Job Check
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.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Fill customer orders by packaging sold items and documentation for direct shipping or by transferring orders to manufacturers or third-party distributors.Mostly human for now
- 02Receive and process payments from customers, using electronic transaction services.Mostly human for now
- 03Create, manage, or automate orders or invoices, using order management or invoicing software.AI could speed this up a lot
- 04Deliver e-mail confirmation of completed transactions and shipment.People already use AI for this at work
- 05Correspond with online customers via electronic mail, telephone, or other electronic messaging to address questions or complaints about products, policies, or shipping methods.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 06Purchase new or used items from online or physical sources for resale via retail or auction Web site.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 07Determine and set product prices.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 08Calculate purchase subtotals, taxes, and shipping costs for submission to customers.AI could speed this up a lot
- 09Compose descriptions of merchandise for posting to online storefront, auction sites, or other shopping Web sites.People already use AI for this at work
- 10Compose images of products, using video or still cameras, lighting equipment, props, or photo or video editing software.People already use AI for this at work
Tasks from O*NET® 31.0 (US Department of Labor, CC BY 4.0, changed by us), most important first. “Already use” comes from Anthropic’s data on real work chats with Claude; “could speed up” from task ratings made with GPT-4 in 2023.
Four studies, side by side
None is a forecast of job loss19%of this job’s work time goes to tasks that people already do with Claude at work, counting tasks where AI only helps as half (2026).Anthropic, 2026
63%of this job’s tasks an AI model could do in half the time, counting tasks that need extra tools as half (rated in 2023).Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock, 2023
Above 73% of jobsin how often and how well AI helped with this job’s work in Microsoft Copilot chats (2024 data).Microsoft Research (Tomlinson et al.), 2025
Above 53% of jobsin how much of this job’s physical work robots have been shown to do, from factories to homes (2026).Anthropic, 2026
Your human edge
The main tasks with no real AI use seen and no big speed-up expected. This is where your skill counts most today.
- Fill customer orders by packaging sold items and documentation for direct shipping or by transferring orders to manufacturers or third-party distributors.
- Receive and process payments from customers, using electronic transaction services.