Phillip Jackson

To advance beyond a junior-level understanding of any job function requires excellent communication and documentation of processes and procedures. By teaching the subject matter (i.e. synthesizing what you've learned) in a training guide, a playbook, a manual, or a series of self-guided videos/blog posts/etc, you will master both the role itself and the skill of duplicating your knowledge into other people. This is the ultimate goal of a leader in any emerging industry.

Businesses in emerging industries often lack well-documented training materials. I find that it's helpful for me to attempt to teach what I've learned in order to cement my knowledge of a skill. So first, applying your skills means finding a business willing to invest in your upskilling or cross-training. This often means performing the job functions of a junior associate for some time, learning, and applying that knowledge in a way that allows *others to learn from it, too*.

Your level of self-assessment of your skills requires an honest inventory of what you're selling and where. How old is the brand? How much domain expertise does the team have? Is there any govt oversight or regulation knowledge necessary? Also consider that the definition of "eCommerce" is a matter of perspective, based on what channel you're selling in. The older the channel, the more specialized skills have become. For instance: - Web commerce: 30 years old - Amazon: 20 years old - Walmart Marketplace: 7 years old - TikTok Shops: 2 years old The amount of specialization and level of expertise needed, and the niche knowledge required in order to become proficient, depends on the age and enduring success of the channel.

A great marketing plan should begin with setting clear goals and timeframes. Marketing requires a deep knowledge of your customer (both your existing customer, and your prospective customer!) Where will your customer be in 6-12 months? Who are they? Where do they spend time? What inspires them? Knowing your customer will prevent you from chasing every fad that you learn about. Choose 1 channel to invest in, and go deep. eCom often fails because the marketing mix is too broad, and you're over-invested into too many channels. Rather than spending across Snap, Meta, TikTok, and Youtube, instead put all of your efforts and budget into a singular channel. Once you've seen some success and predictability, you can branch out from there.

It's difficult to stay up to date with current trends and hype cycles in eCommerce. As new sales channels launch, the need for a greater depth of experience will also send you down technological rabbit holes. Try to resist the temptation to follow the crowd. Invest in education to upskill your junior team members. Foster mentorships where more tenured team members share knowledge and stories with juniors. Invest in continuing education; workshops, conferences, and eLearning. Some resources include Google's Foundations of Digital Marketing, Shopify Academy, CXL and Future Commerce Learning.

Becoming an expert in a particular platform will allow you to focus on the needs of a specific customer base. Because the market for eCommerce continues to grow, the use cases continue to get more complex and more nuanced. Every platform has its own idiosyncrasies and particular ways of solving customer experience issues. Some platforms require more coding experience; others may have limited flexibility in order to keep the platform focused on its core strengths. Besides the technology, implementing any platform will require documentation of your business requirements, your processes, your team's responsibilities, and a comprehensive program so that your team all know their responsibilities.