Ecommerce has seen explosive growth in the last few years, from $286 billion in 2017 to nearly $432 billion in 2020. By 2025, revenues are expected to grow to $564 billion.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift to online retail, especially in 2020. But ecommerce revenues are only expected to grow in the coming years—pandemic or not.
This means selling online is essential for small and mid-size businesses.
Whether you already have an ecommerce store or you’re getting ready to launch one, using automation tools can help take care of the many mundane but important tasks that can bog you down.
How does eCommerce automation work?
Ecommerce automation uses software or other online systems to create automatic workflows for everything from sales to inventory management to customer support.
For example, automation software can identify and reach out to shoppers who abandon their carts. The software will automatically email these customers and attempt to entice them back to the site to complete their purchase.
If you’re worried that adopting automation tools will make your employees (or you) obsolete, don’t.
Automating workflows may prompt you to make some changes and shift responsibilities, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll need to let go of employees. Instead, it frees up their time to focus on bigger picture stuff, like nurturing customer relationships, performing creative tasks, and developing your brand.
Here are 5 ways to use marketing automation for ecommerce, whether you’re using Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, or another platform.
1: Automate abandoned cart emails
The estimates vary depending on who you ask, but on average around 75 percent of shoppers abandon their carts. These are huge losses.
Abandoned cart emails are a proven way to win at least some of these customers back.
And thanks to automation tools, you don’t have to manually figure out who to target. You can even personalize abandoned cart emails for each customer.
A typical email reminds the customer of the items they left in their cart and provides a link to the checkout page where they can finalize their purchase. You can also offer incentives to entice customers back to complete their purchase, like free shipping or 10% off.
In an analysis of millions of abandoned cart emails, Klaviyo claims their clients recovered anywhere from 4 to 15 percent of lost sales. This ain’t chump change—especially when you consider it’s just one of many ways automation can help you streamline costs and boost sales.
2: Streamline inventory management
If you sell online, you already know how critical it is to effectively manage inventory. Understock and you won’t be able to fulfill orders. Overstock and you end up wasting valuable storage space. And if you sell products with an expiration date, overstocking also creates the risk of losses from spoilage.
By integrating your eCommerce platform with accounting software like QuickBooks, you can streamline the tedious process of managing inventory. Automation tools can help you:
- Keep track of purchase orders
- Update the number of products in stock
- Ensure items are shipped from the most appropriate warehouse or store
- Calculate the real-time value of your inventory
- Automatically reorder stock from suppliers
3: Respond to negative reviews
It’s a fact: Customers who provide unsolicited feedback are more likely to leave negative comments.
And negative reviews can seriously hurt your brand.
It’s critical to respond to every unfavorable review, even if you know the customer’s complaint is unwarranted. As the classic saying goes, “The customer is always right.”
Most workflow automation tools give you the option of identifying reviews based on their star rating. With that information you can have poor reviews automatically referred to a team member to respond.
Automation software can also help you gather feedback from customers by automatically sending an email after a specified period—say, three days after purchase.
If you’re struggling with poor reviews online and it’s affecting your profitability, considering getting help with reputation management.
4: Schedule social media posts
Social media marketing is a must, especially if young people are in your target market.
More than 54 percent of younger people use social media to research products, and 4 in 10 users aged 18-34 express interest in purchasing products via social media.
Consistently creating engaging content is the name of the game in the world of social media. But that doesn’t mean you can’t streamline the process.
With automation software, you can create posts in batches and schedule when and how they’re distributed, freeing up staff time.
5: Nurture your leads with email marketing
Strategic, targeted emails are an indispensable part of turning leads into customers.
If you use a dedicated platform for your email marketing, like MailChimp, it’s easy to automate workflows to save your business time and money.
The best way to do this is by syncing your email client with your CRM system.
That way you can target your customers more precisely by segmenting your email list.
For example, if a prospect shows interest in a particular product, you can target them with relevant marketing material based on their interests.
Just make sure any marketing content you send is high quality and compelling. Prospects are more likely to click through emails that contain discount codes, free gift offers, or free shipping offers. Don’t give them any reason to unsubscribe.
Get Help from the Experts
To recap, automating some of your ecommerce workflows can help improve operational efficiency by freeing up your staff to focus on tasks that require complex thinking and personal service. It can also improve customer engagement, boost conversions, and more.
The performance marketing analysts at National Positions specialize in ecommerce channel management and marketing automation. We can help you determine which tools will work for your business and boost your online presence to help you grow your business in a meaningful way.
Online retail is growing rapidly, but it’s also evolving rapidly. You need solutions that optimize for profitability, not just clicks and revenue. Get in touch to learn more about how our marketing automation solutions can help your business.