• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, August 15, 2022

If ecommerce firms are not getting their email quite right, it may be because overworked merchandise teams are being stuck with the task.

Over a third of all merchandising people now have email marketing responsibilities, according to State of Ecommerce Merchandising 2022, a study by Constructor.  

And overall, 99% have additional tasks outside of site merchandising. Digital marketing is the main one, followed by product or site content strategy and on-site optimization. In contrast, few are handling assortment or planning/buying.  

No wonder 48% of merchandisers are working at least five hours beyond their regular schedules each week, and that they make comments like these:

An unmanageable workload bothers me at times. 

There is a lack of work-life balance. We are expected to work more than the actual working hours without any extra incentives.”

Continuously late working hours disturb me. 

Moreover, 57% report that their teams spend at least 20 hours per week on manual merchandising activities. While 58% enjoy work like creating synonyms, slotting and burying products and managing redirects, others are bored by it. 

Despite the hours, 95% feel they can be creative in their jobs. What’s more, 91% feel they can contribute strategically goals, while 96% of their leaders agree. And 86% agree that their work is valued by their company. 

In general, the ecommerce tech stack appears to be correlated to product search effectiveness.

Yet 60% of small teams say they can easily find the data they need, versus of 82% of larger ones. But it depends on the size of the company.  

Only 40% of workers on small teams are using AI, versus 85% who are using it on large groups. But 94% have a positive view of AI. 

“Instead of spending hours manually fixing issues like typos that the system should have figured out on its own, merchandisers can partner with AI technologies to maximize their impact and get time to work on actual strategic initiatives they’re best positioned to do,” says Eli Finkelshteyn, CEO and co-founder of Constructor.

How do they tell if they’re doing a good job? Brands measure revenue metrics (55%), customer satisfaction scores (50%) and non-revenue behavioral metrics (35%). 

Constructor surveyed 100 ecommerce merchandising employees in April 2022.