E-Commerce Business Management Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends E-commerce Managers, Digital Marketing Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-DM-068

Before you join: Participants should have basic familiarity with marketing, sales, retail, customer service or digital channels, gained through work experience or prior study.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

E-commerce managers must make connected decisions about business model, customer proposition, digital acquisition, fulfilment and financial performance. A well-designed store can still lose money through weak unit economics, high return rates, poor product information, inefficient paid media or marketplace fees. Equally, established organisations often struggle to decide when to sell direct, use marketplaces, introduce subscriptions, expand into B2B portals or improve an existing online channel.

This course develops the practical management skills required to plan, run and improve an e-commerce business. Participants assess market opportunities using PESTLE, Porter's Five Forces and market-sizing methods; select viable revenue models; define customer segments; build a product and pricing proposition; and manage the full customer journey. The course also covers platform selection, conversion rate optimisation, search, paid media, lifecycle communications, retention, fulfilment, fraud controls, data analysis and growth planning. Participants learn to connect commercial metrics such as conversion rate, average order value, customer acquisition cost, contribution margin and customer lifetime value.

Teaching combines instructor briefings, sector cases, group analysis, trading simulations and structured planning work. Cases reflect common challenges in retail, financial services, manufacturing, consumer goods, travel, public services and B2B distribution. Participants leave with an e-commerce business plan containing a business model, customer journey, channel plan, unit economics model, dashboard specification and 90-day implementation roadmap. Completion is recognised with a certificate of completion.

The course suits professionals responsible for launching, managing or improving digital sales channels, including those working with online stores, marketplaces, B2B customer portals and social commerce programmes.

What you will be able to do

  • Assess e-commerce market opportunities using PESTLE, Porter's Five Forces and TAM-SAM-SOM analysis
  • Design an e-commerce business model using the Business Model Canvas and unit economics
  • Build customer segments, journey maps and value propositions from research evidence
  • Configure product, pricing and merchandising decisions for profitable online conversion
  • Plan acquisition campaigns using RACE, search intent mapping and lifecycle communications
  • Measure e-commerce performance through GA4 events, funnel metrics and contribution analysis
  • Manage fulfilment, returns, fraud and service processes against customer and margin targets
  • Produce a prioritised 90-day e-commerce roadmap with owners, metrics and milestones

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Create a defensible e-commerce business case using market, customer and financial evidence
  • Diagnose weak conversion, margin and retention performance with structured metrics
  • Manage agencies, platform vendors and fulfilment partners with clearer commercial requirements
  • Make informed choices between direct sales, marketplaces, subscriptions and B2B portals
  • Return to work with a 90-day plan for a current e-commerce priority

For your organisation

  • Improved channel decisions based on contribution margin and customer lifetime value
  • Reduced wasted acquisition spend through better targeting, attribution and lifecycle planning
  • Higher conversion potential from stronger product information, search and checkout design
  • Better control of fulfilment costs, returns, fraud exposure and customer service failures
  • Clearer cross-functional ownership for trading, marketing, technology and operations

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can assess an e-commerce opportunity and define a commercially credible strategic position.

  • Customer problem statements linked to searchable demand and purchase occasions
  • PESTLE and Porter's Five Forces for category attractiveness assessment
  • Value Proposition Canvas matching jobs, pains, gains and proof points
  • Market sizing through TAM, SAM, SOM and conversion assumptions
  • Competitor teardown comparing assortment, pricing, fulfilment, content and service
  • Strategic choices between owned stores, marketplaces, social commerce and B2B portals

Participants can select an e-commerce business model and test its financial viability.

  • Business Model Canvas mapping segments, channels, revenue streams and key partners
  • Compare direct-to-consumer, marketplace, subscription, dropshipping and wholesale models
  • Unit economics calculated from gross margin, fulfilment, acquisition and return costs
  • Contribution margin waterfall separating variable costs from fixed operating expense
  • Marketplace commission, referral fee and fulfilment fee implications
  • Channel conflict rules for pricing, assortment, territories and customer ownership

Participants can turn customer evidence into prioritised segments and journey improvements.

  • Jobs to Be Done interviews identifying functional, emotional and social progress
  • Persona hypotheses tested with search queries, reviews and support tickets
  • Customer journey maps from discovery through post-purchase retention
  • Voice-of-customer coding of reviews, complaints, chats and product questions
  • Segment prioritisation using needs, value potential, accessibility and strategic fit
  • Consent-based first-party data collection mapped to stated customer value

Participants can structure online assortments, product information and pricing for conversion and margin.

  • Assortment architecture using good-better-best tiers and hero product roles
  • Product information requirements for attributes, variants, compatibility and compliance
  • On-site search taxonomy, filters and synonyms reducing product-finding friction
  • Product detail page hierarchy: imagery, benefits, specifications, proof and calls-to-action
  • Price architecture covering anchors, bundles, discounts, minimum margins and parity
  • Cross-sell and upsell rules based on basket context and product relationships

Participants can define platform and user-experience requirements that support online conversion.

  • Platform selection criteria covering integrations, extensibility, security, cost and ownership
  • Checkout funnel analysis locating abandonment by device, payment and delivery choice
  • Mobile-first interface patterns for navigation, search, product comparison and checkout
  • WCAG 2.2 accessibility checks for forms, contrast, keyboard access and errors
  • Payment gateway selection considering authorisation rates, fraud controls and settlement
  • Conversion rate optimisation hypotheses structured with ICE prioritisation scoring

Participants can plan coordinated acquisition and lifecycle communications for e-commerce growth.

  • RACE framework linking reach, act, convert and engage metrics
  • Search intent mapping for category pages, editorial content and product pages
  • SEO technical controls: indexation, canonical tags, structured data and page speed
  • Paid media funnel design across search, shopping, social and retargeting
  • Email and SMS lifecycle flows for welcome, browse, cart and reactivation
  • UTM naming conventions and channel attribution rules for campaign reporting

Participants can improve repeat purchasing through retention analysis, loyalty design and service recovery.

  • Cohort retention analysis separating repeat behaviour from acquisition-period effects
  • Customer lifetime value estimated from contribution margin, frequency and retention
  • Loyalty mechanics comparing points, tiers, paid membership and referral rewards
  • Service recovery protocol for late delivery, damaged goods and failed refunds
  • Returns policy design balancing conversion confidence, fraud exposure and recovery value
  • Net Promoter Score and customer satisfaction measurement with closed-loop follow-up

Participants can manage the operational controls that protect service quality, margin and customer trust.

  • Order management workflow from payment capture through pick, pack and dispatch
  • Fulfilment model comparison: in-house, third-party logistics, dropship and marketplace fulfilment
  • Inventory reorder points built from lead time, demand variability and safety stock
  • Last-mile delivery options assessed for cost, speed, tracking and customer choice
  • Fraud controls using velocity rules, address verification and manual review queues
  • Consumer protection, privacy and tax obligations assigned to operational owners

Participants can use commercial data to monitor performance and test e-commerce growth assumptions.

  • GA4 ecommerce events connecting product views, carts, purchases and refunds
  • Funnel dashboard combining sessions, conversion, average order value and revenue
  • Customer acquisition cost compared with contribution-based lifetime value
  • Gross merchandise value distinguished from net revenue and recognised sales
  • Scenario model testing traffic, conversion, margin and fulfilment assumptions
  • OKRs translated into weekly metrics, owners, thresholds and corrective actions

Participants can establish governance and a prioritised implementation plan for e-commerce improvement.

  • Digital commerce operating model defining decision rights, roles and escalation paths
  • Prioritised roadmap sequenced by customer impact, dependency, effort and risk
  • RACI matrix assigning accountability for trading, content, technology and fulfilment
  • Experiment governance defining hypotheses, guardrail metrics, sample size and decisions
  • Vendor scorecards measuring platform, agency, logistics and payment-provider performance
  • 90-day application plan with milestones, owners, resources and measurable outcomes

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. E-commerce Business Model Canvas
  2. Contribution margin and unit economics model
  3. Customer journey map template
  4. Digital acquisition and lifecycle plan
  5. E-commerce performance dashboard specification
  6. 90-day implementation roadmap

Who should attend

  • E-commerce Managers — need to improve commercial performance across the online trading operation
  • Digital Marketing Managers — need to connect acquisition activity to conversion and retained revenue
  • Product Managers — need to shape online propositions, journeys and platform improvement priorities
  • Retail and Category Managers — need to translate assortment and pricing decisions into online sales
  • Business Development Managers — need to assess direct-to-consumer, marketplace and B2B channel options
  • Entrepreneurs and Business Owners — need a disciplined plan for launching or scaling an online business

Skills and tools covered

E-commerce strategyUnit economicsCustomer journey mappingConversion optimisationDigital acquisition planningFulfilment management

Tools and standards

Business Model Canvas, RACE Framework, Google Analytics 4, WCAG 2.2

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce methods, followed by case analysis, group exercises, trading simulations and structured application planning. Participants assess e-commerce propositions, interpret funnel and unit-economics data, make channel and fulfilment choices, and test priorities against commercial constraints. Facilitators use examples from retail, B2B distribution, consumer services and marketplace trading. Discussion focuses on decisions participants must make at work, including trade-offs between growth, margin, customer experience, operational capacity and risk.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic familiarity with marketing, sales, retail, customer service or digital channels, gained through work experience or prior study. They should be comfortable reading simple commercial metrics such as revenue, gross margin and conversion rate. Experience of managing an online store, website, marketplace account or marketing campaign is useful but not essential. The course does not require coding, web design, data science, accounting qualifications or prior use of a specific e-commerce platform. Participants may bring current business data where organisational policy permits.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Basic experience in marketing, sales, retail, customer service or digital channels is expected. You do not need coding skills, platform-administration experience or an accounting qualification.

Bring a laptop if possible, plus details of an online business, product category or channel challenge you wish to examine. You may also bring non-confidential metrics such as traffic, conversion, average order value, return rate or acquisition costs.

It is designed for managers and specialists who influence online sales, digital marketing, product, retail, commercial planning or customer experience. It also suits business owners planning a direct-to-consumer, marketplace or B2B digital channel.

Digital marketing courses usually focus on campaign channels, content and media performance. This course includes acquisition but also addresses business models, merchandising, platforms, pricing, fulfilment, returns, unit economics and operating governance.

Participants use their own business context where appropriate to assess a commercial opportunity, identify performance gaps and define priorities. The final application plan can be used to brief managers, agencies, technology teams and operational partners.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours, excluding breaks. The course progresses from strategy and commercial model decisions through customer experience, acquisition, operations, analytics and implementation planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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