Posted by Do you know what’s the secret to running a profitable e-commerce business? Well, it’s no secret. It’s automation! Businesses that automate their online workflow process are more efficient, effective, and successful than those that do not. Unfortunately, many businesses are turned away from using workflow automation because they mistakenly think it will be expensive to implement or require advanced knowledge of coding. However, that isn’t necessarily the case.
What is workflow automation?
The idea is to identify repetitive tasks and manual processes, take them out of human hands, and put them into software, app, or tech that makes the entire business process streamlined, runs independently, and be more efficient.
Every department in your business will have some business processes which can use some automation. It can be the human resource department or inventory management or even the marketing department.
Why use workflow automation in eCommerce?
One of the biggest reasons to use workflow automation in eCommerce is that it can save you time and money.
Ecommerce is a complex business. You have to manage inventory, shipping and fulfillment, customer service, marketing campaigns, and more. That’s why workflow automation is so important for eCommerce. It makes sure that your team is working on the most important tasks at all times, so you can focus on the things that matter most.
Here are some workforce automation ideas to get your eCommerce business to touch greater heights
1. Tag and segment customers based on buying behavior
Segmenting the entire customer base into multiple cohorts based on the factors that influence their buying behavior will help the business curate a better customer experience strategy. The benefit of such segmentation is that it helps in targeting those segments that the business seems to be suitable for their product.
This entire process of categorization can be effortlessly done by an automation process. All the data that is required will already be present in the order management systems or CRM systems of your company.
2. Sync your customers to an email list
Segmenting the entire customer base into multiple cohorts based on the factors that influence their buying behavior will help the business curate a better customer experience strategy. The benefit of such segmentation is that it helps in targeting those segments that the business seems to be suitable for their product.
This entire process of categorization can be effortlessly done by an automation process. All the data that is required will already be present in the order management systems and CRM systems of your company.
3. Vendor/supplier onboarding processes
Often done using spreadsheets and emails, this is a cumbersome process and requires manual input of data which is time-consuming. By automation of vendor onboarding process and giving approvals, the chances of inconsistencies appearing in spreadsheets when traveling via mail can also be avoided.
4. Item/catalog listings approval
Due to the requirement of several internal approvals at various stages, the automation of the process of getting new items on your catalog and website is a must.
5. Purchase order approvals
The spreadsheet + email combination in getting approvals needs to be dropped to achieve faster and more consistent results. Automation of this process helps in combining several verticals like vendor rating, purchase quantity, and item, thus facilitating accurate purchases.
6. Gather feedback after a purchase
Knowing the customer’s perception of your product is vital, and the best way to get that is by asking them. The feedback collection process can be automated by creating automated emails and making a workflow automation tool to distribute those at a specific time after a sale.
7. Track and reward your most engaged customers
To maintain high customer retention rates, it is necessary to reward the ones that are already existing in your customer base. Rewarding loyal customers are the best way to achieve the same. The cost to serve an already existing customer is much lesser than trying to acquire and serve a new one. For example, you can set predefined marketing rules to a basic workforce automation tool that will reward a customer if he/she makes purchases above a certain price of money.
8. Customer complaints
Customer complaints are a major concern for e-commerce companies. In fact, the average customer complaint rate for a successful e-commerce business is between 4% and 7%.
Fortunately, there are tools available that can help you automate your workflow when it comes to handling customer complaints. This automation will allow you to handle complaints in a more efficient manner and keep them from turning into negative reviews on review sites like Amazon and Yelp.
9. Reach out to negative reviews
You can program a workflow automation tool, to attend to all those reviews that got low ratings and then refer them to a customer service executive automatically. For example, you can predefine a minimum level of rating in your workflow automation system for a review to be called a negative review. The workflow automation system will analyse all the reviews that you get for your services and products and filter out the ones that are termed as “negative” according to your settings and execute the desired actions with them.
10. Refund claims
A workforce automation software with Service Level Agreement (SLA) can help in automating this process. Usually, when a customer claims a refund, the mail ends up in someone’s mail inbox. Processing these emails manually can be a tedious job and hence automation is a great solution.
11. Inventory Management
Companies often face issues in handling hundreds and thousands of products in their inventory. Keeping track of all these products manually is next to impossible, so this is must-have automation.
Automated inventory management systems facilitate E-Commerce businesses and modern retailers to track their stock and inventory and sales and supplies in real-time. Using an ERP is the easiest solution for day-to-day occurring tasks like this. NetSuite ERP eCommerce services provide such automation tools to increase the productivity and efficiency of the employees in an eCommerce business. For example, if a product inventory is about to reach its reorder limit, then the automated inventory management software will automatically let you know or in some cases even order the desired quantity which you have pre-set in the settings for you.
Other retail management tools like point-of-sale (POS) software should be there to work in conjunction with an inventory automation system (IMS) to achieve real-time accuracy in inventory management.
12. Repetitive Sales tasks automation
We know that the actual task of salespersons is to sell. However, when considering meetings and other duties along with sales tasks it is found that salespersons can spend only 24% of their entire working time actively selling products and services for the company.
Sales tasks automation can bring all those mundane repetitive sales tasks down to just a click. For example, in case of any prospect being added to your customer base or network, automation tools in your sales task automation system automatically log into the details of that customer and schedule and meeting between the customer and the salesperson.
13. Re-order reminder to customers
The workflow automation system identifies the buying pattern of the customers in your customer base, tracks their last purchase, forecasts the next possible purchase date, and automatically sends reminders to reorder via mail or other media like text messages or social media ads. This
14. Shipping labels
The dispatch and delivery of orders are vital elements for any eCommerce business. Failing to provide this can lead to huge financial as well as other expenses in the long run. The margin for error, in this case, is very small. Very small mistakes, like a mistyped product label on the delivery box or a wrong address on the label of delivery, can lead to a failed delivery.
A workflow automation system streamlines are under process and help employees do multiple tasks regarding dispatch and delivery with a single click. An employee, with the help of a single click, can print shipping labels as well as simultaneously mark orders as dispatched.
This is another great instance where an ERP (enterprise resource planning) software like NetSuite ERP for eCommerce can come in handy because dispatch and delivery is a day-to-day business activity that needs to be managed with a very small window of error.
15. Schedule Social media posts automatically
Social media being one of the most engaging platforms for people, eCommerce businesses have considered this platform to be one of the most potent marketing channels. For this exact reason, online retailers emphasize so much on social media marketing.
There are tons of social media marketing tools that help you in automating the entire process of creation of posts to distributing them in a particular scheduled order. Automation of this process can benefit the firm by reaping a greater media presence with fewer staff hours being devoted.
Takeaway
If you are still sitting on the fence, the article will help you to realize the value of automating your workflow. To increase efficiency, you do not need to put in much extra work. Automation software can help you to automate your workflow efficiently without wasting too much time. Try it yourself by installing an add-on or two and try playing around with them. The time you save by automating your business tasks is worth more than any task called ‘work.’ Make things simpler for yourself and start automating today. Remember, work smart, not hard!