I’m an Ecom Manager. Here’s My Honest Take.

I run a small online shop. We sell simple home goods—think reusable kitchen stuff and candles that don’t smell fake. (Funny enough, I once experimented with drop-shipping candles just to see if it could work.) I’ve been the ecom manager for two years. For a structured look at the core responsibilities an ecommerce manager usually handles, you can skim this concise explainer on the core responsibilities an ecommerce manager. It’s a real job with real mess. Some days fly. Some days drag. And yes, the UPS driver knows my dog’s name. That counts as a win. For a deeper dive, you can read my honest take as an e-commerce manager.

What I Actually Do All Day

It’s not just ads. It’s a lot of tiny, weird puzzles. If you want to compare my daily checklist to a broader industry standard, here’s a longer checklist of typical tasks an e-commerce manager tackles.

• At 8:15, I check sales, traffic, and refunds in Shopify. Did we spike? Did we dip? Why?
• Then Klaviyo: how did last night’s emails do? One welcome email had a 48% open rate last week. Pretty good. The button color change helped. Weird, right? If you’re tweaking flows, my notes on signing up for dozens of ecommerce email series might help.
• Customer tickets in Gorgias next. A late package can turn into a sweet review if I follow up right. I use macros but adjust the tone so it sounds human. I even tried running the store with an ecommerce answering service for a bit—eye-opening.
• After lunch, I fix a product page. Photo order matters more than I thought. Hero first, then context, then details. It’s like a tiny story.
• Before I log off, I peek at ad spend and ROAS in Meta Ads and Google Ads. I check the landing page too. If the page loads slow, ads burn money.

Honestly, it feels like running a little airport. Planes land. Planes take off. Weather changes. Someone’s suitcase gets lost. You keep calm and keep moving.

The Stack I Keep (And Actually Use)

• Shopify (Basic plan): It’s clean. I like how fast I can edit a price or copy.
• CandyPress: If you want a hosted cart that’s still developer-friendly, CandyPress offers a nimble alternative without the scary price tag. I moved off WooCommerce after hitting a nasty cap on transaction costs, so the switch felt good.
• Klaviyo: Email flows make money while I sleep. Well, most nights.
• Gorgias: Help desk. I tag tickets by issue. Lost, damaged, sizing, you name it.
• ShipStation: Labels, batching, and carrier rates. It keeps the warehouse sane.
• GA4: Traffic and source trends. I make simple reports. No fluff. Pair it with something like the Ecom Analyzer and you stop guessing.
• Meta Ads + Google Ads: Cold and retargeting. I cap spend on weekends when AOV dips.
• Judge.me: Reviews with photos. It’s trust you can see.
• Inventory Planner: Forecasts. I’d marry this app if I could. Kidding. Kind of.

You know what? Tools matter. But the habit of checking them the same way each day matters more. If you’re still weighing carts, I compared the leading options for SEO in this breakdown of the best ecommerce platforms.

Real Wins I’m Proud Of

• The free shipping nudge

  • We raised the free ship threshold from $45 to $60.
  • AOV went from $48.10 to $57.30 in two weeks.
  • Conversion dipped from 2.4% to 2.3%, but profit per order rose by $3.80.
  • Net result for that month: +$3,740 in extra margin. Same ad spend.

• A simple product page fix

  • We moved the size chart above the fold and added 2 lifestyle photos.
  • Conversion on that SKU went from 1.9% to 2.5%.
  • Returns for “too small” dropped 14% the next month.

• Welcome flow tune-up (Klaviyo)

  • Three emails: brand story, top seller, care tips.
  • Placed order rate moved from 12% to 18%.
  • We swapped a hero image and shortened the subject line. That’s it.

• Speed clean-up

  • Compressed images with TinyPNG and removed two heavy apps.
  • LCP went from 4.2s to 2.8s on mobile.
  • Bounce rate dropped 8%. Ads got less cranky after that. (I took a few cues from my deep dive into Magento SEO while doing this.)

• UGC matters (and smells like cookies)

  • Added 14 customer photos to our candle page.
  • Time on page up 22 seconds. People scrolled more. More “Add to Cart.”

Faceplants I Learned From

• The oversell oops

  • I let “available online” equal “warehouse on hand.” Bad idea.
  • One bundle oversold by 372 units during a weekend promo.
  • Fix: added safety stock of 5% and a low-stock alert at 25 units.
  • We gave a $10 credit with a handwritten note. 61% of those folks bought again.

• The coupon leak

  • A 40% code meant for our VIP list got posted on TikTok.
  • We got a flood of low-margin orders. Panic.
  • Fix: switched to single-use codes and set a soft floor on discounts in Shopify.

• Broken image in an email

  • A key product image didn’t load on Outlook for desktop. Yikes.
  • We still made money, but less.
  • Now I send test emails to Gmail, Outlook, and my ancient iPad. Belt and suspenders. It was still less painful than my experiment with blind drop shipping.

What Surprised Me

I thought ads were the whole game. Nope. Ops moves the needle more than people think. Clear sizes, fast pages, easy returns—these make ads cheaper because the site converts better. I know that sounds dull. But the boring stuff makes money.

Also, bundles beat discounts most days. A “starter kit” with a small savings feels friendly. People like a clear choice.

Sometimes I look outside the home-goods bubble for fresh CRO inspiration. Industries where every extra click equals lost revenue tend to innovate fast—dating apps, for example, live or die by frictionless onboarding. If you want to see how that space is refining sign-up flows and monetization models for the year ahead, this roundup of the best adult search apps to hook up in 2025 breaks down the features, funnels, and retention tactics that are outperforming right now—ideas any ecommerce marketer can swipe to tighten their own conversion paths.

Another micro-niche I’ve studied is the sugar-dating scene. Their geo-targeted pages have to balance aspirational copy with concrete safety assurances—basically CRO 101 for trust-sensitive products. A quick scan of the Fort Collins market on this detailed sugar baby guide shows how they position benefits, manage objections, and layer clear CTAs—insights you can lift to sharpen your own landing pages.

A Day That Sticks With Me

Black Friday last year, we planned simple:

• Warm-up email on Tuesday with “What’s coming.”
• Early access for SMS on Wednesday, 20% sitewide, free gift over $70.
• Main push early Friday, reminder Friday night, then “last call” Saturday noon.

We matched ads to the offer. Same words. Same colors. No tricks.

Numbers: revenue +61% YoY, AOV up 9%, returns steady. We ran out of gift boxes on day two. I drove to a craft store at 7 a.m. and bought 200 plain ones. Not fancy. But customers still said “cute packaging.” People care more about the note than the bow.

Who This Role Fits

• You like checklists.
• You can switch fast—email, tickets, ad tab, back to POs.
• You