You will have heard of the phrase “time is money”, but have you really considered what it means? In business, when you find ways of reducing time on certain operations, you can increase your productivity and, in turn, your sales. And when you streamline operations with automation tools, you have more time to spend on important areas like marketing so that your business can grow.
eCommerce is one area in which automating certain operations can really help to improve sales and growth. Things like sending emails, fulfilling orders, and tracking orders can all be done without the need for human input, helping you to save a lot of time.
Automate Your Inventory Management System
When you use inventory management software, your eCommerce store’s stock levels can continually be monitored and maintained. The software connects your store with wholesalers and distributors. The stock levels are always automatically amended in real-time, which means you will reduce the risk of selling out of products or overselling items.
With inventory management software, such as Etilize integration, you no longer need to spend time using spreadsheets to calculate whether your stock has increased or decreased. So, not only does that save you time. It also reduces the chance of human error.
Automate Your Warehouse Management System
By adding automation to your warehouse management system, you can make the operations much more efficient. Various tasks can be automated, such as printing labels, ensuring orders are dispatched correctly, and creating tracking numbers for orders.
Those tasks can be done via software with a few simple clicks, so automating your warehouse management system is an excellent area of your eCommerce business to automate.
Automate Your Bookkeeping Tasks
Bookkeeping can take up a lot of time, and remember, time is money. When you use automated bookkeeping tools to keep accurate records of your financial transactions, you will have a lot more time to focus on other areas of your business.
Streamlining your bookkeeping processes with software is fairly simple. Make sure you choose a software system that integrates with your inventory management as well as your payment system and business bank account so that accurate records can be maintained as soon as a sale occurs. It will also be much easier to do your tax return if you use automation for maintaining your business accounts.
Automate Emails
Customer retention is key to any eCommerce business, but too many entrepreneurs do not take active steps to ensure customers complete orders and keep coming back. One of the simplest ways of connecting with your customer base is to send email updates that include things like news of new product launches and special promotions. Automated emails can be used in some instances. Not least, you should use automated emails to contact people who have left their carts abandoned on your site. On average, between 65% and 80% of eCommerce shopping carts are left abandoned, so sending out automated emails can remind people to check out their carts. You will be surprised how many take action and conclude their purchases.
You could also use email automation tools to track and reward loyal customers, which also significantly aids customer retention. Smart workflow automation tools are able to track your customers based on their purchase histories. Your loyal customers can then be automatically targeted and sent emails offering them discount codes and thank you notes. It would take a lot of time to send out individual emails, so by using email automation tools, you can streamline your operations.
