Your eCommerce team: the roles needed for a flawless customer journey

Earlier you were able to read our two-part blog series about the customer journey of B2B webshops. We described that eCommerce is not just a sales channel: it is a strategy with a clearly defined objective. To shape this strategy you really need an eCommerce team of people with different disciplines. In this blog we describe how to put together your eCommerce dream team. This is how you make your webshop a success.

The customer journey is the global customer journey that a customer takes when he or she buys a product. Below you can see the course of the different phases.

In each phase, different roles in your eCommerce team are important.

Phase 1 and 2: Awareness & Consideration

At the beginning of the customer journey, a potential customer focuses on products and companies that can meet their needs. You want to draw attention to your product and make your content findable in the search engines.

• Marketing is responsible for the correct product data and price information. You need a number of marketing specialists, such as a Content Marketer, CRO specialist and Online Marketer. They contribute to lead nurturing to attract potential customers.
• The Product and Category Manager ensure correct product positioning and information.
• Sales identifies prospects and proactively approaches them to interest them in your company and the products you offer.
• The Logistics department ensures correct delivery times and stock planning.
• Customer Service is responsible for providing information and answering questions from potential customers.
• IT is mainly important in the background and is concerned with the IT infrastructure and security.
  
  

Phase 3: Acquisition

In this phase, a potential customer has made the choice to buy your product.

• Sales is crucial to convert potential customers into paying customers.
• The Logistics Manager ensures seamless order processing and effective inventory management, to deliver the product to the customer in a timely and efficient manner.
• Customer Service is shifting the focus from providing information to direct customer support and troubleshooting during the purchase process via chat, phone and email.
• In this phase, IT focuses on the integration and monitoring of the data that enters the webshop.

In this phase, your eCommerce team does everything it can to offer a flawless shopping experience.

Phase 4: Service

In this phase you want to provide the right service to customers who have completed their purchase.

• The Logistics department ensures consistent and efficient product delivery and plays an important role in returns management.
• IT is concerned with the maintenance and optimization of IT systems.
• For the Customer Service department, customer satisfaction and support are central in this phase. This department still provides direct support, but now self-service options are more important, such as a knowledge base or FAQ section.
  
  

Phase 5: Loyalty

In the final phase, your team focuses on creating loyal customer (relationships).

• The Sales department focuses entirely on existing customers. They provide cross- and upsell by offering additional products or upgrades that match the needs and interests of your customers.
• Customer Service is important in this phase to keep customer satisfaction high and to retain customers.
• Marketing contributes to, for example, conversion optimization and the creation of loyalty programs. For example, consider a program that rewards existing customers with personalized discounts to connect them to your organization.
  
  

A complete eCommerce team

Two roles in your eCommerce team are indispensable throughout the entire customer journey: the eCommerce Manager and the IT specialist. The eCommerce Manager must monitor the strategy, translate it into practical solutions and coordinate the entire eCommerce process. The IT specialist is responsible for the integration of product and price data (ERP), customer information and (cyber) security. With these two roles in your eCommerce company you have a strong foundation for your dream team!

You do not have to fill in every role internally, but Sales and the Product and Category Manager are essential to have in-house. It is possible to outsource IT, but an in-house IT specialist certainly has advantages. After all, he knows your company's IT landscape better than an outsider. Marketing and Logistics are easier to outsource, because they require less substantive expertise from your company.

Do you really want to go sky-high? Then complete your team with a Data Analyst and a Front-end Developer. A Data Analyst follows all trends and changes in the behavior of your customers and knows how to respond to this. A Front-end Developer develops the storefront of a webshop and is very important in a headless implementation. If you get these roles in-house, you really take the next step towards more eCommerce success. The eCommerce team of your dreams is then complete.