E-commerce Operations Manager

Working Schedule

• E-commerce Operations Managers work at least full-time, with overtime, night shifts, weekends, or holiday season work possible.  

Typical Duties

• Provide oversight for applicable employee training and workforce development
• Ensure seamless end-to-end e-commerce processes are utilized
• Manage cross-functional operations within one or more warehouses
• Potentially oversee inventory sites around the world
• Collaborate with various teams (to include marketing, budget and resource management, order fulfillment, vendors, and other logistics partners)
• Manage a multichannel distribution infrastructure  
• Work with supply chain teams on planning and shipping strategies 
• Ensure efficient, accurate, and safe inventory and warehousing processes
• Review fulfillment and replenishment workflows
• Build strong customer relationships through outstanding service
• Pull inventory reports, conduct audits, and review invoices
• Use e-commerce platforms
• Engage with forecasting plans, targeting goals, and KPIs

Additional Responsibilities

• Serve as a role model to other workers 
• Meet with leadership and management to discuss problems, solutions, and trends
• Participate in new hiring processes as well as drafting employee-related policies and managing retention efforts
• Ensure compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations 

Soft Skills

• Analytical
• Attention-to-detail
• Collaboration and teamwork
• Customer service
• Leadership and management skills
• Organized 
• Problem-solving skills
• Process-oriented 
• Results-driven
• Skills for coordinating and instructing activities
• Sound judgment and decision-making
• Strong communication skills 
• Time management skills
• Troubleshooting skills

Technical Skills

• Calendar and scheduling 
• Database user interface/query 
• Direct-to-Consumer businesses practices
• End-to-end process management
• Experience in e-commerce sales principles
• Experience in managing operations 
• Experience with e-commerce platforms (SalesForce, Etail)
• Inventory management  
• Planning 
• Process mapping
• Procurement  
• Project management  
• Spreadsheets 
• Supply chain management
• Understanding logistics systems
• Warehouse Management Software

• E-commerce businesses
• Traditional companies with online sales
• Wholesale trade    

Online shoppers usually have little idea of the intricate behind-the-scenes workings of an e-commerce business. It takes dedicated, highly-organized E-commerce Operations Managers to keep processes running smoothly, overseeing and often directly engaging in the myriad “moving pieces” within a warehouse…or multiple warehouses! 
 
Everything hinges on the effectiveness of the E-commerce Operations Manager, who bears enormous responsibilities to keep things afloat. The job can be stressful, with labor and management pressures. Workers in this field must stay calm, cool, and collected at all costs, especially when problems arise or schedules ramp up due to holidays and sales events. That is why most companies look for managers with ample experience to handle the pressure. 

In recent years, the US labor force has been hit with unprecedented shortages, leaving some e-commerce businesses struggling to find workers. This is happening at a time when e-commerce sales have skyrocketed, exacerbating the problem even further. As a result, E-commerce Operations Managers are all the more critical, for they must make labor-intensive processes as efficient as possible, so fewer people are needed. 
 
Technology and automation play vital roles in this streamlining process, but managers are on the hook to retain the workers they have during the Great Resignation. Modern operations employees demand more rights and for companies to care about their well-being. E-commerce businesses are addressing these issues by offering clearer frontline communication, more training, improved working conditions, more pay and benefits, and more predictable schedules for a better workforce experience. 

E-commerce Operations Managers must be very process-oriented and able to elicit the best work out of employees. They may have exhibited natural leadership and management traits as kids, comfortable being in the center of the action. Their parents might have given them chores and responsibilities at an early age, or perhaps they were simply drawn to taking charge of things at school. 
 
Many E-commerce Operations Managers honed their skills over years, working at early ages in retail stores, warehouses, or other logistics-oriented settings. Some may have also served in military positions, acquiring discipline and a sense of urgency that carried over into their civilian careers.