eCommerce business growth is an exciting but challenging prospect for companies. On the one hand, seeing your business successfully expand is exciting. On the other, more customers, profit and resources mean a greater demand and pressure on the business owner. Implementing automation tools can boost productivity and help resolve some of the demands of a growing business.
In this blog, we'll take you through the top and easiest automation wins for your eCommerce business, so you can maximise your time, savings and profits.
What is eCommerce automation?
eCommerce automation is the process of using software tools that will complete various tasks for you, rather than you needing to do it manually.
Automation works best for repetitive tasks that are performed in a consistent way. For example, you could send an automated email for:
- Welcome sign-ups or subscribes
- Requesting a review after purchase
- Customers who have subscribed to blogs
- Tracking information about customer's delivery on purchase
What are the benefits of eCommerce automation?
The most obvious benefit of automation is the amount of time that it saves, allowing businesses to focus on larger tasks. Automation also comes with the added benefits of accuracy and consistency throughout the process.
For instance, if you're sending out multiple emails to different customer segments, automating these tasks can ensure the same procedure, tone of voice and elements are used across all audiences. Therefore, automation can help businesses operate in a more professional manner.
How can you automate your eCommerce business?
There are a few different ways to automate your eCommerce business. You can use a third party software, like Interparcel, to automate the larger tasks for your business, like your order and fulfilment processes or you can use workflow automation tools to handle the administration tasks for your business.
Automate your customer support
Artificial intelligence has come a long way from basic chat bots and are fairly popular with brands who are seeking digital business automation. Chat bots are commonly used to improve online customer service experience.
Implementing chat bots greatly reduces costs, improves customer service, and agent productivity because customers no longer have to browse through the website to seek customer service. Instead, automated interactions can provide a user with helpful information at whatever stage they need it.
You can implement a chat bot to:
- Send a welcome message
- Answer popular questions
- Upsell and cross-sell products to customers
Automate your inventory management and shipping
In the world of eCommerce, it's essential to find the fastest, cheapest and smartest way to get your products from A to B. In fact, 64% of customers cite speed as the most important factor that influences their loyalty to a brand, followed by price.
Finding a business process automation solution that makes fulfilling orders faster and with fewer errors can boost your sales and retention rates. It also gives you and your customer more control over the shipping process.
You want to find a shipping solution for your eCommerce business that:
- Allows you to automatically select service or carrier-based package weight, dimensions, delivery requirements
- Generate shipping labels and can be printed in bulk
- Generates tracking numbers and emails for your customers, and alerts them to any delays in their delivery
- Automatically saves you money by combining multiple parcels into one box
- Provides live quoting to your customers at checkout to reduce cart abandonment
Interparcel's Shipping Manager, is an all-in-one shipping solution for the modern eCommerce business. It features advanced tools that allow you to integrate and import orders straight from your eCommerce store. You're able to customise your shipping rules so that you can fulfil orders in just a click of a button.
Automate your reviews
Obtaining reviews can be tricky, especially if you're a beginner eCommerce business owner. There is also the extra challenge of utilising these reviews properly to attract more customers.
By using an automation tool like Mailchimp or Hubspot, you can send and schedule automated emails to be sent to a customer after their purchase. Using this tool alongside chatbots will significantly increase the opportunity for customer reviews which can be included in monthly newsletters and on the website to improve the reputation of your business.
Reduce cart abandonment
Cart abandonment is a problem for almost every eCommerce business owner. Statistics show that it can be upwards of 75% for some businesses. eCommerce business automation can solve this by identifying when visitors leave your store without purchasing anything and then sending out an email to encourage your customers to convert. This feature is a useful reminder to customers and means that you will not waste time trying to recover lost sales.
How can Interparcel help?
If you want help to streamline and automate your parcel shipping, we created our Shipping Manager to help you process and despatch your parcels with ease.
By integrating your online store with our Shipping Manager small businesses can benefit from a range of additional features:
- Free account set up
- Parcel Presets to shortcut package detail input
- Access to a range of eCommerce integrations through our Shipping Manager
- Full use of our 'Send Again' and 'Return Parcel' actions to streamline sending
- Unlimited no-cost label printing options
Find out more about our Shipping Manager by clicking here
Our parcel delivery services can collect and deliver your goods Same Day, Next Day or Economy to suit your schedule; send a parcel today with Interparcel!
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