Running a small online business or starting an e-commerce business from scratch can be an overwhelming experience. There are new terms and acronyms to remember, coding and design decisions, and a new world of possibilities. Over 90% of e-commerce businesses fail after the first four months, so how can you succeed?
Luckily, there is a secret to creating a successful e-commerce business plan or redirecting a struggling business that can help you win. That secret is an e-commerce course focused on actionable skills. Read on to learn ten of the most critical skills you can learn and understand the difference it can make for you!
10 Skills You Can Learn From an E-Commerce Course
Whether you’re new to the industry or experienced, the e-commerce skills you need to learn to succeed are generally the same. With an understanding of these ten actionable skills, you can start to build the basis of online sales success and understand all the details required to create a winning online marketplace.
If you’re on the fence about whether or not you should take an e-commerce online course, this list can help you finally decide to take your career to the next level.
1. Critical Thinking Skills
There are several pieces to an e-commerce business that are constantly changing, which means you need to learn how to juggle multiple different things at once. Responsibilities like sales, marketing, monitoring your stock, shipping and delivery logistics, customer service, and more are all critical to your success.
Critical thinking business skills for e-commerce are essential to running a business because they will help you manage your responsibilities while monitoring your profits and scaling processes accordingly. With mastery of this skill, you’ll be able to take a step back to look at all the parts of your business and determine the best way to move forward for both your business and your customer.
2. Leadership Skills
To build a successful e-commerce business, you’ll eventually need to scale your software, product offerings, and possibly a team. Even if you’re currently a one-person business, you need leadership skills to drive your business towards success successfully.
Learning this skill can help you learn how to motivate other people you interact with, increase overall productivity, communicate with your suppliers, assist your customers, and make business-critical decisions. Without leadership skills under your belt, you could miss significant opportunities, which could hurt your business and income.
3. Problem-Solving Skills
Every business will inevitably encounter frustrating issues along the way, but when you start or run an e-commerce business, it’s your responsibility to solve them. One essential tool for mastering problem-solving is having a global perspective to understand where your business is going and what your end goal is in any scenario.
When you take e-commerce training courses, you will learn the different parts of the operation and identify the best way to address problems with as little impact on your daily operations as possible. If you want to learn how to be resourceful and look for new ways to approach challenges, a course will be your biggest ally!
4. Communication Skills
When you’re operating a business in the online world, communication comes in many different shapes and sizes. You will likely interact with customers and vendors through email, social media, over the phone, and sometimes even in person.
Learning how to communicate clearly and confidently through written communication will help you avoid any confusion and give you the power to negotiate when necessary. To learn how to be assertive and navigate difficult conversations easily, consider taking a class that will help you succeed.
5. Emotional Intelligence Skills
Business management comes with situations that will require you to learn how to manage your own emotions and navigate important relations vital to your business success. Emotional intelligence skills will help you learn how to interact with people both in-person and online with empathy and professionalism.
If you want to improve customer and employee retention, boost productivity and increase your overall productivity, this is a critical skill. Learning this and how it fits into your business can be the difference between a company that fails and one that flourishes.
6. Listing Skills
Do you know what it takes to create an excellent product listing? In a brick-and-mortar store, your customers can touch and interact with a product before purchasing, but online they have no clue what your product is actually like.
In an e-commerce store, you need to provide them with detailed product descriptions and accurate images to decide if the product is the right fit for their needs. It’s also vital that you consider the fact that many online shoppers use their phones to shop, so ensure your listings are always mobile optimized.
7. Website Traffic Skills
Do you understand how search engines work to drive traffic to your website and understand the data provided about your performance? If you don’t, consider an e-commerce training course that will help you know what is needed to get more people to click on your website and understand the data provided by popular search engines.
Major corporations generally have massive amounts of funds set aside for marketing and advertisements. Still, as a small or starting e-commerce business, you need to be more creative on how you generate traffic to your website. Learning how to use valuable tools like blogs, partnerships, email marketing, and social media to promote your business can help you succeed.
8. Supplier and Vendor Skills
One area that is always a struggle for any business owner is negotiating suppliers and vendors to get the best price. Communicating with suppliers and vendors takes a specific skill set that relies on understanding cultural differences when working with foreign businesses while still being assertive and professional.
Learning business conventions that you can use through phone, email, or web chat communications can help alleviate any concerns and get you the end goal you desire. If you want to learn how to build rapport and understand how to succeed in these situations, a course is a necessity.
9. Understanding the Online Shopper
Do you understand data analytics and what makes an online shopper decide between different products? Unlike in-store shopping, online shoppers can easily compare the same product between multiple businesses, read reviews, and do research before completing their purchase.
Learning how to analyze customer data, engaging with them through social media and other outbound and inbound marketing strategies can help swing the vote your way when you’re up against your competition for consideration before making a purchase.
10. Learning Skills
Online shopping has been around since 1994 and since then, it has constantly changed and morphed to accommodate online shoppers and business owners alike. Search engine algorithms are growing and molding to help connect consumers with what they’re looking for, which means you always need to be learning to stay on par with these changes.
One of the most crucial skills required for e-commerce success is constantly learning and adapting your website to help your customers out. Frustrated and confused consumers don’t usually stick around for too long, so the more effort you put in on your end, the more likely you will convert.
Where to Start
Are you interested in creating a winning business plan or revamping your existing one to generate more profit and connect with more customers? If you’ve read through this list of actionable skills and found yourself eager to learn how to succeed, contact us to know about our e-commerce course and the other expert services we provide.
With the right tools and education on your side, your e-commerce business will be exactly what you’ve always dreamed it could be. Check out our free resources to jumpstart your success today!
