E-Commerce Project Manager

Working Schedule

• E-commerce Project Managers have hectic days and can expect to work full time, with overtime being possible during holidays or major shopping events like Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Because e-commerce stores are online, they operate ‘round the clock, with orders coming in at any time. Thus PMs may be on call if a situation arises after hours! 

Typical Duties

• Manage and prioritize general e-commerce business processes
• Work with UI/UX teams to optimize the online shopping experience for consumers, improving conversion rates
• Ensure site users can easily find the things they want and are exposed to suitable ads, promotions, upsells/cross-sells, discount offers, email capture prompts, newsletter or club invitations, etc.
• Collaborate with marketing to discover and exploit lead generation techniques
• Ensure shopping websites are continually up-to-date 
• Keep individual product pages and associated inventory levels current
• Enhance customer service and customer relationship management strategies
• Work with management and stakeholders to determine Key Performance Indicators; review and analyze sales statistics to objectively gauge success 
• Keep projects within pre-established budgets while meeting timelines and quality assurance standards 
• Determine and mitigate risks, resource constraints, or potential problems in advance, along with crafting contingency “backup” plans 
• Develop project plans which may include:
• Flow diagrams (“a type of flowchart that illustrates the relationships between major components at an industrial plant”)
• Use cases, i.e., written descriptions of how users perform tasks on the company’s website
• Current/future state diagrams to visualize process steps and make improvements
• Update plans as needed to ensure currency and accuracy

Additional Responsibilities

• Stay abreast of legislative updates
• Keep up-to-date with emerging technologies
• Coordinate with follow-up email campaigns and post-transactional marketing
• Conduct performance evaluations and reviews to offer productive feedback
• Prepare post-project reports to include possible benchmarks and lessons learned that can be used to make future projects run more smoothly 

Soft Skills

• Analytical
• Business-minded
• Clear communication skills 
• Collaboration
• Creativity
• Critical-thinking 
• Detail-oriented
• Interpersonal skills
• Marketing skills
• Multitasking
• Organized 
• Problem-solving skills
• Practicality
• Skills for coordinating and instructing activities
• Sound judgment and decision-making
• Team player

Technical Skills

• Agile Project Management (Scrum)
• B2B and B2C technologies (Magento)
• Budgeting software
• Business processes
• Customer Relationship Management software
• Developing project plans
• Enterprise Resource Planning
• HTML
• Java
• Processing diagrams
• Project management office functions
• Quality Assurance concepts for e-commerce
• Return on Investment principles
• Search Engine Optimization
• SQL
• Test Scripts
• Third-party vendor agreements
• Understanding e-commerce trends 
• Use cases
• User Acceptance Testing
• User Interface/User Experience (UI/UX) design
• Web content 

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

E-commerce Project Managers must possess top-notch organizational management and team-building skills to keep people and processes on target. They ensure everyone is “on the same page” regarding goals, priorities, timetables, budgets, and other workflow matters while keeping workplace stress, hazards, and personnel conflicts to a minimum. 
 
Unlike brick-and-mortar operations, e-commerce stores receive customer orders day and night, 24/7. As a result, larger companies may need workers on night shifts, with PMs available to keep after-hour processes running smoothly. 
 
The pressures and responsibilities of the job can be at times overwhelming, so it is essential to find ways to decompress and recharge. It isn’t always possible to keep management, stakeholders, employees, and customers 100% satisfied at all times — but a successful E-Commerce Project Manager needs to attempt precisely that! 

E-commerce has never been hotter. Indeed the rise of online shopping — exacerbated by a range of factors such as the pandemic and stimulus checks — has swamped a global supply chain that hasn’t been able to keep up. 
 
As e-commerce startups have come and either soared or sank, traditional brick-and-mortar businesses have faced hard choices to either embrace e-commerce...or risk going extinct, as Borders Books and Blockbuster Video did. It’s up to savvy E-commerce Project Managers to keep companies alive and well, no matter how long they’ve been around, how big they are, or what niches they serve. 
 
E-stores compete fiercely with each other for the attention and loyalty of online shoppers. E-commerce PMs must collaborate with Business Analysts, Supply Chain Managers, website developers, and marketing teams to keep processes running smoothly. They help companies find and retain customers with quality, affordable products delivered on time! 

“There is a lot of specialization happening. Project managers were considered Jack of all. But now businesses want some one who has specific industry knowledge or experience managing a specific technology.” Hajara Al Amodi, Technical Project Manager, CTA

E-commerce Project Managers are often energetic and outgoing but also methodical and focused on attention to detail. They’re able to juggle multiple tasks at once and are adept at organizing and coordinating fast-paced, complex activities on a large scale and with many people, processes, and physical things involved. 
 
These aren’t abilities that develop overnight but instead take years of practical experience to hone and fine-tune. As kids, e-commerce PMs may have been put in charge of things around the house, such as managing younger siblings and knocking out chores. They might have been leaders in school, playing on sports teams, or participating in band activities. As young adults, they may have held floor supervisor-type roles. Some may have spent time in the military, given responsibilities early on while being told the importance of their mission and that “failure isn’t an option!” 

 “I have seen, people, who enjoy this profession are planners in general. They like to plan and strategize everything. The do things in their life like projects. I myself, am like that. Create a study plan, create a weekly plan, vacation plan and they like to implement it. See, that it is working and like to see an end result in a specific time frame. A final product, they can measure, feel, see.” Hajara Al Amodi, Technical Project Manager, CTA