Catherine vanVonno August 2, 2021 
nastya_gepp / Pixabay
As an eCommerce business owner, you probably have a ton of personal and business tasks you need to accomplish every day.
And if you’re like many harried entrepreneurs, you’ve probably wished you could clone yourself so you can get more work done. Unfortunately, human cloning technology still hasn’t been invented, but what has been introduced is a viable alternative: virtual assistants (VAs).
What is a virtual personal assistant?
A personal assistant performs a variety of tasks and errands, ensuring that the client’s personal and professional lives run smoothly. A virtual personal assistant accomplishes the same tasks but works remotely. Virtual personal assistants can fulfill administrative functions such as scheduling appointments or making travel arrangements but may also take on more specialized tasks, such as website maintenance, content writing, or online store management.
Businesses of all shapes and sizes seek virtual personal assistants because they offer reliable and cost-effective business support services to CEOs, corporate professionals, and entrepreneurs who have no time left in their daily routine for these responsibilities.
If you think about that in terms of an online business, personal assistants can really take your daily operations to another level! Imagine having someone who tackles all the menial tasks on your plate, not just one aspect of your job. You could be more productive because you only have to focus on adding value instead.
This isn’t a new concept, though. Personal assistants have been around for many years, and they’ve just taken a different route. It’s now possible to hire personal assistants that work from their own computer, remotely, and outside of traditional business hours. You can also choose virtual assistant services based on experience level and price range.
Virtual assistant services are particularly common in the eCommerce industry, as having staff working in different time zones helps businesses improve customer service capabilities. In fact, there are many eCommerce businesses where virtual assistants are more abundant than on-site employees! Startups hire VAs too, and so do individuals who just need help managing personal tasks like answering emails and monitoring finances.
What can a virtual personal assistant do for your eCommerce business?
You might be thinking that having a personal assistant (PA) or a virtual assistant (VA) is something out of the ordinary. Many people still think that hiring a PA or a VA is only for high-income individuals or celebrities.
But think about it this way: if your eCommerce business has seen recent growth, but you’re not able to keep up with all the tasks involved despite working harder day by day, wouldn’t you want to hire someone who could handle those tasks for you? And how about if that personal assistant could provide your eCommerce business with skills and expertise you don’t have, like social media marketing or content creation? Would it be worth hiring a VA to help manage them for you?
If this is the case, then a virtual personal assistant can do great things for your business. The key here is finding someone with expertise in the areas of your business that require more time from you.
How to gain a competitive advantage by hiring a virtual personal assistant
There are many ways hiring virtual assistants can help small business owners save money and improve their productivity and profit margins. Whether it’s writing blog posts, doing online research, or taking care of customer service inquiries, everything that VAs do helps entrepreneurs focus on building revenue streams. For small business owners, hiring a virtual assistant can be a gamechanger.
Below, we’ve listed six ways virtual personal assistants can help eCommerce store owners build revenue:
1. Spend less time on tasks you hate so you can spend more time on tasks that make you money
Virtual personal assistants help you focus on building revenue streams by taking on the mundane tasks that have to be done but don’t really have to be done by you.
For instance, a VA can enter data into spreadsheets and input new information as it comes in. They can keep track of your appointments on Google Calendar, so you’ll always know when important events are happening.
Entrepreneurs who want to write original content for their eCommerce store but find they don’t have the time or expertise can hire VAs to proofread their work. This helps ensure that there are no typos or grammatical errors, which will increase visitors’ trust in your brand and improve your search ranking.
2. Get a higher quality of work done for less
Virtual assistants are natural multitaskers. By hiring virtual personal assistants who are experts in their field, you’ll be able to save money on hiring multiple people to do the same job. And because personal assistants can work independently, you don’t have to spend a lot of time monitoring their work or clarifying what needs to be done. In addition, a personal assistant working remotely usually has a much lower rate than someone you can hire locally.
The trick to saving money while getting high-quality work done by virtual assistants is finding the right VAs to hire. Your virtual personal assistant should have the right combination of skills, knowledge, attitude, and remote work experience to do the tasks you need help with. The best way to find reliable, pre-trained, and engaged virtual assistants is by hiring through a reputable virtual staffing agency.
3. Transcend geographical boundaries to hiring top talent
The best person to help you with your eCommerce tasks and goals may not live or work in your city, state, or even country. With virtual assistants, you can hire the best candidate for the job regardless of their location. This means that you can find highly qualified personal assistants with the specific skill set to help you scale your business without having to limit your search (and budget) to your local market.
Another benefit of hiring personal assistants from different parts of the world is that they bring fresh ideas and cultural perspectives into the mix. If you’re thinking about expanding into international markets but don’t have any personal connections abroad, virtual personal assistants could allow you to form those relationships much more easily.
4. Provide better customer support
The personal touch is a big part of what sets your eCommerce store apart from the competition. If you deliver excellent products and services to your customers, then personal assistants can help you offer one-on-one customer support to ensure they’re receiving the best possible experience.
Hiring personal assistants working in different time zones will allow you to respond more quickly to any questions or comments that come through your website or social media channels. You’ll be able to provide personal support instead of simply directing customers to an FAQ page where they have to figure things out for themselves. Having someone available when you’ve already logged off allows you to stay close with current customers, so repeat business is easy.
5. Boost your brand and reach more customers
Getting personal assistance from qualified VAs doesn’t just mean providing around-the-clock customer service. You can also work with your virtual assistants to provide personalized marketing for your campaigns and promotions, update your blog by writing posts geared towards a specific audience, or help you host events such as live webinars to connect with customers on a different level.
If you’ve been thinking about launching a personal brand to bring in new customers, virtual personal assistants can help. As an eCommerce business owner, hiring VAs gives you the freedom to hire experts in diverse fields such as copywriting, blogging, event planning, graphic design, public relations, or social media. By working with VAs, you can focus on achieving your personal brand goals because you can delegate tasks to other experts who are highly skilled in their craft.
6. Leverage a scalable, no-risk staffing solution
Another great advantage virtual assistants offer is scalability. Unlike a full-time employee, a virtual personal assistant can be hired for the exact amount of time you need them to complete certain tasks. Unlike regular employees, you only have to pay for a virtual assistant’s services for the contracted period or until the completion of a project. If your business is growing rapidly or if you simply need personal help for busy seasons or events, this flexibility gives you room to scale up quickly while keeping costs low.
Running a business requires taking on various responsibilities. But there’s no reason you should try to do it all or spend on expensive support services. Global and scalable virtual assistant services have become the all-in-one solution to many entrepreneurs’ workforce woes. It may very well be the answer to yours too!
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