Five Panda Pointers: Delivering the goals for your ecommerce team

What are the goals for your ecommerce team this year? If you’re managing a team or a whole department, this is probably high on your priority list before a new year begins. Once the year kicks off, it’s time to present these goals to the team!

It’s easy to think ‘let’s hit the ground running’ and send the goals around in an email – don’t do this! Setting goals is important, we all know that, but how you approach and deliver them is even more important…it’s the difference between motivating your team and leaving them underwhelmed and unappreciated!

Put time into explaining the goals

If you don’t offer your time to really share the team goals and explain them, then do you think this will inspire your team? Don’t schedule an hour meeting with the team, deliver the goals and send them on their merry way.

We recommend a day or even two days to rally the troops and start the year (or quarter) off with a bang! Sit down with the entire team and detail exactly what the targets are, the plan of action and what you will need from them as a team.

It’s also good to sit down with individual members of the team, to discuss their contribution and what they need to do. It allows you both to offer feedback and ultimately allows individuals to envision what they need to do to see professional growth…and smashed targets!

How will you support the ecommerce team?

Once again, you need to show the ecommerce team that these goals aren’t just being dropped on them. How are you going to support the team on an ongoing basis? How much time can you offer for feedback and regular check ins? Show them that as their manager, you are behind them 100% and want them to succeed for them…not just because you want to look good! Knowing you are behind them will motivate and encourage the team more than you know.

Make the targets realistic…but challenging

A very important thing to stress when delivering your ecommerce team, the key goals is that the targets are realistic. Show them you haven’t plucked numbers from thin air and explain the process in how the goals came to be what your team see in front of them now.

However, don’t concentrate too much on showing how achievable they are either. It’s a difficult balance to strike, but ecommerce professionals love a challenge – it’s a key factor that keeps them in their role. So, show your ecommerce team that they will be pushed and will be expected to go above and beyond, though the targets are within reach.

Ecommerce teams working in harmony

A great way to deliver the ecommerce team goals is to put emphasis on the team. They don’t call it an ecommerce team for nothing! How will everyone work together to pull off the biggest achievements yet? While everyone will have individual performance targets, make sure everyone realises that it will be a team effort and how they can do this together.

Incentivise your teams’ successes

We’re not saying you have to jet the ecommerce team off to Las Vegas or Hawaii (unless you really want an excuse to go, then why not?) Scheduling quarterly rewards to show, the team their rewards for being on the right track is a great motivation. They don’t have to be grand gestures – whether it’s a team dinner or a fun karaoke night, they will appreciate it.

It’s also important to know what motivates each individual…so ask them to name one personal goal for them in the year to come. Be it a new car, a house or a dream trip, you can then give them a small token for their desk to remind them of this personal ambition.

We hope our Panda Pointers have given you some tips for delivering your ecommerce team goals! Even if you have already done this for the year, you can use this moving forward for every quarterly update! Now go and smash those targets!