Ecommerce Automation is Everywhere. There is nothing sweeter than seeing your business grow. As much as we all want our business to scale, unpleasant experiences with customers can really spoil the day.
The fulcrum of any eCommerce business is customer service. One messed-up order management can really spoil sales and give a bad name to your brand. Even if the reason for poor service is trivial, it will take time in getting the trust back.
The eCommerce business is a vast market. Every seller is looking forward to speeding up the sales process and giving maximum customer satisfaction. It is only possible when the business workflow runs in an automatic mode. In this article, we will learn more about free and freemium eCommerce automation tools and their impact on business.
Understanding eCommerce Automation
In simple words, eCommerce automation is nothing but using eCommerce website tools to automate your activities rather than doing it manually. It is a critical part of functioning an eCommerce store and can take the form of marketing automation tools, data integration, or artificial intelligence (Chatbot).
These tools make it easier for the retailers to auto-pilot the repetitive task and also help in focusing on the key aspect of any business — sales.
Automation tools help in different aspects of eCommerce business like marketing automation, inventory management, order fulfillment, dropshipping, and customer support. All of which is key to increasing the business and skyrocketing sales.
What automation integration tools would you need for your eCommerce business?
If you have decided to use automation tools to elevate your online business, it can be an overwhelming task to select the best tools for your eCommerce site. The tools that would help in increasing sales.
There are many third-party eCommerce automation tool providers that help in connecting eCommerce systems. You will need to understand your requirements and compare tools based on price and functionality.
Whatever be your choice with the technology stack for your eCommerce store, there are certain tools that should mandatorily be integrated to maximize your business potential. These tools are available both in free and freemium price tags.
The tools that matter — An overview
Automated Customer Interaction — Chatbot
Providing the best customer service is the key to retaining your eCommerce business. Even if your online store is robust, you would still have customers seeking answers to various pre-sales and post-sales processes. Some could even be about payments or refunds.
It means your online store would require a 24X7 customer assistance service. So what do you do? Deploying a chatbot in your eCommerce store is the best solution for providing real-time assistance to your customers.
Chatbots are nothing but automated bots that interact with customers over a chat interface and provide a solution that is similar to interacting with real customer care executives.
We can use chatbots for various purposes, however, the best usage is customer service. They are programmed in such a manner that they can provide on-request responses for simple queries and doubts.
Chatbots can be rule-based or machine learning bots. Machine learning bots have a more human-like approach. They learn from every interaction and become very effective at answering queries over time. Rule-based bots operate by a set of pre-defined customer responses.
Using an AI-powered chatbot for your business will help you in keeping your customers happy and in turn multiply your sales.
Automated Email Application
In any eCommerce business, email marketing is an important tool. Strategic email campaigns can help in boosting the sale of your products. Most online stores use dedicated platforms for email marketing. The process is simple and helps in automating workflows.
Syncing an email client with your CRM system helps in automating the workflow. This helps in segmenting your email list and using the same for email campaigns of specific products.
The intended customers get targeted marketing material that is relevant to their choice and thus helps the online store in increasing the conversion rate of prospects to customers.
Email tools also help in reaching out to customers on specific issues and queries and thus help in keeping the customer satisfied. A satisfied customer means more business.
Social Media Automation
Social media is one of the most potent marketing mediums for the eCommerce business. The number of social network users is increasing every day across the globe. Approximately 55% of social media users prefer to research products from their platform of choice, according to SproutSocial.
Hence, it comes as no surprise that eCommerce retailers give so much importance to social media marketing. Social media marketing is an ongoing process. One has to keep creating and sharing content that engages the intended audience.
Shopify is one of the best examples of how social media automation can build an empire. It is an eCommerce platform that is designed for business of all kinds. You can sell in stores, online, on social media and even outside your house. Shopify has everything covered.
With social media automation in place, your retail eCommerce business can reap the benefits of social media presence without having to devote too many employee hours. There are loads of free or freemium web apps or tools that can automate social media.
Order Management Automation
In any online store operation, order management is the catch-all phrase. It is the process that involves tracking a customer’s order from start to finish. Many business processes like order placement to post-sale can get automated through order management tools.
Shipping labels are an important aspect of order management. Addresses if not correct can lead to delay in delivery of the product leading to customer dissatisfaction and also increasing the expense for the retailer. Order automation takes care of such systems and ensures that the delivery process is smooth and on time.
Another important aspect is post-sales service. Order management automation tools help in sending reminders to customers about re-orders at the right time and other essential products to consider. It is a continuous marketing process. All these automated actions help the business grow by increasing repeated sales.
A very crucial aspect of order management tools is the abandoned cart emails feature. Many customers who add products to their shopping cart do not buy them. Close to 60% of the shopping carts get rejected, as per jilt data. Abandoned cart automation software is an excellent way to bring back some sales for the eCommerce site.
Inventory Management Automation
Think this way — You browse through your product category of choice in an online store and buy a particular product that is showing as available in stock. However, later you are informed that the product is not available. How would you feel? Would you go back to the same online store?
From a retailer’s perspective, this is a loss of goodwill and eventually loss of business. No one would want that to happen. This is where inventory automation tools come into the picture.
Inventory automation tools make the sales workflow simpler. Once the sales system receives the order, the inventory tool allocates the stock to the order. A ready-to-dispatch tag is assigned to the product and details of the shipping and other related information are updated. Once the stock is sent out, the existing inventory is accordingly updated for real-time usage.
This is a very important tool for both customer satisfaction and also knowing the exact position of the inventory in your online store.
The Bottom Line
In an eCommerce business, every aspect from procurement to selling is all about customer satisfaction. Since there is no concept of face-to-face interaction, everything depends on how meticulously the sales workflow is followed.
Keeping no scope for human errors, the automation tools ensure that the workflow is followed as per the guidelines set. This helps the business to grow and increase sales. eCommerce automation tools are available in free and freemium versions.
Rajamanickam Rajan is the director of Skein Technologies, leading software development and digital marketing company in India. He also has a strong grip on developing, testing, and designing Hybrid & Native applications.
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