How much does a full-time ecommerce operations manager cost?

A full-time ecommerce operations manager typically costs around $150,000 per year in total compensation. Add recruiting, ramp time, and the risk they leave, and the real number is higher still.

Why most owner-operators can't justify that hire

For a store doing solid but not enormous revenue, a six-figure salary is a huge fixed cost to carry, yet the operational work, orders, returns, tickets, reconciliation, reporting, still has to get done every day. So the founder ends up doing it themselves, at night, on weekends.

The better first move

If you hire a person to run a broken, manual process, you don't fix the process. You make it a more expensive broken process. The question worth asking before the hire is whether the back office can be systematized first, so the work runs without the six-figure line item.

Systematize before you hire

Map the repeated work, define the policies, and build the operating loop first. Then you can decide whether the remaining judgment work needs a full-time hire.