Building a dream e-commerce venture requires the right ingredients: vision, agility, and the perfect team. But finding the perfect talent pool can feel like searching for a unicorn in a server farm.That’s where staff augmentation steps in. This dynamic strategy allows you to tap into a network of skilled professionals on-demand, filling gaps and accelerating your development process without the lengthy commitment of traditional hires.

Ready to unlock explosive growth? Read on to discover how team augmentation can empower your e-commerce startup.

The world of e-commerce is certainly developing ahead of the curve.

Did you know that online retail sales are powering up to hit a valuation of $8.1 trillion by 2026 (Statista)? Additionally, there exist over 2.3 billion people globally who are shopping on their mobiles with taps and clicks (Hostinger).

Over 74% of online traffic includes tech-savvy shoppers. Moreover, research shows that an average shopper spends at least $3 per visit to the store (Statista)!

These numbers are sole proof towards the increasing adoption of digital marketplaces worldwide.

Beyond these headline figures, many recognizable trends are projecting the future of ecommerce, such as:

1. Personalization is becoming accelerating crucial, with consumers expecting tailored experiences based on user preferences.

2. Data shows that social media is playing a vital role in influencing spending habits and consumer behavior.

3. Additionally, sustainability is a rising concern amongst consumers and businesses.

The ecommerce industry is on an upward growth trajectory, powered by factors like higher internet penetration, mobile device adoption, and dynamic consumer preferences.

With such highly demanding data, it’s no wonder that so many startups are popping up globally, bridging one market gap at a time.

Augmenting the Development Process

For startups who want to dominate the market and lessen their financial burdens, it’s necessary to go for options suitable for initial level development.

Some startups choose to make MVPs of their idea to test the waters, while some rely on existing experts to code their work into success.

Finding the right talent at the right time to build the right product can be a lengthy process at times. Businesses need highly skilled employees, however accessibility to such professionals isn’t always guaranteed.

The requirements to make a productive & efficient team for the development process may take more resources than expected. Which is why many software development companies hire trained individuals to make and standardize the development process for them.

Why should e-commerce startups augment their teams today?

The world of e-commerce is growing faster than ever, causing startups to boost up their resources and expertise without breaking the bank.

Staff Augmentation, or the process of hiring talent externally to complement your in-house team, comes up as the obvious solution. Here’s why.

1. Bridging the Skills Gap
CB Insights says, around 42% of startups often fumble to find the correct talent. Staff augmentations allow you to fish in the global talent pool with access to the niche departments/services you wish to utilize.

2. Scale-up cost effectively
Did you know that 70% of startups fail within the initial 10 years of operations because they scale slowly? (Startup Genome Report)

Staff Augmentation gives your business much needed flexibility and cost-efficiency. There are no more lengthy hiring processes, only lowered overheads for you to handle!

3. Inject fresh perspectives through newer innovations
Around the world, Staff Augmentation brings in new ideas and approaches to the table to challenge existing assumptions. These ideas are worthy of sparking innovation and help businesses stay ahead of the curve.

Deloitte noted that 97% of CEOs believe in having thought diversity that leads to innovation.

4. Overcoming Resource Constraints
It’s a well-known fact that early-stage startups struggle to function with limited resources like manpower and budget. Staff Augmentation helps in overcoming these limitations by providing the demanded talent and correct expertise.

5. Testing the Waters
Staff augmentation helps businesses to recognize the demand of resources in various departments. Through this, you can easily adjust your team size, and skillsets based on changing market demands and business requirements.

Along with this, utilizing staff augmentation provides businesses opportunities to test the demand of a specific role, before hiring full-time.

Staff Augmentation for Startups

Let’s understand this by taking some examples today.

1. E-Commerce Emporium

Chaos loomed for this e-commerce platform as the holiday shopping madness began. Orders threatened to drown their website and mobile application. Moreover, to handle huge orders, having reliable customer support was a must.

The in-house team needed reinforcements, and FAST.

Enter IT Staff Augmentation.

Augmentation brought forth skilled professionals, from skilled developers, analysts to UI/UX designers, and made an elegant custom ecommerce software for them.

The strategy enabled this e-commerce steamroller to gain 30% higher customer satisfaction & record-breaking sales for the year.

2. ShopSmart

A withstanding titan, ShopSmart, was fronted with the challenges of increasing online retail. Not only did the company need a strong custom e-commerce platform, but also a sleek, user-friendly mobile app for the tech-savvy shoppers.

They chose a Staff Augmentation strategy to undertake this humongous task. Soon, they hired an augmented team filled with expert software developers carrying e-commerce expertise.

The results were electrifying.

Their newly revamped platform carried effortless navigation, while the mobile app was being regularly used by their customers. Within 6 short months, ShopSmart saw a 40% surge in their online transactions, giving the business a new digital persona.

By analyzing these examples, we see how the businesses were able to scale, expand and provide a seamless user experience by augmenting their teams. This strategy allowed the company to be more flexible and choose cost-effective solutions to farther the business needs.

How to start augmenting your team?

E-commerce startups can now focus on their core competencies by outsourcing specialized skills to augmented teams.

Remember, it’s important to:
1. Correctly identify your needs and business goals
2. Choose partners with great experience & a scaling-up culture.
3. Clear communication of expectations to ensure seamless integration.
4. Contact us!

We, at iProgrammer, run around every day with tools and technologies in our bag packs. By providing expert startup guidance, we also offer specialized augmented teams to turn your ideas into innovation. Our startup initiative focuses on bringing the right resources for startups to one place, at the right cost.

Check out our website to know more about us and our services!