It takes a mix of skill sets to manage an eCommerce client

$4.5trillion is the estimated global eCommerce market by 2021, compared to $2.7trillion in 2017.  In GCC, eCommerce is expected to reach $20billion by 2021, accounting for nearly 10% of the total $206billion conventional retail market.  Many companies are setting up their digital infrastructure to take advantage of this growing sector and we at Centric are guiding our clients on the same.  Our focus is to achieve the right balance between ‘owned’ and ‘earned’ platforms.  Managing any client requires a team effort and an eCommerce client is no different.  However, there are specific skill sets required to best support an eCommerce client – be it for the design/development team or the account management team.

Design/development team needs to work with clear conversion goals. Design is as much about the art as it’s about commerce, ROI is the single most crucial factor.  The team needs to be adept at understanding data to minimise drop-offs at each stage of the buying funnel.  Simplicity of navigation to trump any other consideration.  Development team should be on top of the latest technology trends – especially when it comes to the payment options.  Flexibility in payment options is one of the top 3 factors of influence on shopping cart behaviour.  To sum up, an ideal design/development team is one with the right mix of data expertise, creativity and understanding of technology.

Account management team should be guided by one principle – how best to continuously improve conversion.  The team is expected to have a good grasp on UX and guide the design/development team using consumer insights.  Understanding key motivations behind a purchase can result in a truly intuitive experience for the user.  The team needs to have advanced data skills or have access to a seasoned ‘data scientist(s)’.  It’s important to continuously perform advanced analysis on various sets of consumer data across all (and especially online) marketing channels to identify key growth and pain points.  eCommerce is very dynamic (even volatile) and it’s the responsibility of the account management team to keep track of new developments – market, media, politics, technology – to advise the clients on the ramifications.  3 key skills required for an account management team to effectively manage an eCommerce client is – understanding of UX/UI, advanced data expertise and trend spotting.

We have built a strong team of strategists, creative, designers, developers and account management to advise our eCommerce clients across different industries.  Ofcourse, the other equally important part of the equation is the promotion of the sites.  A team of specialist planners and strategists develop ROI driven plans using a combination of PPC and performance channels and we prefer programmatic over direct while booking campaigns for our eCommerce clients.