Online Store Management

To ensure that your online store is running smoothly and your customers are getting a great online shopping experience, you need to have an effective online store management system in place.

Online store management covers a wide range of tasks and responsibilities all geared towards providing an excellent user experience and ensuring successful transactions. These include, but are not limited to customer service, inventory management, order processing, product listing optimization, etc. Learn more about what an online store management expert can do for you, whether you own a small business or a large online store, below.

An online store management virtual assistant (VA) performs a variety of tasks to ensure that your eCommerce business is running as smoothly as possible. Online retail management VAs can specialize in a particular marketplace such as Amazon, eBay, Jet, Etsy, Shopify, etc. They can also be general online store management VAs who can be trained to work on a custom-made eCommerce website or specialized eCommerce tools. No matter what eCommerce platform you use, there’s definitely a VA who can help you manage your online store.

Since eCommerce store management covers many bases, it is advisable to hire a VA that focuses on a specific task or a few related tasks rather than hiring just one VA to cover all the bases.

You might already have an idea about what tasks to delegate to an online store management VA, but it helps if you know as many of these tasks as possible. After all, you definitely want to maximize your VA’s potential, right?

Here are some of the tasks that online store management VAs can help you with:

• Product Listing Upload – uploading listings to your website or Amazon, eBay, or Shopify stores.
• Keyword Research – looking for keywords or phrases that will lead more potential customers to your website.
• Product Listing Optimization – improving your listings with top keywords, images, videos, and better product descriptions.
• Product Photo Editing – editing your product photos to make them more appealing to buyers.
• Inventory Management – ensuring that your store is properly stocked at all times and reducing overstocking.
• Bulk Data Entry – entering important product data into various online tools and databases.
• Product Research – looking for new products to add to your online store.
• Supplier & Discount Research – looking for the best deals among new and current suppliers to ensure maximum profits.
• Order Fulfillment – ensuring that your customers get the correct products on time.
• Refund Tracking – keeping track of return and refund requests, approving claims, and ensuring correct refund amounts.
• Customer Service – responding in real time or as quickly as possible to customer questions about your products, shipping, and any other customer concern.
• Feedback Monitoring & Management – reading and responding to customer feedback and ensuring that important feedback is funneled to the correct team or person for resolution.
• Supplier and Warehouse Coordination – liaising with suppliers and storage facilities for inventory stocking.

These are just some of the important online store management tasks that you can assign to a virtual assistant. Most VAs who specialize in managing online stores can handle most, if not all, of these tasks. However, it’s important not to let a single VA handle all of the tasks above especially if you have a pretty large or busy store.

As mentioned above, different tasks for online businesses require different VAs, each with their own specializations. For instance, an online store management VA specializing in inventory management will need to have exceptional attention to detail, an expansive knowledge of any relevant software you’re using, and reliable reporting skills. On the other hand, a VA specializing in product listing optimization should have a solid keyword research background, good writing skills, and maybe some background on competitor research.

To ensure that you’re hiring the right VA for the job, you need to have a comprehensive job description prepared first. Here are some basic guide questions to help you formulate a solid job or task description:

• What types of products are you selling?
• What channels are you selling on? (Ex. Amazon, eBay, Shopify, Etsy, etc.)
• What tools or software are you using?
• What online store management services or tasks will you assign to your VA? (Ex. Inventory management, product or listing upload and editing, payment processing, customer service, return and refund management, etc.)
• How big is your online store? How many customers do you serve each month? How many sales do you make each month?

Having the answers to these questions will help you know exactly what you need to look for in your future eCommerce store management VA. Once you’re sure that you know what you’re searching for, schedule a consultation call to let 20four7VA know what you need from your eCommerce store management VA.

When choosing your VA, it’s important not just to look at their past experience and the skills listed in their resume. Test their resourcefulness, analytical thinking, and attention to detail with some really good questions during the interview as well.

Are you ready to hire your online store management virtual assistant? Fill out our Pre-Consultation Form and let’s talk about your VA needs.