The leadership of e-commerce companies has changed since the industry’s inception two decades ago. This change can give us clues about the not-too-distant future of the industry.
In the early days, managing e-commerce included skilled developers and technophiles, according to Rick Wilson, CEO of Miva, an e-commerce platform.
Today, software engineers and developers are in the tactical and technical trenches, if they even exist within the e-commerce organization. Marketers have taken center stage in many, if not most, e-commerce organizations.
“We have fully entered the age of the non-technical online trader,” Wilson wrote in an email on September 14, 2022.
While Wilson did not comment on the implications of this move toward non-technical, marketing-focused leadership, we can make some inferences.
Passing through Tech
As the e-commerce industry has grown, many complex technical issues are no longer a problem. Platforms like Shopify and Miva have leveled the technological playing field, making it relatively easy for businesses to launch and operate.
Years ago, businesses needed to create secure websites that marketed their products properly. They needed to accept payments in a way that was secure and compatible with the payment card industry. They had to avoid data breaches and win in search engine optimization. And they often needed to integrate with legacy business systems.
In the early days of e-commerce, businesses were responsible for building their own sites.
No matter where you looked in the early days of e-commerce, there was a technical problem. Thus, code-savvy developers and engineers rose to the top e-commerce positions.
Around 2022, while using Shopify requires some development skills, or at least a good template, services like Webflow require no real technical skills. A small e-commerce business with a reasonably talented graphic designer can create an acceptable and functional e-commerce website with little or no programming skills.
Wilson’s company, Miva, is one of several platforms that make running an e-commerce business easier in terms of the technical know-how required.
Plus, hundreds of apps and tools require no code to integrate almost every software solution imaginable. Want to connect an eCommerce store to Amazon? There’s an app for that. Do you need an order management system? No problem. Want integrated email marketing solutions? That’s why Shopify recently invested another $100 million in Klaviyo.
It is no longer about how to trade online. It’s about how to market online.
New Channels
The parity of e-commerce platforms and tools has given rise to a new generation of e-commerce professionals: the marketer.
The problem now is not how to run an e-commerce website, but how to build a profitable e-commerce machine that generates sales predictably. This is the kind of place where marketers thrive.
Marketers have long used intuition, data and value to identify and scale promotional channels.
These professionals invented direct marketing, pioneered gift-with-purchase, and transformed Facebook from a simple social media platform into an advertising empire when they learned they could use their behavioral targeting to drive e-commerce sales.
Salespeople now run many e-commerce operations because the real problem is a lack of sales.
If we accept this premise, we can assume that e-commerce could go through a major channel shift and marketers will continue to look for new and scalable opportunities.
New channels may include some combination of commercial video, text messaging, e-commerce marketplaces, or influencer marketing to drive sales.
Takeaway food
All of this is good news for e-commerce professionals. Regardless of your role (dealer, marketer or enthusiast), it’s an excellent time to get involved.
A new generation of e-commerce professionals is emerging, more focused on marketing and sales than technology. And this change will almost certainly disrupt the market and create opportunities.
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