What kind of person would be suitable for the day-to-day management and operation of a Magento website?

We are often asked what kind of person would be suitable for the day-to-day management and operation of a Magento website - or even a job description for staff recruitment purposes. At Screen Pages, we spend a lot of time interacting with such folk using Magento day-to-day for their e-commerce activities, so we have built up a clear picture of what it takes to be effective. Bear in mind that - day-to-day - there's going to be a lot of ongoing change and updates, working in the Magento Admin Panel and managing e-commerce processes operationally (as opposed to strategic or conceptual activities).

Here's the ideal description, based on feedback from our project and account management teams as well as our customer support staff who have been working with 50+ businesses tirelessly to give them the tools, resources and support to be successful (& self-sufficient) with their Magento websites. Some clients get on extremely well, others find it hard: this description will help you focus on what matters - in our humble experience.

Summary of role

Generate and update website content (products, content, promotions)
Work with agencies to build traffic & sales via the website (PPC agency, email marketing provider, e-commerce provider, etc)
Plan, define and implement website changes and functional improvements
Maintain and update the online marketing plan for the website
Monitor key performance indicators on the website and develop plans to improve them

Key Experience

Understanding of the disciplines required to drive traffic to retail websites (ppc, email marketing, link generation, online pr, SEO, offline marketing and pr, affiliate programmes, etc)
Understanding of order management/customer fulfilment in an e-commerce context
Experience using packages like Excel and Photoshop
Computer literate and understanding of basic web technologies (FTP, browsers, basic HTML, data files)
Familiar with data management
Previous experience of website or e-commerce CMS
Basic understanding of Google products such as Webmaster Tools & Analytics would be desirable
Experience of Magento would be a plus

Detailed responsibilities would include:

Website

Update product information and content on the website
Create banners, images, promotions etc for display on the website (using products like Photoshop)
Update content managed areas (copy & artwork)
Manage website configuration & parameters (eg payment options, stock management)
Investigate and report any operational/technical issues arising
Scope and document ongoing website functional projects /improvements
Test and deploy functional projects /improvements
Liaise with e-commerce agency regarding the day to day management of the website
Liaise with internal resources regarding the day to day management of the website
Evaluate approaches & strategies to improve website sales conversions & customer engagement

Marketing

Understand and develop sources of traffic (& the factors that influence it): email, SEO, PPC, affiliates, social media, catalogues etc
Liaise with agencies or in-house teams to implement and support campaigns
Investigate, evaluate and assess new ways of generating additional traffic/orders
Produce reports to analyse the performance of all online marketing campaigns and promotions (via reports, analytics, surveys etc)

Measurement

To meet and exceed all agreed performance objectives (sales, conversions, engagement)
Continuous improvement of customer satisfaction
Meet internal service levels for website activity and management
Maintaining an excellent level of service to the business

Happy recruiting!

By Roger Willcocks