Top 24 tasks you delegate to free up your time as a WooCommerce owner

We believe that one devoted player can do it in the early stages. However, growing a business requires more attention, effort, time, funds, and devotion. Thus, one way to ease the business’s burden is to learn how to delegate effectively. By giving others responsibility for specific tasks, you can focus on the areas of your business that need your attention most. Unfortunately, delegation is not always easy. So, we collected 24+ tasks you may consider delegating as a WooCommerce owner.

About Delegation

Let’s start with the essential notion of this article. Delegation is the process of assigning a task or responsibility to another person. It means choosing the right employees for the job and providing them with clear instructions and expectations. 

E-commerce store maintenance is keeping your online store up-to-date and running smoothly. It includes adding and updating products, processing orders, and dealing with customer inquiries. If you are sure that you can delegate properly, you may trust as many tasks as you want. Yet, it works when you are straightforward and clear with the duty and deadline. Otherwise, you should not delegate too much – remember that ultimately you are responsible for the outcome of the task, so stay involved and provide support as needed.

Why is it challenging?

There are a few reasons why delegation can be tricky:

1. One might feel like you can do a better job yourself. 
2. One might be worried that delegates will make mistakes. Therefore, you should trust others to do the job as well as possible or train someone else to do the task.
3. One might be concerned about giving up control over a task.
   These tasks must be well-defined so that everyone understands what needs to be done and how it fits into the bigger picture. Otherwise, there is a risk of confusion and delays. To avoid inconveniences, set smart goals. Clarify what metrics to use to evaluate the performance. They must be issue-specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.

List of tasks for delegation

So how do you go about defining a task to delegate? Here are our 24 tips and ideas that we often see are delegated by other WooCommerce owners for a store owner:

1. E-commerce store technical maintenance

E-commerce store maintenance doesn’t have to be a headache – with some planning and help from others, you can keep your store running like a well-oiled machine. 

E-commerce technical maintenance is keeping an online store up and running smoothly. It includes tasks like monitoring server performance, fixing website bugs, and adding new features or functionality to the site.

Technical maintenance is critical to running a successful e-commerce business, as it helps ensure customers have a positive experience when they visit your site. In addition, regularly maintaining your store can avoid potential problems down the line and keep your business running smoothly.

Imagine the two following situations:

• You delegate technical support and get constant taking care of the store with timely updates and uptime time of above 99.5%;
• You deal with technical support yourself, monitoring new versions of plugins and WP, and seeking for the solutions increasing the downtime duration.

It makes a great difference, isn’t it?

2. Add extensions and plugins.

It is a great way to improve the functionality of your site and add powerful features with just a few lines of code. So if you want to take your web design and development projects to the next level, extensions and plugins are worth considering.

Here are just a few examples of the kinds of things extensions and plugins can do:

• Add social media buttons
• Integrate with third-party services
• Add contact forms
• Create photo galleries
• Embed videos
• Improve SEO

We recommend you be proactive in that field and seek information on great extensions. Likewise, you can hire an experienced developer and ask him to handle that.

For example, check the four popular plugins can make all the difference in terms of functionality and usability:

1. WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway allows you to accept credit card payments directly on your WooCommerce store. It’s a great option to streamline the payment process and make it more convenient for customers.

2. YITH WooCommerce Ajax Search adds an ajax search box to your WooCommerce store. Improve the search functionality of your store and make it easier for customers to find what they’re looking for.

3. WooCommerce Subscriptions allows you to sell products and services with recurring payments. It’s a great way to offer products and services on a subscription basis to increase your revenue.

4. WooCommerce Memberships helps to create membership levels for your WooCommerce store. Offer exclusive content or products to members, and it can help you boost customer loyalty.

3. Plugins updates

Striving to make the shopping experience better for our customers, you might install a new payment gateway, a loyalty program, a search, and many other goodies. If you add new extensions, you should find a trusted developer to handle all the regular updates, possible conflicts, and incompatibilities.

To deal with this task, get updates from a platform and vendors. Even if you started the store yourself, developing it with WordPress, it might take a lot of effort to keep maintain it. It includes backing up of your store and data, monitoring new versions, and fixing any unpredictable issues. That is why we suggest you delegate the task. 

4. Server Performance Monitoring

It involves monitoring server uptime, response times, and error rates. By monitoring these factors, you can identify potential problems early on and take steps to fix them before they impact your customers.

These are some great tools you can use to check the performance and uptime of your website. Choose which one is the most convenient to you or ask your team to test them.

• Uptime Robot: monitors your website and keeps track of its uptime.
• Pingdom: helps you monitor your website’s uptime, performance, and overall stability.
• StatusCake: StatusCake is a website monitoring tool that provides users with real-time updates on the status of their websites.

5. Graphic design

There are many benefits to outsourcing your e-commerce store’s graphic design needs:

• It frees up your time to focus on other aspects of running your business.
• It can help you tap into a pool of creative talent that you may not have access to otherwise.
• It can save you money in the long run.

If you’re thinking about delegating your e-commerce store’s graphic design needs, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Make sure you communicate your vision for the project. The better your brief, the better the final results will be.
• Be prepared to give feedback along the way. The designer will need your input to ensure they’re on the right track.
• Be open to trying new things. Sometimes the best design solutions come from left field.

Outsourcing your e-commerce store’s graphic design needs can be a great way to save time, money, and stress. Besides, if you have been working for long, you both know the store, the preferences, and what to expect from each other; it makes life easier! So if you’re feeling overwhelmed, don’t hesitate to delegate this important task.

6. Website Bug fixes

No matter how well you test your website before launch, there are always going to be some bugs that slip through the cracks. For example, the “add to cart” button not working properly, products not appearing in the correct order on the front-end, or customers not being able to checkout properly. That’s why it’s vital to have a team in place to fix any bugs that pop up as soon as possible.

7. Search engine optimization

Improve your chances of ranking higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), which can lead to more traffic and sales. But SEO can be a time-consuming and complex task, one that often requires specialized knowledge and skills.

That’s where SEO services come in. An SEO service can help boost your website’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs), making customers more likely to find and purchase your products.

There are a number of SEO tools for WooCommerce that can help you list your products in search engines and get more traffic to your store. Here are four of the most popular ones:

• SEO by Yoast 
• SEMrush
• KWFinder
• SurferSEO

They perform the same task, to provide you with all the information to boost your store for search engines. Choose which one you like the most.

8. Investigate customer journey

If you’re looking to improve your customer’s experience, research it. You will become a customer and note what is excellent or worth improving. Of course, you can do it yourself to know your business better, but you can delegate the task to another employee.

Ask them if pop-ups occurrence do not distract clients. Filters and navigation are convenient. Strategically placing pop-ups throughout your website can guide your customers through buying and ensure they don’t miss any vital information.

Plus, pop-ups can be a great way to collect customer information, such as email addresses and contact information. It can be precious for your business, as you can use this data to nurture leads and improve your sales funnel.

Besides, the employee who deals with this delegated task, can use a checklist and point out some bullets what to ask about customer experience on some stages, like payment proceeding, overall design, website loading speed, or any ideas of what might be improved.

9. Developing standard operating procedures 

A standard operating procedure (SOP) is a set of instructions that outlines the steps necessary to complete a task. SOPs are a vital part of any e-commerce business, as they provide a consistent and repeatable process for completing tasks, from fulfilling orders to handling customer service inquiries.

There are many different factors to consider when developing an SOP, including who will create it, what format it will take, and how it will be implemented. Let’s take a closer look at each of these factors:

Who creates the SOP and how to develop SOP properly? It depends on the size and structure of your e-commerce business. In a small business, it may be the owner or manager who makes the SOP. A larger company may have a dedicated team responsible for developing SOPs.

SOPs can be short or long with tones of supplementary materials, depending on the company and the industry. For example, a standard operating procedure for an online store might include steps for processing orders, handling customer service inquiries, and managing inventory. Having a clear and concise SOP in place can help to streamline operations and improve efficiency.

10. Product management

If you sell products online, find a manager to track your inventory and ensure that your customers can always find the products they’re looking for. Here are some tips for managing products on your online store:

• Keep track of your inventory levels and reorder products as needed.
• Use product categories and subcategories to help customers find what they’re looking for.
• Use keyword-rich product descriptions to help customers find your products in search engines.
• Use high-quality product photos to give customers a clear idea of what they’re buying.
• If we divide this massive task into minor points, we see that it includes a lot of jobs. Thus, you might want to find a good project manager to coordinate everything.

11. Order fulfillment

You know how important it is to have a streamlined order fulfillment process. But sometimes, it can be challenging to keep up with everything yourself. TThat’swhy delegating the task to someone who can handle it efficiently is essential.

You have to be specialized in order fulfillment for e-commerce stores. Take care of all your shipping and logistics needs to focus on growing your business. Some services provide a seamless experience for you and your customers. Check with them on how they can help you. 

12. Accounting and bookkeeping

Leave the financials to someone who is trained and experienced in that area. You will benefit from working with a knowledgeable, experienced professional in accounting, taxes, shipping, and bookkeeping.

You may check the three accounting softwares for WooCommerce:

1. QuickBooks

2. Xero

3. FreshBooks

You may also find an experienced and specialized accountants who handle tasks for e-commerce. Thus, you get a knowledgeable partner who knows the processes with your store. It is a huge win!

13. Tax Preparation

Tax preparation can be daunting and time-consuming, but staying on top is a must. Luckily, there are now e-commerce platforms that can help you automate the tax preparation process.

Using an e-commerce platform that offers tax preparation services, you can delegate the task to a trusted third party and free up your time to focus on other aspects of your business. Not only will this save you time, but it can also help you ensure that your taxes are prepared correctly and in a timely manner.

14. Legal advice

One of the most important tasks is keeping your store compliant with the law. Especially when you start your business in your country or extend it worldwide with new rules and duties, it can be a time-consuming and complicated task, so delegate it to someone qualified to do it. 

They can help you avoid potential legal problems, and they can also help you resolve any issues that do arise. Having a legal advisor on your team can also give you peace of mind, knowing someone is looking out for your interests.

15. Shipping and logistics

If you’re running an e-commerce store, shipping and logistics can be a big challenge. But with the proper planning and execution, it doesn’t have to be. Here are some tips to help you get started:

• Make sure your shipping and logistics plan is well organized. It will help ensure that your orders are fulfilled on time and that your customers are satisfied.
• Choose a shipping partner that offers e-commerce shipping solutions. It will make it easier to manage your shipping and logistics operations.
• Stay up to date on e-commerce shipping trends.

16. Data entry

E-commerce data entry is manually entering e-commerce store data into a computer system. This data can include product information, customer orders, and other e-commerce-related data. Data entry for e-commerce stores can be a time-consuming and tedious task, but it is essential to keep accurate store inventory and customer order records.

There are many types of e-commerce data entry, but some everyday tasks include adding new products to a store catalog, processing customer orders, and updating inventory records. Your employee can do data entry manually or through automated means. There many specialists on Upwork or Fiverr. Automated data entry is often faster and more accurate than manual data entry, but it can be more expensive to set up and maintain.

17. Appointment setting

There are many different ways to set up an appointment system, but one of the most popular is using an online calendar. It can be a great way to keep track of appointments because it’s easy to use, and you can access it anywhere. You may need it to agree on time of the presale consultation on your product, or answer any other question your potential buyer might have.

Another popular method is to use a phone app. It can be helpful if you’re on the go and don’t have time to sit at a computer. Many different apps are available, so you can find one that fits your needs.

18. Public relations

Public relations is creating and maintaining relationships between an organization and the public. Public relations can build awareness, create goodwill, and improve relationships.

There are a few key public relations tools that any good PR agency should use to promote their clients. These include press releases, media relations, social media outreach, and events.

19. Email marketing

Email marketing for e-commerce can be a great way to boost sales and build customer loyalty. By sending out regular emails with special offers, new product information, and other updates, you can keep customers coming back for more.

For your convenience, you can try Mailchimp or Mailerlite. Both of them can be added to your WooCommerce store and operate together. Embedded tools are always convenient!

20. Content marketing

Content marketing is a strategic approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

Content marketing is vital for eCommerce businesses because it can help attract and retain customers, build brand awareness, and drive sales. Companies that use content marketing see six times more conversions than those that don’t.

Youo may delegate creation of customer journey, set the list of topics that may be interesting to your audience, and writing essays and posts. Delegation of it to experienced specialists is always a plus, as long it increases conversion, educates, and builds trust between your brand and your audienc.

21. Lead generation

One popular way to generate leads for e-commerce businesses is through online advertising. It can be done through Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, manage ads campaigns on numerous platforms.

Another way to generate leads is through content marketing. It involves creating and distributing high-quality content that attracts and engages your target audience. It could include blog posts, ebooks, infographics, or even videos.

Gather your team to brainstorm ideas or contact third-party content creators that will develop all the content-related tasks like creating a content plan, writing essays and posts, making videos, and using them to draw people’s attention.

22. Social media marketing

Social media marketing uses platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to build relationships and interact with potential and current customers. The delegated tasks may be to track statistics, write updated news about your brand, interact with potential clients in comments or direct messages. It frees up your time, but you have to create and share your tone of voice of your company.

23. E-commerce consulting

E-commerce is a rapidly growing industry, with more and more people turning to the internet for their shopping needs. According to a report by Forrester Research, online retail sales are expected to reach $523 billion by 2020, up from $262 billion in 2015.

If you’re considering starting an e-commerce business or are already running one, e-commerce consulting can help you take your business to the next level. An e-commerce consultant can offer advice on a wide range of topics, from setting up your online store to marketing your products and services.

24. Training new employees or contractors 

Whether keeping the inventory up-to-date or processing orders, it’s essential to have a team that can handle the workload.

One way to delegate tasks and train new employees or contractors is to use a WooCommerce training plugin. These plugins can help you create training courses for your team, so they can learn the ropes of running a WooCommerce store. They are the most effective when all your SOP are set and followed.

There you have it! 24 ways to delegate as a WooCommerce owner. By taking some of the tasks off your plate, you can focus on growing your business and giving your customers the best experience possible. So what are you waiting for? Start delegation today!