is combined with the previous one.

Careful, though. Not all keywords can be used everywhere, or mixed… if you have any doubts, you better contact a professional SEO or agency (like Innovadeluxe!)

• Check the stock of products so as not to run out of goods, especially the products that sell the most.

To do this in an organized and coherent way, – so that you neither fall short nor overdo it, – what you should do first is to plan your sales. Plan your sales based on the data from the last year, your increase in followers, the forecast of purchases you’re going to make, the stock of products, promotions you plan to launch or any other quantitative data that you’ve been collecting and might be of use.

Secondly, plan your purchases. Based on the data of the last months or even the last year, you can make a forecast, at least approximate, where you should plan your purchases to try to avoid stock breakages. And the consequent loss of customers for not finding the products they want.

• Check what the competition is doing

This can be a weekly task, although it’s advisable to do it on a regular basis, a couple of times a week at least. What you need to do is to investigate the sector of the market in which you’re in, looking at what several stores that are competitors are doing. Dedicating half an hour or an hour every day to this, to be always aware of what others are selling and at what prices, will help us to draw pricing strategies that allow us not to be out of market.

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The truth is that we could go on, because we’ve barely touched all the daily tasks derived from the administration and updating of our backoffice. Not to mention, as we’ve read above, everything related to our daily tasks in social networks, which is no small matter (as it will take us a few hours every day).

We’ll come back to this on future posts to complete the topic, but, honestly, if for the moment you’re able to fulfill all these daily tasks, you can be happy, because this means you’re a true professional when it comes to your store.

So now, take out your notebook or your excel sheet, and start writing down everything you have to do every day. Marking with a “check” each finished task will not only help you to keep an order and a coherent organization, but it will also give you a little satisfaction for seeing it finished, right?

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