Managing an eCommerce business is a challenge, especially for small business owners who have just started. When they have limited resources, it becomes very complex for them to accomplish all the required tasks by themselves. From managing inventories, logistics, order processing and management, tracking, delivery, proper website optimization, SEO activities for the website, payment related issues, product return and refunds, there are so many important tasks to complete. In addition to that, they also have to manage relationships with vendors, suppliers, customers and other stakeholders.
Even established eCommerce businesses find it difficult sometimes to ensure smooth sailing of all the activities. In such a scenario, an eCommerce virtual assistant can be your saviour.
Who is an eCommerce virtual assistant?
An eCommerce virtual assistant is a remote employee or contractor who will work on your behalf to manage your business operations. A skilled and highly proficient virtual assistant is someone who knows all the dos and don’ts of the eCommerce business and will leave no stones unturned to ensure you high-quality, highly-functional and comprehensive eCommerce services. Hire the best eCommerce virtual assistant services and get rid of those pain points you are experiencing every day.
Some of the services eCommerce virtual assistants offer are store management, inventory management, product data management, order processing and management, vendor management, website optimization and marketing services, SEO and content writing services, customer support and multichannel support.
These virtual assistants for eCommerce will ensure flawless operations while keeping a sharp eye on micro details. They are the best eCommerce brains in the market who possess sheer expertise in the domain and leverage their expertise to offer you the best eCommerce services. They will serve as a jack-of-all-trades and will help you to grow your business without any panics and worries.
Finding and hiring eCommerce virtual assistants
Now, let’s discuss how to hire eCommerce virtual assistants. What are the factors that you need to consider while hiring them? However, a more important question is how to find them.
How to find virtual assistants?
Well, it depends on which services you want them to take care of. For example, if you are looking for a Shopify developer for your eCommerce website, you can hire a dedicated Shopify developer from various virtual freelance marketplaces such as Upwork, PeoplePerHour, Guru and TaskPigeon. These freelance marketplaces are the best place to find virtual assistants for specific jobs. They allow you to create a job task with description, rates and estimated working hours. Now, once you have posted a job, potential candidates will respond to your task with rates and personal details. The main issue here is you have to deal with a large number of applications for a single job. There are also chances of hiring a bad resource here.
There are many EPO service providers you can discuss your requirements with. EPO, Ecommerce Process Outsourcing is a concept to outsource various complex eCommerce processes and tasks to the agency so that businesses can focus on more crucial aspects such as business development.
These EPO service providers will offer you a dedicated team for your project and will also assure high-quality, end-to-end services from experienced professionals who possess sheer expertise in the domain.
Even you can use social media networks such as LinkedIn and ask your connections to introduce such eCommerce virtual assistants or firms offering virtual assistant services. Who knows you might get lucky with some really good recommendations and references?
There are many processes and tasks that you can outsource to these virtual assistants. However, it is also equally important that you have hired the best eCommerce virtual assistant for the job. Isn’t it also crucial that the assistant has adequate experience and expertise to handle the operations?
What are the factors that you need to consider while hiring an eCommerce virtual assistant? Let’s discuss them briefly.
A promising portfolio
When you want to hire a virtual assistant for your eCommerce operations, the first thing that you need to check is the professional portfolio of the individual or a firm. A portfolio will certainly reveal so many things about the candidate including clients, results, achievements, proficiency and many other aspects. Most freelancer virtual assistants and firms add their portfolios on their websites. You can check them out and decide whether to hire or not.
Experience
Another significant thing you need to consider while hiring an eCommerce virtual assistant is the experience. It plays a pivotal role when it comes to performing certain specific tasks. Ensure that the assistant you hire has adequate experience to handle operations with the know-how of tools and technologies used in such operations.
Familiar with standard operating procedures
Standard Operating Procedures are how-to manuals for various tasks given to the assistants and these SOPs offer all the information that the assistant needs to know to handle the job. However, the virtual assistant must be well-versed with the SOP documentation including screen-casts.
Cost per hour
Choosing the right assistant is a challenging task and the cost makes it more confusing and complex. For example, you have two candidates that you have shortlisted. The standard hourly rate of the first and second candidate is $25 and $50 respectively. Who would you choose? Most of us would prefer the first candidate due to cost. However, there is a possibility that the 2nd candidate is asking for more money as he is the expert in the subject domain. What if the 2nd candidate completes a task in 2 hours, while the 1st candidate takes 5 hours for the same? It is confusing, I agree, but you need to consider all the factors.
Conclusion
You can skyrocket your revenues and sales by hiring people from a virtual assistant marketplace. All you need to do is to take some time out from your schedule and find the right one that can make a difference. Get the best eCommerce virtual assistants with sheer knowledge and skills to help to complete different operations.
