One of the great things about running an online business is that you have the freedom to keep your staff flexible. You can employ remote workers, have a small office team or run your business solo from the comfort of home. E-commerce businesses need human talent to shine, but you don’t have to do everything by hand. Thanks to modern technology, you can automate the heavy lifting. This guide will show you the possibilities.
What Automation Means for Online Businesses
Before you imagine your whole business being taken over by robots, you should know that automation is much simpler than that. It doesn’t mean replacing the humans on your team. It just means creating programs that take care of repetitive tasks automatically.
The specifics depend on your business, but automation is capable of helping many departments. It can support your marketing efforts, streamline ordering, automatically generate reports or warnings, or speed up shipping.
An Example of Business Automation
To better understand automation for e-commerce, take emails as an example. Imagine that you need to send an email to 50 clients. One option would be to sit down and write 50 emails. A better way would be to create a template that can send the same email to 50 people automatically.
Modern programs can use client lists to swap each recipient’s name and contact details, sending a letter that feels personalized but is actually automated. This method works for many business forms, including invoices, notifications, reminders and marketing emails.
Point-of-Sale Software
Automation tools are more affordable than you may think. You don’t need to invest in special equipment or expensive robots. High-tech POS systems and business management software have everything you need to automate digital tasks.
For example, music store POS software can perform countless work tasks for your business. These systems aren’t just for accepting online payments and credit cards. You can set it up to remind you to order inventory when you’re running low — or to buy automatically from a preferred supplier. You can automatically send follow-up marketing emails to clients at specific intervals:
- A few days after a purchase
- When you have discounts available
- When certain products go on sale that the person was interested in
- Several weeks after a purchase
- Once a day/week/month
These emails can contain reminders, announce sales, recommend similar products or ask for a review of your service. You decide what you want the marketing to say, and the system delivers it automatically to every customer according to the rules.
How Automation Can Help Your Business
Automated tasks can give you warnings when something requires your urgent attention. For example, what happens if someone leaves a negative review on your social media account or website? If you have automation in place, you can make it so one-star reviews automatically send a notice to your customer service center or your phone.
You can respond immediately to clients who are upset, resolve the issue, create a positive experience and keep a valuable client! Plus, responding positively to negative reviews online also makes a favorable impression on other people who see your brand.
How To Automate Your Marketing
With the right software, automated advertising is relatively simple. The key is to know your target audience. You can divide clients into different groups based on demographic factors, such as gender, age, musical interests or types of products they’ve purchased in the past.
This makes your marketing more effective. The type of person who plays in a rock band likely has a different personality and habits than a longtime violinist. With automated marketing, you can send each group of clients a different type of email. The tone, topic and product offered can vary considerably. With the touch of a button, group “rock band” receives one email and group “classical music” receives a different email.
Why Automate Your E-Commerce
The goal of automation is to support your workers, not replace them. Instead of paying someone $15 an hour to create shipping labels, have the system create labels in seconds. Your team can focus on tasks that deliver real value to customers, such as checking product quality, responding to customer complaints or helping users find the ideal product for their needs. Work smarter and faster instead of harder.
