---
title: "Online Merchant"
description: "Conduct retail activities of businesses operating exclusively online. May perform duties such as preparing business strategies, buying merchandise…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/online-merchant"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Online Merchant

**Category:** Business and Financial Operations · **SOC code:** 13-1199 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 13-1199.06

Conduct retail activities of businesses operating exclusively online. May perform duties such as preparing business strategies, buying merchandise, managing inventory, implementing marketing activities, fulfilling and shipping online orders, and balancing financial records.

Also advertised as: Online Services Manager.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $83,050 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $39.93/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $47,880 to $150,010, with the middle half between $62,640 and $114,010
- **Total US employment:** 1,087,090
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +3.9% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 98,700 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 22/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 1,087,090 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $47,880 |
| 25th | $62,640 |
| 50th (median) | $83,050 |
| 75th | $114,010 |
| 90th | $150,010 |
| Mean (average) | $93,970 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DC | $108,160 | $98,416 | 37,790 |
| MD | $101,500 | $96,704 | 39,820 |
| WA | $100,360 | $93,783 | 51,650 |
| AL | $100,240 | $112,854 | 6,990 |
| DE | $95,040 | $95,223 | 1,600 |
| AK | $94,740 | $92,557 | 2,020 |
| OK | $93,640 | $106,599 | 5,700 |
| MA | $93,270 | $88,193 | 17,910 |
| HI | $92,620 | $84,238 | 4,030 |
| CO | $92,520 | $89,780 | 45,670 |
| NJ | $91,060 | $83,691 | 34,210 |
| GU | $88,610 | No BEA price parity | 470 |
| RI | $88,130 | $86,165 | 2,240 |
| CA | $87,570 | $79,091 | 155,000 |
| CT | $85,530 | $82,550 | 5,630 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/online-merchant/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/online-merchant.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 1,157,600 in the 2025–2035 base year to 1,202,300 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 44,700 jobs, or +3.9%. About as fast as average: 3.9% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 98,700 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 41.3% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 32.7% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 12.1% |
| Some College Courses | 8.7% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 5.2% |

## What the work involves

- Fill customer orders by packaging sold items and documentation for direct shipping or by transferring orders to manufacturers or third-party distributors.
- Correspond with online customers via electronic mail, telephone, or other electronic messaging to address questions or complaints about products, policies, or shipping methods.
- Deliver e-mail confirmation of completed transactions and shipment.
- Cancel orders based on customer requests or inventory or delivery problems.
- Receive and process payments from customers, using electronic transaction services.
- Determine and set product prices.
- Prepare or organize online storefront marketing material, including product descriptions or subject lines, optimizing content to search engine criteria.
- Create, manage, or automate orders or invoices, using order management or invoicing software.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Persuasion — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Communications and Media — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Written Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Conventional (C), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 5.97 |
| E — Enterprising | 5.78 |
| R — Realistic | 2.42 |
| S — Social | 2.32 |
| A — Artistic | 1.88 |
| I — Investigative | 1.61 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESTJ | 84.1 |
| ESFJ | 78.9 |
| ISTJ | 68.1 |
| ISFJ | 66.9 |
| ENTJ | 66.2 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Marketing Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/marketing-manager) — median $166,790
- [Sales Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sales-manager) — median $148,270
- [Wholesale and Retail Buyer, Except Farm Products](https://nuecareer.com/careers/wholesale-and-retail-buyer) — median $77,710
- [Market Research Analyst and Marketing Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/market-research-analyst-and-marketing-specialist) — median $78,760
- [Advertising Sales Agent](https://nuecareer.com/careers/advertising-sales-agent) — median $64,820
- [Advertising and Promotions Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/advertising-and-promotions-manager) — median $133,660
- [Search Marketing Strategist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/search-marketing-strategist) — median $78,760
- [Business Intelligence Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/business-intelligence-analyst) — median $120,230
- [Security, Commodity, and Financial Services Sales Agent](https://nuecareer.com/careers/security-commodity-and-financial-services-sales-agent) — median $78,660
- [Purchasing Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/purchasing-manager) — median $148,080

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/online-merchant