If you find yourself asking these questions:

Is email marketing still effective in 2021?

Is automation and synching in real-time possible? Or 

Do I need to use automation tools to grow my business? 

Then, we can nod our heads and reply with a big “yes” to all of the above questions. Today, businesses can’t work without automation systems. They need to work 24*7, upgrade their inventory, manage stocks well, and whatnot. 

A good automation system can handle all your jazz and even future eCommerce unpleasant moments.

Why Does Your eCommerce Business Need Automation?

eCommerce is more than just listing products and fulfilling orders. It’s about prioritizing customers, being creative to launch new products, seeing a gap in the market, and filling it.

As per instapage, 80% of marketing automation users see improved leads, and 77% see increased conversions.

Automating your e-commerce business can save time, improve productivity and provide you more output. Platforms like omnisend and convertedIn can handle huge amounts of data and help you with customer engagement.

In a nutshell, you can bulk your eCommerce marketing strategies and showcase product diversity on a large scale.  It also handles complex business processes like fulfillment through multi-locations, dropship, inventory management, and return process automation.

Do’s of Real-Time eCommerce

eCommerce automation can seem overwhelming if you’re just starting. So here are a few do’s you should keep in mind before investing in  automation systems:

• Sync your Customers to a Mailchimp List

Emails are a go-to option when it comes to conversing with your customers. You can send automated emails, product discounts, and updated newsletters to keep that conversation going. That’s why integration with Mail chimp is crucial. You can add email addresses to this software and keep them posted for future offers.

• Feedback And Reviews

Never underestimate the power of good feedback and reviews. It acts as a book cover for your business. You can easily automate the process of asking for honest reviews or stars. 

People will feel appreciated if they can contribute in any way, so send them emails, automated follow up to gather feedback on your recent product or campaign.

• Reduce Cart Abandonment 

Abundant cars are usually an alarm for your team that a customer was interested in your product. With this information, you can automate reminders and look for easy navigation to remind your customers that they selected their favorite product but forgot to checkout.

• Use Live Tools

Today users expect more than what they used to 5 years ago. The reason is the evolving technology and tools that can save time and manage their requests.

Automating live support tools like help chat or live can engage your consumers and solve complicated issues without any delay.

• Order Fulfillment Automation

Automating order fulfillment can save you a lot of time, whether managing vendors’ expectations or shipping on time for customer satisfaction. All of these processes can be easily automated with simple integration.

Don’ts of Real-Time eCommerce

With real-time eCommerce automation, you can either automate specific departments or business tasks. But to answer “how,” a few don’ts of eCommerce automation need to be considered.

• Never Forget to Follow-up

77% of your customers easily ditch your product carts. Yes, that hurts.

But the reality is if you don’t follow up for the same in a given duration, you might lose those customers (this hurts even more).

So never forget to follow up with your customers and remind them how much you appreciate them. Automate and send them a follow-up message.

• Not Having a Plan on What to Automate

We have all been there.

No clear goals, objectives, or reasons to automate and manage processes. Somewhere we forget to put a bigger picture in our minds.  You do need to think about long-term goals when it comes to automating processes.

If you send messages to the wrong people, promote wrong campaigns, it can eventually harm your brand. So always have a plan to meet your business goals and objectives.

• Not calculating ROI

It is the deadliest pitfall of automation. If you don’t know how much it will cost to implement and execute this automation process, then maybe you shouldn’t do it in the very first place.

Sit down and chat with your team regarding the cost of the tools, running costs, training and development costs, and last but not least, your ROI. You run a business to make a profit. So always calculate ROI before investing in automation.

• Sending Too Many Emails 

Automation tools are great for multichannel inventory management, connecting with your audience, and syncing tasks. But sometimes, automation can create tension between you and your audience. If you’re bombarding them with unnecessary emails or product deals, they may unsubscribe or leave your email list.

 It is best to maintain email hygiene and then automate correctly.

• Using Wrong Customer Data

Forbes states that 66% of customers choose a product based on convenience. For automation, data works like a charm. But if you don’t focus on the right metrics or data, it can do the opposite.

Look at your goals, how much revenue you want for next month, and then track the sold items, orders placed, and even the open rates for emails.

So choose customer data and analytics wisely so that you can automate processes as per the data.

Conclusion 

To conclude, you can always improve your brand through automation. It’s time to see the real world, where people value time more than money.

This means your business needs efficiency, ease, and versatility to stay in the market. The best part is you can always choose and automate the processes, save more time, and focus on what matters.