Before Marketplace Platforms like Convictional existed, marketplaces would have to spend tens of millions of dollars in development and operational costs to get off the ground.
Case Study:
In 2018, Farfetch, a publicly-traded B2C luxury fashion marketplace spent more than $68 million alone on technology for their marketplace (source). What’s interesting is that technology represents about 70% of their total annual expenses and 11% of their revenue (they also earned over $602 million in revenue in 2018). But the good news is that it doesn’t have to cost you $68 million to launch and grow a successful marketplace.
Insight:
Running a successful marketplace means investing in technology and growth. Failing to under-invest in one of these areas will lead to decline.
But with the advent of Marketplace Platforms, you don’t need to hire an army of software developers in order to launch and grow a marketplace.
Instead, you can leverage powerful marketplace automation software to do most of the heavy lifting on the back-end on your behalf, like vendor onboarding, inventory syncing, and product information syndication, while you focus on what you do best — engaging your customers.
So if you no longer need an army of developers keeping the lights on, then who should you hire to lead the marketplace?
Almost every modern marketplace will have an unsung team member operating the marketplace — an Ecommerce Manager or a Marketplace Manager (title nomenclature can vary).
An Ecommerce Manager or Marketplace Manager will be the liaison between the consumer and the vendors. They operate the Marketplace Platform and merchandise the front-end of the marketplace to engage consumers.
In this post, we’ve crafted a job description for the role that you can copy and paste to your career site. Scroll to the bottom of the post to access a downloadable version from Google Docs.
If you’re an Ecommerce Manager or a Marketplace Manager that’s interested in making it easier to onboard third-party brands and vendors and operationalize your marketplace, then please get in touch! We’d love to show you how Convictional can help you iterate faster and make you more successful in your role.
Job Title: Ecommerce Manager / Marketplace Manager
About the Role:
We are launching a multi-brand ecommerce marketplace on Shopify! The marketplace will contain products from third-party brands who will fulfil orders on our behalf. The Ecommerce Manager will help source and curate products from third-party brands and promote them to our subscribers through Shopify and other channels.
The Ecommerce Manager will oversee and execute the implementation of the marketplace and liaise with our internal design team, our external creative agency, and our external vendor integration platform partner. The Ecommerce Manager will then manage the operations of the marketplace post-launch.
Areas of Responsibility:
- Manage the implementation process as well as the technical and vendor ecosystem that powers a fully integrated ecommerce marketplace: marketing and growth, vendor management, brand planning, creative development, merchandising inventory, and marketplace operations.
- Source and negotiate margins with qualified third-party vendors in order to merchandise their inventory on our marketplace.
- Manage and support the needs of product vendors, and monitor sales performance.
- Work directly with internal marketing and design teams to optimize and support the marketplace.
- Determine and prioritize functional site improvements and 3rd party vendors that support business objectives.
- Prioritize and drive the eCommerce feature and functionality roadmap.
- Cultivate and execute a business strategy that optimizes traffic and conversion.
- Develop and execute a growth plan to increase the size of the product catalogue to drive marketplace growth and profitability.
- Collaborate with marketing and inventory teams to execute the brand promotional strategy.
- Optimize the performance of the website and its ability to generate sales and related transactions.
- Ensure the day-to-day effectiveness of content display merchandising, navigation, search functionality and product presentation to maximize customer experience.
- Provide on-going tracking and analysis of customer on-site behavior through market and competitive analysis as well as regular review and measurement of site analytics.
- Accountable for overall site architecture, as well as third-party ecommerce technology providers.
Qualifications & Experience:
- 3-5 years of ecommerce and/or marketplace experience
- Understanding of multi-brand marketplaces
- Experience working with Shopify or Shopify Plus. (You may have built and launched a store on Shopify!)
- Exceptional communication and negotiation skills
- Strong understanding of affiliate business models
- Project management experience a plus
- Able to work independently with minimal supervision
- Able to work in a fast-paced environment, multi-task and prioritize
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