E-commerce Product Manager

🎯 Role Definition

As our E-commerce Product Manager, you will be the voice of the customer and the strategic driver for our digital storefront. This pivotal role sits at the intersection of business, technology, and user experience, owning the 'what' and 'why' behind the products we build. You will be responsible for the entire product lifecycle, from initial discovery and ideation through to launch, analysis, and iteration. Your mission is to create a seamless, engaging, and high-converting online shopping journey that delights our users and achieves our ambitious business objectives. You are a master of prioritization, an excellent communicator, and are passionate about using data to build world-class digital experiences.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Associate Product Manager
E-commerce Business Analyst
UX Designer or Researcher with a strategic focus
E-commerce Marketing or Merchandising Manager

Advancement To:

Senior Product Manager, E-commerce
Group Product Manager / Principal Product Manager
Director of Product
Head of E-commerce

Lateral Moves:

Product Marketing Manager
Senior UX Strategist
Growth Product Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Define, own, and evangelize the product vision and multi-year strategy for our e-commerce platform, aligning it with company-wide goals and market opportunities.
Develop and maintain a data-informed and prioritized product roadmap, clearly articulating the rationale and expected business impact behind each initiative.
Lead the end-to-end product development lifecycle, from concept to launch, including writing detailed product requirements, user stories, and acceptance criteria.
Partner deeply with Engineering, UX/UI Design, and QA teams to ensure high-quality features are designed, built, and delivered on time within an agile framework.
Conduct continuous user research, customer interviews, usability testing, and competitive analysis to deeply understand user needs, pain points, and behaviors.
Own and analyze key performance indicators (KPIs) including conversion rate, average order value (AOV), customer lifetime value (LTV), cart abandonment, and user engagement.
Champion a culture of experimentation by designing, executing, and analyzing A/B and multivariate tests to optimize the user journey and drive incremental growth.
Manage and prioritize the product backlog, making trade-off decisions based on customer value, business impact, and technical feasibility.
Serve as the primary liaison between technical teams and business stakeholders, including Marketing, Merchandising, Operations, and Customer Service, ensuring alignment and clear communication.
Develop comprehensive go-to-market strategies in collaboration with marketing and sales teams to ensure successful feature launches and adoption.
Lead the strategy and optimization of critical site components such as site search, navigation, product detail pages (PDP), checkout funnel, and payment processing.
Define and execute a personalization strategy to deliver tailored experiences, recommendations, and content to different user segments.
Monitor post-launch feature performance and user feedback to guide future iterations and improvements, fostering a cycle of continuous learning and optimization.
Evaluate and manage integrations with third-party software and service providers (e.g., payment gateways, tax calculators, analytics tools, shipping providers).
Translate complex data and performance metrics into compelling stories and actionable insights for executive-level presentations and company-wide updates.
Stay abreast of e-commerce trends, emerging technologies, and best practices to identify new opportunities for innovation and competitive advantage.
Drive the product strategy for both web and mobile app platforms, ensuring a cohesive and optimized cross-device customer experience.
Collaborate with the data science team to leverage machine learning models for improved product recommendations, search relevance, and user segmentation.
Champion web accessibility (WCAG) standards and ensure our digital products are usable and inclusive for all customers.
Define requirements and strategy for international expansion, including localization, multi-currency support, and regional compliance.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis to uncover new insights.
Contribute to the organization's broader data and digital strategy roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements for our data warehouse and analytics stack.
Participate in sprint planning, retrospectives, and other agile ceremonies within the engineering and design teams.
Evaluate and recommend new e-commerce technologies and third-party vendors to enhance platform capabilities.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Digital Analytics Platforms: Deep proficiency with Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, or similar tools to track KPIs, build funnels, and segment users.
A/B Testing & Optimization Tools: Hands-on experience with platforms like Optimizely, VWO, Google Optimize, or Adobe Target to run and analyze experiments.
Agile Project Management Software: Expertise in using Jira, Confluence, or similar tools to manage backlogs, write user stories, and track development progress.
Product Roadmap & Wireframing Tools: Proficiency with tools like Aha!, Productboard, Miro, Figma, or Sketch to visualize strategies and user flows.
E-commerce Platform Knowledge: In-depth understanding of major e-commerce platforms like Shopify Plus, Magento, BigCommerce, or Salesforce Commerce Cloud.
Data Querying & Analysis: Foundational SQL skills for querying databases and performing independent data analysis.
User Behavior Analytics: Experience with heatmapping and session replay tools such as Hotjar, FullStory, or Contentsquare.
API & Technical Literacy: Solid understanding of how APIs, front-end frameworks (React, Vue.js), and back-end systems interact in an e-commerce ecosystem.
Customer Data Platforms (CDP): Familiarity with CDPs (e.g., Segment, Tealium) and how they are used to create unified customer profiles.
SEO Best Practices: Strong knowledge of technical and on-page SEO principles as they relate to e-commerce product discovery and site structure.

Soft Skills

Data-Driven Storytelling: Ability to translate complex quantitative and qualitative data into a clear, compelling narrative that drives action.
Influence Without Authority: Proven ability to lead and motivate cross-functional teams and align stakeholders without direct managerial power.
Deep User Empathy: A genuine passion for understanding the customer's mindset, motivations, and pain points.
Strategic and Analytical Thinking: Capacity to think strategically about business goals while simultaneously focusing on tactical execution and data-driven details.
Exceptional Communication & Stakeholder Management: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to effectively communicate with everyone from engineers to executives.
Pragmatic Problem-Solving: A resourceful and creative approach to solving complex problems with a focus on delivering value and impact.
High Degree of Ownership: A proactive, self-starter mentality with a strong sense of responsibility for the product's success.
Adaptability and Resilience: Thrives in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment and can gracefully manage shifting priorities.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's Degree is required.

Preferred Education:

Master's Degree or MBA is a strong plus.
Certifications in Product Management (e.g., Certified Scrum Product Owner - CSPO) are beneficial.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Business Administration, Marketing
Computer Science, Information Systems
Economics, Statistics
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 3-7 years of hands-on product management experience, with a significant portion focused on a B2C or D2C e-commerce product.

Preferred:

Experience working in a high-traffic, transactional digital retail environment.
A proven track record of launching and iterating on products that have driven measurable growth in conversion, AOV, or user engagement.
Experience managing both web and native mobile application products.
Experience working directly with e-commerce platforms like Shopify Plus, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, or a custom-built solution.