Careers in e-Commerce

A recent article in the Times of India claimed “if you are looking at having the hottest job at the coolest workplace and have the passion to do something different and think laterally, e-commerce is the place to be!”

ASSOCHAM, states that India's e-commerce market grew at a staggering 88 per cent in 2013 to $16 billion. This sector now employs 1000s of people to fill the huge number of positions coming up every year. CRISIL claims that an annual growth of 50- 55% is expected and e Commerce is set to grow 10 times in the next 10 years fueled by increasing internet and mobile penetration.

Where are the openings

Whether the roles are in technology, marketing, product, content, PR, sales or whatever, the prime requirement is that everything is focused on just one result; the customer buying something from you and “customer experience” is key to success.

Shopping, today, has been simplified by the e-commerce industry. In this technology driven industry the prime requirement is to understand a customer’s behaviour – especially online behavior, his psychology when he clicks open a website.

The website is the store but the web business comprises of many activities, from digital marketing, supply-chain management, logistics and warehousing to call centres. To make sure that the customer experience is absolutely bang on, the look and feel of the site, ease of navigation – including mundane technical stuff like time for a page to load etc. are also important.

Marketers in e-commerce will need to ensure that what the customer searches for and the information that the customer is seeking when he/she is online is easy to find. Content curation and aggregation is a job unique to this industry.

“Fulfilment” makes or breaks the business so there is need for business intelligence and technology support and excellent supply chain & delivery processes. Multimedia management, research, content management, editing and visualising, online merchandising and photography, product expertise like expertise in fashion, style, knowledge of tech gadgets etc. is required.

This has opened the floodgates for a whole host of professionals to find their niche in this industry, from content managers and business analysts, to social media managers, logistics and “fulfilment” support professionals apart from marketing & online merchandizing and technology professionals.

What are they looking for?

E- commerce is the future of shopping and trade. Imagine shops, stores or entire malls fitting into a few megabytes in a small smartphone. There is extremely aggressive competition in the e-commerce segment today and all e-commerce companies are hiring only the best who could fit into this industry.

Getting a job in a good e-commerce company requires preparation and acquiring appropriate skills. This is a business of selling merchandise to consumers. Retail skills in merchandising, logistics and warehousing, CRM, web based & mobile technology skills and competencies are areas where e-Commerce companies will check you while making a selection.

Internal teamwork and collaboration is absolutely essential in e-commerce companies  and interested candidates must have good communication skills, flexibility and enthusiasm for the continuous collaboration that is required in this industry.

One has to be able to handle tension, adapt fast to new situations, take quick decisions and have a sense of adventure. Ability to constantly innovate, creativity and boundless enthusiasm fuel the industry and are required to make an e-commerce company standout amongst the large numbers coming up every day.

To sum up, e-commerce offers an exciting new opportunity with a constantly changing work environment. It exposes a professional to all the essentials of business functioning - product marketing, supply chain, pricing and profit management, customer acquisition, cross-selling, up-selling, customer service and much more. Not many jobs give such an all- round exposure. Globally, the sector is booming and is expected to grow to $675 billion by 2016. So, go for it if you have what it takes!