Do you have "What it Takes" to Run an eCommerce Business?

The recent news about Amazon.com charging sales tax in California is creating a stir in the ecommerce world. It also begs the questions, will the law negatively affect smaller online merchants? If your sales are growing and you’re working on getting to the next level, sales tax won’t be a trivial concern, but it likely will fall to the bottom of the list. If you’re running a pretty tight ship, trying to take your business to the next level, it’s a good time to take a step back, assess your operations’ fitness to compete with the big guys who have greater resources.

When I started my ecommerce business, I was wearing many more hats than I should have. I came to realize that multitasking is the enemy of focus. In addition to my role at work, I had my kids, family, business, community and charity/non profit commitments — let alone any personal/private time. Before I could take my store to the next level, I had to truly focus and start delegating tasks. And to boot, every time I came back from a conference, I carved out at least six to seven new tasks for myself!

Which meant that something had to give and I finally hired staff to perform tasks that weren’t as involved as what an ecommerce director needed to know and manage. I also had to ask myself if each new task I created helped advance my business to the next level. Was it in alignment with my original business plan (this step forced me to reassess my business plan to see if it was still on track)?

Perfection (which is over-rated) is often a personality trait found among business owners. For those of you who find it truly difficult to let any task go, this checklist might help. Add up all the tasks below that you are responsible for, in addition to those not listed. Now, think about how much your workload will increase when you start getting a mere 5%, 10% or even 15% more site traffic.  Here’s what you have realize, the big players have dedicated employees to work on some of these specific task. They have an Director of Ecommerce and a Director of Marketing and so on. Your company is in competition with those guys, so when you move forward you have to think long and hard on where to invest your resources to stay competitive not just on product level but on a business level.

Remember, you need to plan for growth. You might be saying “But Shirley, I do have a plan. I plan to hire someone as soon as we get to xx% growth.” Start by delegating small tasks now that truly doesn’t require “y0u” to complete them and you’ll be much more comfortable taking bigger projects off your plate.

Below is a typical list of responsibilities for an Ecommerce Director whose sole job is to grow their companies online sales. I’ve divided it into 2 column, print this page out and compare this list to your company’s, who is in charge of the following task?  This is an important exercise because it will help you figure out who your company is competing with online (everyone) and what you will need to do to stay competitive.

By: Shirley Tan