Ecommerce is a type of business that are growing very rapidly these days, but not all businesses are able to fully automate their operations. Every ecommerce business owner wants to increase their sales, lower the cost of running their business, and (hopefully) grow their business.
In the world of ecommerce, automation is the new rule. Thanks to the advent of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the internet has evolved into a digital ecosystem that allows businesses to function in an efficient manner. As such, it has become more necessary than ever for businesses to include automated processes that can help them compete with rivals and gain an edge over their competitors.
If you want to become an ecommerce business leader, there are a few things you can do to make your operations more efficient, secure, and profitable. This article will teach you how to automate an ecommerce business step-by-step.
Carefully choose your shop’s software.
If you’re on a budget, Shopify is a great starting point because it includes all of the basic features — such as product listings, payment processing and inventory management — at no extra cost. If you want more advanced features, such as customizing your storefront or selling physical products online, Magento is an excellent option (Magento offers both free and paid extensions). While WordPress isn’t an ecommerce solution, it has plenty of plugins that can help you achieve the same results as any other platform.
Automate your marketing
You can also make sure your marketing efforts are more effective by automating parts of your sales funnel below that stage. For example, if you sell products through a store’s website, you could build out a landing page that captures email addresses from visitors who aren’t ready to buy yet but want more information about the product or service.
Choose the right payment processing platform
The last thing you want is for shoppers to leave your site without completing their purchase because they don’t have a credit card handy or something similar — but it happens all too often (and not just with online shopping). Don’t let this be one of those things! Get started as soon as possible by selecting an integrated payment solution that works seamlessly with your store and other ecommerce platforms.
Automate Invoicing and Tax calculations
Automating invoicing and tax calculations is one of the most important tasks in ecommerce. It allows you to keep track of your sales, customers and inventory.
Invoicing and Tax Calculations – How to Automate Invoicing and Tax Calculations
To automate invoicing, you’ll need an accounting software that allows you to connect with your payment processor (like Shopify Payments). You can also use a spreadsheet like Excel or Google Sheets to record the details of each sale including the customer’s name, shipping address, product purchased and total amount paid.
Once you have these details recorded in your spreadsheet, it’s time to create an invoice from your accounting software or spreadsheet. This invoice will include all of the information you’ve recorded for each sale so that you can calculate taxes at the end of the year based on this data.
Inventory Automation
Handling your inventory is one of the most important things you can do to automate your ecommerce business. It’s not enough to just keep track of what’s in stock, you need to know everything that’s missing and make sure it’s available when customers place an order.
The first step is to use a tool like Shopify’s Inventory app or Magento 2’s inventory management module. Both of these will allow you to easily view all of your inventory, track which products are out of stock, and automatically send pricing updates when new orders come in.
If you’re using WooCommerce for your ecommerce store, we recommend using WooCommerce Inventory Manager so that you can see all of your products at once and easily manage them from within the WordPress dashboard. You can also use WooCommerce Advanced Inventory if you want more detailed information about all of your products.
Handle your shipping
Automate your shipping process and save money. Shipments are typically the most expensive part of an ecommerce business and it can take up to 30 days for you to get paid. By automating your shipping, you can ship orders faster and bill customers automatically, which can make you more money.
When setting up automated shipping, there are a few things to consider:
1. The cost of your products
2. Your carrier partner’s rate structures
3. How often you need to ship items (and how many)
4. How much notice you need from customers before they get charged for shipping
5. How many packages will be sent in one order
Automate Your Customer Support
Automating customer support is another great way to improve efficiency in your business. You can use automated systems to answer questions, schedule appointments, send email reminders and perform remote assistance. These systems are also useful for managing customer relationships, which means that you no longer have to spend time manually handling communications with customers.
Set Up Product Review Sites
Once you’ve automated your customer support features, it’s time to set up product review sites. These sites allow customers to leave reviews of the products that they purchased from you, which is great for helping them decide whether they would recommend your store or not. These sites also allow people who are interested in purchasing from you to learn more about what’s available and what kind of discount they’re eligible for.
