What Does Your e-Commerce Business Staffing Look Like?

[MrSparks]

I know there's quite a few eCom business owners here and I'm curious as to what your business looks like in terms of staffing at the low 7 figure per year revenue range?

Do you have dedicated customer services? I'm guessing warehouse operative(s), sales person/team and ecommerce admin. Does everyone still do a bit of everything? Part time bookkeeper or full time bookkeeper/administrator?

Just trying to plan my next move, I think I have it sussed but curious as to what others are finding optimum for minimal overheads whilst maintaining a high level customer service and fast turnaround service.

We're still maintaining high customer service with just 2 people and a lot of automation, but must admit it's becoming harder day by day and we're not achieving much new stuff now so I need to make a move soon, COVID or not.

Thanks!

[foliedouce]

I'm an investor and NED of a £2m t/o eCommerce business, started in August 2016. Mainly UK based but also have web and Amazon sales in the USA, Germany, Spain, France and Italy.

It's our own brand and we contract manufacture products to our own spec mainly in China.

8.6 FTE, warehouse outsourced to 3PL (very good service from then) fully integrated into our systems so fulfilment is automated plus Amazon FBA. The 3PL partner with another company for European fulfilment based in the Netherlands.

In terms of staff breakdown:-

MD, 2 branding / marketing, 2 Amazon, web PPC outsourced, 1 p/t Financial Controller, 1 Accounts Assistant / Customer service (we have very few calls as we've automated as much as we possibly can), 1 buyer (we buy mainly from China), 1 supply chain manager, PR outsourced.

I believe that this platform can get us to at least £5m without hiring anyone else,

[loafer123]

We have an ecommerce business (direct, Amazon and a little eBay) which is relatively labour intensive due to the nature of the product.

Current sales run-rate is just over 7 figures, but that is massively up on last year due to Covid and may well settle back down somewhat in due course.

Staffing is 1 MD, 1 manager/does everything, 1 marketing, 3 picking & packing, plus I do the management accounts and VAT part time.

Likely to have to add a couple of extra people in the next month or two to cope with volumes, but should be scalable for another 50% sales increase before we look to a more radical jump if it keeps growing.

[super7]

Just out of interest..... what areas are you selling in? Product types rather than specifics??

[Doofus]

I'm NED of an ecomm doing about 6m t/o.

cust servs = 3
web/tech = 1
marketing = 2
goods in = 2
pick & pack = 4
accounts = 2
buying = 2
management = 3

[MrSparks]

Thanks for the replies. Very useful.

super7 said:

Just out of interest..... what areas are you selling in? Product types rather than specifics??

Electronics.

We don’t do a lot of low margin volume stuff so orders are manageable. Just. Lately however even between two of us we don’t get out of the warehouse until 12/1pm dealing with orders and enquiries etc.

The conundrum I have is do I get an eCommerce admin apprentice first to ensure we’re always progressing with product etc. Or warehouse person first to take care of fulfilment freeing both of us to work on Progression.

The latter costs more but might achieve more, faster. The former is cheaper and will improve consistency with marketing and product catalogue.

I was originally set on the apprentice first but day by day I think warehouse is more important and could overall allow us to progress more.

Bookkeeping & admin could easily be done 1 day a week I reckon, with a bit more automation at least.

[anonymous-user]

Get both. The apprentice costs pretty close to nothing.

[FactoryBacked]

Another couple of real-world examples for you, both B2C and pure-play online.

Company #1 - t/o £4m, UK focused

3 x Directors
1 x Office Manager / HR / Admin
1 x Accounts
1 x Purchasing Admin
1 x General eCommerce - PPC, SEO, Mechandising etc
1 x Web admin
1 x Graphics / Email
1 x Amazon / eBay Marketplaces
2 x Returns
2 x Customer Service
4 x Warehouse (plus seasonal staff)

Plus agency support for web development.

Company #2 - t/o £10m, global sales

Directors x 4
2.5 x Accounts / HR
3 x Purchasing
1 x eCommerce Manager
1 x Marketing Coordinator
4 x Web admin
1 x Graphics
1 x Email
1 x PPC
1 x Content Writer & Social Media
2 x Amazon / eBay Marketplaces
2 x Returns
3 x Customer Service
7 x Warehouse (plus seasonal staff)
1 x BDM

Plus agency support for web development and a team of freelance translators.

Some roles are key, some are nice to have. Some drive direct revenue, some support it. Some can be done remotely, some are best to have a bum on a seat. It's a balancing act for sure.

Now is probably a good time to experiment with different roles as there will be a lot of people to choose from and probably a lot who would be happy to take some freelance or part time work; eg warehouse pick, pack, dispatch.

If you're in an area where digital talent is scarce then finding enthusiastic and capable school or college leavers is an option too. But they can be very hit and miss. When it works though you can end up with a good ecommerce generalist early on who can grow and learn with the business and they will be cheap. Unless you are set on buying in experienced talent with specific skills, and can find it in your area and can afford to do that.

Edited by FactoryBacked on Friday 22 May 15:08

[MrSparks]

Thanks for the replies!

I think we'll need to look for a full time warehouse operative to take care of orders, purchasing, returns and general warehouse ASAP as it's bottlenecking our growth. When they get too busy we'll get them pick & pack support.

That frees me and my eCommerce manager to focus on customers, sales and website.

Then an apprentice to support us with product admin, marketing support etc.

Already got a contact to a freelance PPC expert that's working for some close friends which can take a load off on the Google Ads side and trying to find a VA or freelance admin to take care of the bookkeeping side (i.e adding invoice numbers, reconciling statements, added channel fees etc.) I've split off the accounts@ to a separate mail box and working on writing up procedures etc.

Pretty sure that'd see us through to £2M by which time I think we'll need some dedicated to customer service & support.

Going to aim for September for the apprentice & warehouse opp. Soon as possible for the VA/freelance admin.

Would love to see some of your warehouses! I think I've also realised that to get where I want to go we'll outgrow our current warehouse within 12-24 months.

[DSLiverpool]

Hi Craig Interesting post, I have a new e-commerce project starting soon to get to £1m in 2/3 years with as much automation, intelligence and cost sane outsourcing as possible. I’ll be starting a new “starting again” thread but this won’t be the main gig, we’re looking to use our own system as a live demo to illustrate streamlining and smart systems for other e-commerce businesses. Of course that’s the dream, I’ll map it as I go and make a load of mistakes but I’m not so precious not to share them. Really looking forward to it.