eCommerce sellers and marketplaces have already begun to embrace automation to its fullest extent. In just a few short years, it has revolutionized how businesses operate online and greatly improved customer experiences. If you haven’t fully explored the potential of eCommerce automation for your business, now is the time to discover how much it can easily supercharge your online sales.
Understanding Automation in eCommerce
At its center, automation in eCommerce entails using technology to perform various tasks and processes—inventory management, order fulfillment, and customer communication—without manual human labor.
Automating these run-of-the-mill tasks gives your team more time to focus on strategic activities that drive business growth. Saving time on repetitive, tedious tasks that could be automated opens up more time for you to nurture partnerships, craft ad campaigns, and build a stronger brand presence.
How Automation in eCommerce Works
Automation works on a simple but powerful three-component system:
- Trigger: The trigger represents an event such as a purchase, customer inquiry, or website click that initiates an automated process.
- Condition: Conditions are rules (typically in “if-then” format) that determine whether specific actions should be taken.
- Action:The action represents the outcome of the automated workflow once the specified conditions are met.
The best part about this is that you don’t need to be a coding expert to use automation in eCommerce. A wide variety of user-friendly automation software solutions are now readily available and reasonably priced – all set to streamline your processes with just a few clicks.
Examples of Automation in eCommerce
Automation can be used to expedite many common tasks for your eCommerce business, making the possibilities for saving time and money endless. Some of the most common ways eCommerce business owners currently utilize automation include:
- Notifying customers about order status
- Monitoring inventory levels
- Reordering low products
- Generating performance reports
- Alerting internal teams of special circumstances
eCommerce automation can even handle activities like bidding for ad space and monitoring competitor prices.
How to Use Start Using eCommerce Automation
Not only does automation save time and money by cutting back on manual efforts, it also boosts productivity and revenue by letting employees focus on high-value tasks that drive growth. What’s more, automation helps to guarantee marketplace compliance. This mitigates the risk of costly errors and helps provide peace of mind for business owners and teams.
If you’re eager to test the waters of eCommerce automation, here are some great places to start:
Automation for Marketing: Amazon Advertising
Managing Amazon advertising campaigns, like Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands can be handled more efficiently with the help of automation. Bidding and bulk changes become effortless with the right automation tool. Depending on your goals, you can set specific automation rules to optimize bidding for higher sales volume and increased Buy Box potential, or to prioritize higher profit margins.
Automation for Selling: Pricing Strategies
Product pricing is critical for marketplace sellers. eCommerce automation can lessen the burden by using algorithmic repricing to secure more of the Buy Box at the best prices.
Rule-based automation lets you automatically adjust product prices based on desired minimums and maximums, aligning with competitor strategies. You can also use a price manager tool to maintain consistency across marketplaces and online stores, thus effortlessly adhering to pricing policies and agreements.
Get the Funding You Need for Your eCommerce Operations
Adopting automation is key for maximizing your eCommerce potential and remaining competitive in a constantly evolving market. With the right tools and strategies, you can effectively scale your business across multiple channels. However, many of these tools cost money and require funding that can help you update and improve your eCommerce business.
Ensure that you have the funding to grow and automate your eCommerce business success by maintaining healthy cash flow and a strong margin of working capital.
