What Freelancers Should Know to Succeed With Ecommerce Gigs

Ecommerce is exploding, yet in many ways, it’s still a developing industry.

Most recently, ecommerce sales accounted for just 10.7 percent of all retail sales. That percentage is only expected to grow, which means more and more retail businesses will turn to ecommerce in the future—and not all of them have the skill and expertise to do it on their own.

The truth is, many small retailers lack the time or know-how to develop an online store or keep up with the latest ecommerce trends. That’s why Fiverr has created a new ecommerce Store to connect those who have products to sell but need help with the freelancers who have the digital skills to make it happen. This represents a tremendous opportunity for freelance web designers, graphic designers, content writers, SEO marketers and more to dive into this exciting niche.

Whether you have ample experience working with ecommerce clients or you are just looking to get your feet wet, you’ll need to showcase your knowledge and skills in one of these sought after areas:

We’ll tackle each area one by one below to further explain what ecommerce clients are looking for.

Building and Designing Websites

Getting a functional and attractive looking website up is one of the first hurdles that every ecommerce entrepreneur has to overcome. While many people in business have enough skills to get a basic working website up, it takes a great deal of knowledge and technical skill to make a web design look truly professional. It also takes a lot of experience to find and fix bugs that can affect the functionality of your website. When implementing tools like shopping carts and online ordering, the number of skills to do it right may be beyond the scope of many who attempt to do it on their own.

With freelancers, ecommerce owners can get the help they need getting their idea off the ground with a website. While you could code an ecommerce website from the ground-up, the standard practice for ecommerce is to build a site using one of several popular platforms such as Wix, Shopify, or WordPress. As a website builder, showcase and highlight your skills developing websites using these various platforms. The ability to customize the appearance and functionality of such websites is a must-have skill.

Also, take note that designing a website is not the same as building a website. Ecommerce businesses often need to first start with a user interface/user experience designer. This specialist makes a mock-up of your website based upon your expressed vision and provides you images depicting a few key examples of different pages on your website. For example, they may design a primary landing page, an about page, a product page and a product category page. At that point, the client would take the assets to a webpage builder who could imitate the design and create a functional site.

Freelancers with the necessary know-how can combine design and build services on Fiverr as a one-stop-shop for ecommerce clients. Or they are free to specialize in either building pages or UI/UX design.

Ecommerce Themes and Plug-Ins

This area of expertise is a natural extension involved with the building and designing pages, and some may include ecommerce plug-in development as a value-added service. However, others may specialize in specific plug-ins for ecommerce exclusively and offer a-la-carte services to customers that already have a website built.

There are several different popular plug-ins for ecommerce platforms that can be added to websites. The ecommerce industry uses these platforms to simplify and manage the technical aspects of creating and fulfilling orders and managing inventory online. For example, Magento is an open-source ecommerce software solution that is written in PHP. Magento is a powerful suite of tools that is great for managing inventory, shipments, and payments. Becoming a freelance Magento developer could be a great way to be of service to ecommerce clients if you are already proficient in PHP.

Specialize in one or more of the following platforms to meet the advanced needs of ecommerce clients on Fiverr:

Copywriting and Content Development

Having a website is a must, but a website isn’t worth anything if it is populated with content. The content needs for every ecommerce business are numerous and serve a variety of purposes.

For starters, every ecommerce website needs product images and product descriptions. If an ecommerce business is only selling a handful of products, chances are they can manage the creation of these assets fairly easily. But when an ecommerce business grows and has dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of products for sale, the task of editing photos and writing descriptions can become downright formidable. Those with photo editing skills or talent for writing product copy can find ecommerce clients raring to utilize their services. Writing product descriptions is a great way to get your foot in the door as an ecommerce freelancer and start developing your portfolio as a copywriter.

What about other freelance content marketing needs?

Content marketing is frequently used by ecommerce businesses to generate sales and engage their customer base. Provide your services as a thoughtful storyteller and blog writer. Highlight your skill in crafting email newsletters. Show off your video shooting and editing talents. Freelancers with these skills are needed by any keen ecommerce operators looking to expand their marketing funnel. Remember, anywhere words or images appear on a website, someone needs to make that content. With the right amount of skill and ambition, it could be you.

Mobile Development

Mobile transactions made up about 34.5 percent of U.S. retail ecommerce sales in 2017. That share is expected to climb to 53.9 percent by 2021. And if an ecommerce business doesn’t have a mobile website, chances are they are missing out on a great deal of potential revenue.

Specializing in developing mobile sites and native shopping apps is another way to freelance for ecommerce clients.

Web Analytics

Ecommerce websites generate a lot of data. Where are the site’s visitors coming from? What keywords are driving traffic to the site? Which product pages have the highest conversion rate? The answers to all of these questions and more can be valuable to any ecommerce business, but knowing how to set up web analytics that will collect this information is a complex task for the uninitiated. For those freelancers well-versed in setting up Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager and other tracking services, a lucrative future working with ecommerce businesses could be in your future!

SEO Management

Where an ecommerce website lands in search engine results can have a make or break effect on their businesses. That makes SEO experts one of the most sought-after freelance ecommerce roles. Those freelancers with expertise in search engine optimization are primed to help ecommerce businesses perform audits and find ways to improve their rankings with keyword-rich content pieces and link-building campaigns.

Everything Else

The needs of ecommerce clients don’t end there. There are many additional roles that specialists can play in boosting an ecommerce client’s business. From being a freelance ecommerce consultant to building a turnkey dropshipping site, there are many specific skills that ecommerce operators are turning to Fiverr to seek help with. Whether you specialize in ecommerce law or study b2b ecommerce trends, there is a niche to be found serving ecommerce clients on Fiverr.

If you aren’t sure if you have the skills and talents needed to jump into ecommerce work, there are several courses from Learn From Fiverr that can help prepare you. These courses include basic introductions to building a website, to more specialized courses that can help you upgrade your existing skillset and achieve mastery.

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