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eCommerce saw 10 years' worth of growth, accelerated within just 90 days in 2021. With global online retail sales expected to reach $6.7 billion by 2024, there’s never been a better time to run an eCommerce brand. But with rapid market expansion has come more businesses vying for e-shoppers' attention, making standing more challenging.
The question then becomes, “as a growing brand, how do we keep up with increased demand without exhausting our resources?”.
One word. Automation.
With the right tech stack, you can accelerate sales, outshine your competitors, and achieve bigger paydays. In this post, we’ll cover what eCommerce automation is all about and why it pays to automate sooner rather than later. We’ll also share our top tips to build an automation tech stack that gets sales pouring in.
In this article, we will go over:
- What eCommerce automation is?
- Why automation is essential for next-level sales?>
- Critical business areas to implement automation
So what is eCommerce automation exactly?
Ecommerce automation involves the use of technology to handle manual, time-consuming, and repetitive tasks. These days AI-backed technology can study things like customer prompts, shopper’s transactions, store data, and marketing information to execute the next best action. You’ll often find eCommerce brands using automation similar to those you encounter daily, whether in the form of a bot-assisted customer service helpline or automated parcel tracking updates. Automation helps:- Humanize brands
- Increase store ROI and profitability
- Position businesses for global expansion
- Buyers get more out of their shopping experience
- And much more.
Why automation is the essential ingredient for next-level sales
With more digital noise flooding the online markets each day, hitting huge sales targets can feel like an uphill battle. Finding ways to differentiate your brand and make your shopping experiences personalized and memorable is becoming increasingly important. That’s where automation comes in, and the early you get started the better. Let’s dive into some reasons why automation is critical for boosting sales:Capture every lead
With competition fiercer than ever, every lead that comes through your online doors is precious. Perhaps a shopper needs more information on a product or wants to compare offers, you should be ready to jump in and serve them. But when you’re scaling with limited staff on hand, it’s impossible to be online and available to your customers 24-7. This resource lapse can lead to sales falling through the net and a less-than-stellar customer experience. Automation fixes this issue by giving shoppers the individual attention they need and allowing you to be everywhere and anywhere all at once.Use accurate data to supercharge decision-making
When it comes to synthesizing data, bots have the superpowers that we humans can only wish for. As AI-backed solutions become more sophisticated, the list of tasks bots can complete faster and more accurately than people is expanding rapidly. These jobs include:- Analyzing customer, marketing, operational, and store data
- Spotting trends, opportunities, and threats
- Making recommendations and predictions
Increase efficiency and productivity to scale faster
Unknown to some, many tasks are repeatable, making them perfect for automation. Handing over the reins to technology frees up your time to focus on other tasks that can bring in cash. Armed with automated tools, you can also achieve maximum productivity, allowing you to eliminate expenses and make your eCommerce store more profitable. Even in the retail world, we see automation taking over as self-checkout, and staff-less stores become more prominent. Put another way, if you were paying people to label packaging by hand, using an automated tool will remove the need for hiring and training staff, creating additional wriggle room in your budget.Get a handle on your inventory
The way you manage inventory can spell disaster or prosperity. To maintain optimal levels, automation allows you to get back on track and better predict stock needs according to seasonality, sales velocity, and restocking times. Yet shockingly,43% of growing businesseseither don’t track their inventory or use manual processes. This fact opens the door for costly errors like stockouts and overstocks, which set retailers back a whopping $1.1 trillion each year. Automation allows you to get back on track and better predict stock needs according to seasonality, sales velocity, restocking times, and more.8 Critical eCommerce business areas to upgrade with automation
Great news! You can use automation in nearly any business area you can think of. While some areas will be more profitable to invest in, having a good spread of automation across business functions will increase your odds of success. Some areas and roles automation can take over in your eCommerce business are:1. Marketing
Give shoppers the information they need in the moment, spark curiosity and increase conversions with dynamic content and action-based automated messaging sequences. Automatic email sequences like engagement sequences, ascension email series, and win-back campaigns can also help you stay top of mind with your target audience. Combine this marketing medium with high-quality, helpful content and exciting offers to drive clicks, leads, and sales.2. Social proof
With93% of shoppers stating they read reviews before they buy, social proof is a must. You can inspire shoppers to join your referral program to create brand affinity and loyalty. Use automation to secure testimonials, reviews, and case studies on autopilot.
3. Sales
Upsells, cross-sells, unique bundle creations, and real-time product recommendations and offers based on buying activity can help you capture more stress-free sales. You’ll also improve your brand’s perceived value.4. Cart recovery
Did you know nearly 70% of shoppers abandon their carts? Automation can kickstart communications with prospects to remind them of products and recover their cart. Don’t let leads you’ve already paid for and sales that almost happened to slip through the net.5. Site optimization
Conversion Rate Optimization and split testing are essential tasks to get more out of your eCommerce store(s). But these tasks can be time-consuming and ultra-technical. Capitalize on CRO tools to do the heavy lifting in your optimization efforts.6. Customer service
Buyers remember shopping experiences, with 82% telling a friend about a negative one and 43% blacklisting brands because of it. Give your customers the care and attention they deserve with shopping assistant bots, automated live chat scripts, and conversion boosting bots at checkout.7. Operations
Recover precious hours by passing on time-sapping administrative tasks like stock reordering, PO creation, invoicing, inventory forecasting, and supply chain management to AI-backed solutions.8. Fulfillment
Struggling to keep up with incoming orders? Outsource prep and fulfillment to a reliable 3PL that specializes in eCommerce. You can also onboard tools to streamline freight and transport management.How to use automation to skyrocket eCommerce sales
Now we know the different ways automation can drive results for eCommerce brands, it’s time to put together an automation strategy for your business. We’ve got you covered. Let’s get into some tips to help you craft a winning automation tech stack.Understand what you need to automate
Defining the road ahead is essential to making accurate choices about automation implementation. Your business needs may differ from even your closest competitors, so take a tailored approach to research. Make a list of all the duties you want to outsource to tech solutions. Note how much time, energy, and funds each job takes per week and your success rate. Use this information to prioritize the tasks in your automation journey. This approach will help you discover and tackle the tasks that can move the needle in your revenue goals the fastest.Set sales-related Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for your automation
Knowing whether your automation is producing positive returns and that you’re on course to meet your overall sales targets is critical. Set PKIs for each automated business area and assess results often. For example, if you decide to automate fulfillment, some KPIs you can set include:- On-time shipment
- Error rate
- Shipping cost
- Refund processing time
- Level up your automation continually