It’s a story that has happened time and time again. Someone opens up an ecommerce shop with hopes of growth and major revenue. Things start slow, but the shop starts to pick up some steam as time goes on. All of a sudden, the startup has turned into a real business. Sales are coming in, customers are leaving reviews, and the revenue is starting to build.
But it’s not that simple. Every seller that has been through this process knows that things get complicated once business picks up. More money, more problems. And every seller that isn’t yet aware of this should keep it in mind. Growth is the goal, but change means that you need to think through problems and logistics that were not even on your mind to begin with.
Once you’re moving ten times as much inventory, you’re going to need to think about your supply chain. How are you keeping track of everything? How are you making sure that things arrive on time? And where are you finding the hours to do everything yourself?
That last question is an important one. You might prefer being in charge of all of the logistics of your ecommerce shop, but that stops being realistic once you hit a certain point. You just can’t handle everything yourself when your store gets big enough. And that means one thing: you’re going to need to outsource.
Outsourcing is a massive tool at your disposal, and you’d be crazy not to use it. But where do you even start? This article will go over the tasks that make the most sense to outsource. Trust us when we say that taking from your own workload can completely revolutionize the way that you do business.
Copywriting
Let’s start with copywriting. For many business owners, writing is a major time sink. Think about all the tasks that you do that involve writing. You have your regular email blasts, your newsletters, your website copy, product descriptions… the list goes on.
You might be a wonderful writer. In fact, you might even be really talented at it. But if you’re a business owner, your focus should be on running your business. Creating good, thoughtful copy takes a long time, and you’re missing out on hours that could be spent on other things if you’re pondering commas and tone. There’s no reason why someone else can’t do it for you.
Copywriters are readily available, and most of them are used to working on a freelance basis. That makes it quite easy to hop online, find someone with beautiful prose, and tap them in for a project… or more. You can go ahead and hire a writer if you have enough word-related duties, but you can probably get by with simply hiring writers on a per-project basis.
One challenge you might encounter when outsourcing your copywriting, though, is making sure that the new writer captures the essence of your brand with their tone. As you likely already know, your brand identity is what makes you stand out from your competitors, and your writing should always match that.
To make sure that your copywriter hits the right tone, give them a solid introduction to who you are, what your business stands for, and your idea of what the brand is. If they’re any good, they should be able to work with that and inject their own thoughts into your existing brand conception.
Social media content
Social media is all the rage these days. It doesn’t matter if you don’t personally like it. You still need to use it if you want your online business to succeed. Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok. These are the kinds of platforms that you should be leveraging to reach as many people as possible. Each platform has its own unique demographic, and that can really help you show off your business to a wide set of eyes.
But using social media isn’t easy. Sure, teens might make it seem like you just need to hop in front of a camera in order to go viral, but it’s a much more calculated operation than that. You need to hit your hashtags. You need to know your audience. And you need to network.
How do you do that? Well, it’s tough. That’s why it’s smart to hire a social media specialist to take care of all of your Internet marketing needs. Young professionals are now being trained in how to use social media to a company’s benefit, and they’re eager to jump on new projects. Finding an intern to help you out with this kind of advertising is surprisingly easy.
A big part of social media marketing is research. To succeed, you should spend hours looking at what similar companies are doing and how you can improve. You should look into what influencers are important in your niche, and you should know whether you can reach out to them or not. If you outsource your social media accounts to someone, they can take care of all of that for you.
Much like copywriting, though, you’ll want to make sure that your social media content matches up with your brand. Take the time to thoroughly introduce any employee to your company’s identity. They should be able to cook up some good social media campaigns once they’re well versed with what you’re doing and what you’re trying to accomplish.
The biggest benefit of outsourcing your social media to someone else, though, is the fact that you’ll no longer need to spend all day on Instagram. Ahh, just imagine the freedom….
Customer service
You know what they say: “the customer is always right.” And that’s quite true. If you want your online shop to do well, you’ll need to accept that you need to cater to your customers’ desires. Sometimes they will be unrealistic… and sometimes they will even be downright rude. But for the sake of your company, you need to just roll with the punches.
And as you probably know by now, that’s not very fun. Spending all day responding to emails and taking calls to keep your customers satisfied is a massive waste of time. You should be focusing on innovating your business plan and keeping up with competition instead. That’s why outsourcing customer service is such a great idea.
First of all, it’s an easy job to find employees for. Lots of people are trained in the area of customer service, so they know the basics. If you need phone answerers, so to speak, they won’t be hard to find. Many customer service positions can be fulfilled online these days, so you’re bound to find tons of qualified candidates if you post a job listing on the Internet.
Second of all, customer service is a really big thing in the ecommerce world. Unlike brick-and-mortar stores, potential buyers will often visit your store, put things in their cart, and then just leave. They don’t feel the need to commit. Having customer service workers ready to reach out to them or answer any of their questions via a live chat option will greatly increase how many sales you close.
Finally, outsourcing customer service will make it so shopping with your store feels like a more personal experience. It’s impossible for you to answer every question that comes into your inbox, and having people at the ready to deal with issues will make customers feel cared for. That can go a long way in building a good relationship with your audience.
Website work
Many sellers work with platforms like Amazon or Shopify to sell their wares. But others operate their own sites. That means you need to worry about design, maintenance, and a variety of other issues that come along with owning a website. That’s a lot of work, and most business owners aren’t exactly experts at it.
That’s where outsourcing can help. We say “website work” to refer to the grand range of tasks that deal with keeping your site functional and pretty, and there are lots of people out there that can help you with that. Unlike other jobs that you can outsource, this one is actually a necessity for certain sellers. Unless you’re a coding expert, you’re probably out of your league when it comes to working on your website.
There are more web experts than ever nowadays, so take advantage of that fact and get one of them on your team. In fact, you might even want to consider getting more than one website worker. You’ll want people that can handle the backend – or, in other words, the actual code – but you’ll also need people that are great at web design. You want your site to look good, right?
Another thing that you can find help with here is web security. Customers expect their data to be completely safe with you, and working with others can help you make sure that that is absolutely true. The last thing you want is for your business to be ruined by some random phishing scheme.
Even if you’re working on Amazon, Shopify, or a similar selling platform, pulling in some people who really know what they’re doing when it comes to designing and organizing your online shop can still be a great idea. They’ll know all the plug-ins and themes that you need for both function and form.
Research
In the early days of your business, you’re going to want to do all of your own research. But as things grow and your days get more busy, you might find that you don’t really have the time to sit in front of the computer like you used to. This can lead to your shop falling behind competitors, and that’s the very last thing that you want.
Outsourcing research sounds like it would be hard to do, but it actually makes a lot of sense. If you can successfully communicate the subjects that you need information on, there’s no reason why someone else can’t do it. And there might even be people out there that understand search engines better than you, so outsourcing this task can actually give you a leg up.
But, of course, ecommerce research is multifaceted. When you tell someone to go and research for you, what should they be looking up? Do you want them searching for new products? What about the activities of your competitors? Business trends?
These are questions that are up to you. There will ultimately be some things that you still want to be in complete control of. If you don’t yet feel comfortable asking someone else to find new product designs for you, don’t force yourself to outsource that part of your research. Instead, just give them clear instructions about what you expect them to find. They’ll do the rest.
As you know, businesses are built on great ideas, and you might find that your own ideas get stagnant after a while. Bringing in a fresh new face who isn’t yet consumed by your niche can introduce you to completely new territory that you wouldn’t have otherwise found. That’s why outsourcing research is so powerful.
Search engine optimization
Search engine optimization (or SEO for short) is something that you are probably already very familiar with. It’s the main way that online shops can get recognized these days. If you want people to find you, you need to make sure that your store appears before anything else on search engines. If you’re way at the bottom (or even… dare we say it… not on page one), you’ll be left to stagnate in oblivion.
Okay, maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but you get the point. People come across things by searching for them these days. Maybe they find shops because they type in the item they’re looking for into Google, or maybe they specifically go to Shopify’s search bar with the hopes of finding a great gift. Either way, they’re using a search engine that relies on the principles of SEO.
Unfortunately for you, SEO is weirdly hard to understand. Sure, the basic principles are simple: if your shop features the exact phrase that someone types in, you’ll probably be high on the list. But it’s actually way more complicated than that. Metadata, captions, and other web artifacts factor in. Google is even infamous for having invisible SEO rules that they refuse to reveal.
There are people out there with intimate understandings of SEO, though, and getting one on your team can really help boost your business. They’ll take a look at every aspect of your business and seek out all the possible SEO improvements. They’ll also be ready to inspect any new content that you create for SEO errors or opportunities.
Just imagine that you’re a shop selling candles. Now imagine how many more sales you would make if you always came up first when someone searched up the word “candle” on Google. You’d be a millionaire. And while most SEO professionals won’t be quite that effective, they’ll still get you closer to that ideal than you were before. That’s the goal, right?
Graphic design
Graphics design is incredibly important in ecommerce. Your logos, buttons, menus, and product images all require robust graphic design. This ensures that you catch the eyes of your customers before your competitors do. Flashy, smart design equals sales.
Unfortunately, graphic design is incredibly easy to mess up. We’ve all seen those infamous “graphic design is my passion” memes, right? There’s only a very thin line between tasteful and kitsch, and that line seems to be constantly moving. If you’re not a very artistic person, it’s pretty hard to follow the trends and make sure that your graphics are constantly on point.
Much like any other creative position in your company, handling your own graphic design is both time-consuming and difficult. And if you’re no good at it, you’re going to damage your own business. That’s why it’s a great idea to hire someone to take care of it for you.
Graphic designers are a lot like writers in that they are used to signing on for certain projects and working on a freelance basis. If you just need someone to make a logo for you or make sure that your website is looking fresh, it’s easy to hire someone for just a short period. Just make sure that you communicate that you only need them for a project or two.
But why stop there? If you find someone who understands your artistic vision and is doing great work, it’s a great idea to hire them for longer. You’ll always need graphic design work done – think about all those emails that need to look pretty! Look for someone that you connect with and consider bringing them in for the long haul.
Photography
Here’s another task that, much like graphic design, really makes sense to outsource. Unless you’re a brilliant photographer, you’re probably going to want to hire someone to take photos for you. And even if you are great at snapping pics, it’s still probably a good idea to tap someone else in for the job to save you some hours.
Although it doesn’t seem like photography would be a major part of an ecommerce shop, think about it for a second. Your store actually requires a lot of photos. Each item that you are selling needs to have beautiful, clear product photos that demonstrate the item’s functionality. In fact, most products probably need multiple photos in order to create the best user experience possible.
Product descriptions and website organization are both important, but photos might be even more critical to get right. On the extreme end of things, imagine how bad it would be to have no photos at all. Customers want to know what they are actually shopping for, so they would immediately write your shop off. Having bad photos is only slightly better than that. That’s why it’s such a big deal to get great photos.
There are lots of websites that allow you to find quality photographers in your area. If all of those fail, though, you could always just post an ad on Craigslist. Freelancers regularly look through Craigslist for gigs, so it can be an easy way to locate good workers.
One thing to keep in mind, though, is that it may be easier to find someone in your area rather than someone hoping to work remotely. The photographer will need to have access to your items to create good pictures, so having them close by is much easier. Unless you want to ship your products to them, that is.
Finally, it would be wise to also consider finding a photographer with video skills as well. Although they don’t need to be your go-to video editor, having small videos to accompany your product photos can be quite effective. 360 product videos are quickly becoming the norm, so it would be great if your photographer could also create those.
Order fulfillment
When you first start your shop, you are likely going to spend most of your time on order fulfillment. That means finding the product, getting it ready, packaging it, and then shipping it. For a small store, this probably isn’t a very time consuming task. Once you start growing, though, the majority of your hours will be spent on order fulfillment, and it’s a very tedious process.
Outsourcing order fulfillment makes a ton of sense for a multitude of reasons. For one, it just eats up a lot of time. For two, most of your order fulfillment will happen at your warehouse once your shop gets big enough, and it may not make logistical sense for you to actually go to your warehouse. And finally, outsourcing your order fulfillment can actually cut down on your costs in the long run.
Wait, seriously? Actually, yes! Here’s how it works. When you outsource order fulfillment, you aren’t just hiring some laborer to do all of your packaging for you. Instead, you’re actually partnering with an order fulfillment organization that will take care of all of the logistics for you. They will usually have multiple warehouses around the country (or even around the world), and that means that your products will strategically ship from the closest warehouse, cutting down on shipping time and cost.
That’s a major benefit. There are lots of order fulfillment organizations out there, and many of them allow you to quickly scale up once your business starts growing. If you find that you need more storage, it’s as simple as letting your partners know that you need another warehouse somewhere new.
The best example of this is Fulfillment by Amazon. If you’re an Amazon seller, working with this program is basically a no brainer. All you need to do is set up your products to ship directly to Amazon, and they basically handle the rest. They hold onto your inventory until a purchase is made, and then they package and ship the item.
One thing you should make sure to do, though, is to compare different fulfillment services. You might find that a smaller company can save you money compared to a larger, more well-known one. As always, don’t be afraid to shop around.
Accounting and financials
Having a thorough book that accurately tracks all of your financial information is a critical step in being a good business owner. But being an accountant is hard… that’s why it’s its own profession. You might be able to handle all the tasks that go into it at first, but the accounting only gets more complicated as your business goes on.
Bringing in a financial expert to take care of all of your accounting is a really great idea. It’s incredibly easy to forget certain things or to have certain orders never make it into your books. An account will take care of all of that, making sure that you don’t ever miss anything.
An accountant will also be able to do more than just record your financials. They will be able to take a look at the raw data and get a clear picture of your store’s health. Their analysis will help you determine if you need to spend less money in certain areas or if you can spend more in others. Having a holistic understanding of your shop’s performance is an incredible asset.
Professional bookkeepers also allow you to stay up-to-date on the regulations that surround your business. While this is possible to do on your own, it can be really hard. If you miss a new law that has been passed or forget about a small rule, you might find yourself in some big trouble. That’s the last thing that you want.
Finally, working with an accountant will also give you access to far more powerful tools than you had before. There are certain programs out there that are too expensive and complicated for the average business owner to take advantage of. Accountants will be able to use these programs, and that can be a huge boon.
Marketing
We’ve already covered why it’s important to have someone handle your social media accounts, but what about marketing in general? Getting the word out about your business is incredibly important. You can’t just make a shop and hope that it will become a worldwide sensation off of good luck. You need to put your best foot forward and work hard to actually market your business.
But ecommerce marketing is tricky. It’s not like it was in the old days; you can’t just buy an ad in the local newspaper and be done with it. If you’re selling things on the Internet, you should take full advantage of the Internet. You want to advertise to your target demographic, and hiring an expert on Internet marketing will help you achieve exactly that.
There are two ways of going about this. You can either partner up with a large ad agency, or you can find an independent marketing expert. Either way, they will be in charge of your entire marketing process. Beginning with brainstorming ad campaigns, they will then go on to build the campaigns from the ground up and tweak them as the results come in. That’s the great thing about Internet marketing: a good advertising agent can quickly see how well your campaigns are doing and make edits based on the analytics.
It’s up to you how you want to go about outsourcing advertising. It’s also up to you how involved you’d like to be. If you would rather just hand everything off to someone else and let them handle it, so be it. But you’re also welcome to work alongside whoever you hire to make sure that the ad campaign fits with your idea of what your business should look like in the public eye.
Administrative tasks and personal matters
Once your shop gets big enough, it will become all-consuming. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Ideally, you’d like your shop to grow from a side hustle into a real career. But once that happens, you’ll find that you don’t have time for all of the tedious tasks that you used to deal with. You might even notice that you don’t have time to work on your own administrative tasks.
This is where outsourcing can really help. Hiring someone to take care of your own administrative tasks might seem like overkill at this point in your career, but trust us when we say it will eventually really come in handy. Let’s go over a few of the jobs that an assistant can help you with.
First off is managing your schedule. You’re going to become very busy with meetings and presentations, and it will become very hard to keep track of it all. An administrative assistant will take care of everything for you so that it’s simple to know what you need to do and when you need to do it. They often say that having a well-organized schedule is the sign of a successful business person, so don’t be afraid to get some help in that area.
Second of all, assistants can really help you out with travel arrangements. Finding flights, booking hotels, and getting rental cars takes a lot of time. An assistant will be happy to figure out all of those logistics for you whenever you need to hit the road. And although travel may not yet be a major part of your job, it soon will be.
Finally, your administrative assistant can also help you keep all of your business-related files in order. Receipts, letters, and meeting transcripts will start to pile up, and they will make sure that they are organized and readily available when you need them.
There’s a wealth of administrative tasks that you will slowly lose time for as your shop gets larger and more successful. Although hiring someone to help you with them may not be a priority now, it’s a good idea to keep this is the back of your head for later.
