Automating your ecommerce business process helps you to reach your goals of higher lead generation, higher conversion rate, a higher CTR, lower customer acquisition costs, and so on.

So, if you're an ecommerce business owner whose business has grown or is growing with overwhelmingly more customers, you will notice how your merchandise and current systems start becoming more inundated and highly inefficient.

This is where ecommerce process automation can be more than helpful.

What is ecommerce automation?

Ecommerce automation is done via software specifically created to convert tasks, processes, or campaigns within your business. It does the thinking for you and intelligently executes tasks when needed. It helps your business make the most out of what it has by reducing redundancy, removing dysconnectivity, increasing growth, and simplifying flow. In simple words, eCommerce automation involves a sort of hands-free system that allows the business owner or the store manager to focus on revenue-generating tasks instead of worrying about menial tasks.

Entering data through these systems manually leaves a lot of room for errors.  It’s easy to mistype an address, order number, or SKU – which could result in a lost order for a customer. Even when you enter perfect data, manual data entry is slower. That’s why many eCommerce sellers turn to automation. It can do the same amount of work in a fraction of the time.

ecommerce automation combines the right processes and people necessary to automate the entire order process, from the time a customer hits the “order” button to the delivery of the product to their doorstep. Automation allows for the seamless flow of data between your systems to ensure efficiency.

How can you automate your ecommerce business process?

Before moving into automation, here are a few steps you should follow, that will help you automate with the automation process:

1. Make a note of repetitive tasks, these are tasks that require a great deal of time but have low value.

2. Prioritize your tasks, in order to identify the ones that have the most impact and are easy to execute.

3. Prioritize the automation of daily tasks before tackling more prominent tasks that are less frequent.

4. Start with the tasks that aren’t scalable when you have to perform them manually.

Once you have followed the steps and sorted out your tasks, there are many types of ecommerce automation software available that will help you automate your ecommerce business. However, we will discuss the two more popular ones:

Shopify:

Easily one of the most recognizable ecommerce automation software - Shopify, offers powerful productivity apps in its App Store. Most of these are designed for automation, including Arigato Automation, Shop Workflow Automation, and Stock Sync.

WooCommerce:

WooCommerce is more popularly used for WordPress stores and it has a lot of options for automation. Most of these options are powered by WooCommerce's numerous extensions, which enable you to improve your WooCommerce site with premium features as well

Benefits of ecommerce automation:

Eliminates Manual Data Entry:

Straight off, ecommerce automation eliminates the need for manual data entry. You won’t need a team of employees entering data all day. This automation can be applied easily in various parts of your business including accounts. Thanks to accounting software like SaasAnt Transactions and PayTraQer that can be integrated with QuickBooks , you’ll significantly cut down the time spent on manual data entry and can free up employees to work on more important tasks.

Better Customer Service

When your customers and potential buyers get quick solutions to their problems or queries, they are more likely to remain loyal customers. Ecommerce Marketing automation allows you to achieve that by sending out extremely personalized content at each stage of your customer’s journey. It also gets the right content at the right time for potential customers. 

Ecommerce marketing automation has bridged the gap between the customer and the enterprises. For instance, now the customers don’t have to wait for hours to get in touch with the customer service representative. The automated system is equipped to deal with queries and complaints.

Saves Salary Costs & Increases ROI

One of the most obvious benefits of an ecommerce automation system is that it helps you generate more ROI on salary costs. It reduces the need for manual labor for receptive and redundant tasks such as filling in datasheets, scheduling emails, answering calls, etc. which means you don’t need so many employees.

Omnichannel Monitoring

With an ecommerce automation system, you can easily monitor the channels that you use to interact with your customers. Bots and other automated software tools can provide you accurate insights on your customers and their activities on each of your channels.

Order Fulfilment

Ecommerce order automation help streamline the order fulfilment process. For example, when an item is purchased, the system creates a picking ticket automatically, pickers can use this to match the product SKU. Not only does this decrease order fulfilment costs, it also cuts down on how long customers have to wait for their order to be prepared and shipped, which translates to happy customers.

Reduce cart abandonment

An ecommerce automation system can fix the cart abandonment problem by identifying visitors who leave your store without adding anything to the cart. It then automatically sends out push notifications or emails to encourage conversions.

What are the best ecommerce automation tools?

Your customer’s interest in buying from you depends largely on how your product is marketed. Not to fear though, you can automate most parts of the process to make it more efficient. Here are some of the best ecommerce automation tools for you to consider:

• InfusionSoft: This is an all-in-one tool that can be used to access over 200 apps and platforms which is particularly useful for eCommerce marketing automation. InfusionSoft offers a complete business suite that includes CRM, sales and marketing automation, analytics, and even credit card processing. You could take advantage of the function of the built-in campaign to further automate store tasks that take up a lot of time.

• OptinMonster: According to experts, OptinMonster is one of the most powerful conversion optimization and lead generation tools available today. With its full-screen Welcome Mats, exit-intent popups and scroll boxes, you can boost your store’s conversions and gain more subscribers drastically. You can use OptinMonster to retarget abandoned carts by offering discounts or special prices. This ecommerce marketing tool is also used to generate and manage store subscribers effortlessly.

• MailChimp:  This is one of the more popular ecommerce automation tools that is used to set up and manage email campaigns. With the built-in campaign manager, business owners can easily create and launch email campaigns. The marketing automation functions help attract new visitors and follow up with existing customers through targeted emails. The main aspect of MailChimp is that it's easy to integrate with all popular ecommerce platforms including WooCommerce and Shopify. In addition to email management, MailChimp is the ideal marketing automation tool for setting up and managing ads on major social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

• EngageBay: This is a customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing automation platform that helps businesses manage their customer interactions and automate marketing tasks. It has a user-friendly interface and drag-and-drop campaign builder, which  makes it easy for ecommerce businesses to create and launch effective marketing campaigns, even with little or no marketing experience.

• ZenDesk: A powerful CRM solution that takes care of most aspects of customer relationship management. Using this automation tool, ecommerce stores could automate customer relations and take advantage of the data processing capabilities available on the platform.

• Zapier: A great ecommerce automation tool that allows you to connect all your applications and tools to a single access point. This means that instead of juggling numerous tasks, you only have to open the Zapier platform and it helps you get things done in a short time. You can set up custom workflows or start off with the provided options. In either case, workflows called Zaps, integrate third-party tools to facilitate data and functionally exchange. Zapier supports over 750 apps including spreadsheets, email clients, accounting tools, and communication platforms.

• Google Alerts: In the competitive ecommerce world, it’s important to keep an eye on your competition and that is exactly what signing up with Google Alerts can be useful for. It helps you keep track of what your competitors are doing by sending you an email alert for updates on their online mentions and stores which makes it one of the best ecommerce automation tools out there.

5 Steps for Automating Your ecommerce Business:

1. Automate reviews

Customer reviews can be a very useful marketing tool as they have more influence to convince than the average marketing campaign. You can automate this process by setting up automatic emails that request reviews as part of the post-purchase process.

2. Automate inventory management

Managing inventory can be difficult, more so, if your stock is stored in different places. By using automation tools with your CRM and POS, you can keep an eye on your inventory in real-time.

3. Automate invoicing

There are various payment gateways like PayPal and tools like Quickbooks that allow you to automate your business invoices. Most of these can be integrated with eCommerce platforms and are useful for record-keeping.

4. ecommerce fulfilment automation

This is the part of your ecommerce business when you have to pick up, pack the order and deliver it on time to the right address. Using an ecommerce fulfilment automation tool can save you a lot of money and effort. It helps you to easily scan and print shipping labels, send tracking information, and streamline returns.

5. Handling refunds and replacements

If you handle returns easily, you may find customers returning to your store for other products. So, it’s vital that you make it easy for customers to automatically identify what returns are eligible for replacements or refunds.

In conclusion these are just a few pointers you can use to automate your eCommerce business. By automating your business processes, your teams can focus on other crucial aspects of the business and help accelerate your company’s growth. There are so many tools in the market so make sure you pick the right automation tool for your business and not just the one that fits your current and future business needs but a tool that also helps you to keep track of the sales and marketing of your eCommerce products.

To pick the best eCommerce process automation software, consider factors such as availability of real-time processing, guaranteed data validation, monitoring capabilities, and reliable customer support. However, don’t just jump into the process, take your time, and remember to pay attention to your specific business needs, whatever they may be.