Out of struggle comes opportunity, and even though millions of people across the world are dealing with unemployment, there’s an industry that’s been on the rise but is spiking with our current environment. Online/remote jobs are becoming more popular nowadays but ecommerce job opportunities are rapidly increasing and is something people can look into not just as a temporary position but as a career or stepping stone to launch your own personal business.

So what is it?

Ecommerce is simply activities that revolve around transactions that occur on the internet. So whether you’re buying, selling, marketing, or just searching for products online, that all involves ecommerce. In the ecommerce job industry, you have the people who deliver the products, package products, serve as sales representatives, and everything that you can think of that is involved in the process of an online transaction. But there’s one area of this industry that people tend to overlook or don’t know much about, and that’s ironically the online side of it.

Ecommerce content roles

The most important part of ecommerce is the content, which involves how you present and market the product online. You can have an amazing product, but if it doesn’t show up in Google search results, or it’s not easy to find on platforms such as Amazon, you’ll have no success with that product because nobody can’t find it. That’s where people such as copywriters, technical writers, content specialists, and SEO (search engine optimization) specialists come into play.

Copwriters/technical writers and content specialists are the ones who create the content that advertises and promotes the product. So they construct content such as the product descriptions, product titles, emails, brochures, flyers, billboards, etc. SEO involves making sure potential clients and consumers find your product when they’re searching for that type of product online. They create and implement strategies to make sure your website or page is easier to find on the internet including on social media. All of these positions contain similar duties, and for simplicity’s sake it all involves making sure companies pull in sales online.

How can I get into the industry?

Now’s the perfect opportunity to work on yourself and do things that help you improve your professional experience and knowledge. I personally started working in the ecommerce field when I was still in college off of just simply writing blogs. With that, look into starting a website, which can simply just be a free WordPress (such as this one), Wix, Weebly, or any other website building platform that’ll let you start for free. Building a website on WordPress is fairly easy (they should sponsor me for this mini promo), and you don’t need to any website development experience to do this. Fortunately, starting that website will help you get a feel on how to code and develop websites.

Start writing whatever interests you, whether it be food, entertainment, fitness or anything else because the best thing about ecommerce is that nearly anything can be sold online and almost every major business has ecommerce employees. When you’re writing these articles, take them seriously and try your best to capture the audience’s attention with the title, the body, the excerpt, and even the tags. Act as if you’re trying to talk someone into a sale but comfortably and casually. If starting your own website is too daunting for you, just look for writing opportunities online, as there is always someone looking for unpaid beginner writers that just want to get their feet wet.

When you start writing, promote your content on social media, preferably on a new business account but your own personal account works as well. Using tactics such as putting your links in your page’s bio, putting a relevant image or video for that post that relates back to the article, using hashtags and locations that’s relevant to the content, is all SEO strategy. Follow and engage with people who fall under your topic, so you can help build your social media platforms. Unless you’re legit starting a business, don’t get too caught up into low amounts of followers or engagement, because you’re just doing this for experience.

Sell some products online, regardless if it’s on an Amazon or eBay. Take the time and effort into writing the title and product description of what you’re selling, even if the product is something as simple as a book. Look at it from a seller perspective, what specific words do you type when you’re looking for something? What do you look for in a product description that makes you comfortable enough to complete the purchase? When selling products online you’ll get the experience dealing with things like return policies, customer complaints, and pricing. If it’s too much of a hassle to sell stuff online, then just do product reviews on the things you purchase, especially on YouTube and other social platforms. Making product reviews helps other people make their decision into buying that product and helps you develop your marketing skills when you’re doing the review. Also making these reviews on YouTube help you develop you’re content editing and graphic design skills.

Utilize tools that help you keep track of data, even it’s simply just using a free social media managing app. Apps such as Buffer and Hootsuite help you share and schedule posts on social media platforms. Buffer and Hootsuite happen to be tools that some of the biggest companies across the world use as well. There’s other apps that can help you keep track of followers, but just make sure they are legit and not app that will get your account hacked. Using apps that help keep track of this type of data is developing your experience in data metrics.

Now when you combine everything that was recommended previously, you have someone who has basic experience in marketing, writing, web design, graphic design, merchandising, tracking metric data, SEO strategy and other fancy terms employers use on job listings. When you do all these things for at least a year, you will have no problem finding an internship or entry-level position such as a ecommerce assistant. You may already have experience in ecommerce and you didn’t even know it. I’d even start applying for similar jobs after a couple months of doing this. Don’t overthink on what ecommerce is, because when I was younger I thought you had to have all this fancy experience to apply for jobs mentioned earlier, only for me to find out I could have had a ecommerce assistant role my freshman year of college because I had experience writing blogs.

There’s no better time than now

Many of us are at home, with not much to do, just trying to stay safe. If you’re looking for work, or know you’ll be looking for work in the future, don’t become dependent on retail or sales jobs. It’ll always be easy finding a job as a cashier, a sales floor associate, etc., but for most of us that shouldn’t be the job to depend on when we need a quick job. Working in ecommerce can be fairly easy and fun, and is a lot less stressful than retail, especially with many ecommerce jobs being remote so you can work from home.

The U.S Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) reported in previous years that from 1997 to 2016, employment in the ecommerce sector  increased by 80%, and the BLS predicts that that the number of ecommerce jobs in the US will keep on growing and reach 450,000 by 2026. This was reported before the pandemic, so you can safely assume that the number will be at least, AT LEAST, doubled by that time, especially with online shopping dramatically increasing with our current situations. Statistics reported by 99 Firms show that it’s predicted that retail ecommerce sales will reach $4.13 trillion in 2020. The BLS reported that the median income for “market research analysts and marketing specialists” in ecommerce that also have a Bachelor’s degree is $57,110.

From personal experience, many employers offer around $20 per hour for entry-level ecommerce roles. A remote job that offers around $20 per hour no matter what state you’re in, may be a much better option for some than a retail job that may only pay $15 per hour, if you’re you’re state even has that as minimum wage. Whether you decide to get involved with ecommerce, just challenge yourself during these times to do something productive.