Starting an ecommerce business is one of the most exciting opportunities out there for any entrepreneur. With ecommerce expected to grow up to $25 trillion by the end of 2018, it’s a great way to make money in our economy. Whether you’re selling stock images or wood sunglasses, there are plenty of ways to start an ecommerce business.

That is, however, if you manage to train your staff successfully. As your team grows, it’s important that everyone understands your business through and through.

By following these 12 tips in training an ecommerce staff, you’ll be on your way to training the best possible team!

1 Train your employees even before they start working for you

From the very beginning, you’ll want to train your employees. How? By outlining all of your expectations of them in the job description, and with tests you give them between interviewing stages, your future employees will already start to get an idea of what’s expected of them. Training can start even before day one of the job!

2 Create a training plan

If you have a training plan available to your employees from the very beginning, it will make the whole process much more hassle-free. Once you’ve identified your training needs, you’ll be able to create an effective plan. For a guide on how to create an effective training program, read this article.

3 Have employees shadow more experienced employees

Once you have some employees who’ve been working with you a while and know all the ropes, they’ll be able to teach your new employees about what your business is really like. If you’ve got a remote team, it’s a bit more difficult to do, but you’ll still be able to connect them through email, Skype, and Slack: Team Messaging.

4 Understand the capabilities of each employee

By creating a Skills Matrix, in which you define each role and what skills are needed for each role, you’ll then be able to establish what level your employees are at for each skill. Once you’ve done your research, you’ll be able to decide which skills to focus on when you plan your training sessions.

5 Provide your employees with ecommerce guides

When you have any new employees join your company, it makes sense to give them an ecommerce guide, with which they’ll be able to review SEO and dropshipping. If you’re not sure where to start, take a look at these many available ecommerce guides provided by Shopify.

6 Provide your employees with the tools they’ll need to succeed

Once your entire team is familiar with the tools they need, you’ll be running a much more effective ecommerce company. By providing trainings on all your tools, it will make teamwork easier. For some tools that can help out your team, check out this list.

7 Encourage your employees to ask questions

Throughout the training sessions you provide, you’ll want to ensure that you make your employees comfortable enough to ask questions. It can be quite useful as well for team members to answer one another’s questions—this is an opportunity for them to reinforce their knowledge through problem-solving.

8 Ensure that you train your employees constantly

In addition to providing your employees with training at the very beginning of their time with you, ensure that you’re also training them throughout their time at your company. As your team grows, you’ll find that they’ll have more skills they need to learn as their responsibilities multiply, so you’ll want to ensure they’re always ready for that next challenge.

9 Give your employees constructive feedback

You don’t want to give your employees so much feedback, of course, that they’ll feel discouraged. But as long as you support them—for example, giving them extra time to work on an assignment if you’ve just asked them to change how they complete their tasks—then they’ll become better employees with each training. This will empower them, too.

10 Train your employees for culture, not just skills

In addition to providing your employees with the skills they’ll need for work, make sure you also train them about your company’s culture. This will help them understand the true mission of your company, which is essential for working well on a team and coming up with new solutions.

11 Automate training processes as much as you can

To make your life easier, it also makes sense to automate the more simple trainings—for example, if you have a style guide for SEO, you can prepare a template that you share with the writers. It’s also a good idea to provide information online after trainings, so that employees can revisit what they’ve learned.

12 Be creative with your trainings

Different employees will have different learning styles—so you’ll want to ensure you provide trainings based on these styles, whether it’s by observation and demonstration or hands-on practice. By making trainings more fun, too, they’re more likely to learn faster and be excited to apply their new skills to the job.

As you can see, there are many ways you can empower your employees and make your business more efficient by following these tips for training an ecommerce staff. Ensure you ask your employees for feedback, once you’ve implemented these tips, to find out what works best for you.

Have you trained some of your staff already? What were your greatest challenges and what strategies were most effective?