What does an eCommerce merchant do?

Training as a merchant in eCommerce

The training to become an eCommerce merchant is a dual training program, i.e. theoretical instruction at a vocational school and practical training in a company. The fun lasts 3 years and at the end opens the doors to an economic field with a guaranteed future. This, of course, refers to online retailing, which now extends far beyond Amazon and eBay.

If you are only familiar with these two eCommerce giants, you are welcome to take a look at one of our nearly 500 videos to get an overview of what else is out there in eCommerce.

Basic activities of a merchant in eCommerce

The primary fields of activity are divided into 6 main criteria. Let’s now take a look at what skills the trained eCommerce merchant needs to have in order to do the job justice.

The first field is the Online store structure. Selecting the right assortment is one of the most important tasks of the merchant in e-commerce. He has to weigh up exactly which products will go down well with customers – to do this, he must always keep an eye on the target group and know the latest trends. When building an online store, many decisions have to be made, for example. which store software to use?

The spectrum ranges from Shopware, to JTL-Shop, to Shopify.

Other questions a merchant in eCommercer should be able to answer are how and where the goods should be stored and how shipping should take place. The e-commerce merchant knows what to look out for online and offline.

Enter products and key figure analysis

The second field of activity is product entry. For the e-commerce clerk, the tasks also include adding new products to the online store. For this, a new product is created, the created images and texts are uploaded and the price is set.

Third comes the key figure analysis. In online stores, advertising measures have to be adapted, images exchanged or strategies changed. The e-commerce merchant decides which ones on the basis of his analyses. In doing so, he is well versed in the key metrics of online marketing. His goal: to minimize purchase abandonments and returns, fix the store’s technical problems, and develop appropriate solutions.

However, he or she is not only required to have IT and marketing skills, but also the basics of accounting.

Accounting – a large and important field in training as an eCommerce merchant

Therefore, the fourth field contains the Edit invoices. For e-commerce clerks, classic commercial tasks, such as bookkeeping, are also part of their everyday work. Creating incoming and outgoing invoices, writing quotations or checking business accounts are also part of the range of tasks. However, an online store and everything that goes with it will not necessarily be in the black just because of its products. If you don’t know something, you can’t buy it, which is why marketing is fundamentally important.

Customer contact is also an important task in eCommerce

Accordingly, must Marketing measures are developed . Together with online marketing, e-commerce merchants create advertisements and place them where they will be seen – and in the best case, clicked – by the target group of the respective store. The last field is customer contact care. Digital shopping channels do not exclude customer contact on the job. Just as in brick-and-mortar retail, a merchant in e-commerce has contact with his customers – only online or on the phone. He advises them on problems regarding the ordering process, returns or complaints.