Running an e-commerce business alone: hidden costs

Key takeaways

Running an e-commerce business alone means being buyer, marketer, photographer, customer service agent, packer and bookkeeper at once. The hidden costs appear as slow replies, late listings and growth work that never happens. Customer service and order admin are usually the first things worth handing over.

• 8 roles in one person: buying, listings, marketing, support, packing, returns, finance, tech.
• Support and order queries scale directly with every sale.
• 14 days: the standard cancellation period for most online sales.
• Hand over repeatable service work; keep product and brand.

What does running an online shop alone involve?

Running an online shop alone involves every function a retailer has, performed by one person. Sourcing and stock, product listings and photography, advertising, customer questions, picking and packing, returns, bookkeeping and keeping the site working all compete for the same hours.

• The hidden costs of doing everything in-house
• Doing everything yourself in business: what it costs

Where are the hidden costs?

The hidden costs sit in the work that grows with every order.

• Customer messages answered late, leading to chargebacks and poor reviews.
• Returns and refunds processed slowly.
• New products not listed because there is no time.
• Advertising left unmanaged.
• Stock errors from manual updates.

• Founder doing customer support: when to stop
• The cost of manual processes, and what to fix first

What do the rules add to the workload?

Consumer law adds deadlines. GOV.UK guidance on online and distance selling explains that customers generally have 14 days to cancel after receiving goods, and that you must refund within 14 days of getting the goods back or proof of return. Meeting those deadlines takes daily attention.

What should you hand over first?

Hand over the work that is repeatable and time-sensitive, and that does not define the brand.

• First: order status, delivery and returns queries.
• Next: order processing, refunds and marketplace messages.
• Then: listing uploads from your product data.
• Keep: product selection, pricing, brand and supplier relationships.

• Customer service outsourcing for UK e-commerce
• Order processing outsourcing for manufacturers and brands

When is solo the right way to run it?

Solo is right at low order volumes, while you are still learning which products sell and what customers ask. A rough guide is that once service and order admin exceed an hour or two a day, they are displacing the work that grows the shop.

• When not to outsource

How do the hours split in a solo shop?

Log a week and most solo founders find that the work they started the business to do, choosing products and building the brand, gets the fewest hours. Fulfilment and customer messages take the largest share and rise with every order. Admin, such as bookkeeping and stock updates, fills the evenings. Marketing is done in bursts when sales dip.

What does slow service cost an online shop?

Slow service costs repeat business and reputation. A customer who waits two days for an answer about a late parcel is more likely to open a payment dispute, leave a poor review and buy elsewhere next time. On marketplaces, slow replies can also affect seller ratings. Each of those costs more than the minutes a prompt answer would have taken.

What should you write down before handing anything over?

Document the decisions you make without thinking.

• Your returns and refund rules, with the exceptions you allow.
• Standard replies for delivery, sizing, stock and order changes.
• How to check an order's status in each system.
• What to offer when something has gone wrong.
• What must always come to you.

How do you tell which work to keep?

Keep the work only you can do and that makes the shop different: choosing and developing products, pricing, supplier terms, the look and voice of the brand, and decisions about where to advertise. Much of the rest is process. Marketing sits in between; many founders keep direction and hand over production.

• DIY marketing for a small business: the hidden costs

What mistakes do solo founders make?

The frequent mistakes are waiting until peak season to get help, handing over without written answers, hiring a full-time employee for work that needs ten hours a week, and continuing to answer messages personally at midnight because it feels like good service. Fast, accurate answers from someone else are better service than slow ones from you.

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see in growing shops: sales double during a promotion and so do the messages. The founder spends the following fortnight answering where-is-my-order emails, and the next promotion is never planned.

• See client work
• BPO Solutions for UK businesses

Solo e-commerce checklist

Measure one typical week.

• Count orders and customer messages.
• Time your daily service and order admin.
• Check your average reply time.
• List growth tasks you have postponed.
• Write standard replies for the top ten questions.
• Hand over the first repeatable task.

• The hidden cost audit: score your business in an hour

Next step

Send us your weekly orders and message volume. We will outline what a managed team could take on in a 30-minute call.