E-commerce Operations Outsourcing

Last updated: November 11, 2026

Shoppers judge an online store by its storefront and its ads, but whether the business keeps selling is decided in the back office. Product listings have to be correct, stock and prices must match on every channel, orders need to be confirmed on time, returns have to close within the legal deadline and customer questions should be answered within hours, not days. 360 Soft builds a dedicated e-commerce operations team in Istanbul that takes over this daily workload for your own web shop and your marketplace stores, working in your tools and to your rules.

Below you will find the scope of the service, how roles and tasks are split, the consumer rules the team works by, working and contract models, setup steps, a KPI table, the factors that drive cost, a comparison with in-house and freelance options, risks with mitigations, and a vendor checklist.

What is e-commerce operations outsourcing, and who is it for?

E-commerce operations covers catalog management, order and shipment tracking, returns and exchanges, customer messages, price and stock updates, campaign setup and daily reporting. In an outsourcing model these tasks are run by a team dedicated to your brand, while you keep the decisions on assortment, pricing strategy and budget. Typical buyers and the problems they bring to us:

Brands growing on marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Zalando, Noon, Trendyol or Hepsiburada: every marketplace has its own listing rules, answer deadlines and performance scores, and one person can no longer keep up.
Businesses with seasonal peaks (Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Ramadan, Singles Day, back-to-school): order and message volume multiplies for a few weeks and permanent hiring does not make sense.
Manufacturers and wholesalers: product data sits in the ERP but has never been turned into clean, sellable listings.
Cross-border sellers: product content in several languages, different return rules and carrier integrations for each market.
Young brands: the founders run marketing and operations at the same time, and operations quietly eats the growth.

Service scope: roles, tasks and modules

You can take the whole set or pick individual modules. A small brand often starts with one generalist plus customer messaging; a multi-channel seller usually needs a specialist per area.

Area / role	Tasks	Example tools
Catalog and product content specialist	Creating listings, mapping variants and attributes, category trees, product descriptions and image standards, bulk uploads	Shop admin panel, marketplace seller centrals, Excel/XML/CSV templates
Order operations specialist	Order confirmation, stock checks, invoice and shipping label triggers, delay follow-up, cancellations	Order management system, ERP, carrier portals
Returns and exchanges specialist	Return requests, refund approvals within legal deadlines, exchange flows, carrier claims	Marketplace return screens, helpdesk, payment provider panel
Customer messaging agent	Marketplace Q and A, buyer messages, email, live chat and WhatsApp replies, review follow-up	Zendesk, Freshdesk, Gorgias, WhatsApp Business
Price and stock coordinator	Price and stock sync across channels, buy-box monitoring, competitor price watch	Feed and repricing tools, ERP, spreadsheets
Campaign and promotion operator	Coupon and discount setup, campaign calendars, marketplace deal submissions	Seller centrals, shop admin
Reporting analyst	Daily and weekly dashboards, performance scores, return reasons, stock-out alerts	Looker Studio, Power BI, Excel
Team lead	Shift planning, quality control, escalations, single point of contact for you	Project tool, shared channel (Slack or Teams)

How the daily operating cycle works

A typical day starts with an overnight-order sweep and a check of marketplace performance alerts. The morning block covers order confirmation and shipping handoffs before carrier cut-off times; midday goes to customer messages, listing fixes and returns; the afternoon closes with price and stock sync, campaign checks and the daily report. Anything outside the agreed playbook, such as a refund above a set amount, a legal complaint or a listing suspension, is escalated to your named contact the same day. With 7/24 shifts the cycle continues overnight for time zones in the Americas or the Gulf.

E-commerce rules the team works by every day

The team operates from Turkey, so Turkish e-commerce and consumer law forms the baseline of our internal playbooks: Law No. 6563 on electronic commerce (commercial electronic messages and consent records), Law No. 6502 on consumer protection and the Distance Contracts Regulation (14-day right of withdrawal, refund deadlines), the ETBİS e-commerce registry, and KVKK for personal data. For your store, however, the local rules of the country where you sell apply and are built into the playbook during onboarding, for example the EU Consumer Rights Directive and GPSR product-safety information in the EU, the Consumer Contracts Regulations in the UK, FTC rules on reviews and endorsements in the US, or consumer protection laws in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Marketplace policies (listing, returns, response times) come on top. We are not your legal adviser; we implement the rules you and your counsel confirm.

Working models

Model	How it works	When it fits
Remote	The team works from our Istanbul office or home office setups with secure access to your panels	Most marketplace and web-shop operations; fastest to start
On-site	Team members work at your warehouse or office	When returns need physical inspection or the team must sit next to fulfilment
Hybrid	Core tasks remote, scheduled days on site	Peak seasons, onboarding periods, mixed digital and physical work

Contract model	Scope	Typical use in e-commerce
Dedicated team	Named people working only for your brand, managed by our team lead	Ongoing multi-channel operations
Managed service (output-based)	We own an agreed output with SLAs, e.g. all customer messages answered within X hours	Customer messaging, listing production
Project	Fixed scope and timeline	Catalog migration, new marketplace launch, bulk content clean-up
Seasonal extension	Extra capacity added to an existing team for a defined period	Black Friday, Ramadan, year-end peaks

Legal structure: a service contract, not employee leasing

Contract note for international buyers. We work under a B2B service agreement governed by a clear statement of work: the output, the SLA, the reporting cadence and the exit terms are written down before the team starts. The agreement includes an NDA, an IP assignment clause (all work product, templates, data and documentation created for you belong to you), and, wherever personal data is processed, a GDPR data processing agreement (Art. 28) with the EU Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers to Turkey, or the UK IDTA/Addendum for UK controllers. On the Turkish side processing also follows KVKK (Law No. 6698), including its cross-border transfer rules. For marketplace panels we use individual user accounts with role-based permissions instead of shared passwords, so every action is traceable. Our people are employed by 360 Soft in Turkey, so payroll, social security and Turkish labour-law obligations stay with us; you buy a service, not employees.

Under Turkish law a service purchase must be distinguished from subcontracting of a core activity and from temporary agency work; we structure the scope as an outcome-oriented service with our own supervision to stay on the right side of these rules.

Setup steps and typical timelines

Discovery call (day 1–3): channels, volumes, tools, pain points, service hours.
Proposal and scope (within a week): roles, headcount, SLA draft, pricing model.
Contract and data protection documents: service agreement, NDA, DPA.
Candidate selection: we shortlist, you can interview; typical start in 1–2 weeks.
Access and playbook: user accounts, tone of voice, return rules, escalation matrix.
Shadowing and ramp-up (2–4 weeks): the team works under close review, then takes over.
Steady state: weekly reports, monthly reviews, continuous improvement.

SLA and KPI table

Indicator	What it measures	Why it matters
First response time	Time to first answer on messages and marketplace questions	Marketplaces score sellers on it; buyers abandon slow stores
Order processing time	Time from order to shipping handoff	Late shipments hurt ratings and buy-box share
Order defect rate	Share of orders with cancellation, late delivery or complaint	Key marketplace health metric
Return closure time	Time from return request to refund	Legal deadlines and customer satisfaction
Listing accuracy	Share of listings with correct attributes, price and stock	Prevents oversell, suspensions and returns
Stock sync errors	Mismatch incidents between channels	Oversell and cancellations
CSAT / review score	Customer satisfaction after contact	Reputation and conversion
Escalation compliance	Share of exceptions escalated per playbook	Control and risk

Targets are agreed per channel during onboarding based on your current baseline; we do not promise fixed numbers before we have seen your data.

Pricing: which model and which factors

Pricing model	How it works	When it fits
Monthly fee per FTE	Fixed monthly fee per dedicated team member	Stable, ongoing volume
Per transaction	Fee per order, listing or ticket	Variable volume, clearly countable output
Hybrid	Base team fee plus volume bands	Seasonal businesses
Project fee	Fixed price for a defined project	Catalog migration, new channel launch

Factor affecting price	Explanation
Number of channels	Each marketplace adds rules, panels and reporting
Order and message volume	Determines headcount
Service hours	Business hours vs. extended hours vs. 7/24
Languages	English, Arabic, German or other languages require specific profiles
Seniority	Generalist operators vs. specialists and team lead share
Tooling	Whether you provide licences or we do
Work location	Remote, on-site or hybrid

We quote after the discovery call; we do not publish standard prices because the mix above varies too much from one store to another.

E-commerce Operations Outsourcing — overview

In-house team, freelancers or outsourcing?

Criterion	In-house	Freelancer	Outsourcing (360 Soft)
Time to start	Weeks to months of recruiting	Fast, but availability varies	Typically 1–2 weeks
Scaling for peaks	Slow, fixed headcount	Possible, uneven quality	Seasonal extension within the same team
Continuity	Depends on retention	High risk if one person leaves	Replacement process included
Management effort	Fully yours	High coordination effort	Team lead and reporting included
Process documentation	Often missing	Rarely	Playbooks and SOPs are part of the service
Coverage hours	Office hours unless you add shifts	Limited	Remote, on-site, hybrid; 7/24 possible
Data protection controls	Your own	Hard to enforce	NDA, DPA, access controls

Illustrative scenario: a home textiles brand on three marketplaces

Illustrative scenario – not a client case. A home textiles brand sells on its own web shop and three marketplaces. Two in-house employees handle everything, messages pile up during campaigns, and stock mismatches cause cancellations. A possible setup: one catalog specialist cleans up listings and builds variant templates, two messaging agents cover extended hours, and one order and returns specialist handles shipping cut-offs and refunds. A part-time team lead sends a daily report and a weekly review of return reasons. In the campaign month the team is extended by two seasonal agents. The in-house employees move to buying and supplier management.

Risks and mitigations

Risk	Symptom	Mitigation
Knowledge loss	Quality drops when a person leaves	Written playbooks, backup person, replacement process
Account security	Shared passwords, unclear actions	Individual accounts, role permissions, MFA, access log
Inconsistent tone	Customers get different answers	Tone-of-voice guide, macro library, QA sampling
Peak overload	Response times collapse in campaigns	Capacity planning and seasonal extension agreed in advance
Wrong refunds	Refunds outside policy	Approval thresholds and escalation matrix
Listing suspensions	Marketplace warnings	Policy checklists, daily alert monitoring
Vendor lock-in	Hard to exit	Exit plan, documentation and data handover in the contract

Security, GDPR/KVKK, NDA and intellectual property

Customer names, addresses and order histories are personal data. We work on the principle of least privilege: each team member only gets the panels and data needed for the role, with MFA wherever the platform allows. Work happens on company-managed devices, downloads of customer lists are restricted, and offboarding removes access the same day. All content, templates and reports created for you are assigned to you under the contract, and confidentiality obligations continue after the engagement ends.

Vendor selection checklist

Can the vendor show written playbooks and a sample weekly report?
Are individual user accounts and role permissions used instead of shared logins?
Is a GDPR DPA with SCCs (or UK IDTA) offered, and is KVKK covered?
Is IP assignment for all content and templates in the contract?
Is there a replacement process and backup coverage for absences?
Can the team scale for peak seasons, and how fast?
Are SLAs measurable from your own systems?
Is there a clear exit and handover clause?
Do you get to interview the people who will work on your account?
Are service hours, languages and escalation paths written down?

Frequently asked questions

Which marketplaces do you work with?

We work in the seller panels you use, including global marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, Etsy and Zalando, regional ones such as Noon, and Turkish ones such as Trendyol and Hepsiburada. If a platform is new to the team, it is included in the onboarding plan.

Can the same team run our own web shop and our marketplaces?

Yes. Most clients have one team that covers the web shop and all marketplaces, with clear ownership per channel so price, stock and messages stay consistent.

Can you scale the team for campaign periods?

Yes. Seasonal extensions are agreed in advance, so extra agents are trained before the peak and work with the same playbook as the core team.

Do you handle returns in line with consumer rules?

The team follows the return rules of each market you sell in, which you and your counsel confirm during onboarding, together with marketplace policies. Refunds above agreed thresholds are escalated to you.

Do you also inspect physical returns?

Yes, if the team works on site or in a hybrid model at your warehouse. In a remote model we handle the digital side of returns and coordinate with your warehouse.

Do we have to share our marketplace passwords?

No. We ask for individual user accounts with role-based permissions so every action is traceable and access can be removed at any time.

Do you write SEO-friendly product descriptions?

Yes. The catalog specialist writes descriptions to your keyword and style guidelines, in English and other languages if needed, and follows each marketplace content policy.

Do you also take over accounting and invoicing?

E-commerce operations does not include bookkeeping, but invoice triggers can be part of order processing. Accounting tasks can be covered by our separate finance back office service.

How long does setup take?

A typical start is 1–2 weeks after the scope is agreed, followed by a ramp-up of a few weeks under close review.

How is the price determined?

Price depends on channels, volume, service hours, languages and seniority. We quote after a discovery call, as a monthly fee, per-transaction or hybrid model.

What happens if we end the contract?

The exit clause covers a notice period, handover of documentation and playbooks, and removal of all access. Everything created for you stays yours.

Which contract model applies to this service?

A B2B service agreement with a statement of work, NDA, IP assignment and, where personal data is processed, a GDPR DPA with SCCs or the UK IDTA, plus KVKK compliance on our side.

Let us plan your e-commerce operations together

Tell us your channels, volumes and service hours and we will propose a team structure, SLAs and a pricing model. Call or WhatsApp us on +90 850 335 10 87, write to info@360-soft.com, message us directly on WhatsApp, or use the form on our contact page. 360 Soft Marketing Yazılım ve Danışmanlık Ltd. Şti., Nidakule Ataşehir Batı, Barbaros Mah. Begonya Sk. No:1 D:2, 34746 Ataşehir/İstanbul.

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