Guide to Product Management in E-commerce
E-commerce platforms, when compared to the last decade, have seen exponential growth. Along with growth, there is a rise in competition, making it hard to drive customers to sites and convince them to make purchases.
This is because consumers have access to multiple e-commerce platforms and make intense comparisons before deciding. They check products, compare prices and discounts and finally settle on the best one.
In such a situation, product management plays a key role in the success of e-commerce platforms. The leading e-commerce websites like Flipkart, Amazon or Myntra keep improvising their product management strategies to offer accurate product suggestions, intimation of a price drop, renewal of subscriptions, etc., for improving overall customer experience.
This article teaches the role of e-commerce product managers, the skills required, and the challenges they face.
What is Product Management in E-Commerce?
Product management deals with recurring events like identifying, testing, onboarding, advertising, selling, and delivering products on a timely basis.
However, in addition to products, e-commerce includes an overall experience of the website. Product management in e-commerce is a combination of technology, a sound business model, and customer experience.
Who is an E-Commerce Product Manager?
E-commerce product managers ensure the smooth functioning of the e-commerce sites by meeting the customer’s demands, resolving feedback, and maintaining the quality of products and services. They serve as a link between the product development team, business development managers and other stakeholders.
What is the Role of an E-Commerce Product Manager?
The role of product managers in an e-commerce company varies. Although the following responsibilities are common in all companies.
- Analysing the current product and researching the brand that offers the best version and services to set the standard for development.
- Analysing the product requirements among consumers.
- Suggesting new products and helping the marketing team develop effective techniques.
- Managing product faults and making the required modifications.
- Surveying the product and predicting future product specifications.
- Monitoring the product specifications and ensuring product delivery.
- Analysing the key business metrics, performing market research, and predicting future e-commerce projects.
Skills Required to Become Outstanding E-Commerce Product Managers
An e-commerce product manager needs a varied set of skills ranging from technical to consumer centric. Here’s a list of the essential ones.
Technical skills
to understand the interconnection between the complete ordering, payment, and customer services system. The fundamental technical skills help product managers understand product risks, present issues, and design better solutions.
Market research skills
are one the most important skills for an e-commerce product manager. They help perform market analysis, examine market trends, and determine varying consumer requirements to improve a company’s position in the market.
Data analysis skills
help interpret data, identify product insights, and find different measures to grow business. Data analysis further helps build a product roadmap from design to production.
Budget management skills
help e-commerce product managers determine and manage a product’s budget within the available resources and prioritise delivery at a time.
Communication skills
are essential for e-commerce product managers, as they are involved in multiple discussions and product meetups with clients and team members to share feedback and discuss related measures.
Problem-solving skills
help e-commerce product managers select the right path to solve an issue and develop an effective solution.
Leadership skills
help managers make appropriate decisions, drive future goals, and manage different internal and external teams that rely on them.
Strategic thinking skills
help them tackle complex industry problems and issues affecting delivery goals. Strategic thinking also enables them to develop creative insights to increase the market value of the products.
Challenges Faced by an E-Commerce Product Manager
E-commerce product managers face different challenges, but the following are the major ones.
Brand loyalty and devotion
To promote brand devotion to its customers, an e-commerce product manager needs to have an in-depth understanding of customer’s behaviour and requirements to assure them that they would benefit from the deals offered.
Evolving strategies
With the growing e-commerce market, the e-commerce product manager needs to improve the strategies continuously to promote their product among the consumers. This is best done by selecting the right marketing strategies and offering the best discounts and deals with quality.
Staying on the top
Because of the massive business growth, despite having a huge brand name, offering free delivery, membership program and many such tactics; almost all e-commerce companies battle to hold their position.
Thus, an e-commerce product manager must continuously work on analysing search engine optimisation tactics, suggesting comparative analysis and finding the right platform to promote their company’s products.
What Next?
In this evolving e-commerce platform, there is constant change in the product price, related marketing strategies and offerings. Nowadays, with the application of technology, and the unrestricted possibility of developing websites, user experience is pivotal.
Thus, one of the major responsibilities of a product manager is to understand what each visitor is looking for on the website and how the website can offer them personalised results as far as possible. For which skill development is essential.
You can opt for product management courses to acquire e-commerce skills and widen your scope for success in this competitive domain. These courses can help you understand the structured process of managing the entire life cycle of a product.
To help you plan a cutting-edge career in product management, Emeritus India, in partnership with different institutes, offers product management courses to develop your ability to create and market a product with the right approach. These courses are for:
- Individuals looking to transition into the Product Management field and build a strong foundation for a successful career
- Mid and senior-level managers looking for ways to hone their skills to manage new and mature products, right from ideation to execution and measure the performance to drive profitability
- Entrepreneurs and Business Heads who want to lead the use of product strategies in their organisation, and drive product-focused decision making and planning
So, if you belong to any of these categories or a related one, sign up for a product management course today.
