Best interview questions for an E-Commerce Manager

E-Commerce Manager Interview Questions

E-Commerce Managers are masters in conversion. Bringing the right one on board will see an improvement in conversions across your site, and ensure your customers are finding what they need. Therefore, asking the right E-Commerce questions in your interview is essential!

When interviewing your potential E-Commerce Manager, these are the skills you need to be looking for:

Basic understanding of Web Development.
Strong analytical skills.
Ability to communicate between different departments.
Marketing experience.
Knowledge of SEO and PPC practises.
Fluency in at least one coding language.

Depending on your product, an understanding of your specific industry may be needed, too.

How to interview an E-Commerce Manager

Due to the huge influence an E-Commerce Manager has on your conversion rate and, in turn, your profits, making the right decision on who to bring into your team is critical. We’ve put together a brief guide on E-Commerce interview questions that will test the necessary skillsets for this role.

The questions are best used at the beginning of an E-Commerce interview process, as they will give you a good idea of whether to proceed to the more technical stages.

How to open the job interview

To get the full scope of your candidate’s skills and cultural fit, it is a good idea to ask a few positive opening questions that will put your potential E-Commerce Manager at ease.

Getting into a conversational rhythm with these early-stage questions will mean that their answers are not clouded with interview nerves and you can fully assess them.

Job Description available

See our E-Commerce Manager Job Description here

For the interview

A positive opener to start

What is your biggest achievement as an E-Commerce Manager?

How did you choose a career in E-Commerce Management?

Behavioral Questions

When dealing with multiple projects with multiple stakeholders, how do you stay motivated and organised?
As E-Commerce Managers have quite a versatile role, they will often work with multiple different stakeholders. Knowing this is something they can manage efficiently will ensure they’re a fit for the role.
When receiving pushback from a different department on a change you want to make, how do you keep the communication productive and positive?
Occasionally E-Commerce teams and other stakeholders will have opposing views. It is essential that any potential hire can keep communication calm and productive in these situations. This answer will allow you to assess if this will be the case.
When noticing a change that could help increase conversions significantly, what is the first move you would make?
Knowing that communication and teamwork are at the heart of what the candidate does is essential. It is important that in a situation like this, the rest of the team is informed in an efficient manner before the change is made.
If a change you made received criticism from a team member, how would you react?
An E-Commerce Manager should be able to back their decisions up with relevant data. Here you are looking for confidence in their changes as well as the ability to take feedback on board.
What is your ideal work environment?
Here you’ll get an idea of how well the candidate fits into your current team.

Soft Skills

How do you prepare for a reporting meeting with your direct stakeholders?
Often E-Commerce Managers will provide reports and updates on the conversion status on your site. Knowing their organisation skills are up to scratch will mean this task is easy for them.
What size team are you used to working with?
Here you’ll get an idea of how many stakeholders an E-Commerce Manager has worked with in the past and how this measures up to your current situation.
Do you have experience managing direct reports?
If your E-Commerce Manager will be in charge of a team, this is an extremely important question as it will let you know whether any management training will be needed.
Do you have experience with explaining technical aspects of E-Commerce to roles that may not have the same technical knowledge as you?
This is often a situation that this role will be faced with, and it is important that your candidate can accurately get their point across in order to inspire confidence in the rest of the team when making a decision.
What do you think are the most important skills for an E-Commerce Manager to have?
This will give you an idea of your prospective clients strengths, as well as their deeper understanding of the role.

Hard Skills

Which analytics and measurement tools are you most comfortable using?
Being able to track their own performance is an essential E-Commerce Management skill, this will give you an idea of how comfortable doing this a candidate is and if they will need onboarding on any of the tools you use.
What KPIs do you think are most important to track in E-Commerce?
This will help you understand whether a candidate’s experience and values are in line with your own.
Is your experience mainly in B2B or B2C E-Commerce?
Although this is rarely a deal-breaker, it is good to know whether a candidate’s industry experience is aligned with your company and how much they understand your business area.
Have you previously worked with SEO or PPC teams?
Recently, SEO and E-Commerce teams have begun working very closely to help align a consistent marketing strategy. Knowing whether this is something that your candidate is familiar with will help you to decide if they are a good fit.
Which coding languages have you worked with in the past?
Having some basic coding knowledge is important if you are expecting your E-Commerce manager to be able to make HTML or other coding changes on your site.
What experience do you have with improving site speed?
This question is better suited to more technical E-Commerce roles but will give you an idea of how well a candidate knows website optimization techniques.

Operational / Situational Questions

Describe a time when you have had to convince a stakeholder that your decision is the correct decision.
Getting an idea of a candidate’s communication skills and style, as well as their ability to back decisions up with data will be a huge benefit when making a hiring decision.
Tell me about a time when a change you made didn’t work out as planned, what did you do and how did you take learnings from this to use in the future?
Not every decision will work out as planned, however, it is important to know a candidate can quickly rectify mistakes and use learnings from these moments to help improve future processes.
Walk me through your process when preparing a performance report for senior management.
Being able to efficiently prepare reports, as well as knowing what key information should be included in these meetings will help you to understand a candidate’s understanding of E-Commerce as well as their confidence in presenting to higher management.
Imagine you have found errors in work that one of your colleagues has produced, how would you approach this issue?
It is important that your candidate feels comfortable giving feedback to their team and can do this in a friendly and professional manner. This answer will let you know if they are capable of doing this.
Have you ever hired a team member? If so, describe your experience in this.
If your candidate will be in charge of an E-Commerce team, it is important to know that they are aware of the key points to look out for in an E-Commerce executive and have the confidence needed to make hiring decisions.