This is how to expertly build a Remote Team for your Ecommerce Business

The ecommerce industry is, unsurprisingly, thriving more than ever amidst the pandemic. This is probably the best time to build and grow an ecommerce business.

Building a strong team is equally important as having a great ecommerce theme.

People are now heavily dependent on ordering things online rather than buying from physical stores. For fairly obvious reasons.

Ecommerce is an online business. There is no reason that your ecommerce teams have to work from a physical location. Because, unlike other businesses, ecommerce can operate as a fully remote business without skipping a beat. Thanks to eCommerce management software like Browntape, remote management becomes easier.

An ecommerce team structure that operates in a remote work environment helps the business grow faster. With ecommerce all the rage right now, it can also expand the footprint of the business and help in scaling operations to serve global geographies too.

Without a doubt, remote employees can help you take your ecommerce business to the next level. And here is how you can build an efficient remote team for your ecommerce business.

Create well-defined roles for your remote employees

Your first step is to understand your talent and recruitment needs. Take a look at the roles that are already filled and where you need more employees. Map out the roles and designations, and then the ideal profile of the person who steps into the role.

Your talent needs will vary according to the stage of growth your ecommerce business is in. You need to consciously identify the areas in which you can easily integrate remote employees you’re your existing workflows.

For an ecommerce business, remote employees make for an excellent choice for roles such as:

• Digital Marketing
• Social Media Management
• Order & Invoice Management
• Customer Support
• Graphic Design
• Bookkeeping
• …and more.

With remote employees taking care of work in these roles, you can focus on the core areas of logistics such as order management and order fulfillment – something that is critical for an ecommerce business.

Set the goals for your remote ecommerce teams

Just like with any team, your remote teams will need specific goals to work towards. It can be easy to stray from the path when working remotely. This is where well-defined individual and team goals play a big role.

When your remote teams have measurable and trackable goals, they are more focused on maintaining their productivity and delivering their best performance. Setting specific goals helps your remote employees see the path forward.

Once the goals are defined and KPIs mapped, set up a process of review for the progress on these goals. Things change fast in the ecommerce world, and it’s important to regularly check the headway made. This helps in keeping accountability and also in achieving the set goals. So whether you need to find Shopify alternatives or change plugins, your team knows exactly what to do.

Find the right remote employees to hire

There are a few ways to go about doing this. Other than role-specific skillsets, let’s take a look at the desirable qualities of a good remote employee for an ecommerce business.

Prior experience in ecommerce is always going to be an advantage. This would mean they are aware of how to function efficiently in a high-pressure business that is ecommerce. You also don’t have to spend too much time training them on industry-specific knowledge and practices.

When working remotely, self-motivation is a key skill for success. Finding employees who are proactive will help you avoid micromanagement. Your resources are then far better utilized and work that is supposed to get done is delivered on time.

But where do you find such skilled remote employees? A remote employee marketplace is a good place to start looking. This helps you avoid the hassles of recruitment altogether. Just like your customers can choose from multiple products and get what they want, so can you when you hire from such a platform.

You get access to remote employees who are already fully trained and take minimal time to onboard and deploy. Bringing a skilled mobile app developer into your remote team can enhance your business capabilities, ensuring a seamless and efficient online presence. You lose no time in sourcing and training and get to have experienced professionals work for you.

Treat remote teams the same as in-office teams

Remote working only changes where your employees work from. Other than that, they are the same as the teams you would have worked out of physical office spaces.

It is important to maintain the same level of social mindset and interaction as much as possible when building remote teams for your ecommerce business. You should actively encourage all your employees to interact with each other, at least the ones they closely coordinate with for day-to-day work. This helps in developing an understanding of how each member of the remote team works.

Remote employees need the same attention and care as an in-office team. That means the same level of guidance, mentorship, regular check-ins, and more. Having one-on-one meetings with each remote team member is a great way to learn more about them. This helps in maintaining the healthy team dynamics of your remote team.

Setting your remote employees up for success

A successful ecommerce business with a remote team will work with the same or even greater efficiency and productivity when compared to a traditional team. All it takes is for the right leadership and hiring practices to set them up for amazing success.

Remote employees will save your ecommerce business operational costs and overheads, and scale much faster than before. With the right team, your business can have sustainable growth.