Career Opportunities in E-Commerce
An education in e-commerce prepares students for the future of business transactions. Students with e-commerce backgrounds can help enterprises use the Internet as a way to reach consumers. Firms use e-commerce for all types of sales through company websites. E-commerce jobs are divided into three interdependent fields:
- Market research analysis
- Web development
- Web administration
These fields are important parts of the future of commerce. Businesses are increasingly using e-commerce as a way to conduct transactions even if they have established brink-and-mortar stores. Students can use their e-commerce education to learn the computer systems aspect of electronic business transactions and enter one of the three e-commerce career paths.
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E-Commerce Careers in Market Research Analysis
Market research analysts help businesses establish e-commerce solutions and track sales and marketing performance. E-commerce analysts earn bachelor’s degrees, focusing on marketing and statistics studies, often completing coursework online while still working in other fields.
There are four main responsibilities of e-commerce analysts:
- Research and analysis of needs from both the user and business perspectives, along with conveying this information to the site’s designers
- Monitoring of the enterprise’s website performance and determining the site’s search engine optimization (SEO) value
- Monitoring competitors and completing trend analysis work
- Working with advertisers
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that the annual median salary for an e-commerce market research analyst was $61,290 in 2014. The expected job growth for 2012 to 2022 is 32 percent.
E-Commerce Careers in Web Design
Web developers are the e-commerce builders. They create business websites using programming, multimedia, graphics and design skills. Developers use concepts learned during their e-commerce education along with their creativity to build sites that consumers will find functional, engaging and easy-to-use.
E-commerce web design also includes responsibilities such as:
- Working with management and other development team members to continually improve technical and visual aspects of the site
- Monitoring programming and IT trends to ensure the site is innovative and uses the best technologies
- Performing site maintenance
E-commerce students interested in web design earn bachelor’s degrees and focus on multimedia design and HTML courses, many of which are available online. The BLS reports that the annual median salary for an e-commerce developer was $63,490 in 2014. The expected job growth for 2012 to 2022 is 20 percent.
E-Commerce Careers in Web Administration
Web administrators manage the daily maintenance and support of the e-commerce site’s servers. Students interested in e-commerce web administration usually earn bachelor’s degrees in computer science. Like the other e-commerce career paths, online education is available for students planning to enter the web administration field.
Web administrators are responsible for three main aspects of an e-commerce site:
- Troubleshooting and fixing server performance issues
- Developing and testing back up and data recovery processes
- Performing regular data back up and data recovery as necessary
In smaller enterprises, web administrators may update the site’s links or content. The BLS reports that the annual median salary for an e-commerce web administrator was $82,710 in 2014. The expected job growth for 2012 to 2022 is 25 percent.
The Future of E-Commerce
Students interested in e-commerce have many options for education in the area, including flexible online courses. Fortunately, the demand for jobs with e-commerce degrees is increasing, with growth projected for every career path in the field.