What Is Ecommerce Automation? Save Costs & Focus on What Matters

Posted by Vikram Rathod

November 02, 2020

Ecommerce SEO 32 min read

As a business grows, its success can increase, but very soon the business owner might find they don’t have time to do everything to keep up with demand!

If you want your business to continue doing well regardless of how much it grows, you might like to consider eCommerce automation or upgrade what you already have.

This will free up a lot of your time and allow you to focus on other aspects of the business. A good e-commerce strategy lets you simplify the mundane parts of your business, without sacrificing your usual high standards as far as customers are concerned.

You will be able to save time, and money, and focus on the parts of the business you prefer working on rather than the tedious, repetitive tasks.

What is eCommerce Automation?

E-commerce automation is when you use software to handle a variety of tasks instead of handling them yourself. Of course, not everything can be automated, but there are lots of small, repetitive tasks which are always performed the same way, which e-commerce marketing automation services are ideal for. You can see how this will save you both time and money in the long run. Let’s find out more about how e-commerce automation works.

E-commerce Strategy Examples 

There are various ways in which eCommerce automation can be incredibly useful. You can use it to tag customers for marketing and segmentation, streamline your reporting and tracking, prevent high-risk orders, or standardize visual merchandizing. These are some examples of manual tasks which e-commerce automation can handle for you:

#1 Welcome New Customers :

New customers can automatically be sent a welcome email without you having to do anything, as long as you have set it up with e-commerce automation.

#2 Make Them Feel Special

New customers who spend more than a specified amount can be categorized as high-value and placed in a specific group of customers. You can also use e-commerce marketing automation to give those categorized as high-value or loyalty members various discounts or different shipping rules.

#3 Offer Them Customized Tips 

Customers who buy an item can be sent an email about other items which might complement what they purchased, or reminders when what they purchased might need to be replaced.

#4 Keep Customers in the Loop 

Customers can be sent a newsletter every month. You can even send different ones to loyal or high-value customers, and those who have not bought so much. 

#5 Send them Reminders 

Marketing automation services can be triggered to email a customer when their order is ready to be picked up or when it is due to be sent out.

#6 Ask Them to Review their Purchase 

You can use automation to send every customer an email after 30 days of purchase (or whatever time scale you want) asking for a product review.

#7 Keep an Eye on Inventory 

If your inventory numbers fall below a specific amount, you can automate a purchase order to be sent to your supplier.

#8 Keep Your Stock Numbers Updated 

If something is out of stock, e-commerce marketing automation can stop it from displaying, and send an email to your marketing team so they can put advertising on hold. Once you are stocked up again, these products can be added back.

#9 Abandoned Cart Reminders 

If someone puts items in their cart but does not follow through with payment, they can be sent an abandoned cart email reminding them the transaction hasn’t finished and their items are still waiting for them.

#10 Scheduled Sales 

Regularly offer promotions or price reductions to fortify your e-commerce strategy and keep your customers interested, in using your automation tools.

#11 High-Risk Orders 

You can use e-commerce automation to flag any suspicious-looking orders, such as those with billing and shipping addresses that don’t match, or those from specific countries.

#12 Scheduled Product Releases 

Publish new products to your store, apps, sales channel, and social media channels at the same time. You can introduce a brand new theme for seasonal promotions, then roll it back again with ease. These are just some of the ways that eCommerce services can help you. Imagine having to do all of the above manually. Once you have set up the automation the way you want it, you can sit back and let it do all the hard work.

E-commerce Operations: How to Automate Them for Great Results? 

Now you know how handy eCommerce automation can be with regard to simplifying your operations, you probably want to know more about how to implement your own e-commerce strategy.

Here is how to use eCommerce automation for the best results:

1. Identify Your Most Repetitive Tasks 

The first thing you need to do is to figure out which business tasks are taking you a long time. Make a list of anything mundane, such as sending out regular updates or newsletters, or putting your customers into specific groups according to what they have purchased. Are there any bottlenecks that are making you less productive? Marketing automation services can take on tasks for you, to make you more productive.

2. What are Your Business Goals? 

As soon as you have worked out your business’s weak points, you can decide how best to resolve them. Think about how you want to streamline your operations and what kind of effect this will have on your business. Maybe you seem to spend a third of your time answering the same questions from customers over and over, or sending out newsletters manually to various customer segments. You might have a goal of only spending 10% of your time emailing and preparing newsletters, and leaving the rest to e-commerce marketing automation.

3. Choose Your E-commerce Strategy 

Now you have a firm idea of any weaknesses in your operations along with what your goals are, it is time to look for the perfect software. You might want software that will send out emails or newsletters and abandoned shopping cart notifications. Perhaps you want to better manage stock and order fulfillment. Maybe you need to do all of those! There are various e-commerce automation software types to choose from. You can choose live chat agents to grow your e-commerce business.

4. Train Your Employees 

If you have employees, you will need to train them on how to use the software when it is installed. This takes time, money, and effort, but in the long run, it will pay off.

5. The Importance of Measuring 

There is more to a great e-commerce strategy than setting up your software than forgetting about it. The world of e-commerce is never static, which means it is critical to test its performance. Is it helping you reach your goals? If not, you might need to tweak the settings and then retest. Perhaps there is an easy solution to rectifying an issue, or maybe the software has a different function that would work better for what you are trying to achieve.

Deciding Which Ecommerce Automation Tool to Use 

There are many e-commerce marketing automation tools to choose from, each with its own features, pros, and cons. Let’s take a look at some of the top-rated ones which will add value to e-commerce management tasks:

Hubspot :

A favorite for all inbound marketing services, Hubspot is known to be an excellent choice for its CRM drives. It offers a complete CRM platform with all the tools and integrations you need to grow better whether you want to increase leads & sales. You can also consider more sophisticated HubSpot alternatives as your customers increase or your needs change.

Contalog :

This e-commerce marketing automation tool keeps track of inventory status and stock levels, using its powerful inventory and order management features.

Zapier :

This one lets you connect every application and tool to one access point, meaning that you just have to open the software platform rather than trying to do a lot of tasks at once.

OptinMonster :

If you want to dramatically boost sales and increase subscribers, OptinMonster could be the perfect eCommerce marketing automation system for you. This powerhouse of a tool is great for lead generation and conversions. Enjoy features like exit-intent popups, full-screen welcome mats, and scroll boxes to make your site attractive to customers and keep your profits coming in.

Infusionsoft :

This eCommerce marketing automation tool comes with powerful features for marketing, sales, analytics, and CRM, as well as the ability to process credit card payments. This is a complete business suite, which also offers built-in campaigns to take a range of store-related tasks off your shoulders.

Why E-commerce Automation is the Future? 

In order to stay ahead of your competition, it is critical to iron out any kinks in your business processes. This is why marketing automation services are becoming so popular.

Having the ability to simplify and automate tasks saves you money over the long run and also frees up your time to be more productive on other things. It is true that technology such as software and bots are more reliable than humans and are also much faster. They don’t make the little mistakes we do, which can sometimes result in disastrous consequences.

Automating some of your company’s tasks means your employees can direct their time and focus elsewhere, on tasks that do need human attention. You can also use Small Business CRM Software to effectively manage your team and increase productivity. The sooner you choose the best eCommerce automation software for your company, the sooner you can begin to reap the rewards of being more productive, attracting more customers, and making a much better profit.

Categories

Let's Talk