The Essential Qualities of an E-Commerce Project Manager for Business Success

According to the latest data from the country’s Official Statistics Portal, from January to November last year, compared to the same period in 2023, mail and internet orders in Lithuania grew by 8.7%. E-commerce platforms are being used by more and more buyers in Lithuania and around the world, as it is more convenient, saves time, and often money. Additionally, a wider range of services and products can be found online.

Although the number of visitors to e-stores is increasing, competition for them is also intensifying. Therefore, e-store managers are facing more and more challenges. Among them, what competencies should a specialist organizing e-store operations possess, what kind of team should the company have internally, and what responsibilities should be entrusted to external contractors? These and other questions are answered by Ricardas Smaizys, the head of PrestaRock, which has specialized in e-commerce since 2008 and works with the brand “PrestaRock.”

“PrestaRock” offers e-commerce solutions with the e-commerce platform “PrestaShop”, which has been utilized by over 300,000 of the most well-known online retailers worldwide. What is your path in choosing this platform?

Although I obtained my Master’s degree in Computer Engineering from KTU in 2016, I started my career in 2008 as a freelance programmer, writing blogs and specializing in e-commerce and solutions with “PrestaShop” and Sylius. Later, I deepened my knowledge at a certified company based in the USA that works with “PrestaShop”. I utilized the knowledge and experience I gained to implement the most significant e-commerce projects in the country, which were created using the “PrestaShop” platform. The professionals of the e-commerce solutions company “PrestaRock”, established more than 10 years ago, likely have the greatest experience in Lithuania in utilizing the “PrestaShop” platform to create e-stores and to maximize their potential most professionally.

What are the main aspects that determine the success of e-commerce solutions?

It would be difficult to find one specific answer. Many focus on marketing and sales, while the technical or supporting aspects are overlooked, thinking they are not as important.

Starting from the essentials, in e-commerce it is important not only to have good competitive prices. The second important thing is the e-store, which is designed to help customers discover and see the products. Then, it is essential to ensure that the solutions implemented in the e-store empower customers to decide to buy specifically from you, even if your offered price is higher, and also do not hinder the deciding buyer from completing the purchase.

However, for the past several years, I have observed that even a good e-commerce project requires quality and consistently dedicated time from a company manager or a good e-commerce project manager to function correctly. The latter must act as an intermediary between the shareholder’s desires, the marketing department, the SEO agency, and the programmers developing the e-commerce project.

You emphasize that the client’s manager’s time is needed. Do you receive enough of it while implementing projects?

Unfortunately, years of experience allow me to assert that many managers, especially in larger companies, allocate too little time to their e-stores. However, a solution to this problem exists, and it is pretty simple and beneficial: the issue can be resolved by hiring a good project manager for e-commerce development.

What qualities should, as you say, a good project manager possess?

First, he must clearly understand the context and be knowledgeable about your products and services. This is probably one of the most important aspects, as this specialist often consults clients and potential buyers over the phone or via email.

This employee should also have sufficient knowledge of organic search and SEO, as this is one of the most common and demanding tasks that such managers deal with. His work is also inseparable from product descriptions and positioning – properly described and presented products increase the likelihood of sales.

The last and perhaps most important aspect is experience working with programmers and a certain understanding of technical knowledge. Programming skills are not necessary, but having a general understanding of concepts and being able to comprehend and evaluate IT risks would be more than a significant advantage.

A good project manager should act as the glue between the company’s leadership desires and the direction that must be clearly integrated and communicated to often hired multiple contractors, such as an SEO agency or a team of programmers. The manager should be able to make independent decisions based on their advice and insights.

What are the worst e-commerce examples you have encountered?

I have probably gone through two of the worst scenarios.

One happened a long time ago: a large company consisting of several smaller firms had a systematic and excellent project manager who left the job when developing and preparing the e-commerce platform. At that point, everything related to e-commerce stopped and was not developed for at least a few years. The business lost its sales channel, and the only update made a couple of years ago was a change in the colors of the e-store. Clearly, a business that invested significantly did not earn from it and, apparently, remained convinced that e-commerce does not pay off.

Another recent example. The project manager hired by the company, who had his vision and did not take our advice or the long-term perspectives and benefits of managing IT process risks into account, created frankenstein, which only one person understood. He left this low-quality ‘work’ unfinished and without documentation for the company. Therefore, the managers were not only limited by the solutions left behind but also had to fully understand and figure out what was done and how, which cost a lot of nerves.

What should be avoided or known when choosing an e-commerce project manager?

Probably not the best option is a manager who excels in one specific area but lacks basic knowledge about other areas necessary for this job. An ideal manager should have a bit of knowledge about everything to understand the context and be able to make decisions independently rather than just follow the solutions proposed by the agency.

For example, if this is an advertising or marketing specialist, likely, they will only take care of the part of the project they are familiar with, leaving the rest to take care of itself. It is observed that technical matters are often uninteresting, boring, and too complicated for advertising specialists to delve into fundamentally. However, suppose a very technical person is hired. In that case, there is a real risk that they will focus on details and forget about margins, profitability, and other issues that the manager will need to pay additional attention to and control.

What is the solution if today it is necessary to create an e-commerce project, but I cannot find a suitable project manager to implement it?

The solution is to find a good technical partner who will partially cover the missing know-how and advise on implementing the project correctly. Of course, a technical partner may not always want to and will likely not host product content or create descriptions and information, but it will indeed help save time, as you won’t have to watch numerous webinars to accumulate knowledge on how to create and develop e-commerce. In those rare cases when such a technical partner is found, they will likely not only advise on e-commerce matters but also elevate your company’s operations to a higher level, as well as provide external IT management competencies that not every company can afford to acquire due to the high cost of such specialists.

So, the ideal solution is probably a synergy between a technical partner who can advise and a hired project manager. A worse solution is a good executor who will advise.

And how can you help in implementing e-commerce projects?

The professionals at PrestaRock have been creating e-commerce solutions on the PrestaShop and Sylius platforms for over a decade, helping clients earn more through systematic changes. I affirm all this based on my experience as I have grown from a programmer to a company manager. I have tried each position – programmer, project manager, analyst, tester, and manager – so I am sharing my experience with those who need it.

We can create an e-store and advise to ensure its operations are as beneficial as possible. We are the executor—the technical partner I mentioned when clients struggle with project manager selections.