If you look around, a lot of friends and family members will be experimenting with the idea of setting up an eCommerce business. Why? There are several reasons, including the ease of setting up an online store and the fact that it requires very little investment compared to other businesses.

While starting an online store is easy, its success is not guaranteed. After all, given the increase in competition, carving out a market share is easier said than done. Nevertheless, there are certain skills that can help increase your chances of ensuring success in the eCommerce field. This article lists ten such skills.

Let’s get started.

A Few Statistics About eCommerce

The following information has been obtained from Statista:

• The global revenue of eCommerce is expected to be US$4,117.00bn in 2024.

• China generates the most revenue at US$1,469.00bn.

• Amazon commands a 20% share in the global eCommerce market.

• China’s JD.com has a market share of 14%.

Top Skills to Ensure Success in eCommerce

1. Search Engine Optimisation

The first thing you are going to do after setting up an eCommerce store is to market it, right? After all, how else will you reach your target audience? Surely, you cannot knock on the doors of your would-be customers. When it comes to marketing, you have the option to choose from social media marketing (SMM), search engine optimisation (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) ads, and more.

SEO helps increase the quality and quantity of organic traffic coming to your store, making it a must-have marketing strategy. If you are not well-versed in SEO, you can opt for relevant extensions. For instance, if your store is based on Magento 2, go to Google and search for Magento 2 SEO Extension. Draw a list of top five extensions, compare them, and finalise one.

A feature-rich extension can go a long way in optimising your store. For instance, they can provide information related to keywords, backlink strategy, and even identify duplicate content. You even uncover more information such as the bounce rate or average duration per session. This information is essential in improving your store and engaging with your audience.

2. Negotiation

Suppose you wish to sell mobile phone covers. The first thing you’ll do is look for reliable parties that meet your product requirements. For instance, you may be offering customised leather mobile covers or something unique that helps you differentiate your store from others. You may begin your search online or use personal contacts to help find the suppliers.

Let’s say you manage to find five suppliers that meet your criteria. Your goal is to convince them to offer you the lowest prices without compromising on product quality or aesthetics. This is where negotiation skills come into play. If you cannot convince them to offer lower prices, you’ll have no option but to pass the prices onto the target audience. They may not be willing to pay high prices, especially for an unknown brand.

Thus, through give and take, you can easily negotiate an agreement that benefits all concerned parties. We do recommend having at least three reliable suppliers. Thus, even if one supplier is unable to fulfil the requirements down the road, you can easily shift to the other two without facing any major business disruption. A delay in shipments can undermine the user experience.

3. Understanding the Sales Funnel

For any business owner, understanding the sales funnel is a must-have skill. The simplest way to describe it is that it is a visual representation of a prospective customer’s purchase journey. As you can see from the above image, there are four stages. The first stage is awareness, followed by interest, desire, and action. eCommerce store owners need to tailor their store based on this funnel.

In the awareness stage, the audience first becomes aware of your product. Therefore, your content should be focused on explaining the product. For example, if you are offering a Magento 2 SEO Extension, the content should explain SEO extensions, its key features, and why store owners need it. You can create infographics related to importance of SEO for an online store.

In the interest stage, you can offer live demos to demonstrate your SEO extension. In short, by understanding the sales funnel and formulating a comprehensive content strategy around it, you can easily capture users. It can take some time to master the sales funnel since the strategies and type of content would vary for each product. However, the time investing in learning it will undoubtedly be worth it.

4. Time Management

Unless you have a large team to manage the online store, you’ll be managing different responsibilities simultaneously. You’ll be uploading products, updating descriptions, carrying our competitor research, and replying to customer requests side by side. It makes time management a critical skill. If you spend too much time on one aspect, others will fall behind schedule.
Given how each task is interrelated and critical to your store’s success, there is no room for error. Many store owners use project management tools like Asana to keep track of things that need to be done. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you identify a tool that can help you manage your store efficiently. Otherwise, you’ll quickly end up frustrated.

5. Stress Management

As said earlier, as a store owner, you’ll be managing various areas simultaneously. Naturally, store owners take on a lot of stress. If one’s not careful, this stress can quickly become a health risk. Therefore, regular breaks from work and using stress management techniques can be a great way to boost one’s overall health. If you are working while stressed, you’ll facing difficulties in managing even minor problems.

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6. Content Creation

Whether it’s the product images, posts for social media channels, or writing a blog, store owners spend a great deal of time creating content. Therefore, you should be well-versed in the art of content creation. With the rapid increase in AI tools, creating content shouldn’t be a problem anymore. All you need to do is ensure that it is fit for humans.

7. Mastery Over Artificial Intelligence Tools

Speaking of AI tools, one needs to know how to make effective use of them. Anyone can ask ChatGPT to write an article on benefits of a Magento 2 SEO Extension for eCommerce stores. However, this content will not rank on search engines nor drive any meaningful engagement.

The reason is that it is not personalised based to your store’s requirements and target audience. Therefore, you need to perfect your AI tool prompts. The only way to do it is through practice. Once the AI tool generates the content, you’ll only have to make minor adjustments to ensure its fit for sharing on your website or social media profiles.

8. Understanding eCommerce and Business Laws

Depending on where you live, you may need a license to set up your eCommerce store. You also need to determine whether you are going to establish the store as a company, partnership, or sole proprietorship. The laws and tax liabilities governing each vary. Therefore, we recommend checking with the relevant bodies in your country before engaging in this work.

9. Data Analytics

As a store owner, you’ll soon realise the importance of data which is often referred to as the new oil. When it comes to data, there are two things to keep in mind. First, you need to ensure that you are collecting the right data. For instance, you’ll notice that most of the world’s top eCommerce stores have customised their registration and checkout pages.

They are asking for information that none of the other stores ask. Why? They realise that the customised fields provide them with data that enables them to hyper-personalise the experience for each individual user.

However, this is not possible without the second thing – effective data utilisation. The gathered data is only good as your ability to analyse and interpret it. With advanced data analytic systems in place, store owners can easily make sense of the collected data. This is what enables them to personalise shopping experiences. For example, discounts and promotions can be based on individual user preferences rather than generic.

10. Patience

Finally, if you are aiming for long-term success, you need to have patience. If you panic over the slightest inconveniences, then running a business let alone an online store may not be for you. In any business, there are ups and downs. There may be a time when you go days or even weeks without a single sale. Use this time to identify weaknesses in your products and other strategies.

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Final Thoughts

This concludes our article on the top ten eCommerce skills you need to run a successful store. Of course, these are not the only required skills, but they do provide a robust foundation on which to build your store. As you progress, you can explore other areas such as website design and development, advanced marketing strategies, product pricing, and more. If you are ever run into trouble, you can always hire an eCommerce development company. They’ll identify and fix any issues promptly.

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