In this comprehensive guide on ecommerce marketplace management in Pakistan, we explore insights from industry experts at Shanakht Marketing. This article covers essential strategies for managed ecommerce, marketplace operations, and practical solutions for brands looking to scale their online presence through effective ecommerce account management services.
Evolution from Direct Mail to Modern Ecommerce Management
It’s funny how I was once the youngest person wherever I worked and somehow one day it all changed and I became the oldest person. It’s very sad and that happens I think to everybody. I’ve been in the business for a long time before Amazon and before ecommerce it was called direct marketing, direct mail marketing and we would sell products through direct mail pieces and catalogs.
We were the largest catalog of computer related products mostly focused on Apple but both Apple and PC and we would mail five or six million catalogs. Our company was called Mac Warehouse and its claim to fame was that it was very big, about two billion dollars in revenue across multiple countries where we were mailing these catalogs.
The Journey of Digital Transformation
There was one popular television episode where a character was really angry about getting so much junk mail with various catalogs being thrown down, and then the Mac Warehouse one appeared. So we made it into popular culture by probably over mailing these catalogs.
But that led into the internet and the ecommerce business because we were partners with Microsoft and we would sell their products. They were trying to put together an ecommerce site and people would usually transact through the phone, they would call you up after getting the catalog or they would mail in a card.
Modern Ecommerce Store Management Services and Tools
We created an internet site with a shopping basket completely built on Microsoft product at the time and it was homegrown. It cost millions of dollars, believe it or not, millions of dollars. We mailed the catalogs and instead of calling they went to the internet and placed the orders. Dell and our company started this about the same time and we thought we were internet geniuses because all this traffic was there. It had nothing to do with search engines or anything, it was because we were just advertising in general.
We were one of the first ecommerce businesses and from there life has evolved. I can’t imagine then having the types of tools that exist today where everything’s there and it’s very inexpensive, low cost. If you’d like to spend a lot of money I’m sure you can but all the plugins, everything’s there.
Scaling Challenges for Growing Brands
Not that long ago for you to change a payment method or add a payment method like I want PayPal, I don’t want just Visa Mastercard, it’s like moving a mountain to get your IT team to make that work and to work with the other side at the PayPal side and integrate it and secure it and make it transact and not lose a ton of money doing it. Now it’s there.
I wish I knew then what I know now but it’s really evolved over time where now any brand or any person that wants to sell can have an ecommerce site with all the cool stuff that you usually need to have a successful business.
What’s hard sometimes is as you grow whether it’s pure direct to consumer or through marketplaces, it’s hard to scale because now you go from being an entrepreneur or a product developer to now I have to deal with logistics and I have to deal with payments and customer service and marketing and it gets expensive and it gets hard.
Full-Service Ecommerce Account Management Services
Our company Shanakht Marketing helps brands enable them to sell on ecommerce and on marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart. We are a full-service agency providing ecommerce marketplace management services along with that, so we help them with all the aspects. The one big difference between us and a pure agency would be that we buy and sell the products on Amazon for the brand. We become their partner on the brand.
On the pure direct to consumer side we might help them get their site up and going, we might help them with their backend but really when it comes to Amazon and dealing with that we will buy and sell the products. We can still do it as an agency but we do it as an agency because it’s a lot more fun than having to buy all these products. By buying products you have skin in the game and you show your commitment to the brand.
Ecommerce Marketplace Manager Responsibilities
Right now Shanakht Marketing handles about 70 million dollars in gross merchandise value. Most of it is our revenue because of the buy and sell model mentioned in our ecommerce account manager job description. We manage about 31 brands in 10 different categories, probably right now like 1500 to 2000 SKUs give or take each day as things ebb and flow a little bit that are active. That is mostly through our Amazon stores here in the US, Canada and Mexico and soon to be UK.
Brand Protection in Ecommerce Marketplace Management
It comes to the marketing or the life cycle of that brand and the size of the brand and how embedded into the channels that they are. The most common issue that brands have, if it’s a brand that is distributed anywhere or sold in any other channels, is protecting their brand and making sure that the products that are sold on Amazon are legitimate and their brand and not some counterfeit brand.
Also that the product pricing and the content is accurate and correct. If your product is sold anywhere else outside of your reach, meaning if it’s your direct to consumer side and it’s locked down and really there’s no other way to get your products, that’s much better protection.
Managing Product Authenticity and Pricing
But a brand that you might buy at Best Buy or Bed Bath and Beyond, if that’s sold on Amazon there’s a good chance if you’re not controlling or trying to control it or manage it, there’s a chance that you’re not going to be happy with some of the results like unauthorized sellers selling it, the pricing below their retail pricing and a lot of channel disruption. That’s the biggest issue.
The other is managing Amazon. Many brands try to sell their products either to Amazon and get disappointed in the fact that the volume is there but the margin might not be there and there’s a lot of surprises. Amazon could sell a ton of product but is not concerned about the pricing, they’re trying to make it a very competitive marketplace.
Amazon Operations and Ecommerce Account Manager Job Description
If they find that the product is sold cheaper anywhere else they’ll lower the price and it’s hard for the brand to control their channel that way. So that’s a big deal when you sell to Amazon. Also the margins that you might make when it comes to brands in general, the complexity of managing Amazon day-to-day, the customer service, the metrics that you need to live by.
The time from an order coming in to an order shipping, if you’re managing that part yourself there’s a lot of moving parts. Making sure you’re in stock is a big deal and you say well why would that be so hard? Well because most of the time you want your products at Amazon at their FBA, their warehouses, because it’s the lowest cost freight to consumer you’re going to get.
The Importance of Prime Badge for Sales Velocity
It’s usually the fastest delivery and it’ll have the Prime badge on it. With the Prime badge on it that’s usually the promise from Amazon that you get it in one to two days. Without the Prime badge you’ll probably drop in sales velocity by 30 to 40 percent. Speed is everything and when you’re out of stock you can’t sell it and Amazon won’t list it. On your own site maybe you can take a back order but you’re not going to take a back order with Amazon.
Understanding Arbitrage in Ecommerce Marketplace Manager Roles
Especially if a big box brand sells that brand because sometimes they’ll run sales where the manufacturer doesn’t have that much control over them. So they might discount something to have the crowds and the foot traffic come into their stores. Then entrepreneurs, what we call arbitragers, will go in and purchase these products and sell them on Amazon.
They’ll buy a bunch when they’re on sale and the sale price in many cases is low enough. That happens all the time. There’s a huge business of arbitrage on Amazon. It’s probably one of the first businesses many get into when they first start with Amazon. People live in the discount stores with scanners looking for the math, when they scan the label on it can they make money or not on Amazon with that product at that price.
Ecommerce Catalog Management Services: Listing Optimization
There’s the setting up your page and your content so it’s as search engine friendly on Amazon as possible for the search words that matter. A lot of analysis has to go into what search words matter, what words are in the title of your product, in the bullets of your product and then really making a great effort to be able to explain your brand and having all the images and content.
This all helps the overall SEO and it also helps explain your product to customers so it’s super important. Our ecommerce product manager job description includes expertise in catalog optimization and content strategy.
Paid Advertising Strategy for Marketplace Success
But then you got to also be great at paid advertising and that paid advertising is evolving so fast on Amazon where they’re coming up with new inventory or offerings for the sellers to be able to participate in. You need to be really good at that and that’s something where an agency really can help with ecommerce store management.
Everything you could do self-serve on Amazon for sure but as you start to grow and scale and if that’s not your competency, people that live in this space every day usually are much better at it and do a lot of testing to try and optimize that conversion rate for you. It almost always pays. Our ecommerce manager resume showcases years of experience in conversion optimization.
For you to stay abreast of every single thing that changes on Amazon is very difficult. That’s the same for Shopify too. You really want to understand what’s happening, what changes, what new features, things that were beta before are now rolled out to others. As more people are evolving their advertising you need to evolve your advertising. As more competitors are evolving their content you have to make your content even better.
This is where an ecommerce trading manager becomes essential. They monitor trends, competitor strategies, and platform updates to ensure your listings remain competitive. The ecommerce project manager job description at our agency includes staying current with all marketplace changes.
Product Photography Best Practices for Managed Ecommerce
There’s a lot of work that goes into looking at an image and figuring out what are the right images to tell my story in the context that Amazon gives me to be able to tell my story. These are things that you probably didn’t have to worry about several years ago but that’s like a staple now. Advertising and content and the listings and the images are super important.
They have requirements on what you need to have as your main and your core gallery image but really the images that explain the product help people understand the size of the product, help people understand and see the product in use. Big things.
Reducing Returns Through Clear Product Information
Also what the product isn’t. Another thing you don’t want is to get a lot of returns and to get bad reviews. Bad reviews will really hurt your business and returns are not fun and they’re expensive. Sometimes marketing people love to tell the big hype, the great story about their product and I love that too.
But if you tell that story and you go a little too far you’re going to get returns. Making sure you say this product isn’t for that, although that goes against most the way they would normally market, you really need to be super extra clear on what your product does and doesn’t do.
I don’t think you have to put warning signs everywhere but I think you have to say this product does all these great things, it does not work this way. Where do you find that out? Well you read some of your reviews and you start to adapt your copy to make sure that you’re explaining problems that people might be having with your product.
You might not even know that day one but if you see that same issue over and over again you need to address it and address it pretty quickly. This is a critical part of ecommerce manager interview questions and answers, understanding how to manage customer expectations through clear communication.
Review Management in Ecommerce Store Management Services
The questions section about products is important and people ask all kinds of questions. You want to have those answered so other people know before they buy. It’s super important. The reviews are everything and what people say about your product.
It’s hard to control it and Amazon’s done a much better job of getting the bad guys off Amazon that get fake reviews and fake answers. They are very strict about getting accurate and real-time reviews, not there’s kind of a game that was played to get reviews. This vendor management in ecommerce approach ensures marketplace integrity.
Vendor Management in Ecommerce: Building Trust
Having positive reviews and having a company to help you in a compliant manner getting those reviews is a big deal. No stars is bad, five stars is awesome. If you’re reviewing an ecommerce manager CV or ecommerce manager resume sample, look for experience in reputation management and review acquisition strategies.
Ecommerce Product Manager Strategies for Review Generation
It’s never easy but selling high velocity products are a lot easier to get more reviews. You sell a lot more consumer products which would normally get more reviews than higher-end commercial products but the basics are all the same.
There’s programs that Amazon has that will help you get some reviews and then there’s social media which you have to become really good at. Getting social influencers depending on the types of products and product categories to talk about your product in a positive way and to push more people to your product.
If you get a positive review from an important influencer people will buy it and have a positive experience also. The software that many of us use within our Seller Central and you can do it through Seller Central through automated tools is that you can send compliant emails. There’s a limit, it’s usually one to customers asking them to leave an accurate review.
Supply Chain Management in Ecommerce Reviews
You can’t pay them, you can’t offer them anything, you can’t tell them to give you a great review but you definitely could market and solicit for reviews. So there’s influencers, there’s just getting more traffic, more volume, there’s the Amazon Vine program and other programs that Amazon has. It’s usually a slow build but you need it and it’s worth the time.
Understanding supply chain management in ecommerce helps ensure products reach customers on time, which naturally leads to better reviews. The benefits of ecommerce in supply chain management include faster fulfillment and improved customer satisfaction.
FBA vs FBM: Critical Decisions for Ecommerce Project Manager
I do recommend FBA and especially if it’s really big and if it’s really small. Amazon’s rates in general even if they’ve gone up and recently they increased their rates due to fuel surcharges, when you compare that to the rates that you would get for one and two day delivery even if you’re local and you’re shipping ground, it’s almost always better.
If it’s the margin that you’re looking to make and the speed to the customer, Amazon. But if you have to ship there’s many successful sellers that sell from their own warehouse or their own 3PL and ship what they call FBM, fulfilled by merchant. The advantages of supply chain management in ecommerce become clear when you analyze fulfillment costs and delivery speeds.
Seller Fulfilled Prime Alternative
One benefit we have and we have the medallion is called Seller Fulfilled Prime and that gives us the ability to have the Prime badge on items that we ship from our warehouse. That’s really important if you want to keep your velocity going. The one thing is the freight will cost a bit more but you don’t do it as a long-term strategy, you do it as a strategy to fill the gap while you’re moving product back to FBA.
The issue with FBA is you got to get the product up there so that could take some time. It could take 10 days, two weeks, a month and a half. Especially during the busier times of year, during COVID it was a big deal. In holiday times, Prime Day’s coming up, you got to get your stuff up there early.
Sometimes the product’s not here yet to ship up there in time. As an alternative to find a partner that has Seller Fulfilled Prime you could have it in stock and Prime immediately and then shift a bunch of product up to Amazon FBA and then get the benefit of the freight.
Starting Your Journey in Ecommerce Marketplace Management Services
I think that ecommerce is fun, awesome and if you’re a creative type and you like to invent products or you just sell stuff, there’s a buzz. We used to get that buzz from the catalog but it would take two or three weeks before we got the first results. Now you get it instantly.
Between Amazon and Shopify and these other platforms out there there’s such a great opportunity. I think there’s no better time even if it’s a crowded space to let your passion and your creativity show and get involved.
Why Younger Entrepreneurs Excel in Managed Ecommerce
Whether you’re direct to consumer or a marketplace or you’re both, both really do help as long as you can control your brand and your price because you do get some leakage back to your Shopify site. I just think that more and more people should get into it and I think more and more younger people should get into it because it’s a great way for them to start their own businesses and not be dependent on things that previous generations had to do working in traditional corporate environments. It’s a lot of fun.
At Shanakht Marketing, we believe in empowering new entrepreneurs with ecommerce marketplace management services that level the playing field. Our ecommerce product manager salary packages are designed to attract young talent who understand digital commerce instinctively.
Seasonal Planning for Ecommerce Operations Manager
Everyone should check out Shanakht Marketing. We have comprehensive resources including white papers and checklists to help you prepare for Prime Day which are available for free. Our ecommerce marketing manager salary packages are competitive and we’re always looking for talented professionals.
We’ve got a fun season coming up with Prime Day, back to school and then obviously the big cyber days ahead. Our ecommerce operations manager job description includes handling all these critical seasonal events for maximum profitability.
FAQs – Ecommerce Marketplace Management
Q1. What is Ecommerce Marketplace Management all about?
Well – its all about taking care of your online selling process from top to bottom – listings, pricing, ads, customer service, and getting those orders sorted, so your store runs like clockwork and keeps growing.
Q2. Why do businesses need this marketplace management business?
Quite simply, most businesses get left behind because they can’t seem to get their listings right , their customer service is a bit of a mess, or they just can’t seem to get their pricing sorted , or their ads are being wasted. Marketplace management helps fix all that and lets you sell more without all the stress.
Q3. Which marketplaces do you work with?
I work with all the big names like Daraz, Amazon, Shopify and of course local online stores. If you’re selling online, I can sort it for you
Q4. How does marketplace management actually boost sales?
It’s all about tweaking product titles, getting those product images looking their best, running ads that actually work, fixing your pricing and keeping your shop up to date – all of which do wonders for visibility and get those conversions going
Q5. Can you actually do my store day to day?
Yes, daily store management is part of the package. I’ll take care of all the updates, orders, chats and keep an eye on how your shop is doing so it stays alive and kicking day in and day out.
Q6. What if I don’t know the first thing about ecommerce?
Don’t worry, not a problem. I’ll take you from zero to hero – from getting your store set up in the first place to getting it all sorted and getting orders coming in.
Q7. How long will I need to wait to see some results?
Most of my clients start to see some pretty quick results – usually within 2-4 weeks. All depends on how popular your products are, how much competition there is and what kind of ad strategy we go for.
Q8. Do you also run ads and promotions?
Yes – I manage ads on Daraz, Amazon PPC , social media and all sorts of other discount campaigns to get more people into your shop and getting them to buy.
Q9. Will I get to see how my store is doing?
Absolutely. I’ll send you a weekly or monthly report breaking down your sales, traffic, store growth and all the other important bits.
Q10. Can you handle customer chats and returns for me?
Yes – I’ll take care of all that stuff for you – sending quick responses, handling returns and keeping the customers happy.