The best bet

Gauri Chhabra

While people may raise hue and cry over the demonetisation, it is opportunity knocking at the door of E commerce giants. Digital wallet companies are reporting that demand for their services has seen a whopping increase in the past few weeks. Paytm has hit a record number of payment transactions at 5 million a day and will process over Rs 24,000 crore, which is more than any other payment network in the country. Interestingly,MobiKwik claims to have seen an 18X increase in overall transactions, and over 2000 per cent increase in addition of money and transaction value. MobiKwik also says their travel partners like Lemontree, Makemytrip, IndiGo, cleartrip and Yatra saw a surge of 300 per cent in transactions via the wallet along with Big Bazaar, Grofers, and Big Basket etc.According to Forrester Research, the cash crunch will bring the cash on delivery share of e-commerce sales down significantly and increase the online payments.

This would bring about a surge in the career options available in e commerce. You may find jobs in business to consumer (B2C), business to business e-commerce (B2B). But the most important sector where there would be a surge is the consumer to consumer (C2C), which earlier used to survive on cash transactions.

Getting in

To get into a career in e-commerce, you can apply for undergraduate courses after passing your Class XII or equivalent exam. For admissions in master courses, you must have completed your bachelor's degree in related discipline. A bachelor's degree in e -commerce allows you to focus on general business concepts and how various web-based technologies are integrated to target consumers. Master's degree programmes let you work on solving business-related scenarios through the design and use of networking configurations, enterprise software and marketing strategies.

Skill set

You would be able to truck through your career if you hone your logical thinking skills, along with a keen interest in general business and consumer behaviour. Attention to detail is important to comply with legal requirements that may apply, particularly when it comes to the collection and storage of customer information in database systems. You may also require solid memorisation as well as crucial reading expertise and as with every other career, the ability to work in a team.

Career Pathways

Careers in e-commerce focus on the development of information systems used in online transactions and on how to communicate and develop relationships with customers. Here are a couple of career pathways that would witness a surge as a result of demonetisation:

Market Researcher

Market research analysts help businesses establish e-commerce solutions and track sales and marketing performance. You would require a bachelor's degree and focus on marketing and statistics studies. You would be responsible for competitor analysis and market research data and determine what product or service categories the company should focus upon. You would gather consumer information and examine buying trends to create marketing plans and design surveys that identify consumer preferences and prospective markets for the product and thus analyse and report customer satisfaction surveys. 

E- Commerce Specialist

This is an area where you can dovetail your development and marketing skills. You would look after e-commerce site development, including ways to conduct business online and manage the technical issues associated with constructing an e-commerce web site. You would take care of e-commerce technology and security, including various levels of sophistication, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, and practices for securing your online transactions as well as the personal information of customers. You would be responsible for growth of e-commerce business, marketing and legal issues, including web marketing strategies, online product promotion, and legal topics such as taxation and international shipping

UI/UX Expert

In a time where there are so many players in the e-commerce market and the competition is getting as tough as it can get, even a little technical glitch can ruin things. This is what has created the need for consistent and expert User Interface and User Experience experts. So, if you have globally competitive skills in development, design, and testing, you are the king of this area as there is a dearth of such developers with a strong eye for intuitive user interface and rich user experience.

System Administrator

With heavy traffic on servers, there is going to be an increase in demand for system administratorsmaintain and support the e-commerce site's servers. If you have a bachelor's degree in computer science, you can enter this field where you would be responsible for the development and execution of systems strategy.

You would also provide support to the implementation of business solutions and resolve ecommerce infrastructure issues.

Website Administrator

This is a generic role that involves content management and marketing of the site. You would be required to generate and update website content and also work with agencies to build traffic and sales via the website while maintaining and updating the online marketing plan for the website. Understanding of the disciplines required to drive traffic to website would be an added advantage. You need to have an understanding of basic web technologies like FTP, browsers, HTML, data files besides knowledge of Google products such as Webmaster Tools & Analytics.

Security Analyst

Since almost all customer interaction for online retailers would occur via phone or email, e-commerce sites would be particularly vulnerable to social engineering attacks. E-commerce sites run a variety of backend shopping cart and transaction processing software. In cases where this software is developed in-house, careful attention would be required to reduce bugs and vulnerabilities at the coding level. Where external software is used, cyber security professionals would be needed for validating the vendor and ensuring that patch levels are kept current.

Logistics Manager

It is believed that in the next decade organized retail will grow from 0.1% to 5.3%. Tier 1 cities are nearly exhausted. The next decade would belong to infiltrating Tier 2 & 3 cities and reaching out further down. This would require strengthening the logistics and delivery arm, which would also include building ample warehouses, good tracking systems and hiring trained & trustworthy workers. Since speed of delivery is as important as the product quality for a customer, logistics could be the defining factor for success of e-commerce companies. So, your MBA in Logistics and Supply Chain Management would land you a job.

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First person

Demonetisation has given a huge fillip to the whole cashless agenda. We have seen a transition from traditional commerce to e-commerce. There has been a paradigm shift overnight. We are a digital agency that designs and builds websites for start-ups and medium scale enterprises. After the cash clampdown, the focus of the clients who come to us has shifted from just making a website to payment gateway integration as they want their clients to not only visit the site but also make the payment there and then. There has been an uplift in e-commerce integration and e-shopping opportunities.—Abhishek Verma, Co- founder, IVerth Technologies Ludhiana