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Different Types of Ecommerce Automation
1.
Inventory Management Automation
2.
Automated Order Tracking and Shipping Notifications
3.
Cart Abandonment Recovery
4.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Automation
5.
Marketing Automation
The global ecommerce industry is expected to grow by 8.9% in 2023 and 9.4% by 2024.
Similar forecasts suggest that Amazon’s ecommerce store sales are projected to reach $1.2 trillion by 2026, and social commerce will hit $2.9 trillion in the same year.
Considering these numbers, businesses are now looking to optimize their ecommerce tools, one of which that we cannot overlook is “ecommerce automation”.
So what does ecommerce automation mean? And how does it work? This guide will provide a comprehensive explanation and explore its different areas.
Ecommerce automation is the integration of technology and software solutions to automate tasks and processes within online platforms.
It is applied to various repetitive daily tasks such as inventory management, order tracking, and cold emailing prospects.
Some common examples are:
Remember when we added our dream items to the cart, left them there for a week, then got an email that said something along the lines of "Your cart misses you, come back" or "You forgot something (it’s the shoes you added to the cart but never bought)"?
Those are known as abandoned cart emails.
Simply put, they are automated emails sent to abandoned cart owners, convincing them to return and complete the purchase. This technique can recover up to 14% of lost sales from cart abandoners.
Let’s say a highly anticipated collection of Adidas shoes has just been launched, and everyone is waiting to order it online this midnight.
How can Adidas' online store ensure it does not sell more shoes than it has in stock?
To address this, it displays the real-time availability of the products on the product page and uses automation to control the entire purchasing process.
That is one aspect of automated inventory management.
Automated inventory management is a unified system that tracks and controls real-time inventory data, synchronizes promotions and predicts future demand and supply. It enables businesses to make well-informed decisions concerning reordering and stock control.
Moreover, it can be tailored to the unique requirements of each business, from a small ecommerce store to large warehouses.
Automated order tracking and shipping notifications are processes that help keep customers informed about the status of their orders, especially the delivery status and estimated time of arrival (ETA).
As a result, it reduces the number of inquiries and enhances the customer journey.
Before diving deeper, let’s cover the advantages and disadvantages of automated systems so you can figure out if the strategy fits your business goals.
| Pros of Ecommerce Automation | Cons of Ecommerce Automation |
| Save Time Massive data sets like customer behavior, social media trends, and financial transaction data are processed and analyzed faster with automation. Auto-run also speeds up email marketing, social media responses, and more. |
Limited Personalization While automation can personalize emails and responses to some extent, it relies on predefined automation rules and algorithms. Therefore, it may not capture the nuances of individuals, such as the tone or context of customers’ messages and open-ended or ambiguous questions. |
| Reduce Mistakes Automation and software can improve data entry and segmentation accuracy. |
Lack of Flexibility Without human intervention, automation may be unable to analyze and solve diverse disputes. It also lacks the personal touch that humans can offer. |
| Improve Customer Experience Faster checkout experiences, faster response times, more accurate product recommendations, and more relevant ads display are the perks of automation |
Technical Issues Risks include technology malfunctioning or becoming outdated, software bugs, system crashes, security breaches, and compatibility issues. All of which may disrupt operations and affect customer satisfaction. |
| Data-driven Decisions Automation makes decisions based on data analytics, with less risk of confusion and overload compared to humans. |
Let’s take a closer look at how the advantages benefit your business.
Automation reduces time spent on data tasks such as entering, sorting, analyzing, and reporting data.
At the same time, it prevents data duplication and ensures consistency across platforms, enabling more accurate work outcomes in less time.
Ecommerce automation synchronizes real-time inventory levels and order statuses across channels.
Simultaneously, it analyzes customers’ orders to adjust prices, offers applicable discounts, and finds the best shipping methods. This results in a faster and smoother experience for browsing and purchasing.
Besides, automated chatbots offer quicker response times, which is beneficial for any online business. After all, 80% of customers prefer a faster service.
Automated systems are also used to segment customers based on behavior and data, leading to a more personalized experience, such as product recommendations based on purchase history, ads display based on their interests, and autofill shipping information.
Those mean a better customer experience and 73% of customers said customer experience drives purchasing decisions.
Ecommerce automation tools implement data-driven decisions, such as notifying when to restock based on up-to-date inventory data, suggesting services based on a customer's browsing history, sending personalized emails based on customer segmentation, automating retargeting ads, and detecting fraud to ensure secure transactions.
Thus, they help ecommerce businesses make smarter and faster decisions that boost growth and profitability.
No matter how competent humans are, we just can’t send 1,000 emails in a day.
Repetitive tasks waste a valuable workforce. By letting automation delegate these tasks, businesses can free up human resources to focus on higher-value work, increasing productivity and profitability.
For instance, periodic promotion emails can be sent through automated emails, or common FAQs can be handled by chatbots, allowing humans to concentrate on building relationships and solving other unique customer problems.
🔎 Insight: A Salesforce survey showed that 74% of automation users saved time and worked faster, while 79% increased their productivity.
There are various ecommerce automation types, and here are five of the most common ones.
Inventory management automation tracks, controls, and forecasts inventory using ecommerce automation software and technology.
It updates orders across different channels, autogenerates shipping labels, creates and sends orders to suppliers based on inventory levels, tracks the location where the item is stored, analyzes how they should be shipped, how fast they sell, and when to reorder, and predicts future demand based on sales trends and historical data.
Its time-efficient characteristic helps to avoid understocking, overstocking, and lost sales.
Some well-known inventory management automation tools include
Automated order tracking and shipping notifications keep customers informed about their orders' status and deliveries. It reduces customer inquiries, increases trust and convenience, and encourages repeat purchases.
It also tracks shipping performance and issues for future optimization.
Some well-known automated order tracking and shipping notification tools are
🔎 Insight: Forbes highlights that consumers check their tracking information 4-5 times per day on average, and offering self-service delivery status can cut support volume by over 50%.
Cart abandonment is when a customer adds items to their shopping cart but leaves without completing their purchase.
An abandoned cart could result from high shipping costs, unexpected fees at checkout, a complicated payment gateway, longer estimated delivery time, a lack of trust, or distraction.
If you’re a seller, that means lost sales.
Cart abandonment recovery automation is the process to regain those lost sales by sending timely and relevant messages to customers, reminding them of what they left behind, offering promotions, or providing assistance.
Customer relationship management (CRM) automation is the process that manages interactions with customers throughout their cycle, streamlining supports and sales functions.
CRM aims to build customer loyalty, nurture relationships with existing customers, and engage with new ones.
CRM automation is used for repetitive yet essential tasks such as sending reminders, sending emails, tracking responses, and segmenting lists based on behaviour, preferences, and value.
Some well-known CRM automation tools include:
Marketing automation is a tool for routine marketing campaigns across different channels, such as email, social media, websites, and mobiles.
This includes prospect nurturing emails, automatic upselling emails, social media schedule posts, PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns, etc.
It is intended to reach the target audience, deliver scheduled content, A/B testing marketing strategies, increase ROI, and measure results.
Examples of marketing automation tools are
🔎 Insight: According to a report from ResearchGate, marketing automation helps 39% of users improve their lead quality, more than one-third of them generate more leads or conversions, and 45% of them increase their return on investment (ROI).
| Trigger | Condition | Action |
| Inventory Management | Inventory quantity is below a threshold | Generate a purchase order for restocking |
| Order Processed | Customer makes the payment | Send an automated confirmation email |
| Cart Abandoned | Customer adds items to cart but doesn’t purchase | Send an automated sequence of emails to remind them of the products in the cart |
| CRM Automation | Customer has been inactive | Send a sequence of reminder emails notifying the possible future closure of their account |
| Marketing/Email Automation | Customer in the database signs up for a newsletter | Send a welcome email with a discount voucher |
A trigger is an event that starts the automation process and sets the flow in motion.
For example:
Condition is a set of prerequisites for specific stages of automated workflows.
Think of it as a set of automation rules. It determines when and what actions should be triggered.
Condition is customizable, such as sending a message or including someone in a list according to certain criteria.
For example:
Action refers to tasks or activities that can be performed automatically as part of a workflow.
It happens after the trigger or the condition is set.
Apart from actions seen in the trigger and condition above, there are other types of action, for example,
When done properly, automating mundane tasks saves time, money, and resources. On the other hand, overdoing automation can lead to missed feedback and innovation.
Let’s examine some best practices to fully benefit from ecommerce automation tools.
Not every task has to be done automatically.
To determine which task is most suitable for automation, look for these conditions:
Common tasks that you can apply automation to include
Tools and users have a symbiotic relationship: they benefit from each other when used correctly.
That is why training employees to maximize the potential of automation tools is as important as any other process.
There are different ways to do this, such as holding a session or creating an online repository where employees can access training materials at their own pace.
It’s crucial to ensure that automation works correctly, produces desired results, and doesn't eliminate too much of the human touch.
Human oversight, monitoring automated processes regularly, and making adjustments are still necessary.
Ecommerce automation uses software and technology to automate repetitive manual tasks in your online commerce store, such as order fulfillment, inventory management, customer service, marketing campaigns, data analysis, and more.
When done right, It can help you save time, increase efficiency and accuracy, and boost productivity and customer satisfaction.
