Ecommerce
Table of Contents
The e-commerce industry continues to grow, meaning the domain competition is becoming tougher as well. The ones who provide fast and efficient service, from order processing, delivery, and customer service to upselling and personalized offers, win the race. E-commerce automation tools are software that can help you get ahead.
E-commerce automation is software that helps businesses optimize and streamline processes within the web store. Automation helps reduce costs associated with manual labor and increase efficiency in other work areas. It works the following way. The system has customizable pre-set rules and triggers that, when certain conditions are met, start the pre-configured process.
E-commerce business automation tools can be used in various domains via your store and work best for:
Running your store includes a variety of tasks, such as order management, shipping, orders, warehouse management, content creation, payments, etc. Among e-commerce integrations, automation tools are the most critical ones as they help you improve almost every aspect of your store performance. Without proper automation, your staff's workload might become enormous, leading to mistakes, customer unhappiness, extra costs, and overall hampered growth.
Automated retail commerce ensures that all inquiries are replied to, taxes are paid, and orders are fulfilled. The tools ensure that everything is tuned. They combine product information across multiple channels, and provide sales and customer behavior analysis.
How else can automation improve your e-commerce project performance and functionality? Here are some pros to consider.
Customer service automation involves using chatbots and AI to address common customer issues and provide comprehensive information about product, delivery dates and returns. It ensures that no inquiries remain unnoticed, improves response time and customer satisfaction, and facilitates support operation scaling.
A lot of e-commerce tools focus exactly on marketing automation. For a good reason: they allow for better customer data analysis, the creation of automated email campaigns, upselling and cross-selling opportunities, and customer segmentation. On top of that, they can provide great personalization, attract new customers, and communicate with current ones.
Many automation tools aim to communicate seamlessly with customers — from automated email campaigns and customer support to cart abandonment notifications, upsells, and personalized product offers. All these activities help build customer loyalty and trust, making your store a place they want to return to.
One of the most desirable e-commerce business automation tools is their ability to work multi channel. Let's take content management as an example.
It is hard to build customer trust when product descriptions and images for the same item are different and contradictory in your web store and, say, a marketplace page. Automation facilitates content creation and distribution, validating product data and leading to a better user experience. No more burdensome manual content uploads!
By replacing manual labor, e-commerce automation software eliminates the possibility of human errors. Although this does not mean that you'll never encounter software malperformance or initial errors while setting it up, the probability of such an outcome is rather low.
The most obvious advantage of all is that automation allows your team to focus on more creative or strategic tasks instead of fulfilling routine manual tasks. Automated processes are faster, more accurate, and work 24/7.
With automation tools you can track and monitor your store's performance. This not only allows you to make data-driven decisions but also gives insights about existing bottlenecks and growth opportunities.
The coin has two sides,right? So do e-commerce automation tools. Without choosing wisely, they may incur some obstacles for your business. Consider the following:
Now, let's proceed with the best e-commerce automation tools, which, being carefully picked, can considerably save your time and lower operational costs.
Klaviyo is a marketing automation system that improves connections between businesses and clients and personalizes customer experiences across various channels. The tool includes email, push notifications, and SMS for better customer reachout. Klaviyo also issues learning materials in the form of webinars and manuals and has powerful customer support, creating an outstanding user experience.
Benefits:
Cost: Klaviyo has a free plan, but its possibilities are quite limited. The email automation plan starts at $45/month.
As you can figure out from its name, Sender is an email automation tool for e-commerce. It allows users to send well-structured and beautiful emails, selecting them from a library of pre-built templates. Additional features include analytics and reporting, landing pages and forms, and pre-made automation sequences.
Benefits:
Cost: The Sender offers a free plan. The Standard plan starts at $15,83/month (billed yearly).
Spocket is a dropshipping supplier which connects US and EU dropshippers with local distributors. Once the order is processed, it automates all subsequent processes for the dropshippers.
Benefits:
Cost: Starts at $39,99 for basic plan. Has a free trial period.
Gorgias is a software tool for customer service automation. It enables the setup of automated responses and the use of AI-powered chatbots to reply to various customer questions. The tool helps automate up to 60% of all customer support tasks and creates a centralized customer support helpdesk to increase support efficiency.
Benefits:
Cost: The plan is floating, and the final cost depends on the monthly number of support tickets. The approximate starting price is $10/month. There is a free trial.
Avalara is an e-commerce automation tool for managing tax payments. It integrates seamlessly with 1,200+ e-commerce platforms and ERPs, including Adobe Commerce, Amazon, Shopify, NetSuite, and Microsoft Dynamics.
Benefits:
Cost: Starts at $99; the pricing is volume-based.
ShipStation is e-commerce automation software for automating order flow from your sales channels to shipping carriers. It is customizable and can track orders, manage inventory, and create labels. The tool integrates with most e-commerce platforms, marketplaces, carriers, and other e-commerce tools.
Benefits:
Cost: The starter plan begins at $9,99. Has a free plan.
ChannelApe is a solution for warehouse automation. It can support your warehouses worldwide and offers a high level of customization. It tags orders, connects data, and enables integrations with sales, finance, and fulfillment software with no code required. The drag-and-drop UI allows you to see all your workflows.
Benefits:
Cost: With pricing available upon request, the approximate cost starts at $1,000 annually.
Monday.com is an e-commerce tool for task automation. It serves different e-commerce business aspects, such as project and task management, marketing, operations, HR activities, and design. The tool features flexibility, multiple project management approaches, synchronization, and real-time data processing.
Benefits:
Cost: Starts at $24/month/3 users. Has a free trial.
Zendesk helps automate customer service tasks. It aims to create meaningful connections with customers with minimum staff interference. The tool enables cross-channel customer personalized support, quick replies, and the creation of a fully integrated ticketing system that gives a complete picture of the customer.
Benefits:
Cost: Zendesk Suite for Service starts at $55/month/agent. Has a free trial.
Zapier provides automated data flow between e-commerce applications. It helps create custom workflows, set triggers to actions, and connect different web applications, including e-commerce platforms, payment gateways, carriers, and more. The key features include creating paths, filters, webhooks, schedules, an AI-powered formatter, and more.
Benefits:
Cost: The professional plan starts at $29,99/month. It also has a free plan and a free trial.
ReCharge is a customer retention tool that creates segmented and personalized customer journeys based on real-time data. This e-commerce automation software helps to gain a unified view of customer data to identify areas for improvement and the most valuable offers, programs, and customers.
Benefits:
Cost: It starts at $99/month + 1.25% + 19¢ per transaction. Custom plan creation is available. There is no free trial.
CartStack is an e-commerce automation tool that aims to reduce cart abandonment rates. In addition to classic email reminders, push notifications, and SMS, the tool uses onsite retention tools, such as tab notifications and automatic checkout field repopulation for abandoned carts, increasing checkout speed up to 30%.
Benefits:
Cost: The basic plan starts at $29/month. Has a 14-day free trial.
Mailchimp is an e-commerce marketing automation tool that allows the creation and sending of personalized emails to boost orders and customer lifetime value. Generative AI helps create product-related content, while advanced targeting logic provides better customer segmentation. Analytics and customized reports help gain insights into trends and campaign results.
Benefits:
Cost: The standard email marketing plan starts at $20/month. A free plan is also available, though it might have limited features.
Hunch is a media buying platform designed to supercharge performance marketing. It offers creative and media automation to streamline workflows and enhance advertising efficiency on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Its key features include dynamic creative production and real-time campaign optimization.
Benefits:
Cost: The price is available upon request and is estimated to be €2000/month. No free trial or free plan is available.
AfterShip is an e-commerce automation software for shipment tracking and analytics. It handles post-purchase customer communication, informing customers about delivery, issuing alerts, and launching surveys. The tool is easy to set up and use. It provides data analytics for delivery trends and carrier delivery time to detect potential delivery issues.
Benefits:
Cost: The automated shipment tracking tools plan starts at $9/month and can be customized. There is no free trial.
BoldCommerce is a set of e-commerce automation tools that improve the checkout experience. The tool enables businesses to create tailored checkout flows that adapt to customer profiles and shopping behaviors. Key features include seamless integration with multiple payment systems and no-code checkout customization.
Benefits:
Cost: Bold Memberships start at $9,99/month, Bold Checkout has a 1% transaction fee, and Custom plans range from $19,99 to $199,99/month.
Salsify is a cloud-based product experience management platform designed for e-commerce businesses. It enables brands and manufacturers to manage, optimize, and syndicate product information across various e-commerce channels. The tool focuses on improving product content management, digital asset management, and team collaboration.
Benefits:
Cost: It starts at approximately $1,000-$1,500/month. There is no free version, but a free trial is available.
Refersion is an e-commerce business automation tool that assists e-commerce brands in managing, tracking, and scaling their affiliate, influencer, and ambassador marketing programs. As an affiliate marketing platform, it includes various tools to enhance affiliate relationships and improve ROI. Key features include SKU and coupon tracking and affiliate payment management.
Benefits:
Cost: starts at $99/month. Has a free trial.
Nosto is an advanced Commerce Experience Platform (CXP) that leverages artificial intelligence to enhance online commerce experiences. It's designed to help brands automate and personalize the shopping experience across various digital touchpoints without needing extensive IT resources.
Benefits:
Cost: Available upon request. It is primarily based on a percentage of the sales it generates through its services, ranging from 2.5% to 4%.
Videoly is designed for e-commerce that automates the integration of product videos onto online store pages. This service helps retailers and brands enhance their online shopping experience by making relevant video content easily accessible to shoppers directly on product pages.
Benefits:
Cost: Available upon request. No free plan or free trial.
Suppose you identified the need for e-commerce business automation tools in your store. What should you do next? With the diversity of automation software on the market for every goal and budget, it is easy to get lost. Let's find out the next steps together.
Plenty of directions might need some improvement and process acceleration: marketing, shipping and delivery, tax payments, customer support, process optimization, personalization, analytics, and checkout. Identify your business needs and objectives. Ask yourself what you want to implement, where, and what the expected results are, and proceed to select the right e-commerce automation tools.
Check automation platforms and tools and compare their cost, features, integrations, and overall convenience for your store.
Things to seek for the best automation experience:
While replacing repetitive tasks with automation will benefit your business, remember to balance it with a human approach. While you can introduce customer support automation, you cannot completely eliminate human interaction. Excellent customer service involves people to some extent, building loyalty and trust. Refrain from compromising the quality of your customer experience by relying solely on automation.
New software implementation requires building a roadmap that indicates stages, integrations, and workflows, as well as planning staff training sessions. After a smooth transition, consider measuring performance to gain insights about your automation efforts. If needed, make adjustments.
With the growing demand for online shopping worldwide, the use of e-commerce automation tools seems inevitable. They benefit businesses and customers, as companies can cut costs and proceed with scaling their services while customers get first-class offers, communication and support.
If your business requires a custom approach, consider custom e-commerce software development of tailored automation tools. Contact us to get more information about our services. NEKLO is always here to help!
US-based and operating globally, NEKLO spearheads digital transformation initiatives for businesses worldwide. We deliver software solutions complying with your market and legislation.
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