E-commerce specialist: who they are, what they do and how much they earn

This is where the question of an e-commerce specialist comes up. Should you hire someone in-house, or hand the work over to an external agency? The answer isn’t obvious, because both options come with their own costs and limitations, and a rushed decision can cost a company months of lost time. That’s why e-commerce consulting comes in handy when making this choice. In this article, we break both options down: what an in-house hire really costs, what you get for an agency’s monthly retainer and when each choice makes sense.

What is an e-commerce specialist?

An e-commerce specialist is the person who runs a company’s day-to-day sales on marketplace platforms: Allegro, Amazon, eMAG, eBay or Kaufland. They make sure listings are visible, prices are competitive and customers get an answer to their questions or complaints within a reasonable time.

It isn’t one narrow role but several roles rolled into one person: part salesperson, part analyst, part advertising specialist. In small companies, one person handles everything at once. In larger teams, the work is split between several people: someone for listings, someone for PPC campaigns, someone for reporting and performance analysis.

For the owner of a manufacturing company, though, only one thing matters: whether this person can turn a good product into real sales on a marketplace, rather than just putting it on a virtual shelf and waiting for it to sell itself. Because no product sells itself, even if it’s the best on the market. Someone has to take care of its visibility and its price, and make sure customers actually find it among hundreds of similar listings.

What does an e-commerce specialist do day to day?

An e-commerce specialist’s working day revolves around five areas: listings, prices, advertising, customer service and sales reports.

Their typical responsibilities include:

1. Setting up accounts on new marketplace platforms, including checking the formal requirements (VAT OSS, German VAT registration, LUCID).
2. Creating and updating product listings: descriptions, photos, variants, keywords.
3. Managing pricing policy and monitoring the competition on an ongoing basis.
4. Planning and running PPC advertising campaigns.
5. Looking after end customers by email and phone: questions, complaints, returns.
6. Preparing sales reports and drawing conclusions from them.

That sounds like the work of an entire marketing, sales and customer service department done by one person. And it often is, especially in smaller companies. That’s the first sign that you should work out whether one in-house role can realistically carry the load before someone starts burning out after three months. At an agency, the same tasks are usually spread across several people, each of whom knows their own area far more deeply than a single all-rounder could ever know all of them at once.

Listings, prices, advertising, customer service and reports – at an agency, these tasks are usually spread across several people.

How much does it cost to hire an in-house e-commerce specialist?

Hiring an in-house e-commerce specialist costs in the region of PLN 5,000 to 10,000 gross a month, depending on experience and location. And that’s only the beginning of the expenses, not the end.

On top of the salary, you need to add training, access to tools (Baselinker, Allegro Ads and others) and the time it takes before a new hire starts delivering results on their own. In practice, that’s usually 2–3 months during which the company pays a full salary for partial productivity.

Working with a marketplace agency has a different cost structure: from PLN 2,000–5,000 a month for a narrower scope of services up to the low five figures for full management of multiple platforms. For that price, you usually get access to a whole team (an implementation specialist, an advertising specialist, an account manager) rather than one person whose availability depends on holidays and sick leave.

The table below makes it easier to compare the two options.

In-house e-commerce specialist or marketplace agency: which pays off more?

In short: a marketplace agency pays off more when a quick start and access to a broad range of expertise matter most, while an in-house hire makes more sense when the company has the time and budget to build its own e-commerce department from the ground up.

There’s no single right answer for every company here, because it’s a question of priorities, not of which option is universally ‘better’. A company with a large, stable product range that wants full control over day-to-day decisions will more often opt for an in-house hire. A company that wants to enter several markets at once, has no time to learn everything from scratch and puts profitability ahead of revenue alone usually does better working with an agency.

When is it worth hiring an in-house e-commerce specialist?

Hiring in-house makes sense when the company meets most of the following conditions:

1. You want full control over day-to-day decisions and changes to your listings, with no intermediaries.
2. You have the budget for a full-time position, training and tools, not just the salary itself.
3. You sell a very wide product range that needs constant, day-to-day management.
4. You want to build long-term e-commerce expertise within the company.
5. You have the time and patience to see a new person through 2–3 months of onboarding.

If most of these points match your situation, an in-house hire may work well. If you only ticked one or two, it’s worth considering an agency, at least while you’re starting out on marketplaces. An in-house hire works best in companies that treat marketplace sales as a permanent, growing pillar of the business rather than a one-off market test, and have the resources to build that department over years, not months.

An in-house hire works best for companies that want to build their e-commerce department over years, not months.

When is it better to outsource e-commerce to a marketplace agency?

A marketplace agency works best when a company is short on time or know-how, or wants to test a new market quickly without the risk of a costly mistake.

This applies especially to companies that are only just starting to sell on marketplaces and don’t yet know their way around the platforms’ requirements: VAT OSS, waste separation rules, regulations on selling electronics. An agency works through all of this together with the client instead of leaving them alone with the official forms.

It also works well where profitability, not just revenue, is the priority. A team that has set up dozens of accounts is quicker to spot advertising that generates sales but eats up the entire margin than someone learning this for the first time on your account. It’s a bit like the difference between a satnav that knows the shortcuts and someone driving the route for the first time. Both will get there in the end, but one will do it faster and for less. An agency also pays off for companies that want to launch on several platforms at once, because it’s hard to find a single in-house employee who knows the ins and outs of Amazon, Allegro and eMAG all at the same time.

What skills does a good e-commerce specialist need?

A good e-commerce specialist combines three types of skills: technical, analytical and sales, whether they work in-house or at an agency.

Key skills include familiarity with tools such as Baselinker or Apilo (integrations and listing management), Allegro Ads and Amazon PPC (advertising campaigns), as well as basic data analysis, even if only in Excel, to interpret metrics such as CTR, conversion rate or ACOS. Without this, it’s hard to judge whether a campaign is actually paying for itself or just generating traffic with no real profit. Knowing the specifics of each platform is just as important, because what works on Allegro is different from what works on Amazon or eMAG.

Summary

The decision to hire an in-house e-commerce specialist or hand the work to an agency is essentially a question of where the company wants to place its risk: in the time and money invested in one person, or in its trust in a team that has already travelled this road many times with other clients. Neither option is universally right, because both come at a cost, just in a different currency: an in-house hire costs time and the risk of staff turnover, while an agency costs you some of your direct control over day-to-day decisions.

Wondering whether your company needs its own e-commerce specialist or whether an agency would be a better fit? Book a free consultation, where we’ll assess your situation together and work out which option really pays off.