<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Ecommerce-Business-300x200.jpg" alt="ecommerce-business" width="300" height="200" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-10683" />Could your online store use some extra help? Sometimes adding automation to your processes is exactly what you need to take some of the work off your hands and bring some consistency into the online shopping experience for your customers. E-commerce is huge right now and you don’t want to look like you don’t know what you’re doing while your competitors’ stores are smooth and simple. 

Automating things like follow-up with the customer purchase and a reminder to complete checkout with their online cart is the perfect way to delegate some of your work and stop trying to take on too much on your desk. Take a look at these seven recommended ways to automate your ecommerce business that you won’t believe you didn’t think to do sooner. 

<h2>Recapture customers that left your site</h2>

The first easiest way to automate your ecommerce business is to recapture those customers that tried to leave your store without completing the purchase. Abandoned online carts are so common that last year alone showed that globally, trillions of dollars were lost in those that didn’t complete purchases. 

Sometimes a simple email reminder will show your customers that they didn’t actually complete the purchase like they thought or to get them rethinking about that purchase if they were having second thoughts on buying. Use an email platform like MailChimp to create your automated message about cart abandonment, especially since this task is repetitive, mindless, and time-consuming for you to do yourself. 

<h2>Self-help tools on your site</h2>

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tools-300x200.jpg" alt="tools" width="300" height="200" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-10685" />While automating your customer service department completely is dangerous to customer retention, you can find simple ways to automate your customer service tasks such as including self-help tools on your ecommerce site. Many times customers have similar questions on how to do something or how a process will work. Including an FAQ section that will answer some of the common questions customers ask makes it easy for your shoppers to get the answers they need without having to form contact with you just to get a simple answer. 

If your customer still doesn’t have an answer, allow for a simple ticket submission section on the page and make sure the tickets are automatically assigned to your staff for a quick response. Try Desk.com for help setting up an interactive Q&A section for your site. 

<h2>Help with inventory</h2>

Just like in your brick and mortar store, you have to keep track of inventory for your ecommerce website. Get a little help from automation by making sure that your product availability can be updated without manually updating things each time something is purchased. 

The last thing you want is an order being placed when you’ve run out of stock or on the other hand, taking the time each day to update inventories that a computer could handle for you. check out platforms including Finale Inventory and Ordoro for help. 

<h2>Bookkeeping</h2>

At the end of the day, you may dread bookkeeping and accounting tasks. Check out tools like Shoeboxed which will digitize your purchase orders and receipts in order to send the data to your accounting software. Imagine the time you’ll save from manually entering that data. QuickBooks and Xero are perfect for syncing up your online store to a third-party app that will allow you to track sales, taxes, and more. 

<h2>Three other great tools</h2>

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Ecommerce-300x300.png" alt="ecommerce" width="300" height="300" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-10684" />Automation doesn’t end there. You’ll need an easy way to engage with followers on social media and you can have your content promoted more easily through tools like Hootsuite and Buffer. If you want to be able to follow-up with your customers that have purchased without sending individual emails, set up automation through Shopify or BigCommerce which will check in with your customers a week after their purchase. 

If anyone needs an exchange, return, or refund, you can use Shopify to help build in refund options that will automate the process, but in these cases, you may have more success in easing the situation by being more involved in the process to correct a problem. 

Stop spending so much time on repetitive, time-consuming, and frequent tasks that could be automated. Set up automation for your ecommerce business and you’ll find that you have more time to wow your customers where your skills can be put to better use. 


