Guest Blog: The Right Time and Way to Outsource Your eCommerce Store

Business owners already have a lot on their plates. From building a site and developing marketing and sales to maintaining customer service and keeping track of product inventory – it can be tough attempting to do it all alone. Instead of juggling everything, isn’t it time you started focusing on growing your eCommerce business – outsourcing your other tasks to give you time to do more?

For those unfamiliar with the term “outsourcing”, this involves hiring an outside individual or service to perform specific tasks for your business. With today’s internet-savvy world, it’s completely possible to outsource everything from content marketing and web development to your payroll and bookkeeping.

Outsourcing your eCommerce store is a great way to grow your business – you just need to know when:

 

1) If you have no time or interest

If tasks are taking you a long time to complete because you don’t have the skills set required (or the desire to do it), outsourcing will save you both time and boredom.

 

2) Your business is growing fast

This is a great problem to have, but not when it becomes difficult to keep up. To achieve long-term success, you need to figure out a plan to implement systems that will bring your business to scale. Outsourcing allows you to grow from a small shop into a serious eCommerce business.

3) You’re ready to expand

Are you at bursting point, where you’re ready to deliver more? Instead of hiring full-time employees, you can outsource individual tasks to freelancers at a fraction of the cost (and with a lot less paperwork), take advantage of dedicated software (such as Expandly) and use automated sales and marketing platforms.

eCommerce business owners experiencing any of these three situations should seriously consider outsourcing to achieve more.
New to outsourcing or not getting the result you need to grow your business?
You’ve come to the right place. As an eCommerce freelancing expert, we’ve got seven simple tasks to outsource that have the potential to transform your eCommerce business, starting with:

 

1) Order fulfilment

There are many benefits to outsourcing fulfilment services, including:

– Cutting shipping time and lowering shipping rates

– Reduced operating costs

– Increasing your reach, helping you grow into new markets

 

2) Website design and development

Most people aren’t skilled in web design and development. Yes, you can learn the basics, but when creating a professional eCommerce website, it really is best left to the experts.

You need a user-friendly interface and proper backend/frontend coding – making outsourcing essential. The best part about outsourcing your website design and development is that you can involve a number of freelancers, ensuring that you have an expert at every step along the way.

 

3) Social media management and content creation

Social media and marketing play an increasingly important role in today’s digital world. While we can all bash out a Tweet and pen a blog, for the untrained it can be time-consuming, difficult and fall to the bottom of the to-do list. And let’s not forget that social media never sleeps.

To stay up-to-date and manage a prominent social media presence across all platforms, alongside a regular, engaging and informative blog, outsourcing is a very tempting offer – but where do you find quality content writers and social media experts? Freelancer sites like FreeeUp are a great way to start. You can request the very best from hundreds of available freelancers who have the desired eCommerce experience and knowledge.

 

4) Inventory management

When you first start your eCommerce business, inventory management is easy. You have a small amount of stock, which can be easily tracked on a spreadsheet. But as your business begins takes off, your orders will start multiplying – making it hectic and difficult to manage it on your own.

Outsourcing this part of your business by using inventory management software can really help to grow your online business, without growing your grey hairs.

 

5) Writing product descriptions

As you’ll be aware, writing optimised and engaging product descriptions and titles can become incredibly time-consuming. As your inventory grows, this task can easily take days out of your weeks – yikes.

And, don’t even think about simply breezing through this because this is a task that needs to be done right if you want effective SEO.

The answer? An experience freelancer who knows the words that sell and the words that properly optimise your listings. Get them to create the words and then upload them in bulk using multichannel management software.

 

6) Customer service

Every business owner knows customers are the root of their business. Without them, your business will fail miserably – making customer ratings essential.

Ideally, customer service should be provided 24/7, including weekends. As a business owner with an already long to-do list, outsourcing your customer services ensure that customers receive the attention and focus they need for outstanding customer reviews.

 

7) Administrative work

Think about the tedious tasks you do daily – scheduling, creating reports, organising and managing your files – is this the best use of your time? A virtual assistant is your answer, and you can find these all-round rock stars (who handle all of these tasks and more) using remote hiring sites like FreeeUp.

 

8) Multichannel management

If you’re a business selling through multiple sales channel(s) including web stores and online marketplaces, multi-channel management software (such as Expandly), makes it simple. Integrate your sales channel(s) to manage listings, orders, inventory, invoices and accounting all in one place.

Running an online business can be stressful and hectic, but by outsourcing some of these simple tasks, you can make it a hell of a lot simpler.

 

---

Find the right freelancer for your business by visiting FreeeUp today.

New to Freeeup? Use coupon code “Expandly25” in the Referral section of the sign-up page for a for $25 credit on your first hire!

About the author:

Connor Gillivan is the CMO and co-author of FreeeUp.com, a rapidly growing freelance marketplace making hiring online simpler. He has sold over $30 million online, has hired hundreds of freelancers to build his companies, is a published author, and is the owner of ConnorGillivan.com. He currently lives in Denver, CO.

facebook.com/freeeupcom

youtube.com/channel/UCqoq7EGvwLQXgiYuIG8_iMg

linkedin.com/in/connorgillivan

twitter.com/connorgillivan