Why there is a shortage of leaders

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The shortage of IT specialists in general results in difficulties in finding a manager in e-commerce.

Given the shortage of IT personnel who understand e-com, directors of online departments often take on their tasks. Accordingly, the manager has to gradually understand luxembourg whatsapp number database everything: architecture, omnichannel, warehouse operations, content production, etc.

Usually, specialists gain experience sufficient for such a role over the course of 10-15 years. There are fewer such people in Russia than other workers, and some of them have emigrated. As a result, we have a situation in which there is nowhere to find managers for online stores.

What else complicates the search?
If we put aside the problems that arose due to circumstances beyond the companies’ control, such as the demographic pit and migration, the question still remains: why doesn’t the market create enough specialists to meet the needs of online retailers?

The fact is that new services and approaches in e-commerce appear almost every week - such dynamics make products competitive. However, educational institutions such as universities, courses and business accelerators need time to settle down. While this is happening, the next round of technologies is already entering the arena, which require other employees.

It turns out that suitable professionals are created only in practice - inside companies implementing innovative approaches. The industry can produce only a small number of personnel, and they either remain in "native" companies or accumulate in large corporations where there are interesting tasks. And medium-sized companies and especially small online stores find themselves in a situation where it is difficult for them to find the necessary specialists - they are in demand and, accordingly, expensive.

How Brands Can Cope with Talent Shortages
The main solution for companies that cannot find people to develop an online store is to outsource.

Many large retailers that have already succeeded are starting to sell their expertise and act as outsourcing companies. An example is such players as Sportmaster Lab (SM Lab) and Samokat Tech: they create their own IT departments within the company and make various products that they can then sell to other retailers. For example, SM Lab, which has more than 2,000 specialists, creates solutions in 20 functional areas and works, in addition to Russia, with customers in six countries: Kazakhstan, Belarus, China, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan.

Another situation is when independent agencies, developers who have already carried out similar projects, open a consulting department. Or those people who were doing this, leave and create their own consulting companies. They may not always be able to outsource tasks completely, but they can provide the expertise that their staff lacks, so that the problem can be solved with the help of existing specialists.

Small online stores can use automated solutions. There are enough tools, because the segment is mass and serious companies have already entered it. Sberbank bought InSales, an online store designer, and it has many ready-made technologies to start sales. Tinkoff seriously announced that it is entering this area: the bank has a separate e-commerce department that creates tools for working on marketplaces and in online stores.

Also today, robotization of processes is certainly developing. This simplifies some issues, but often does not play a critical role - after all, there is a shortage of exactly those people who cannot be replaced by ChatGPT or similar technologies. Artificial intelligence has not yet reached such a level that it can cope with planning and creating the architecture of an entire online store.