Each owner of the eCommerce goes through several stages in its development.
First, a person has a thought and a desire to create an online store and start doing e-commerce. After that, it is time to choose a niche for the online store, create a site, search for suppliers and conclude contracts with them. In the final, if everything goes well, the shop opens and starts working.
The first year of work for any online store is not easy. Especially if for its owner this type of business is “terra incognita”.
All this time, the owner of the online store must retain motivation to engage in the chosen business and strive to transform from a single employee to a full-fledged owner of commercial resources, sales from which will be carried out by hired staff.
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At a new stage of development, when hired employees will appear in the online store, the business owner will have to think about what and how to motivate sellers, couriers and other employees of the online store.
If you, as the owner of an online store, think that the “labor exploits” of your sellers are inspired by the same incentives as you – this is a fatal mistake.
To begin with, feel the difference – you are a business owner who has gone from a vague idea that once originated in the head, to its implementation in the site and the entire infrastructure of the online store.
The seller who came to you to work, guided by completely different considerations: someone needs to start working, someone to feed the family, and someone just likes the process of trade and communication with customers.
All this should be taken into account if you think about how and what you can motivate the employees of the online store.
Why do you need motivation at all?
In any HR manual, you will find a definition of motivation as “what motivates us to take action”.
Let us also remind you that motivation is usually divided into two categories: material and non-material (gratitude, diplomas, titles like “the best seller of the month” and many other options).
Now you have to evaluate your employees and understand the incentives they are inspired by. As mentioned above, they are different for each person. Some are best motivated by money, while others are best motivated by an increase in the status or gratitude announced by the company’s management publicly.
To find out the hidden motives of your employees, which allow them to work more efficiently, you can use the questionnaire, when among the mass of questions there are those answers to which you are most interested.
If your store has at least 2-3 salespeople, it is quite logical to arrange a competition between them, having developed the planned indicators and those control points at which a person can claim a bonus. The main thing is that the conditions of the game were transparent and honest and did not change “in the course of the play.
The motivational scheme starts at the moment when your sellers exceed the plan.
Group of people on a business meeting late in the evening
Simple options for motivating online store staff:
The simplest way to motivate the employees of the online store (if it is a question concerning material motivation) – is a fixed salary plus a percentage of sales above the plan or a fixed bonus for overfulfillment of this plan.
The question arises, what percentage should you pay? Should I pay it off the turnover or sales? All these answers should be found by the owner of the online store, but Magento advanced reports definitely will help you. It is necessary to take into account only that bonuses, interest to sellers for overfulfillment of the plan and any other monetary incentives should be profitable, justified and paid from additional sales, and not to reduce your usual profit.
As for the intangible options for motivation, here the owner of the online store can show their own fantasy (taking into account the individual characteristics of their employees). As mentioned above, the most common option may be a competition between sellers or public gratitude from the management to the most distinguished employee this month.
Conclusion
The motivation of your employees allows you to reach new heights in your business and get additional profit, so it is worth thinking about the implementation of any motivation scheme for the staff of your online store. Remember that not everyone and not always motivates only money. Approach the creation of a motivational scheme creatively, try a few options until you find the most suitable one for your case.
