OPS DESK · FOR BRANDS AT $1M TO $15M A YEAR
Ecommerce operations outsourcing for Amazon, Walmart and Shopify brands
A named ops lead and a small pod run the daily work of your store across Amazon, Walmart and Shopify, for a fixed monthly fee, on systems you own.
Launch $1,499 · Growth $2,499 · Scale from $4,499 a month · 3-month first term, then month to month
Quick answer
Ecommerce operations outsourcing means an outside team runs the daily work of your store: inventory and purchase orders, listings, order exceptions, tier-one support, 3PL coordination, account health and reimbursement claims. Ecom Relays Ops Desk does this for Amazon, Walmart and Shopify brands selling $1M to $15M a year, from $1,499 a month, with a named ops lead.
What is ecommerce operations outsourcing?
Ecommerce operations are the jobs that keep products in stock, orders moving and seller accounts healthy. Outsourcing them means a team outside your company does that work inside your accounts, to written procedures, while you approve the decisions that matter.
It is often confused with three other things.
- A virtual assistant service sells you hours that you still have to manage. Ops Desk gives you a named lead who owns the outcome, writes the procedures and reports to you every week.
- A marketplace agency is usually built around advertising and is often paid a share of ad spend or revenue. Ops Desk is a fixed monthly fee and runs stock, catalog, orders, support and the 3PL. Ad management is an optional flat-fee add-on.
- A contact-center outsourcer answers tickets. We answer tier-one tickets as one part of running the store, and we fix what caused them (late shipments, missing tracking, unclear return rules) in the same week.
We run the operations. You run the company.
When is it time to outsource your operations?
It is time when nobody's whole job is running the operation and the founder is filling the gap. The problem is rarely effort. These are the signs, in the words owners use.
- "The founder is the operations system." Every reorder, refund and supplier question still goes through one person.
- "We keep running out of our top sellers," while slow SKUs sit in paid storage.
- "We oversell when the same stock is listed on more than one channel."
- "Our numbers live in spreadsheets nobody trusts."
- "Our agency runs ads, but nobody runs operations."
- "Our VA needs more managing than they save."
- "We want to add a channel without breaking what already works."
If two or more of these are true and you sell $1M or more a year, a free Profit Leak Scan will put a dollar and hours figure on them before you decide anything. If you sell less than $1M a year, Store Care at $399 or $699 a month is built for your size.
What does Ops Desk run day to day?
Ops Desk runs the recurring work that keeps a multichannel brand in stock, listed, shipping and healthy. The scope grows by tier, and everything below happens inside your own accounts.
| Area | What we do | How often | Tiers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inventory and purchase orders | Reorder points, purchase order drafts for your approval, inbound shipments tracked to arrival | Daily; you approve every PO | All |
| Listings and catalog | Content upkeep, price changes you approve, variant and content sync across channels | Daily | All |
| Orders | Exceptions, routing rules, split and failed orders cleared | Daily | All |
| Account health | Amazon and Walmart metrics checked; warnings acted on the same business day | Daily | All |
| Reimbursement claims | Lost, damaged and refunded-but-not-returned units claimed and tracked, with no commission | Monthly, inside each marketplace's window | All |
| Profit and Cash Pulse | One daily owner view: margin by SKU and channel, payouts held and when they land, cash tied up in stock | Refreshed daily | All |
| Support and returns | Tier-one tickets, order-status questions, refunds within your written policy | Daily, at agreed volumes | Growth, Scale |
| Suppliers and 3PL | Coordination, SLA tracking, monthly invoice and stock checks | Weekly and monthly | Growth, Scale |
| Stock Flow and Margin Guard | One stock count across channels and the 3PL; alerts when a SKU falls below its margin floor | Daily | Growth, Scale |
| Reporting | Weekly KPI review on a fixed day; written monthly report | Weekly and monthly | All |
| Quarterly Ops Review | Review against your baseline; next automations chosen | Every quarter | Every plan |
| Weekly operating review | A standing review of the whole operation with your leadership | Weekly | Scale |
The detail behind the main areas lives on its own pages: inventory and 3PL management, order and customer operations and profit and cash reporting.
Not included: advertising management (a flat-fee add-on at $299 or $599 a month by spend band, never a percentage of spend), creative and media buying, product sourcing, manufacturing and warehouse labor, plus tax, legal or accounting advice. If you want a team to research products and find suppliers, that is Full Relay, our managed store service, not Ops Desk. Platform fees, apps, inventory, freight, 3PL fees and ad spend are paid by you directly. Anything outside the written scope is quoted in writing first at $75 an hour and only billed once you approve it.
The operating rhythm: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly
Operations go wrong in the gaps between check-ins. So every task has a fixed cadence, and every cadence produces something you can read.
| Cadence | What happens | What you receive |
|---|---|---|
| Daily | Stock and inbound checked; order exceptions cleared; tier-one tickets answered (Growth and Scale); Amazon and Walmart health checked | A work log for every business day |
| Weekly | Margin, stockouts and response times reviewed; reorder plan updated; account health check-in | A one-page KPI summary and a 30-minute review call on a fixed day agreed at kickoff |
| Monthly | Written operations report; fee and 3PL invoice audit; reimbursement claims filed | A written report with the period and source system on every number |
| Quarterly | Ops Review against your baseline on every plan; next Relay Modules chosen; channel and catalog plan on Growth and Scale | A written review and a plan for the next quarter |
What a weekly KPI summary looks like (Illustrative · sample figures):
| Measure | This week | Last week | Target | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contribution margin after every fee | 21.4% | 20.9% | 22% | Profit and Cash Pulse |
| Stockout days, top 20 SKUs | 3 | 7 | 0 | Stock Flow |
| Median first reply, customer messages | 2.1 business hours | 3.4 | Under 4 | Helpdesk |
| Amazon order defect rate | 0.4% | 0.5% | Under 1% | Seller Central |
| Walmart cancellation rate | 0.8% | 1.1% | 2% or below | Seller Center |
| Reimbursement claims filed | 14 | 9 | All eligible | Claims log |
Illustrative · sample figures
The targets in the last two rows are the marketplaces' own: Amazon asks for an order defect rate under 1% (Sell on Amazon) and Walmart for cancellations at 2% or below (Walmart Marketplace Learn, updated Jul 28, 2026). Agencies report clicks and ROAS. We report margin, stockouts and response times, with the period and source on every number.
How much does Ops Desk cost?
Ops Desk costs $1,499 a month for one channel, $2,499 for two and from $4,499 for three, after a one-time 14-Day Ops Foundation. Ops Desk fees are fixed and published, never a percentage of your sales or ad spend.
| Launch | Growth | Scale | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built for | $1M to $3M a year | $3M to $8M a year | $8M to $15M a year |
| Channels included | One | Two | Three |
| Named ops lead | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pod | Shared | Shared | Dedicated |
| Daily operations, Profit and Cash Pulse, weekly KPI review, monthly report | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reimbursement claims, no commission | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Stock Flow and Margin Guard | No | Yes | Yes |
| Support and 3PL coordination | No | Yes | Yes |
| Quarterly Ops Review | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Weekly operating review | No | No | Yes |
| Module Care on modules we built | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| List price | $1,499 a month | $2,499 a month | From $4,499 a month |
| Founding price, first 6 months | $1,199 a month | $1,999 a month | From $3,599 a month |
How the terms work:
- Ops Desk starts after the 14-Day Ops Foundation ($1,500 for one channel, $2,500 multichannel). Half of the Foundation fee is credited to your first Ops Desk month if you sign within 21 days of go-live.
- First term 3 months, then month to month with 30 days' notice by email from either side. No exit fee.
- Billed monthly in advance. Invoices are due within 15 days. A 12-month prepay is 10% off (Growth: $26,989 instead of $29,988).
- First 3 months at list, including the Foundation and its credit: Launch $5,247, Growth $8,747, Scale from $14,747.
- Adding a channel or passing your revenue band moves you to the next tier from the next billing month, only after we agree it with you in writing.
- Prices exclude sales tax where it applies.
Founding offer: 20% off launch fees, add-ons and the Foundation, plus 20% off monthly plans for the first 6 months, for our first 25 clients or until Jan 31, 2027, whichever comes first.
Anyone at the same stage pays the same published price. Every price we charge is on Pricing.
What do you still decide?
You keep the accounts, the money and the decisions. We do the work and bring you the decisions that need an owner.
| Decision | Who decides | What we do |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase orders and quantities | You | Draft each PO from sales velocity and lead time; flag stockout and overstock risk |
| Price changes | You, or pricing rules you approve in writing | Propose changes with the margin effect; apply them once approved |
| Refunds above an agreed limit | You | Handle refunds below the limit inside your written policy |
| New suppliers or a 3PL change | You | Shortlist, compare costs and service levels, coordinate the move |
| Ad budgets | You | Manage campaigns on rules you approve (flat-fee add-on) |
| Marketplace appeals and policy responses | You approve before anything is submitted | Root cause, plan of action and documents |
| Bank, payout and legal-entity settings | You only | We have no access to them, ever |
What we need from you: a named decision maker who replies to approval requests within 1 business day, and time for short interviews with the people who do the work today while we write your procedures.
Your first 90 days
The first 90 days move from a free diagnosis to a live operation and a first quarterly review. Each step ends with something in writing.
| When | What happens | What you have at the end |
|---|---|---|
| Week 0 | Free Profit Leak Scan from read-only access | A written report within 48 hours of working access: leaks in dollars a year and founder hours a week, ranked by impact |
| Weeks 1 to 2 | 14-Day Ops Foundation: channels and data connected, one stock count across channels and the 3PL, order routing rules, procedures written in your workspace, live profit dashboard | Live in 14 business days from full access, or we keep working at no charge until it is |
| Week 3 | Ops Desk goes live | Daily work log; first weekly KPI review |
| Weeks 4 to 8 | First Relay Modules, if you choose them, each built to a written spec | Each module tested against its spec; fixes free for 60 days |
| Week 12 | Quarterly review against your scan baseline | A written review and the plan for the next quarter |
Dates run from full access. If a marketplace or your 3PL slows a step, we tell you in writing what moved and why. The full onboarding sequence is on How we work.
Ops Desk or an in-house hire, a VA or an agency?
This compares cost and coverage, not results. The right answer depends on your size, your team and how much of the work you want to keep.
| In-house ops manager | Virtual assistant | Marketplace agency | Ops Desk | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you pay | Salary plus benefits. Median pay for general and operations managers is $105,770 (BLS, May 2025). Benefits are 30.0% of total compensation in private industry (BLS, Jun 2026), so the loaded cost is about $151,100 a year ($105,770 ÷ 0.70) | Hourly, for hours you direct | Many charge 10% to 20% of ad spend or 3% to 10% of revenue; 6- or 12-month contracts with 1 to 3 months of retainer as an exit fee are common (vendor estimate: SupplyKick, updated Sep 14, 2026) | Fixed: $1,499, $2,499 or from $4,499 a month |
| Time to start | A median 39 calendar days to fill a nonexecutive role (SHRM 2026 recruiting benchmarking), before training | Days to weeks | Weeks | 14 business days for the Foundation, then live |
| Who manages the work | You | You | The agency, for its own scope | A named ops lead |
| Cover when someone is out | None unless you hire twice | Depends on the provider | Depends on the agency | The pod covers |
| Channels | Whatever one person knows | Task by task | Often one channel or ads only | Amazon, Walmart and Shopify under one lead |
| Written procedures | If someone writes them | Rarely | Rarely shared | Written in your workspace during the Foundation |
| Who owns the work | You | You | Often the agency's tools | You: every workflow, dashboard and SOP lives in your accounts |
The BLS figure covers all general and operations managers, not only ecommerce roles. Use it as a reference point and put your own numbers in the Cost of Chaos calculator. For the full breakdown, read the ecommerce operations outsourcing cost guide, or compare models side by side in VA vs agency vs ops team and in-house vs outsourced operations.
Already have an ops person? Ops Desk can support them rather than replace them. Relay Modules take repeat work off their desk and the Foundation gives them written procedures and one dashboard. Ops Desk can cover the channels or tasks they cannot reach.
Want named people who work only on your business, full time? That is a different model: Dedicated Ops Team, where each resource's salary is passed through at cost and shown on every invoice, plus a $399 monthly management fee per resource. The difference is what you buy. Ops Desk is one fixed fee for a written scope, with a pod that covers absences. A dedicated team is named people, priced per person, who work only on your business.
Five questions to ask any operations provider
These five questions separate a provider that runs your operations from one that rents you hours or holds your systems.
- Whose name is on every account, dashboard and procedure? What happens to them if we stop?
- Will you ever need our owner password? (The answer should be no.)
- Is your fee fixed, or does it grow with our sales or ad spend?
- Who exactly will work on our account, and can we speak to them before we sign?
- What response times do you commit to in writing, and what happens when you miss them?
Our answers are on this page. Ask everyone else the same five.
Who Ops Desk is for, and who it is not for
Ops Desk is built for operating brands with real volume and more than one moving part. It is not built for every store.
Right for you if:
- You sell $1M to $15M a year on one or more of Amazon, Walmart and Shopify.
- You have a team, suppliers and often a 3PL to coordinate.
- The founder or a small team is still running operations by hand.
- You want to add a channel without hiring a second team.
Not the right fit if:
- You want an ad agency paid on spend or a share of revenue.
- You want seat-rental VAs that you manage yourself.
- You sell under $1M a year. Store Care at $399 or $699 a month fits better, and you move up when it makes sense.
- You want to buy a ready-made store. We do not sell stores and we never promise income.
Brands at the top of the range who want a weekly operating review with leadership should read fractional ecommerce COO, which describes Ops Desk Scale in detail.
How does access work?
We never ask for an owner password. Each platform has its own route for a service provider, and we use it.
- Amazon: access you authorize for us inside Seller Central, limited to the roles the work needs, never a shared login.
- Walmart: a limited Seller Center role. Admin stays with you.
- Shopify: collaborator access, the route Shopify approves for service providers.
Every account uses multi-factor authentication, named users only and the least access the work needs. We work in isolated, per-client work environments on company-managed devices. We do not take bank, payout or legal-entity permissions. Access is removed within 24 hours when someone leaves the team or the work ends. NDA and Data Processing Addendum ready to sign.
Ecomrelays LLC is a Texas company. Part of our team works outside the US, as one managed team with a named US-facing lead.
Read our security and access practices.
Standards you can hold us to
These are written commitments with a credit attached, not targets. Business hours are 9am to 6pm US Central, Monday to Friday, excluding US federal holidays.
We make no promise of revenue, profit, rankings or advertising results.
| Standard | Commitment |
|---|---|
| New inquiries | A real person replies within one business hour |
| First reply to client requests | Within 4 business hours |
| Urgent issues (listing suppressed, orders not flowing) | First response within 1 hour; resolution target 4 hours |
| High priority (a top seller about to run out) | First response within 4 hours; resolution target 1 business day |
| Normal requests | First response within 4 business hours; resolution target 3 business days |
| Account-health warnings | Acted on the same business day |
| Service credit | A month in which fewer than 95% of first replies arrive within 4 business hours earns a 10% credit on that month's fee |
| Handover if you leave | Handover pack within 5 business days of the end date, once undisputed invoices are paid |
| Access and data | Access removed within 24 hours; data returned or deleted within 30 days |
How to start
Start with a free Profit Leak Scan. You grant read-only access and get a written report by email within 48 hours of working access. No sales call is required, and the report is yours whether or not you hire us. If you go ahead, the 14-Day Ops Foundation and the first 90 days set out above follow from there.
Ops Desk covers Amazon, Walmart and Shopify. Every other service is on the services page.
What we can show you before you sign
We are a new company, so we show you the working parts instead of logos.
- Our prices and contract terms, published on this page and on Pricing.
- Our response standards, in writing, with a service credit when we miss them.
- A sample weekly KPI summary and a sample Profit Leak Scan report, labeled as samples.
- The named ops lead for your account, in your proposal, before you sign.
- Our security and access practices, and an NDA and DPA ready to sign.
- Ecomrelays LLC, 597 Mountcastle Dr, Rockwall, TX 75087. +1 (469) 331-3129.
We do not show client logos, client counts or case studies until we have real ones with written permission.
How much does ecommerce operations outsourcing cost?
Ops Desk is $1,499 a month for one channel (Launch), $2,499 for two (Growth) and from $4,499 for three (Scale). It starts after the 14-Day Ops Foundation at $1,500 or $2,500, half of which is credited to your first month. Ops Desk fees are fixed, never a percentage of sales or ad spend. Platform fees, apps, inventory and ad spend are paid by you directly.
Why is there a 3-month first term?
The first weeks build the system: procedures, routing rules, the dashboard and your baseline. Three months is the shortest period in which you can judge that work fairly. After the first term, Ops Desk runs month to month with 30 days' notice by email from either side, and there is no exit fee.
What is not included?
Advertising management (a flat add-on), creative and media buying, product sourcing, manufacturing and warehouse labor, plus tax, legal or accounting advice. Third-party costs such as platform fees, apps, inventory, freight, 3PL fees and ad spend are yours. Anything outside the written scope is quoted in writing first at $75 an hour and billed only if you approve it.
Who will work on our account?
A named ops lead, who is named in your proposal before you sign, plus a pod: shared on Launch and Growth, dedicated on Scale. Ecomrelays LLC is a Texas company. Part of our team works outside the US, as one managed team with a named US-facing lead, working in US Central business hours.
What access do you need?
Named access, never your owner password: access you authorize in Seller Central on Amazon, a limited role on Walmart with Admin kept by you and collaborator access on Shopify. We use multi-factor authentication on every account and take no bank, payout or legal-entity permissions. Access is removed within 24 hours when someone leaves the team or the work ends.
How fast do you reply?
A real person replies to new inquiries within one business hour, 9am to 6pm US Central, Monday to Friday. On a monthly plan, client requests get a first reply within 4 business hours, and urgent issues within 1 hour. If fewer than 95% of first replies in a month meet the 4-hour standard, you get a 10% credit on that month's fee.
Can you work alongside our in-house team or ad agency?
Yes. You can keep your ad agency and add Ops Desk for stock, catalog, orders, support and the 3PL. If you have an ops person, we can support them: Relay Modules remove repeat work, and the Foundation gives them written procedures and one dashboard. Your agency keeps its scope and we share the stock and margin data it needs.
Do you promise sales, margin or ranking results?
No. Nobody can promise those honestly. We commit to the process: a named lead, published scope, written response standards with a credit, a weekly KPI review, a monthly report and account-health warnings acted on the same business day. You see every number with its source and period.
What happens if we leave?
You keep everything, because it was always in your accounts. We deliver a handover pack (access list, procedure index, module documentation and open items) within 5 business days of the end date, remove our access within 24 hours and return or delete your data within 30 days.
We sell under $1M a year. Can we still use Ops Desk?
Store Care is built for your size: $399 a month for one channel and up to 10 SKUs, or $699 a month for up to 30 SKUs on one channel or 15 each on two. You move to Ops Desk when it makes sense. A free Launch Readiness Check or Profit Leak Scan will tell you which fits.
Sources7 sources
- 01bls.govchecked Oct 20, 2026Primary
- 02bls.govchecked Oct 20, 2026Primary
- 03shrm.org2026 Recruiting Executives Benchmarking; checked Oct 20, 2026Primary
- 04supplykick.comvendor; updated Sep 14, 2026; checked Oct 20, 2026Vendor
- 05sell.amazon.comOct 16, 2024; checked Oct 20, 2026Primary
- 06marketplacelearn.walmart.comchecked Oct 20, 2026Primary
- 07help.shopify.comchecked Oct 20, 2026Primary
Amazon, Walmart and Shopify are trademarks of their owners; Ecom Relays is not affiliated with them.
Next step
Start with a free look at your numbers.
Grant read-only access and get a written Profit Leak Scan within 48 hours of working access. No sales call required. You keep the report whether or not you hire us.
A real person replies within one business hour, 9am to 6pm US Central, Monday to Friday.