From One to TEN Virtual Assistants: An E-Commerce Success Story During COVID Times

Providing e-commerce virtual assistants has helped businesses THRIVE this year. From 1 to 10 virtual assistants in a matter of WEEKS, learn how Belami Ecommerce Solutions has scaled its operations with MyOutDesk Virtual Assistants!

MyOutDesk CEO Daniel Ramsey sits down with President of Belami, Inc. Mihran Berejikian.

Original Story: Link

Tell a little bit about how MyOutDesk fueled your e-commerce company with talent?

It’s done in a couple ways. First, we were able to meet the unprecedented demand surge that we had due to the pandemic — which has been terrible for the country and the world — but have definitely been good for e-commerce home retailers.

The demand surge created an environment where we needed to bring a lot of bodies in immediately and MyOutDesk provided that.

We have great people who ramped incredibly quickly, actually one of the great benefits that we didn’t expect to occur is — not only did they ramped up quickly…

Virtual assistants were able to the job that the local people were able to do … AND they actually raised the bar!

Because on average, at least for the jobs that we were hiring, they were more mature, more experienced, more grateful, and more committed to what they do. We can now expect to get the same from our other employees, and its given us a really good benchmark as to what we should be expecting from other employees.

So now we’re able to meet the day-to-day demand for what we hired them for and it gave us a great big benchmark to compare to and it raised the bar across the board.

What positions do you think are appropriate for an ecommerce company to hire in the virtual assistant world?

For us, its entry-level accounting, accounts receivable, accounts payable, some amount of reconciliation work that is repetitive but still requires some level of accounting skills

On the customer service side is chat management. So virtual assistants are answering chats from customers, fielding basic questions about availability, order status, as they mature we think we’ll actually be able to let them ask product-related questions.

And then, Virtual Assistants are also doing order management.

We live in a dropship world, so order management for us means we get the order from the customer, we transfer it to the manufacturer, and we have to work with the manufacture to make sure that they’re shipping it on time, and they’re notifying us

So there’s a whole a host of activities that occurs all the way across the funnel from when a customer places and order to when it arrives. For the percentage of times when it arrives and there’s issues, there’s a whole other set of workflows that needs to occur to solve those issues.

… And all of that is an opportunity for a good outsource provider!

One of the things that is unique about your ecommerce business, is that you went from 1 virtual assistant to 10 virtual assistants very quickly!…

What surprised you about the hiring process?

1. How easily the hiring process went.
2. How quick and smooth the interviewing went.
3. And, the overall success rate of the candidates was pretty darn close to 100%!

What would you tell an e-commerce leader in your space who has never considered using virtual assistant?

We shied away from it for many years due to fear of culture. Given the current environment with everyone working remotely, that concern is no longer there. So this is really the right time to try it, implement it, and think about blending it back with the culture.

What e-Commerce Virtual Assistants do for eCommerce Businesses

• Dropshipping & supplier coordination
• Amazon seller services
• Amazon & eBay advertising
• Amazon & eBay brand protection
• Amazon & eBay listing placement coordination
• Product research for Amazon
• seller growth analytics
• inventory placement
• seller compliance
• fba revenue calculations
• liaison to dropshipping suppliers
• handling inquiries from resolution center
• managing seller hub
• Shopify administration
• Google shopping coordination

Here’s how e-commerce virtual assistants support e-commerce merchants:

1. Listing Coordination & Documentation: product and inventory support, reports, and billing
2. CRM Management: Updating records, verification, claim submissions, billing and much more.
3. Email & Phone Answering: Answering administrative phone calls, customer support, answering emails, managing your calendar.
4. Research & Administrative Support: Any type of research on the web, maintain spreadsheets & any other information or secretarial tasks, coordinating with other staff or getting any other work done or organized at your workplace.
5. Marketing Management: Coordinating your social media pages with updates, CPC & PPC coordination, news or article sharing, setting-up email campaigns, creating marketing materials (flyers, brochures etc).

MyOutDesk has been in the industry for over a decade, helping all types of businesses grow. We have providing e-commerce virtual assistant services for years, becoming one of the top virtual assistant providers available. After serving more than 5000 clients and employing over 4000 professionals, we have seen firsthand how this investment supports business growth. Because of this experience, MyOutDesk, currently caters to other industries as well such as professional services, mortgage and insurance to name a few.

ENVISIONING OF A NEW REALITY FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Simply put, MyOutDesk equips entrepreneurs & business owners with tools, strategies, and virtual employees — and when combined, businesses have a competitive edge and find growth while efficient systems and processes are put in place.

MyOutDesk proudly provides additional free business growth guides, books, and strategy calls.

See what we are about, and schedule a free consultation with us. We’ll take the time to learn more about your business and offer solutions to foster top talent and lower operational costs for your company.

Experience The Difference
MyOutDesk can save you up to 70% on employment cost
Claim a free business strategy consultation & ‘Grow Virtual’ Guide

Did You Know? MyOutDesk’s origin story is set during the last global financial crisis of 2008. Yes, that’s right — our business started by scaling businesses with virtual assistants during a recession! Pioneers of virtual assistant services, our first client in 2008 went from five to seventeen VAs with a completely revamped organizational model in short order, and he told MyOutDesk, “Our virtual professionals have shaved $250,000 off our monthly overhead.”