Running an eCommerce business isn’t everyone’s cup of tea! If you think you can build a 6-figure revenue model business just by getting a great domain name, catchy theme, and amazing products – you need to shift your perception.
E-commerce skills are what make a business thrive in a competitive environment.
There are many business skills that new entrepreneurs are not aware of. In the beginning, you will be the only person for doing almost every job like sales, marketing, recruitment, etc. All of these require different competencies that you need to master. After being in eCommerce for over 6 years, I’m here to reveal the most crucial skills you must master for running a successful eCommerce business.
1. Work on Your Mindset – Most Important Skills You Need for eCommerce Business
1.1. Right Mindset and Critical Thinking – 2 Mental Pillars of eCommerce!
Remember, growing an eCommerce business requires a lot of time, effort, and dedication, you need to reprogram your state of mind so that you can deal with all the challenges as an entrepreneur.
My advice to you is this:
- Believe in yourself: Don’t let fear or minor setbacks stop you from pursuing your venture.
- Do the hardest things first: Never ever do the thing you dread most at the last minute because if you do so, you’re setting yourself up for failure.
- Learn from your mistakes: Mistakes are good, and they’re a part of every aspect of our lives. Don’t get discouraged if you make any, see them as lessons learned and move forward.
- Failure is part of the process: Everyone fails at some point, don’t let yourself drown in sorrow and pity. If you’re feeling down, take a day off, reconsider what went wrong, and get back to work the next day with immense enthusiasm.
Critical thinking is a skill you will need to develop constantly. For someone who owns a business, the ability to quickly analyze ideas and opportunities is key for the company’s growth.
Furthermore, it’s crucial for everyday operation – as an eCommerce manager, you will constantly need to make logical and informed decisions on your feet. If you’re unable to go through this at any point, you might end up losing it all.
Here are a few aspects of critical thinking that you should start with:
- Looking at situations from every possible angle
- Finding good reasoning for all arguments you make
- Understanding what certain statements imply
Everyone believes they’re good at thinking critically, but in most cases, that’s not true. Don’t get stuck with what you already know, keep pushing one step ahead everyday to be better than yesterday.
1.2. Problem Solving – Most Crucial Skill You Need for An eCommerce Business
While running a company, encountering problems become a part of our day-to-day life. Solving them in an efficient and timely manner is a skill that people won’t mind paying for.
However, it’s not that challenging to become an expert problem-solver, there are just several aspects you will need to improve on first:
- Emotional intelligence: Recognizing and understanding others feelings and your own is a key to finding the appropriate solutions.
- Risk management: Every action you take has an innate risk. It’s your job to evaluate it and determine if it’s worth taking on.
- Researching skills: When you’re faced with an unknown situation, you must be able to research on the fly so that you can consider all possible options.
- Decision-making: Oftentimes, you have to choose between several solutions in a few hours or even minutes. This is the part where you can turn the table, either negatively or positively.
1.3. Communication – Important to Connect All the Dots In eCommerce
Having a business means constantly communicating. With your providers, your customers, and your colleagues.
Communication skills are the bread and butter of management as they take various forms in the online world.
As an eCommerce entrepreneur, you need to deliver your message to the customer base through e-mail and social media. For that, you will need great written communication skills.
As a manager, you have to be able to lead conversations with your employees that build trust.
And… As an owner, you’re required to lead negotiations, so you have to master that art as well.
2. Marketing Skills You Need for eCommerce Business
2.1. eCommerce Search Engine Optimization
You’re a small and unknown online company that wants to grow. What would you do?
You develop an eCommerce SEO marketing strategy. To put it simply, SEO is the process that makes sure your website is visible whenever potential customers are looking through the web for something you can offer.
By utilizing the power of search engine optimization, you can grow your company rapidly, as the store gets a higher and higher rank on the search engine results.
In my opinion, SEO is the pinnacle of organic marketing, and it’s a way to achieve incredible results without having to pay for advertisements.
Once you master it, it’s likely to outperform any other marketing tool you may have.
Product Description SEO Writing – You Might Regret Not Doing This!
There’s one thing you need to know about search engines – they operate like a web directory that looks through thousands of websites while searching for a term.
To find the most relevant result for the user, search engines use algorithms that evaluate the originality and relevance of every web page.
And that’s what we’re looking for – we want to go amongst the highest-ranked ones so that we can get more traffic to our store.
One way to do that is by ensuring that the product descriptions on your website are focused on our niche and band. They must be SEO-friendly, well-written, and entertaining to have the needed pull.
Don’t skip this step, thinking that it’s just a small detail – it’s not.
In reality, great content can easily help you reach thousands of potential customers.
2.2. Email Marketing
Sending out ads through email may seem a little old-fashioned to you, but research still shows that it’s one of the most effective marketing tools you can have in your arsenal.
Becoming skilled in e-mail marketing will increase your store’s reach to potential customers.
One of the major benefits of written communication is the ability to talk to your customers directly. It allows you to tell the story of your brand – why you started it, what you’re offering, what you believe in, and thus create a connection with your clients that goes beyond sales.
Furthermore, through e-mail marketing, you can inform your customer base about upcoming products.
One thing I love doing is sending special bonus codes to some of my loyal customers – to show them that the company notices their loyalty and wants to give back.
2.3. Marketing Automation for Scalability
Through marketing automation, you can manage marketing functions with the help of automation platforms.
Such tools boost conversation rates, sales and improve the customer experience while reducing your business’s marketing cost.
So, don’t sleep on utilizing marketing automation software, it will get some load off your back while still being extremely effective.
3. Analytical & Technical Skills You Need for eCommerce Business
If you want to be an eCommerce tycoon, you have to develop a love for data and analytics.
Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you get my point. When we fire up our laptops and open the browser, we get a constant stream of information from everywhere. The point is – you need to know how to use it in the best possible way.
One of the first things you need to learn is how to utilize marketing performance management tools such as Google Analytics. They can help you understand which page of your store is working and which is not. Based on that analysis, you can implement changes for your next test campaigns so that the marketing game can become more effective.
Furthermore, a good idea is to take up accounting. Finance may sound boring, but if you want to run a company, you have to understand the basics like – balance sheets, cash flow, profit & loss statements, and other similar things – they shouldn’t look Chinese to you.
Knowing your business’s financial situation gives you the crucial insight you need so that you can make an informed decision for the future.
Bitter But Helpful
Being an entrepreneur is not an easy job because you have to learn and improve everyday.
So, my advice is – be smart, research what you don’t know, seek help whenever you’re stuck and always strive to be a bit better today than you were yesterday.
Don’t stop refining your skills, even when you have a successful company.
Owning a business is a continuous journey, and you need to keep up with the times to stay afloat.
The Author
Azfar K is an eCommerce ninja at conversionskitchen.com. He has been writing awesome stuff about eCommerce for over 4 years. Thank you for having a look at his extensive write-ups on our blog.