Five Must-Have Automations for Your eCommerce Business
Hey, eCommerce warriors! 🛒 You're hustling day in and day out to make your online shop the go-to place for your awesome products. But are you tapping into the power of automation? If not, you're like a superhero not using their superpowers. In this blog, we're diving into five must-have automations that'll make your eCommerce business smoother, smarter, and—let's face it—cooler.
The Importance of Automation in eCommerce
Automation is to your eCommerce business what Alfred is to Batman — a silent yet effective force multiplier. From managing your inventory to dealing with customer queries, automations take care of the mundane, leaving you free to strategize and scale. Trust us; this is the stuff that'll take you from side hustle to eCommerce empire.
1. Sales Accounting Automations
What It Is
We know, accounting isn't sexy — but it's crucial. Sales accounting automations take care of the number crunching for you. We're talking automated invoicing, real-time tax calculations, and even in-depth financial reporting.
Why You Need It
Imagine closing a big sale and then spending hours manually generating invoices, orders, or calculating taxes. A total vibe killer, right? Automate this, and you’re free to celebrate your wins or plan your next big move.
Use Case: When you receive a new paid order, you can automate the sale record in Wave or Quickbooks
2. Chatbot Automations
What It Is
Picture a tireless, efficient customer service rep who works 24/7 without any complaints—that’s your chatbot automation for you. These bots can answer FAQs, help customers navigate your site, and even manage simple transactions.
Why You Need It
Customers may be shopping at 3 a.m. or need immediate help. With chatbot automations, your customer service is running—even when you're not. Plus, they collect valuable data on customer behavior.
Use Case: With a chatbot automation, you can provide customers with access to their account, the ability to update an existing order, or even cancel an order. Remember what we said about automation increasing customer service efficiency?
3. Customer Onboarding Automations
What It Is
The first impression lasts, folks. Customer onboarding automations send that crucial welcome email, offer an introductory discount, or even send a 'How to Get Started' guide as soon as a customer signs up.
Why You Need It
It’s all about building a relationship from Day One. Automated onboarding ensures that customers feel acknowledged and valued, increasing the likelihood they’ll stick around.
Use Case: If you're using a service like Teachable you can automate the process of sending a welcome email to new students explaining how to access their course and what to expect. Simultaniously, you can also enroll them in the software and their course(s). This is a no brainer!
4. Post-Purchase (or non-purchase) Follow Ups
What It Is
This is about keeping the convo going even after the customer has hit 'buy' or abandoned their cart. Follow-up automations can send thank-you emails, Happy Birthday discounts, reminder emails, ask for product reviews, or suggest complementary items.
Why You Need It
You don't want to be that brand that goes silent post-purchase, do you? This keeps your brand top-of-mind and opens the door for repeat business.
Use Case: One of my favorite automations is when a customer purchases a product, you can schedule a hand-written letter to be sent to the customer with HandWritten and provide them with a discount code for their next purchase. This is a great way to build brand loyalty and increase customer retention.
5. Inventory Management
What It Is
Ever ran out of stock and didn't realize until a customer complained? Or are you keeping track of new or updated products in a spreadsheet? Inventory management automations keep tabs on your stock levels, keep products up-to-date, and can even predict when you'll need to reorder.
Why You Need It
Inventory management automations keep you and your store organized and up-to-date. No one wants to manage a store with a bunch of products by hand!
Use Case: If you're like me, you're probably still using Google Sheets or Airtable to manage your{" "} life{" "} inventory. In that case, you can set up an automation to track a sheet and when a new record is added, or a record is updated, you can automatically create a new product, or update and existing product, in your store. Why do this? Because it's 2023 and you shouldn't be doing this manually anymore!
Getting Started with eCommerce Automations
If all this sounds overwhelming, don't sweat it. The trick is to start small—pick one automation and measure its impact. And if you're feeling stuck, remember, help is just a call or email away. Yeah, we’re talking about us; we’re the automation whisperers you didn’t know you needed.
So there you have it—five must-have automations for your eCommerce gig. Each one is designed to streamline a specific aspect of your business, freeing you up to do the kind of high-level thinking that made you start your own business in the first place.