Both programming and data analysis are valuable skills when it comes to dealing with ecommerce. However, the choice between the two depends on the specific role and responsibilities within the ecommerce domain.

1. Programming:
Programming skills are essential for developing and maintaining ecommerce platforms, websites, and applications. Proficiency in programming languages like Python, Java, Ruby, or PHP allows you to build and customize ecommerce websites, create interactive features, and integrate various systems. For example, you can develop secure payment gateways, implement inventory management systems, or build recommendation engines.

Moreover, programming skills are crucial for web scraping and automation tasks. These skills enable you to extract data from ecommerce websites, analyze competitor prices, automate data entry, or perform repetitive tasks. Programming knowledge also helps in implementing search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to improve the visibility and ranking of ecommerce websites in search engine results.

2. Data Analysis:
Data analysis skills are equally important in ecommerce as they help in extracting valuable insights from vast amounts of data. Ecommerce generates a significant volume of data, including customer behavior, sales transactions, website traffic, and product performance. Analyzing this data can provide valuable information for making informed business decisions and optimizing ecommerce operations.

For example, data analysis techniques like segmentation, clustering, and regression can help identify customer segments, predict sales trends, and optimize pricing strategies. Analyzing website traffic data can uncover patterns and identify areas for improvement in user experience, leading to higher conversion rates. Data analysis can also assist in personalization efforts, such as recommending products based on customer preferences or past purchases.

In conclusion, both programming and data analysis skills are highly valuable in ecommerce. The choice between the two depends on the specific role and responsibilities within the ecommerce domain. If you are more inclined towards developing and maintaining ecommerce platforms, programming skills are essential. On the other hand, if you enjoy extracting insights from data to drive business decisions, data analysis skills are crucial. In many cases, a combination of both skills is highly desirable, allowing you to leverage programming to extract, analyze, and visualize data for ecommerce optimization.

References:
1. Davenport, T. H., & Harris, J. G. (2007). Competing on analytics: The new science of winning. Harvard Business Review Press.
2. Li, X., & Li, Y. (2019). A study on the application of data analysis in e-commerce. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1187(3), 032126.
3. Sharma, S., & Sharma, P. (2016). Web scraping for data acquisition in e-commerce. International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security, 14(8), 548-553.