Automation in eCommerce: a growing trend

28/07/2022
  • We are talking about one of the fields that have advanced the most and are currently trending the most: eCommerce automation.

  • It is nothing new: automation came into our lives a long time ago and, fortunately, it is here to stay. It is in our daily lives in things we are aware of, and in other things we are not so aware of.
     
    eCommerce has been able to take advantage of the automatic completion of tasks to really important levels... and the trend is to continue growing.
  • What is eCommerce automation?

  • Basically, it is another productivity tool. It consists of using tools and platforms so that the tasks that are repetitive and of less creative involvement are performed without human intervention (beyond supervision or strategy).
     
    This includes almost anything you can imagine: invoicing, sending transactional emails, order tracking, customer service (basic)....
     
    There are more and more efficient options, so it is logical that companies end up automating their online stores as much as possible to free their workers from what a machine can do, that is, in everything where people do not provide the value that they can provide in other phases and processes.
  • Why eCommerce automation is a growing trend?

  • There are two main reasons for this: efficiency and resource optimization. These two aspects have become increasingly necessary, especially considering what has happened in recent years.
     
    In 2020 and 2021 COVID-19 has transformed eCommerce as well as everything else. The volume of online purchases grew at a awesome pace but companies had the same resources as a year earlier. In addition, scaling the business was very complicated on the human side, the market was closed and the rise of teleworking did not allow to add new profiles with the same simplicity.
  • Then, we have had the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This has generated a lot of uncertainty in a market where raw materials are in short supply and company margins are threatened by energy costs. It is therefore imperative to minimize costs and maximize resources to remain competitive. And this is exactly what eCommerce automation provides.
     
    Adding these two factors to the increased sophistication of competitors' strategies, it seems more than justified that eCommerce automation is a trend that continues to grow.
  • What can be automated in an eCommerce?

  • The possibilities are enormous and, as time goes by and technology advances, they are only growing. There are many examples:

    •  At customerĀ“s service level, for example, we have managed to create solutions such as chatbots, which have multiple uses, such as real-time response to automatic tasks without human intervention or automatic activation based on user behavior.
    • In administrative management, we can count on very powerful tools that are capable of accounting and issuing invoices, calculating profits, expenses, and even preparing documentation at the tax level.
    • Logistics is also automated. From picking or loading vehicles according to the delivery route to tracking orders and returns. We are not necessarily talking about automating warehouses (which is also the case): there are many automations that are much cheaper to implement and that help decisively.
    • In recruitment, automations are used extensively. PPC campaigns optimize themselves thanks to tools that play with bids efficiently, that show one or another creative depending on which one has better conversion results, dynamic campaigns that have a minimum configuration and show all products, remarketing...
    • We can also include here dynamic repricing, which changes prices automatically, or even testing tools.   
     
    But best of all, automation has not only managed to create new tactics and tools such as those mentioned above; it has also been able to transform others that seemed doomed to become obsolete sooner rather than later.
     
    We are talking especially about email marketing, which is living a fourth or fifth youth thanks to automation. In fact, it is more trendy than ever for all that it brings: self-segmentation capacity, delivery of different messages for different audiences and phases within a flow, or automatic mailings based on user behavior (the best example is the recovery of abandoned carts).
  • But if some had already "buried" email marketing, imagine what they would have done with SMS. In fact, they are wrong. Thanks to automation, these short, concise and direct messages become a very valuable element for focusing on specific actions.
  • Do you agree with us? Have you also noticed that eCommerce automation is a growing trend? How do you apply it in your business?

  • Images | Unsplash.

Laia Ordoñez


Laia Ordóñez is a copywriting & eCommerce content marketing expert. She is Content & Marketing Manager at DueHome, a copywriting & content independent advisor, and Oleoshop's blog's editor-in-chief.

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