What is ecommerce automation? How you can streamline your online business

For any ecommerce business, gaining sales and streamlining operations is an absolute must. Whether you're flying solo or running an entire team, implementing automation tools can help your business run more efficiently.

With so many tasks required to keep things running smoothly, and so much room for human error, what's the answer? We think we've found it: Ecommerce automation.

By automating tasks, not only will you save time, but your online store will run more efficiently. This means that time-consuming and repetitive tasks are taken care of. But what is ecommerce automation? And how does it work?

In this guide, we'll be covering everything you need to know about ecommerce automation, its benefits, and the best steps to take to streamline your online business.

What is ecommerce automation?

Ecommerce automation uses software to automate tasks according to specific conditions and logic. These automation tools can help to free up time and complete repetitive tasks that would otherwise be done manually.

This could be anything from inventory management to customer communications. But how does ecommerce automation work? Well, it's quite simple.

Essentially, automation tools follow three automated steps:

1. Trigger
2. Condition
3. Action

Let's break down each of these steps with a scenario. For example, let's say you run an online business selling courses and digital guides. If you were to set up an automation that segmented your customers based on spending and offered a discount accordingly (for example, gold, silver, and bronze tiers), it would look a little like this:

• Trigger: A customer places an order, buying multiple digital products
• Condition: The customer's order equals more than $50
• Action: The customer is then segmented into the Bronze group and offered the relevant discount

A trustworthy ecommerce automation tool will easily handle this process for you, automating your sales process while helping you to understand your customers better.

What are the benefits of ecommerce automation?

Now that we've covered what ecommerce automation is and how it works, let's take a closer look at the benefits it can bring to your online store.

Here are just a few ways your business processes can be streamlined, saving you the headache of manually keeping tabs on your business.

Save time ⏳

All automation tools are designed to save you time, by essentially doing things for you. No matter what those tasks are. It could be something as simple as hiding promotions after a specific date or customer segmentation that will help you target your customers more accurately later on.

When some of these ecommerce processes are taken care of by automation tools, you can pretty much get more done in less time. Here are a few examples to help you get to grips with what ecommerce automation can handle for you:

• Auto publish/unpublish of website content and promotions
• Auto publish/unpublish collections, specific products, or sale items
• Auto customer segmentation to help you engage with your customers
• Auto notifications to team members who need to take the next step in the sales process

It goes without saying that ecommerce automation is crucial for any online store. With tasks handled for you, it allows you to maximize your sales with minimal time and manual input - so you can focus on more important aspects of your business growth.

Increase sales and marketing efforts 📈

As well as supporting customer satisfaction during the buying process, ecommerce automation can benefit both sales and marketing teams hugely, including:

• Triggering email automation campaigns and other automated emails/message sequences as a follow-up to a purchase or inquiry
• Providing a personalized customer experience with real-time customer segmentation

Reduce errors ❌

When your ecommerce business is run manually, there is so much room for human error. Think about it, if you have an offer running and need to remove promotions or specific products at a specific time, there are so many things that could go wrong.

For starters, it would be easy to miss a crucial step in the process, which could lead to a lot of frustration from shoppers mid-browsing. Alternatively, ecommerce automation tools handle all of this for you, so when something is triggered, it's all taken care of.

Accurate data and information management are critical to the success of your ecommerce business. Whether you're capturing data, delivering a discount code, or segmenting customers, these otherwise repetitive tasks are all handled for you with ecommerce automation.

Improve customer experience 🌟

We all know what it's like to shop online. If a store doesn't work as it should - such as delivering a promised discount once criteria are met - customers can get frustrated and leave. Not only does this damage potential customer loyalty, but it also means you're losing out on sales.

Customers value a great experience when they land on your website. If they've got a question, ecommerce customer service options such as chat programs can solve a customer's query fast. This not only leads to greater customer satisfaction but also retention - helping you to build customer loyalty.

For example, Apple provides comparisons on their website to enable customers to decide between products - and if they still need help, there's the option to 'Chat with a Specialist'.

But why is customer experience so important? There's a whole bunch of reasons, but here are just a few:

😀 It makes customers happy: Customers who have a great experience shopping with you are more likely to recommend you to others and shop again. From the ease of buying to post-purchase customer service, it all counts

🥳 It helps conversions: It's as simple as that - a positive customer experience reduces second-guessing and increases your conversions

🤩 Encourages brand loyalty: If customers know they can successfully make a purchase with you that always delivers, they'll shop with you again and won't bother looking elsewhere

What is churn rate? We take a closer look at what the term really means and how to measure (and reduce!) churn rate in our blog.

What sort of tasks should you use automation tools for?

If you're not sure how ecommerce automation tools could work within your online business, don't worry, we've got you covered.

You might not realize how much of your business can be automated or where you could be saving time on repetitive, time-consuming tasks. There are strategies in this list that you may not have considered before.

Here are some examples of ecommerce automation tasks:

Resource-heavy tasks

When you first set up your online store, the chances are you did it all. You wore every hat, from the customer service advisor to the marketing exec working on ways to boost sales. The trouble here is, when you're new to running ecommerce businesses, it's very time-consuming.

Even when your website has been running for a while, there's still a lot to keep up with.

It's even fair to say that when you do have a team behind you, there's still more than enough to look after. Think about the areas of your business that take the most time - aka, the most resources.

If a task takes a lot of your time or requires the input of more than one person, it's time to start streamlining the process. When more than one person is involved, the risk of human error is even higher.

Automated tasks can not only make your business run more smoothly but also free up a lot of time for you and your team - time that you could be spending on growing your business!

Repetitive tasks

If you find yourself doing the same tasks manually over and over again, why not turn those manual tasks into automated ones?

Whether it's managing customer interactions or fulfillment automation, a strong ecommerce platform will connect with automation tools to take these tasks off your to-do list.

It could be something as simple as automating customer interactions. When a customer has a question, automating responses and directing them to FAQs for further information can not only make your brand available 24/7 but also save you time from manually managing a live chat just for common queries.

On top of this, repetitive tasks can get incredibly boring, which also leaves room for mistakes. Manual processes can be pretty mind-numbing after all. So why not let automation technology take care of things?

Want to know more about ecommerce fulfillment for digital products? Read our article to find out how ecommerce fulfillment works and how to overcome challenges.

Tasks that involve multiple platforms

Not every ecommerce platform is flexible enough to handle everything in one place. Many require other tools in order to move information or even manage orders completely. Unfortunately, some platforms lack integration capabilities, which can result in manual input for processes such as segmenting customers, moving customer data, or sending out emails.

For example, if your online store doesn't include email capabilities, you might use a third-party tool such as Zapier to connect via webhooks. Once this type of automation process has been set up, your store should run smoothly without much manual interaction.

When several platforms are involved, carrying out manual tasks is a recipe for disaster. Although it's crucial to find the right platform for your ecommerce site, many ecommerce companies take advantage of ecommerce automation to handle cross-platform tasks.

With Whop, our all-in-one ecommerce platform handles everything, from order processing and fulfillment to subscription management and payment processing. So all you have to do is sit back, work on your marketing efforts, and grow your ecommerce brand.

Tasks triggered by specific actions

The best-automated workflows are triggered by a specific action. As we explained above, ecommerce automation involves a trigger (what sets off the automation), a condition (the criteria that needs to be met), and an action (what happens as a result of the previous two).

Let's say a customer makes a purchase - you're going to need a strategy in place for order management. This may be automated processes for the product being shipped or delivered digitally, email automation to confirm their order, and potential follow-ups from customer support.

With Whop, you can leverage the Webhooks app to get the notifications you need and fully customize your whop's processes. Using a combination of Whop apps and webhooks, you can maximize your store, get updates about specific actions, or even connect an external RSS feed to your whop.

You might also want to take advantage of ecommerce automation within your marketing as well. Whether you aim to segment your customers or shift their data into your email marketing automation, it isn't just about order fulfillment. This leads us nicely to another area of your ecommerce store, your marketing strategy.

Email automation

Your email marketing strategy isn't just about sending promotional emails. Many ecommerce brands use ecommerce automation to cover things like abandoned carts, order tracking, order fulfillment, and loyalty promotions.

When a customer abandons their cart, automated emails can help to grab back potential sales, increasing your conversions. You can also pair abandoned cart-related emails with remarketing via social media posts and even paid advertising.

By setting up an automated workflow for your ecommerce store, not only can you boost sales but you'll also improve efficiency. After all, keeping your brand at the forefront of customers' minds is crucial for hitting sales targets and gaining returning customers.

With Whop, keeping your customers informed is made easy. You can even set up custom welcome messages for your new signups after checkout. Take this opportunity to welcome customers and give them all the details they need after purchasing.

Looking to take your email marketing to the next level? Check out our article on the top online newsletter platforms.

Who benefits the most from ecommerce automation software?

Incorporating ecommerce automation into your business can make life easier all around. Here are just a few areas of your business that will benefit the most:

Operations ⚙️

The day-to-day running of your ecommerce business is often the most time-consuming. Whether it's inventory management, shipping, or order fulfillment, your operations can be optimized with automatic processes.

Customer service 🤝

By implementing automated workflows, ecommerce brands can provide streamlined customer service.

With the power to leverage specific customer data, automation processes can help you discover key times to reach out to customers as well as create strategies for tailored promotions.

Marketing 📣

Many online businesses use automated systems to understand their customer activity and product information better. With a greater understanding, marketing strategies become more precise - and therefore more successful.

If this process were to be completed manually, not only would your marketing strategies become less efficient, but it would also be a drain on your time and resources.

Where marketing automation really shines is in its ability to segment customers based on specific criteria, giving you more opportunities to tailor products and promotions.

Design 🎨

Ecommerce automation isn't just about inventory management or looking after your supply chain. In fact, many of the tasks completed by ecommerce automation software are more admin-based.

From keeping your website maintained to running upgrades and reports, your online storefront can also benefit from automating design tasks.

Grow your ecommerce business with Whop 🏆

If you're building an ecommerce brand, Whop is the platform for you. Creating your whop takes a matter of minutes, and it's super simple to start selling digital products right away - whether ebooks, courses, file downloads, or even software.

So, how can Whop help make it happen? Whop's all-in-one social commerce platform is designed to help you sell anything digital.

Our automation tools make it easy to take care of payments, manage your subscriptions, fulfill orders, and grow your customer base. We'll even be on hand to help you provide customer resolution if something doesn't quite go according to plan.

Plus, you can leverage some awesome features, including:

• Integrated email marketing
• Automated fulfilment
• Subscription management through memberships
• 24/7 support
• And many more.

Oh, and did we mention, you can market and sell your products all in one place, with transaction fees as low as 3%?

Sound good? Start building your whop today.

FAQs about ecommerce automation

Still have questions? We've got the answers. Learn even more about ecommerce automation below.

What is an ecommerce automation tool?

If you're looking for a quick summary, an ecommerce automation tool is software that works to automate repetitive tasks in your business, such as order management, inventory, marketing, or customer service.

How can you automate customer service?

There are a few different ways you can automate customer service processes, including:

• Adding an auto-engage process to respond to customers' requests for refunds, shopping cart issues, and order fulfillment
• Automating tickets assigned to staff to deal with customer queries
• Implementing an auto-response chatbot to help deal with customer FAQs

How can I start using ecommerce automation?

The best way to start using ecommerce automation is to find the right platform for your online store. While some ecommerce businesses choose to create their own in-house system, this can be incredibly costly.

Instead, using an all-in-one ecommerce platform such as Whop will ensure your business runs smoothly - from taking care of payments and order management to subscription management and even customer resolution.