Ecommerce Virtual Assistants: 14 Store Tasks to Delegate

Why stores hand this work off

Online sales are still growing quickly. The Census Bureau's Q2 2026 estimate, released August 18, 2026, put US retail ecommerce sales at $340.2 billion for the quarter, seasonally adjusted. That figure was 12.2 percent higher than a year earlier and accounted for 17.1 percent of all retail sales.

Growth like that lands on the owner first. Every new order brings a parcel to track and a fair chance of a question or a return. The work arrives every day, weekends included, and much of it follows rules the owner can write down once. Most of it needs someone who logs in at the same time each morning and works through the queue in order.

Several of the pages ranking for this topic list tasks and stop there. They skip how to give an assistant access without handing over your password, and the federal rules on shipping delays and reviews that apply whoever sends the email. Both are covered after the list.

14 store tasks to delegate to an ecommerce virtual assistant

The list runs roughly from the easiest to hand over to the tasks that need a few weeks of context. Start with the first three and add more once those run without corrections.

1. Answer customer emails and chat

Most store messages ask where an order is or how a return works. The assistant answers those from saved replies you approve, inside your help desk or the Shopify inbox, and logs anything new so you can write a reply for it once. A message that threatens a chargeback or legal action goes to you the same day. My email customer support guide has reply templates and response-time targets to start from.

2. Process returns, exchanges and refunds

The assistant checks each request against your written return policy and issues the label. Once the item arrives back, the refund goes through your store admin, up to a limit you set. Requests above the limit or outside the return window come to you with a recommendation attached.

3. Watch order status and clear exceptions

Each morning the assistant reviews orders that haven't moved since the day before. A bad address goes back to the customer for confirmation, and a carrier exception gets a claim or a reshipment under your rules. Orders held for fraud review go to you, because releasing one is a decision about money.

4. Send shipping delay notices on time

When stock runs late or a supplier misses a date, federal rules set deadlines for telling the customer. The assistant keeps a list of open orders against the ship dates you promised and sends delay notices from a template you approve. The compliance section below explains what the notice must offer.

5. Create and update product listings

New products need titles, photos, variants, specifications and a description before they go live. The assistant builds each listing from a product sheet you fill in, and you approve the price and any claim about what the product does. Every managed service in the hiring section below names listing work on its ecommerce page, so it is a standard request.

6. Keep listings in sync across channels

A store selling on Shopify and on Amazon or Etsy has to repeat every price change and stock-out on each channel. Sync apps can carry stock counts across, but prices and photos still drift. The assistant runs a weekly check of each channel against your main catalog and fixes what doesn't match.

7. Track inventory and flag reorders

The assistant compares stock levels with the reorder points you set and drafts a purchase order when an item gets close. You approve the order before it goes to the supplier. After a few months the same log shows which products sell out before you reorder.

8. Coordinate with suppliers and dropshipping partners

Suppliers need chasing for ship dates and tracking numbers. The assistant sends the routine messages and uploads tracking to your store. Claims for missing or broken items get filed the same week. You negotiate terms and decide when to switch suppliers.

9. Ask for reviews and answer them

A review request goes to every customer after delivery, from a template you approve. The FTC's rules on reviews decide how that request can be worded, and the compliance section covers them. The assistant also drafts replies to new reviews, and you approve any reply to an angry one before it posts.

10. Run the social and email calendar

You approve a month of posts and campaign themes. The assistant schedules the posts and builds each email from your templates. You get a test copy of every email before it sends. My guide to hiring a social media virtual assistant covers that side of the role in more depth.

11. Set up promotions and discount codes

You decide the offer and its end date. The assistant creates the codes and sale prices and puts a test order through checkout before the email goes out. Ending the promotion is on the checklist too, since a sale left running by mistake keeps discounting every order until someone notices.

12. Research competitor prices and products

A short weekly note covers competitors' price changes and new launches, gathered from their sites and newsletters. You decide whether any of it changes your own prices.

13. Reconcile payouts and file receipts

Marketplace and payment payouts arrive net of fees and refunds, so they rarely match a single day's sales. The assistant matches each payout to the orders behind it. Supplier invoices and receipts get filed where your bookkeeper expects them. My guide to a bookkeeping virtual assistant covers the accounting side and where the line sits with your accountant.

14. Compile the weekly store report

Sales, orders, return rate, ad spend against revenue and stock-outs go on one page, delivered on the same day every week. Add a line on the questions customers asked most often, because those show where a product page needs fixing. A report that arrives without a reminder is also the simplest way to judge whether the hire is working.

The rules that stay with your store

Hiring an assistant doesn't move legal responsibility off your business. Two sets of federal rules affect the tasks above directly, so put them in the assistant's written instructions from the first day. None of this is legal advice.

Shipping delays. The FTC's Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule requires a reasonable basis for any shipping time you state or imply. If your site states no time, you have 30 days from receiving a properly completed order. When you can't ship on time, you must send a delay option notice with a revised date and a free way for the customer to cancel. Silence can count as consent only for a first delay of 30 days or less, and the notice has to say so. A cancelled order paid by cash, check, money order or a third-party credit card must be refunded within seven working days, and store credit can't stand in for the refund. The same guide puts civil penalties at up to $53,088 per violation. That is why task 4 runs from a list of promised dates rather than from memory.

Reviews. The FTC's Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule took effect on October 21, 2024. It bars reviews that misrepresent the reviewer's experience, and it bars incentives that require a review to be positive. A business also may not make false accusations to get a negative review removed. The FTC's Q&A says a general request to all purchasers is fine, while asking only the customers you think are happy could violate the FTC Act. So the assistant sends the request to everyone and never writes a review of your products.

Give access through roles, not your password

Both major platforms let you add an assistant as a separate user with limited rights, so your own login never needs to change hands.

In Shopify, you create a role with only the permissions the work needs and assign it to the assistant under Settings > Users. Shopify's help center marks some permissions as sensitive, including requesting customer data and editing billing payment methods. It advises giving those only to "your most trusted users" and suggests encouraging staff to turn on 2-step authentication. An assistant handling orders and listings needs neither sensitive permission.

On Amazon, the account administrator invites users through User Permissions in Seller Central and sets what each one can see and edit. A user permissions guide posted on Amazon's Seller Forums advises granting "the minimum permissions required" and not sharing your password. It also says external contractors and companies should be added as authorized partners rather than as secondary users. Ask Seller Support which route fits an assistant placed by an outside service before you send the invitation.

Keep payments inside the platforms. Refunds should go through the store admin, and the assistant should never take a card number over email or chat. Payout and banking settings stay with you.

Where to hire a store management virtual assistant

The four options below run from managed services to a job board where you do the recruiting yourself. Each is described from its own published pages, linked in its section. My roundup of the best virtual assistant companies covers the general-purpose case.

Cost tiers: $ offshore dedicated, $$ mid-market, $$$ standard US-based, $$$$ premium US and Europe. Check each vendor's current pricing page before you buy.

Magic

Magic is my pick because one assistant can carry most of the list above, in the lowest cost tier, without a commitment to a full-time seat. Its ecommerce page lists updating product listings, monitoring inventory, coordinating with dropshipping partners and suppliers, and answering general customer communications. Managing orders and returns appears there too, along with escalating complex customer issues, scheduling your social media calendar and gathering sales and ad performance data. It names Shopify, Amazon, Etsy and WooCommerce.

Magic sources candidates from the Philippines and puts them through a multi-day training course that ends in a formal assessment they must pass. Its matching team then proposes a few candidates, and you interview them and choose one or ask the team to keep looking. The page says you can get started in 72 hours, and its pricing page says you pay only once you have selected the assistant you want. Assistants come with access to AI tools.

The part-time plan is 20 hours a week and the full-time plan is 40. That part-time option is the main contrast with MyOutDesk, which builds every placement as full time. Both Magic plans bill every four weeks, which works out to thirteen billing cycles a year rather than twelve months. Neither has a contract, and you can cancel anytime. Full-time plans include Magic 24/7, a concierge for urgent tasks when your assistant is offline. Treat it as backup for urgent requests rather than round-the-clock staffing of your support inbox. A store that outgrows one assistant can move to Magic Teams, which starts at three assistants with a dedicated success coach.

MyOutDesk

MyOutDesk lists listing work across Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and Magento, plus marketplace listings on Amazon, eBay, Walmart and Etsy. Its assistants also process orders through ShipStation or ShipBob and answer pre-sale questions. It screens each hire through two stages of live video plus ID and document verification, followed by a background check and an NDA. The page says you can onboard in as little as seven days, and a poor fit gets a rematch at no extra cost. Its pricing page states that every placement is full time and dedicated. Choose it when a busy multi-channel store already has a full week of work for one person.

Virtual Latinos

Virtual Latinos recruits ecommerce specialists from Latin America who work US time zones and speak English with Spanish or Portuguese. They upload and update listings on Shopify, Amazon and WooCommerce, keep prices and content current, track sales trends and research competitors. After a discovery call you review candidates in experience tiers, from a Starter with one to two years to a Professional with three to five. The page mentions a replacement guarantee. Choose it when a share of your customers write in Spanish or Portuguese.

OnlineJobs.ph

OnlineJobs.ph is a job board rather than an agency, and it lists ecommerce with Amazon and Shopify among its common hires. You search Filipino profiles and interview candidates yourself, then hire and pay the person directly with no salary markup. That gives you the widest choice at the lowest cost tier. Screening, training, payroll and cover for sick days all fall to you. My guide to hiring a virtual assistant from the Philippines walks through that process.

The first two weeks

Write a one-page instruction for each task before day one, with an example of a finished result. Attach your return policy and saved replies. An escalation list should name the situations that reach you within the hour. Set up the user role at the lowest level that does the job.

In week one, hand over customer messages and returns, and read every reply before it goes out. In week two, add order exceptions and listings. Inventory and supplier work come next, with payouts last, once the first tasks run without corrections. After a month, judge the hire on two things: whether customers get answers the same day, and whether the weekly report arrives without a reminder. My guide on how to hire a virtual assistant covers interviews and trial tasks in more detail.

What this guide is based on

The task list draws on what the services above publish about their ecommerce roles. The compliance section comes from the FTC's business guide to the Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule and its Q&A on the Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule. Access guidance comes from Shopify's help center and a user permissions guide on Amazon's Seller Forums, and the sales figures come from the Census Bureau's quarterly ecommerce report, all linked above. Services are included if they market ecommerce assistants on their own pages and describe their terms there. Cost tiers come from each vendor's pricing page where one exists and from the model and location where it does not.

FAQ

What does an ecommerce virtual assistant do?

An ecommerce virtual assistant handles the daily operations of an online store. That includes answering customer messages, processing returns, clearing order exceptions, updating listings, tracking inventory, chasing suppliers, requesting reviews, reconciling payouts and compiling a weekly report. Pricing and anything touching your bank account stay with you.

How much does an ecommerce virtual assistant cost?

It depends on where the assistant is based and how the service is structured. Dedicated offshore services such as Magic and MyOutDesk sit in the lowest cost tier, and recruited assistants from Latin America run higher. A job board such as OnlineJobs.ph costs least in fees but leaves the recruiting and management to you. Magic's part-time plan lets a small store pay for 20 hours a week instead of a full-time seat.

Should I give my virtual assistant my Shopify or Amazon login?

Give the assistant a separate user account instead. Shopify lets you create a role with only the permissions the work needs, and its help center advises keeping sensitive permissions, such as customer data requests and billing payment methods, for your most trusted users. On Amazon, the account administrator grants access through User Permissions. Guidance on Amazon's Seller Forums says outside contractors should be added as authorized partners, so check with Seller Support which route applies.

Who is responsible if a shipping delay notice goes out late?

Your store is responsible. The FTC's Mail Order Rule applies to the seller, so put the deadlines in the assistant's instructions. If your site states no shipping time, you have 30 days from a properly completed order. A delay needs a notice with a revised date and a free way to cancel, and a cancelled order paid by cash, check, money order or third-party credit card must be refunded within seven working days.

Is an ecommerce virtual assistant the same as an AI shopping assistant?

An AI shopping assistant is software that answers shoppers on your site, usually through a chat widget. An ecommerce virtual assistant is a person who works inside your store admin and help desk, handling the exceptions that software routes onward. Many stores use both, with the assistant writing and updating the answers the chatbot gives.

Should I hire a part-time or full-time ecommerce assistant?

Start part time if your store's daily queue of messages and returns takes a few hours. Move to full time once listings, inventory and supplier work fill the rest of the week. Magic offers both plans with no contract, while MyOutDesk places full-time assistants only.