Online Merchant
An online merchant is a professional or business that sells goods and services over the internet, operating without a traditional physical storefront. This role encompasses a variety of responsibilities similar to those of brick-and-mortar retailers, including inventory management, marketing, financial tracking, and customer service. Online merchants can range from small, niche businesses run by individual hobbyists or artists to large corporations that employ extensive teams covering various functions like database management and shipping.
The work environment for online merchants includes administrative offices and warehouses, where inventory is stored and managed. Professionals in this field often utilize digital marketing strategies to attract customers, relying heavily on social media and high-quality product photography to enhance visibility and sales. While formal education is not strictly required, coursework in business management, marketing, and finance can significantly aid those looking to succeed in online retail. Overall, a successful online merchant is typically organized, independent, and skilled in communication, enabling them to manage multiple projects effectively in a dynamic digital marketplace.
Online Merchant
Snapshot
Career Cluster(s): Business, Management & Administration, Human Services, Information Technology, Marketing, Sales & Service
Interests: Managing projects, organizing information, customer service, communicating with others
Earnings (Yearly Median): $55,338 annual, $26.6 hourly
Employment & Outlook: 4% to 7% (Average)
Overview
Sphere of Work. Online merchants offer goods for sale online. Professionals employed as online merchants or staff members of online-only retailers conduct all the day-to-day duties of traditional “brick and mortar” retailers but often at a larger scale and without traditional storefronts to display their wares. Online merchants range from specialized small businesses to large corporations offering a variety of products to customers all over the world.
Work Environment. Depending on their professional role, online merchants work out of administrative settings, such as offices, call centers, warehouses, and other facilities that house goods and inventory. Large online merchants employ a comprehensive array of staff, each designated with responsibilities from database administrators, financial experts, and online marketing specialists to warehouse workers, shipment clerks, and order processors. Working in sizeable online merchant corporations requires extensive interaction with coworkers. Small or niche online merchants may be run by single individuals responsible for entire operations.
Occupation Interest. Online retailing attracts a diverse array of professionals. Many small-scale, niche online merchants are hobbyists, crafts makers, or artists who have harnessed the power of the Internet to market their goods to the world. These self-starting professionals enjoy the independence and freedom that comes with a career in online retailing. Successful online merchants are also organized, independent, punctual, and skilled communicators who can lead several different projects simultaneously.
A Day in the Life—Duties and Responsibilities. Online retailers' everyday duties and responsibilities can be divided into inventory control, online business marketing, financial tracking, and customer service.
Managing inventory is crucial for online merchants of every scope and size. Online merchants of all sizes track their diverse inventories with financial accounting or spreadsheet software. Warehousing facilities also often conduct quarterly counts of all in-house merchandise as loss-management prevention and to make sure actual on-hand supplies mirror images reflected in computer databases.
Marketing initiatives, particularly digital promotion, are what online merchants employ to attract potential clients to their online point of sale. Online merchants spend most of their time identifying potential avenues from which to recruit their target market. As with many online businesses, there is an increasing trend of online merchants utilizing social media websites to attract site visits and potential customers. Photography of all the merchandise available for sale online is a key facet of the marketing strategy of online merchants.
Managing the sale and purchase of goods is an arena of online merchandising requiring an efficient knowledge of financial management. Merchants must keep pace with which products generate the most profits and evaluate the availability or continued sale of struggling portions of their inventory.
Maintaining high-functioning customer service is also crucial for online merchants to be successful. While large online retailers can employ large customer service staff to monitor the questions and concerns of shoppers on a near-constant basis, individual online merchants must complete this task in concert with marketing and financial management responsibilities.
Work Environment
Immediate Physical Environment. Warehouse and office settings predominate. Much of online merchants' administrative, marketing, and financial tasks are conducted in traditional office settings, while storage of goods, packaging, and shipping are usually conducted from warehouse facilities.
Online retailers operate from a diverse array of locations. Large online retail companies are usually housed in industrial or business park complexes.
Human Environment. Much of the work of specialty online merchants operating their own small businesses is done independently under their supervision. Large online merchants traditionally have standard corporate hierarchies, requiring extensive collaboration with fellow staff members and customers daily.
Technological Environment. Online merchants utilize standard administrative technologies, including telephones, email, web conferencing, computer design software, inventory databases, and shipping software.
Education, Training, and Advancement
High School/Secondary. High school students can best prepare for a career in the online retail industry with basic math, communications, public speaking, and computer science courses. High school-level business and financial planning courses also help lay the necessary groundwork for future small business owners. English composition coursework effectively builds communication and problem-solving skills, and exposure to one or more foreign languages can also assist clients interested in working across a diverse array of markets.
Postsecondary. While postsecondary education is not a steadfast requirement for a career as an online merchant, completing associate or bachelor-level coursework in one of the many facets of the profession can be highly beneficial.
College-level small-business management, marketing, finance, or database administration coursework can be beneficial. Computer proficiency is a skill shared by many successful online merchants adept at creating, maintaining, and editing large websites, graphic design, and online mercantile exchanges.
Related Occupations
− Customer Service Representative
− Electronic Commerce Specialist
− General Manager & Top Executive
− Services Sales Representative
− Wholesale Sales Representative
Bibliography
"Cartle, River. "Why You Should Be Selling on the Internet--And How to Start." Constant Contact, 16 Nov. 2023, www.constantcontact.com/blog/selling-on-the-internet/. Accessed 23 Aug. 2024.
“Data for Occupations Not Covered in Detail: Business Operations Specialists, All Other.” Occupational Outlook Handbook. Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor, 6 Sept. 2023, www.bls.gov/ooh/about/data-for-occupations-not-covered-in-detail.htm#Business%20and%20financial%20operations%20occupations. Accessed 28 Sept. 2023.
Haleen, Abbas. "US Ecommerce Sales Reached $1.119 Trillion in 2023." Digital Commerce, 26 Feb. 2024, www.digitalcommerce360.com/article/us-ecommerce-sales/. Accessed 23 Aug. 2024.
“Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2022; 13-1199 Business Operations Specialists, All Other.” Occupational Employment Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor, 25 Apr. 2023, www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes131199.htm. Accessed 28 Sept. 2023.
“Summary Report for: 13-119.06 - Online Merchants.” O*Net OnLine. Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration, 29 Aug. 2023, www.onetonline.org/link/summary/13-1199.06. Accessed 28 Sept. 2023.