If done right, running an online store can be a very profitable business. Since e-commerce is such a big business now, it’s not surprising that so many people have decided to start their own online businesses.
Even though it’s easy to set up an online store, it’s not easy to run the store and make it a money-making machine. Once the site is up, there is a lot to do.
If you want to run it on your own, you’re going to get tired of it.
With all the work that needs to be done, one of the best things you can do is hire a virtual assistant. Now, the question is what tasks you need a virtual assistant for.
Do you need someone to help you with customer service? Someone to handle your social media accounts for you? Or maybe someone who can help with the delivery of products? It could be all of these things and more.
Here are e-commerce tasks that you can give to your virtual assistant to get you started:
Helping out customers
Keep your customers happy if you want to be successful. But that takes a lot of time. A virtual assistant who is good at customer service can answer questions from customers over the phone, via live chat, via email, and on social media. They can answer questions in real time for customers who are almost ready to buy, deal with unhappy customers in a tactful way, deal with lost shipments, and more.
A virtual assistant can help customers through the sales process while they are still on your website. This can increase the number of people who buy from you because they can get help from a real person.
Also, as the virtual assistant talks to your customers, they can look for opportunities to cross-sell and up-sell.
Order Processing
A virtual assistant can do things like enter orders, ship them, and send out invoices for your business. So let them put together the orders, send customer invoices to your drop-ship vendors and/or shipping companies, and do other daily tasks.
Returns/Exchanges
Your virtual assistant can take care of product returns and swaps for you. They can talk to customers and suppliers directly through email to set up returns, exchanges, and refunds.
Take care of stock
If your virtual assistant knows how to manage inventory, he can keep an eye on stock levels, update your website to show what your suppliers have on hand and in their warehouses, and let you know when you need to reorder certain products.
Order Products
Your virtual assistant can not only keep track of your stock, but they can also stock your virtual shelves. They can work with your suppliers, send invoices to accounts payable, and get stock into your warehouse or wherever it needs to be.
Website Maintenance
Once you’ve set up your e-commerce site, you’ll need to keep it running. If you hire a virtual assistant with the right skills, they can make sure that your customers can shop on your website without any problems.
Creating and sending out press releases
If your virtual assistant is skilled enough, they can write your press releases and send them to websites for press releases and news outlets. If you’d rather write your own press releases, your virtual assistant can still set up accounts on the press release websites and send them out for you.
Conclusion
There are obviously more things that a virtual assistant needs to do. The list above should help you get started, since these are important parts of a successful online store. Now that you have a better idea of which virtual assistants you need for your business, you should take a look at how things are going right now.
Take a quick look at your business and see where you need help the most. Make a list and put things in order of importance so you can find help quickly.
Each task needs a different set of skills that aren’t likely to be found in a single person. Even though hiring virtual assistants to do these tasks may cost you money, it is a good investment that will pay off in the long run.
