Online Merchants
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.
$83,050 a year (for the broader BLS group this job sits in).
of the working time. Estimate.
- 80%
- 2%
- 18%
Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 4.4 h long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 2%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 25%. Today's estimate: 29%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
The tasks
Sorted by . 34 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Integrate online retailing strategy with physical or catalogue retailing operations.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 19% | 1.7 work days3.3 h to 1.3 work weeks | 2%Half by May 2028 | |
| Develop or revise business plans for online business, emphasizing factors such as product line, pricing, inventory, or marketing strategy.Done more than yearly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 11% | 1.7 work days3.3 h to 4.2 work days | 2%Half by Feb 2028 | |
| Investigate products or markets to determine areas for opportunity or viability for merchandising specific products, using online or offline sources.Done more than monthly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 10% | 3.3 h50 min to 1.7 work days | 21%Half by May 2027 | |
| Implement security practices to preserve assets, minimize liabilities, or ensure customer privacy, using parallel servers, hardware redundancy, fail-safe technology, information encryption, or firewalls.Done more than yearly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 7% | 6.7 h1.7 h to 4.2 work days | 6%Half by Jan 2028 | |
| Create or distribute offline promotional material, such as brochures, pamphlets, business cards, stationary, or signage.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 4% | 2.5 h50 min to 1.3 work days | Stays with people | |
| Investigate sources, such as auctions, estate sales, liquidators, wholesalers, or trade shows for new items, used items, or collectibles.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 4% | 3.3 h50 min to 1.7 work days | Stays with people | |
| Design customer interface of online storefront, using web programming or e-commerce software.Done more than yearly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 4% | 6.7 h2.5 h to 3.3 work days | 9%Half by Sep 2027 | |
| Create or maintain database of customer accounts.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 4% | 50 min13 min to 3.3 h | 69%Half by now | |
| Purchase new or used items from online or physical sources for resale via retail or auction Web site.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 3% | 1.7 h25 min to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Disclose merchant information and terms and policies of transactions in online or offline materials.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 3% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | 77%Half by now | |
| Compose images of products, using video or still cameras, lighting equipment, props, or photo or video editing software.Done more than yearly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 3% | 50 min17 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Prepare or organize online storefront marketing material, including product descriptions or subject lines, optimizing content to search engine criteria.Done more than monthly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 2% | 50 min17 min to 2.5 h | 87%Half by now |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Marketing Managers4% now, 51% by 2028
- Sales Managers35% now, 45% by 2028
- Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products39% now, 65% by 2028
- Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists8% now, 94% by 2028
- Advertising Sales Agents54% now, 86% by 2028
- Advertising and Promotions Managers17% now, 82% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025). Counts are for the broader BLS group this job sits in.
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025). Counts are for the broader BLS group this job sits in.