Ecommerce Automation – What Should You Automate and Why?

One of the most powerful ways to save manhours and gain a competitive advantage for online retailers is through eCommerce automation.

Now, we know that when you hear the word “automation,” it can sound a bit daunting. It might make you picture complex systems or expensive software that requires a steep learning curve.

The truth is, however, that automation in eCommerce doesn’t hove be as daunting as it sounds. Many businesses are already using automation to make their operations smoother, without needing a tech background or a huge budget.

So, if you’re curious about how automation can help you save time, reduce errors, and improve efficiency, you’re in the right place. Let’s break down what eCommerce automation is, what are the benefits, and what are the processes that should be automated first.

What is eCommerce automation?

Automation is the use of technology for the purpose of performing tasks with minimal or no human intervention.

In eCommerce, automation refers to the automation of online retail operations. This can include inventory management, order processing and fulfillment, competitor price monitoring, and more.

We will get to the most commonly automated areas in eCommerce later on in the article. For now, it’s important to know that eCommerce automation is widely accepted and implemented.

The common characteristics of areas and tasks that are automated in eCommerce are:

• Repetitiveness – performed frequently and in the same way each time
• Predictability (Rule-based tasks) – follows a clear and/or predictable set of rules or steps.
• Consume significant amount of time – requires a significant amount of manhours
• High-volume tasks – requires a large number of items or operations to be handled either simultaneously or over time
• Data-driven – involves processing or analyzing data to make decisions.

Four key benefits of eCommerce automation

When talking about why someone would automate a part of their eCommerce operations four key benefits emerge in every conversation:

• Saving time & improving efficiency;
• Reducing (human) errors;
• Executing workflows more easily;
• Scalability.

Saving time & improving efficiency

Let’s face it: running an online store can be overwhelming, especially when you’re juggling multiple tasks at once. By automating repetitive tasks like inventory updates, order processing, and customer follow-ups, you save hours that would otherwise be spent on manual work.

This means fewer late nights and less time spent on the nitty-gritty, allowing you to focus on more strategic aspects of your business like growing your product range or planning marketing campaigns.

Reducing (human) errors

Humans are awesome, but we all make mistakes—especially when we’re dealing with repetitive tasks or large amounts of data. A small error in inventory or order fulfillment could lead to frustrated customers and lost sales.

Automation reduces the chances of those errors, whether it’s accidentally overselling a product, shipping the wrong items, or sending a duplicate email to your customers.

Executing workflows more easily

Automation makes it super easy to execute complex workflows without needing to manually oversee every step.

You can set up workflows in advance and let them run in the background while you get on with other important tasks. This not only makes your processes faster, but it also ensures consistency.

Every customer gets the same experience, which builds trust and improves satisfaction.

Scalability

As your business grows, automation grows with it, making it easier to handle larger volumes of orders and customers without breaking a sweat.

Furthermore, you don’t have to add a ton of extra staff to handle the increased workload. Instead, automation can handle a lot of the heavy lifting, ensuring things run smoothly without you needing to micromanage every process.

Areas where eCommerce automation is most effective

Now, let’s explore the key areas where eCommerce automation delivers the most impact. It can be a game-changer in multiple aspects of your business—let’s dive into where it works best!

Inventory management

Inventory management in eCommerce is the process of tracking and controlling the stock of products. It’s about ensuring you never run out of popular items while avoiding excess that ties up cash.

Effective inventory management helps optimize sales, reduce costs, avoid stockouts, and improve customer satisfaction.

Because of all these benefits, inventory management is one of the most commonly automated processes in eCommerce.

Inventory management automation is done through an inventory management software. This software usually does the following:

• Watch out for stock levels in your inventory, which can be done differently depending on the type of product being tracked.
• Notifies you when stock levels are nearing or reach a certain threshold.
• Reorders certain items automatically, if you set it up to do so.
• Integrates with other applications and systems you use in your business.

Order processing and fulfillment

Order processing and fulfillment is closely related to inventory management. It starts with a customer’s order and ends with the product’s reception by the customer. Alternatively, it can also end with a return of the item, which is usually something that is handled by the same team.

Between these steps, we also have picking, packing, and shipping in between. It is a complex process, but to a high extent – predictable and standardized. This makes it an ideal candidate for automation.

Here is how order processing and fulfillment works in practice, when automated.

Once a customer places an order, the system automatically processes it by confirming payment, checking inventory, and preparing the order for shipment. Then, it can send the details to a warehouse or fulfillment center where the items are picked, packed, and shipped out—all without manual input.

Automated systems can even update customers with tracking information and handle returns if needed. It’s basically the behind-the-scenes magic that helps get orders from your site to the customer’s door, fast and efficiently.

Customer service & support

Customer support in eCommerce is in a large majority of cases automated through the use of chatbots. 

By utilizing automated flows and AI, chatbots mimic and sometimes even surpass human support representatives when interacting with customers.

It saves time by quickly answering FAQs, tracking orders, and processing returns, all without human involvement.

This leads to faster resolutions, lower costs, and a better customer experience, while freeing up your support team for more complex tasks.
We expect the trend of an increased use of AI-based chatbots only to increase in eCommerce in the upcoming years.

Competitor price tracking & repricing

When done manually, competitor price tracking tends to be imprecise, incomplete, time-consuming, or all three. Yet, it’s a crucial activity for online retailers who want to stay aware of market changes and know what their competitors are doing.

Many think that tracking competitor prices is just a step towards pricing wars, but this is a common misconception. The most important reasons why online retailers choose to track and monitor their competitors’ prices are to save time, gain more data for strategic pricing decisions, and actually avoid pricing wars.

The key steps towards automating the competitor price tracking process are:

• Identifying your key competitors.
• Matching your products to theirs.
• Choosing the desired price checking frequency.
• Choosing whether to capture any other details, beside the price.

Once automated, the price tracking process supplies you with valuable data you can use to:

• Run numerous pricing reports, for even deeper insights.
• Add or remove items from your inventory.
• Reprice your products in an unprecedently precise manner.

When it comes to repricing itself, once you have all that competitor pricing data, it only makes sense to adjust your prices based on it and become more competitive.

The way you can automate your repricing process is by using a rule-based pricing strategy builder, where you specify criteria according to which the repricing will be done. Once set in motion, an automated repricer will either implement all the price changes for you, or send you a list of suggestions for you approval. This will depend on how you set it up and how much control you want to retain.

Email marketing

In eCommerce, email marketing is automated by introducing email flows. Sometimes even, these terms—automation and flows—are used interchangeably.

Email flows consist of triggers (the criteria that, when fulfilled, activates the flow), conditions (that decide which email will go to which subscriber), and content/action (the content of the email that is sent).

This is why segmentation of your subscribers is crucial. It helps you send relevant pieces of content to the subscribers who are genuinely interested in it. This further reduces your unsubscribe, spam complaint, and bounce rates.

Furthermore, A/B testing is the key method to apply if you want to optimize your open and click rates.

The way A/B testing works is that you send out one (control) version of an email to one portion of your recipient list. You send that same email, but with a slight change (either to a button color, CTA text, copy, imagery, or anything else) to one of its elements to another, randomly selected, portion of the subscribers on your recipient list. The email that performed better (the winner) is then sent to the rest of your audience. 

The thing with email marketing automation is that out of all the mentioned eCommerce automation areas, it likely has the highest RoI. It is the area to automate if you want to increase customer retention, upsell products, send cart abandonment reminders, and more (let’s not forget the welcome emails!).

Conclusion – Should you automate your eCommerce processes?

The benefits of automation in eCommerce are difficult to ignore for online retailers.

Implementing automation may seem like a big step, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With the right tools and a little upfront effort, you can streamline your operations and enjoy a smoother, more profitable business.

In short, automation is like having an extra pair of hands in your business—ones that never get tired or make mistakes. If you’re looking to save time, improve accuracy, and streamline your workflows, automation is definitely worth exploring.

And if you want to automate the competitor price tracking and repricing processes, then make sure to check out Price2Spy’s free trial!