Building, running, and growing an E-commerce business takes a lot of work. From order fulfillment to inventory management, you have a lot going on regarding accuracy and precision.
Still, it’s almost impossible to do every task manually. If so, you’ll miss out on the bigger picture, scaling your business to new heights.
That’s where data automation solutions come in. In this post, we’ll walk you through the benefits of data automation and how it can help you overcome challenges along the way.
What is E-commerce аutomation?
Automation in E-commerce requires technology to grow your business and boost productivity. You can save on manpower, cut costs, and create customized experiences through data automation solutions.
The tasks happen automatically without the use of online systems and software.
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Here are some points that define data automation in E-commerce:
- Customers placing items in a cart, get an email that triggers them to go through with the purchase.
- A chatbot is greeting a customer that visits your site during the wee hours of the morning when no one from your team is working.
Depending on their relationship with your company, a B2B buyer comes across custom prices and personalized suggestions.
Why does your online store need automation?
Data automation is an activity that creates digital change, supports your efforts to draw in new customers, boosts your productivity, and streamlines your business operations. It’s also key when it comes to reducing costs and creating revenue.
Also, when you use the proper business automation tools, it frees up your time. As a small business owner, you can focus your time and energy on the things that count rather than doing mundane tasks.
Benefits of E-commerce data automation
There are several benefits of data automation in E-commerce. You need to know the right way to implement it. Here are some ways how modern businesses can benefit from it:
1.Data automation saves time and effort
One of the most common benefits of data automation is that it can save you and your company vast amounts of time and effort. If you run an E-commerce store manually, this can quickly waste your time, and you’re unable to work on other things.
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But with data automation handles customer purchases automatically as you and your time can focus on bigger, more critical tasks.
2. Data and task accuracy
Data accuracy is crucial to E-commerce. Many ever-changing data are created like order details, customer information, and inventory numbers. If this data is shared manually, there’s a higher chance of human error.
In a large E-commerce business, even a tiny error can result in bigger problems leading to customer experience and the ability to fulfill orders, sometimes without you even knowing it. That’s why automatic data collection is important.
3. Improve marketing campaigns and conversion rates
Automating the marketing activities will create constant improvement of campaigns, and boost your E-commerce conversions.
Automatically gathered data from various campaigns can be used to enhance your future campaigns. More advanced functionality can even suggest the next best steps that you need to take based on that data. This can be one of the best customer retention strategies you can use in your arsenal.
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4. Monitor and validate data
Although this data comes through software data automation, one of the best ways to stay on top is by regularly monitoring it. However, the process isn’t as extensive as you might think. One of the most challenging parts of automated data analysis is ensuring that the data doesn’t slip through the cracks or get missed.
As your team validates the data that you get, you’ll be able to make choices for your business, such as when is the best time to reorder new stocks, how to go about your marketing strategy, and how you can offer a sale to get more people to your site.
5. Integrate all inventory data
Manually upgrading your product inventory can be a nightmare. You manually change the inventory numbers to reflect every time a product is bought or goes out of stock.
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Besides, exhausting the process leads to problems, such as a product going out of stock if you don’t update your site quickly enough, and you might make purchases you won’t be able to deliver later on.
6. Improve analysis of performance data (ROI)
A lot of digital marketers have issues when it comes to ROI- or return on investments. But with the advantages of E-commerce automation, ascertaining the ROI of the initiatives per individual channel is a piece of cake.
Automated data analysis allows you to enhance the sales performance of your E-commerce business quickly.
7. Helps to boost productivity
E-commerce automation helps your business process become more flexible by enhancing productivity.
It frees up your team’s time for productivity, customer retention, and building strong peer-to-peer relationships. It also helps you understand new fulfillment processes, product iteration, dealing with suppliers, and much more.
8. Boost customer satisfaction
More than 50% of consumers made additional purchases from an E-commerce store after a positive experience. Happy, satisfied customers will always come back. So, to get more sales, you must start boosting customer satisfaction.
It all starts with excellent customer service. Yes, it’s easier to handle queries when starting your business. But as you grow, you’ll get hundreds of calls and emails. Moreover, people from different time zones and countries may also be asking about your products.
9. Secure payment
Offer your customers different payment methods. You can now offer multiple payment options for your customers to pay, such as using Stripe, SecurePay, PayPal, and so on. Usually, these payment getaways provide your business with easy and secure payments online.
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10. Improve product information
People who buy online depend mostly on product descriptions created by E-commerce stores. They go through these confidently so that they’ll get the exact item they’re looking for.
Business process automation creates apt product descriptions by creating a POS or ERP system that accesses product information.
11. Streamline order processing
As digital marketing starts to grow, more and more people choose online shopping. Every single day thousands of orders are made. It can be challenging to process many orders if you’re only a one-person team.
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That’s where automating data analysis using artificial intelligence can be advantageous on your part. An E-commerce automation platform will have artificial intelligence in the backend. This automates order processing in the shortest amount of time.
12. Enhance shipping reliability
The risks for a manual transaction are high. An error can lead to severe consequences in the long term. Let’s say a customer orders something online, and an employee forgets to track the order. Thus, the product won’t be shipped to the customer.
Automation integration solves this problem. It will track every single order made by the customer, process it, print labels of the correct customer address on the package, and then automatically make changes to the shipping process.
All data the customer inputs will be automatically processed. As a result, there will be a low risk of errors.
Wrapping it up
E-commerce automation is key for businesses to stand out and succeed in a highly competitive industry. E-commerce automation, and Big data and analytics solutions are vital for business.
Data automation not only helps reduce the time you spend on specific tasks but also optimizes your business. It also helps you with cost and financing management, handling customer relationships, marketing, and more.
While these data automation solutions might seem like a holistic approach, you first have to work out your priorities and the parts that need your attention to enhance your E-commerce sales. Then, pick the right automation tools to benefit your business in the long run. It would be best if you also involved your employees every step of the way when applying automation.
Author bio
Juliette Anderson is an Outreach Community Specialist for an E-commerce fulfillment company that specializes in partnering with online sellers who have an average parcel weight of 5+ pounds or greater. She works hand-in-hand with E-commerce stores to achieve optimal sales for four years already. Her specialty lies in social media marketing and paid promotions.
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