Everyone talks about managing your website, marketing your products and brand, building a sales strategy – but what about the people behind your eCommerce venture? However small it may be, your employee collective is the foundation of your business and the main driving force behind long-term growth and success. Without a doubt, your employees are your most valuable assets.
The way you build your eCommerce teams and how you manage your employee collective will have an immense impact on your online store and your brand as a whole, hence the need to delve deep into this subject. Today, we are giving you the top tips for building and managing efficient eCommerce teams to drive success and growth.
Map your processes and define your needs
Before you can start hiring people and building your teams, you need to identify and define your business needs and human resources requirements. Understand that technology has significantly reduced the need for human involvement in eCommerce management, and nowadays, you can run a successful online store with a handful of employees. Of course, the number of employees you have should directly be correlated with your current needs and short, mid, and long-term goals.
Start by analyzing your eCommerce processes and create a map of your organization, making sure to note all departments and their core objectives. Assess how many people it would ideally take to run every department and conduct every task, keeping in mind that one person can sometimes perform a myriad of tasks.
Hire and onboard the right people for every job
Your goal should be to increase profits, yes, but you can only do so by making your processes more efficient. To that end, you need to hire the right people for every position and every job. There is no room for subpar performance in eCommerce management because everything you do can have an immediate positive or negative effect in such a competitive industry. In other words, if you hire the wrong person(s) to handle marketing on social media, you might alienate your SM audience for good.
Whether your employees are working under one roof or if they are scattered around the world doesn’t matter – you should conduct a thorough hiring process and comprehensive onboarding. Ensure that the employee is experienced and skilled for the job and provide any training and education necessary to unlock their full potential. After all, you have an important responsibility in this matter as well.
Improve employee visibility and time management
One of the most important elements of effective team management is visibility. No matter where your employees are in the world, you need to have a comprehensive overview of their status and spend their time at work. By implementing advanced time and attendance software into your eCommerce operation, you can get invaluable information that will help you make better managerial decisions.
This includes better managing the employees’ workflow, improving time management, oversight and monitoring, and defining the best ways to provide even better guidance for your team members. This results in elevated productivity and efficiency across the board and helps create a more positive work environment where everything runs like a well-oiled machine.
Leverage the right software to make their work more efficient
There is no denying that technology is redefining eCommerce in a big way, and you must have the right tools on hand to make your employees’ lives easier. There is no need to handle everything manually anymore, nor is it financially viable in such a fast-paced, competitive industry.
If you want to streamline the workflow and make your employees’ jobs easier and their days more productive, you need to implement the right tools into your system. These include a VoIP (voice over internet protocol) system to unify all communications, a project management tool to enable seamless digital collaboration, an inventory management system to make omnichannel sales viable e and a CRM system.
Design a comprehensive workflow for everyone to follow
Lastly, every employee should know exactly what they should be doing daily to be as productive as possible. As their leader, you should define the workflows for your department and the standard operating procedures they should follow.
Work closely with your teams to personalize these workflows and eliminate any obstacles specific to different teams and departments. The more detailed and streamlined the workflow, the better your employees will be at their jobs.
Wrapping up any factors influence eCommerce growth and success, and team management is one of them. Use these tips to build and manage thriving eCommerce teams that will take your online store forward in 2021 and beyond.
