The Ecommerce industry has seen a mega-rise in recent years. The future of the Ecommerce industry during the COVID scenario has again shown the potential of this industry. 

It simply means the demand for ecommerce recruitment will be at an all-time high. New startups are rising day by day, and what do they have in common? A good core of the ecommerce team. The companies are looking for candidates that take their company to the next level in terms of growth. 

For those who don’t know where to start, you need to hire an Ecommerce leader. You need to have your talent acquisition strategy in place. You need your recruiter to work accordingly and stay in sync with the hiring needs. This article provides all the information on how to hire an ecommerce leader for your company and what questions you can ask them during the interview process. 

What does an Ecommerce Leader Do?

An ecommerce leader is responsible for cross-functional to manage and direct the aspects of the ecommerce business. It includes: 

• Building a strategy, developing, executing content plans and planning. 
• Oversee the generation of promotional campaigns and materials. 
• Monitoring website traffic, product performance and performance analytics.
• Other team responsibilities depend on the company. 
• Oversee the brand’s ecommerce website.
• Building a successful ecommerce team. 

Ideally, you need a person who has several years of experience in many areas of information technology and online marketing. They also play their role in hiring, building and improving their team. 

Skills You Require In An Ecommerce Leader

Like any other position, an ecommerce leader needs to have the necessary skills. These skills are directly related to the job responsibilities that we have mentioned above. Identifying the skills will help you in making a great hire responsible for the growth of your company. Here are the skills: 

• Understanding KPIs and analytics

An ideal candidate will understand the data and reporting is possible via the channel. They need to know whether they can rely on data or not. The main thing with such a high profile is that sometimes they are not fully involved with the tasks. It is common for them to take the accomplishments of the team members. So, they must understand the technical skills. 

The way recruiters can test it is by matching their reporting with the accomplishments they have mentioned. For example, If they highlight PPC as their accomplishments and most of the site’s results are SEO driven. 

If an ecommerce leader can’t read the numbers for you, then the business has already failed. 

• Management and people skills

An ecommerce leader needs to work with different departments. As much as technical know-how this position requires, it needs communication and management skills as well. 

E-Commerce is a team sport, and the ecommerce leader needs to collaborate with other teams and other vendors or agencies for their work. There is a day to day communication that gets required for this job profile. It means cross-collaboration and interpersonal skills are a must while working for an ecommerce company. 

How management and communication skills help an ecommerce leader: 

1. Manage ecommerce team members.
2. Gathering feedback from the customers.
3. Managing marketing and PR communications. 
4. Managing agreements with ecommerce suppliers. 

• Marketing skills 

Marketing includes everything from content strategy to the advertising process on social media. Marketing is vital because that’s how you sell your brand or product to customers. 

An ecommerce leader needs to have a familiarity with search engine optimization. It depends from business to business, but SEO is one thing that helps in marketing quite a lot. Some popular marketing ways are to use Google Ads, Instagram, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn, Twitter Ads or even via TikTok. Ensure that you don’t want your Ecommerce leader to stay clueless on marketing.

• Experience with companies having similar revenue 

When there is a change in revenue tier, things get pretty different. It is where e-commerce leaders need to adjust. Some have worked with high revenue, and now working with less revenue needs different skill sets. 

Go with an ecommerce leader that has experience with companies of your size. If they have experience with the bigger companies, they can understand the changes as your company grows. 

Tips to Hire An Ecommerce Leader For Your Company

Like every job position, there are certain things you must keep in mind before recruiting an ecommerce leader. Here are the following tips and strategies to help with ecommerce recruitment: 

• Clear job descriptions 

Be specific about who you want to hire. Stay clear with your vision and what you want to achieve. The titles can be pretty confusing for the candidate. The first thing a recruiter wants is to attract the wrong candidates. In the long run, you won’t be able to hire anyone, and all of it will be a waste of time for the candidate and your company. 

It can leave a negative impression on the candidate that is of utmost importance. You might think that you need an ecommerce leader, but your job description can be misleading, that you are looking for someone with CRM, Paid Media, with social media experience. It is all you can find in a digital marketing manager. 

To overcome this problem, the recruiter needs to include key phrases like “proven success in e-commerce” to know the candidates what you are looking for. 

• Lay down specific goals 

There is a gap in your business that needs to get fulfilled. You need the new hire to fulfil it. Make a checklist of goals you will achieve by hiring the ecommerce leader and then hire them based on their ability to meet these goals. 

It is a vital aspect of your recruitment process, so don’t base any choices a person can make. You need to verify the claims a candidate makes during the hiring process. If they can explain the situations they have handled, then they are safe for hire. 

• Don’t only hire from your niche.

Yes, it is preferable to hire an ecommerce leader from your niche. But sometimes experience matters a lot, and a candidate may have the needed experience in a different niche. If they meet all the necessary qualifications, then they might be a good fit for your company. 

When it is about the industry experts such as e-commerce leaders they know how to adapt to other industries simply. That is what they do to keep in sync with the market. 

• Check their online presence.

Nowadays, online presence means a lot. It can help to determine everything. Before finalizing a candidate, it is better to check their social media profiles such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Don’t only limit yourself to social media but do check their portfolios, previous places they have worked. At a minimum, you must Google your new hire. And check whether he has a working profile or not. 

• Ask the right open-ended questions.

As a recruiter, you need to ask the candidates to walk you through the tasks and all they have done and the things they have accomplished. Here are some of the questions to keep in mind: 

    Why do you want to join this company? Why this job?

These questions tell you a lot about the candidate’s background and what they think about the company. Include why now can tell you whether they are happy with their last job and what they are looking to accomplish in their new position. 

• What’s a trend you recently read about that might impact the business or industry in general? 

What influencers do they follow, what trends do they prefer? You want to hire someone who doesn’t just stay on top and critically thinks about it. 

• What challenges are you looking for in this ecommerce leader position? 

It is a typical interview question to determine what you are looking for in your next job. Whether you are a good fit for the job or not. A recruiter is looking for challenges to discuss how you would like to effectively utilize your skills and experience if you get hired for this job. As a candidate, you can describe by giving specific examples of challenges you have met and achieved in your previous job. 

• Why should we hire an ecommerce leader? 

It is the part where you list your skills, experience, educational qualifications. As an ecommerce leader, you need to be familiar with the job description. Back with examples to show them how you are a good team player. Even if you lack the necessary experience, you need to show the company that you are worthy of this position and are ready to give your 100%. 

• What would you do if a client's payment-related information gets exposed?

It helps the recruiter to examine the integrity, accountability and capacity to institute proper security protocols. 

How To Keep Your Ecommerce Leader Motivated?

It is the last step when you have made the hire. The next step is to keep employees motivated through the job tenure. It can include providing the industry leaders with online education programs that can enhance their skills. It serves two purposes. First being making employees realize that you care for their growth, and second it increases their skills. 

As an ecommerce company, you can consider providing rewards for employees. Successful ecommerce companies have noticed that an incentive can make a difference. An example of this could be the employee of the month program, which recognizes employees who exceed their performance goals. 

Keep your new hire engaged by performance reviews. It can be in the form of one to one meetings. It is a great way to know what your employees like about the incentive programs and if they have other feedback. So, in this, the employee will always stay in the loop with the company. 

Summing It Up

As the ecommerce business grows, so will the demand for e-commerce leaders who can oversee the business and operations of the company. The right ecommerce leader varies depending on the individual business needs, and they need to have a range of experience that includes marketing. Bear all the above points in mind to have a seamless hiring process for the ecommerce leader, and you are sure to succeed. 

If hiring an ecommerce leader seems a daunting task for your HR team, you can opt for professional recruitment services.