Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Merchant

🎯 Role Definition

The Merchant role (often titled Merchant Manager, Merchant Success Manager, Merchant Operations Manager, or Merchant Partnerships Manager) is responsible for acquiring, onboarding, optimizing, and retaining merchant partners across digital marketplaces, payments platforms, and e-commerce channels. This role is a cross-functional blend of commercial relationship management, operational enablement, revenue optimization, and product feedback — focused on increasing merchant activation, lifetime value, transaction volume, and satisfaction while minimizing risk, chargebacks, and operational friction.

Key focus areas include merchant onboarding and integration, pricing & contract negotiation, payment and reconciliation processes, fraud and compliance controls, merchandising and assortment optimization, campaign and promotion execution, and data-driven performance management.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Account Executive / Sales Representative (B2B e-commerce)
Onboarding Specialist / Implementation Specialist
Customer Success or Support Specialist focused on merchant accounts

Advancement To:

Senior Merchant Manager / Portfolio Lead
Head of Merchant Partnerships / Marketplace Partnerships Director
Director of Merchant Operations or VP of Merchant Success

Lateral Moves:

Product Manager (Marketplace or Payments)
Operations Manager (Payments, Risk, or Logistics)
Revenue/Commercial Strategy roles

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Lead end-to-end merchant acquisition and onboarding programs, including sourcing potential merchants, qualifying leads, negotiating commercial terms, managing contract execution, and ensuring smooth technical integration with payment and marketplace systems.
Own a portfolio of merchants and act as the primary commercial contact, driving month-over-month activation, retention, and growth while maintaining strong relationships through regular business reviews and performance conversations.
Define and execute tailored merchant growth plans that include assortment optimization, pricing strategies, cross-sell/up-sell campaigns, promotions, and paid marketing coordination to increase GMV (gross merchandise value) and revenue.
Coordinate technical onboarding and API integrations for merchant platforms (e.g., payment gateways, POS, e-commerce platforms) and work with engineering to remove blockers, escalate issues, and ensure timely go-live.
Monitor merchant performance metrics (transaction volume, approval rates, conversion, AOV, return rates, chargeback rates) and build dashboards and weekly/monthly reports to identify trends and drive corrective actions.
Negotiate commercial agreements and pricing models (commission rates, transaction fees, minimum guarantees, rebates), ensuring profitable unit economics and alignment with company targets.
Implement and manage contracts, SLAs, and onboarding documentation; ensure legal, compliance, and KYC requirements are met for merchant activation.
Partner with risk and fraud teams to assess merchant risk profiles, establish monitoring rules, respond to fraud incidents, and manage chargeback remediation processes.
Lead merchant enablement and training programs including product walkthroughs, documentation, onboarding webinars, and playbooks to reduce time-to-value and support merchant self-service success.
Drive cross-functional initiatives with Product, Engineering, Marketing, Finance, and Operations to deliver merchant-facing features, resolve system issues, and translate merchant feedback into product requirements.
Execute merchandising and assortment strategies (category management, inventory recommendations, content optimization) to improve search discoverability and conversion rates on marketplace platforms.
Manage promotional calendars and campaign execution with marketing and marketplace teams, optimizing placement, creative, and incentives to maximize ROI for both merchants and the platform.
Design and maintain operational processes for merchant life cycle management, including onboarding checklists, compliance reviews, payout schedules, and dispute resolution workflows.
Conduct quarterly or monthly business reviews with strategic merchants to align on performance KPIs, growth opportunities, and product roadmap priorities.
Own reconciliation and settlement processes in partnership with finance; investigate payout discrepancies, refunds, and fee disputes to maintain accurate merchant accounting.
Build scalable playbooks for merchant segmentation, prioritization, and escalation to ensure high-touch service for strategic partners and efficient self-service for SMB merchants.
Manage churn reduction and retention initiatives, identifying at-risk merchants through churn models and deploying intervention plans such as incentives, tailored training, or technical fixes.
Drive merchant activation campaigns including targeted outreach, incentives, and onboarding optimizations to increase activation conversion rates and shorten time-to-first-transaction.
Ensure merchant compliance with marketplace policies, tax and regulatory requirements, and local laws; coordinate audits and remedial plans where necessary.
Analyze competitive merchant offerings and market dynamics to refine pricing strategies, positioning, and value propositions to attract high-quality merchants.
Participate in roadmap prioritization and feature definition for merchant-facing products, advocating for solutions that reduce friction and unlock merchant revenue.
Maintain high standards of merchant experience by resolving escalations, coordinating cross-functional incident response, and continuously improving merchant support workflows.
Forecast merchant portfolio performance and contribute to monthly/quarterly revenue planning, quota-setting, and business reviews with leadership.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Merchant onboarding & lifecycle management: onboarding flows, integrations, KYC/KYB, and SLA management.
Payments and settlement knowledge: card processing, ACH, payouts, settlement timelines, and reconciliation.
Contract negotiation and commercial modeling: fee structures, commission models, and incentive programs.
Analytics and reporting: comfort with Excel (pivot tables, VLOOKUP), SQL for ad-hoc analysis, and dashboarding tools (Looker, Tableau, Power BI).
CRM and ticketing systems: Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, or similar for managing merchant relationships and escalations.
E-commerce platform familiarity: Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, or marketplace platforms and their APIs.
Basic understanding of fraud prevention and chargeback management, including risk scoring and remediation workflows.
Familiarity with product lifecycle and product requirements documentation (JIRA, Confluence).
Data-driven growth techniques: A/B testing fundamentals, cohort analysis, retention and activation metrics.
Project management skills: ability to run cross-functional projects, build timelines, and manage stakeholders.

Soft Skills

Strong commercial acumen with a focus on revenue, unit economics, and profitability.
Excellent stakeholder management and relationship-building skills; credible and consultative with merchants.
Clear written and verbal communication; ability to write concise playbooks, onboarding docs, and executive summaries.
Negotiation and persuasion skills with experience closing commercial agreements and resolving disputes.
Strong analytical and problem-solving mindset; comfortable translating data into actionable recommendations.
Customer-centric orientation and empathy for merchant pain points.
Adaptability and resilience in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment.
Prioritization and time management: ability to balance high-touch merchant needs with scalable processes.
Leadership and influence without direct authority; able to drive outcomes across cross-functional teams.
Attention to detail and accuracy in reconciliation, contracts, and policy enforcement.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree (or equivalent experience) in Business, Finance, Economics, Marketing, Computer Science, or related fields.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Business Administration, Finance, Data Analytics, or a similar discipline; certifications in payments or project management are a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Business Administration / Management
Finance / Accounting
Economics / Commerce
Computer Science / Information Systems
Data Analytics / Statistics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

2–5 years for mid-level Merchant Manager roles; 5–8+ years for senior or strategic merchant leadership roles.

Preferred:

Prior experience in marketplace operations, payments fintech, merchant acquiring, e-commerce account management, or merchant success.
Demonstrated track record of growing merchant revenue, reducing churn, or scaling merchant onboarding in a high-growth environment.
Experience with cross-functional product launches, API integrations, and commercial negotiations.
Exposure to international markets, regulatory compliance, or multi-currency settlement practices is a strong plus.