A snapshot of eCommerce Recruitment

1st September 2016

The eCommerce industry at the moment is booming, not only in the UK but around the world. All industry figures for 2015 show eCommerce growth across major countries and eCommerce markets with the UK being a top performer in terms of online sales. What does this mean for eCommerce recruitment agencies? A lot of work to be done!

The YoYo Growth for the Past 5 Years

Over the past 5 years there has been a consistent growth within the eCommerce market, so much so that we are now seeing online sales taking a huge chunk of overall sales. For example, in November 2015 in the UK, of total sales, 15% took place online (internet retailer).

For eCommerce recruitment agencies, this means that they will be an integral part of a client’s business for the long term. The recruitment agency will need to understand how the eCommerce markets are performing and be ready to support their clients through key online retailing events such as ‘Black Friday’.

Future Trends in eCommerce

Looking back to 2015 data, we can see some clear trends which we predict will be more prominent towards the backend of 2016.

• Furniture and Home Décor – With online technology improving and now allowing the user 360 views, augmented reality and the ability to personalise from their desktop or mobile, there has been a significant response in eCommerce activity with furniture and home décor retailers. We expect this to continue to rise in 2016 as businesses make customers more aware of these features.
• Baby Products – According to babycentre.co.uk parents are spending more time reading information about their babies online. Due to this increase in online information searching, parents are then continuing their journey to online retailers of baby products to make a purchase. Mothercare for example saw a 20% increase in online sales!
• Pet Care Products – Similar to parents, pet owners are also going online more to seek information and products. There is high activity from mobile phones in terms of pet related searches and we expect there to be many new entrants who are online only in the Pet Care industry.
• Handmade Products – A lot of independent Handmade and Craft businesses live and breathe by their online presence. By being online and with a strong search strategy, they are able to service the rising demand of these types of products by customers.
• A great eCommerce recruitment agency will be living and breathing eCommerce and will be able to challenge and advise clients on future eCommerce trends and pre-empt possible recruitment strategies.
• Key eCommerce Players

The leaders in the eCommerce market due to the latest Gartner report are; Oracle, IBM, Hybris and Demandware with Digital River and Magento being key challengers. According to Gartner, these eCommerce players should focus on customer experience, product range, delivery, payment and customer to grow their business. This will no doubt result in continued YoY growth and investment within this space and each compete to provide the best service to their target audience.

Your eCommerce recruiter should be able to identify the key players within eCommerce and understand what differentiates them. More importantly, the recruiter will know what candidates would be best suited for specific businesses and business needs as these transformations occur. Demand in specialist resource will likely rise as tried and trusted professionals will be preferred to take on these transformations so your recruiter should not only be aware of who they are but should be in regular contact with them.

Benefits of Working with Simply Commerce
Simply Commerce was set up in November 2013 to deliver technical specialist resource across the eCommerce space. The business works with the variant of businesses across this area so gives us an expert understanding of every different stage of the process and the type of people to successfulyl complete/delivery pieces of work.

As a business we have grown from 0 to over £1 million turnover with 98% of our roles successfully placed within the eCommerce space, we have grown our business through a combination of good relationships, referrals and delivering when given the chance. To understand how we vary from the competition and how we may be able to assist you with your recruitment please follow us on our social channels below and get in touch with one of our Consultants today.