How automation can improve your e-commerce conversion rates

Why should you automate?
 

Automating your e-commerce store brings a multitude of benefits essential for staying competitive:
 

• Increased Efficiency and Speed. Automation significantly increases the effectiveness and rapidity of processing orders, updating stocks, and customer service. Automated workflows allow e-commerce businesses to save time on tasks such as email marketing or order processing.

• Reduction of Human Errors. Leveraging automation in repetitive tasks such as data entry or processing reduces the likelihood of errors.

• Personalization of Customer Experiences. Automation tools truly excel in collecting and analyzing data on customer behavior. This enables e-commerce stores to offer personalized recommendations and exclusive discounts, increasing sales and contributing to customer loyalty.

• Increased Customer Satisfaction. Automated customer service tools, such as chatbots and automatic responses on platforms like Instagram and Messenger, provide quicker responses to simple and repetitive inquiries.

• Cost Optimization. Automation reduces the need for employees to perform repetitive tasks, thereby lowering operational expenses. 

• Scalability of Business. Automation makes scaling your business more manageable. It allows for handling an increased volume of orders without the proportional need to hire more staff. Thanks to automation, you can minimize the delay you would normally need to accommodate increased activity.

• Enhanced Data Analysis. Automation software is adept at collecting, organizing, and analyzing large quantities of data. This feature leads to a more in-depth understanding of market trends and customer behaviors, enabling you to adjust your digital marketing strategy.

• Competitive Advantage. In today’s market, businesses using traditional manual processes simply cannot keep up with those leveraging automation. It is necessary for your e-commerce to remain competitive and agile in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. 

E-commerce Automation Must-haves

CX Automation

In the United States alone, the loss of revenue due to unsatisfactory customer service is estimated at a whopping 1.6 trillion dollars a year.  In the e-commerce sector, where the competition is just a click away, providing stellar customer service should be your top priority. E-stores must nurture customer relationships at every stage of the customer journey to ensure customer retention and loyalty.

Automation plays a pivotal role in providing flawless e-commerce customer service. One of its biggest advantages is the ability to respond to precise triggers based on customers' behavior. For example, automatic emails can be sent to customers who abandoned their cart or as post-purchase thank-you notes. This if-then logic ensures that messages and actions are adapted to each customer's specific needs, resulting in a more tailored and seamless experience.

As you can see, automation is a powerful tool for enhancing customer loyalty and tending to the individual needs of your audience, ultimately contributing to the success and sustainability of e-commerce businesses.
 

Chatbots and Automated Responses on Facebook and Instagram

The integration of chatbots and automated responses on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram has revolutionized how e-commerce businesses interact with their customers. These tools significantly shorten the wait time for responses, which can be crucial in de-escalating potential tensions. Often, automated responses are sufficient for addressing simple inquiries or frequently asked questions, effectively reducing the workload on customer service employees.

One of the key advantages of chatbots is their availability around the clock, providing 24/7 assistance to website visitors and social media users. This constant availability is particularly beneficial in converting website visitors into paying customers, as queries and concerns can be addressed promptly at any time without losing momentum. Moreover, AI and machine learning advancements have enabled chatbots to offer personalized recommendations and advice.

In addition to improving the customer experience, chatbots contribute to significant cost reduction. They handle many queries simultaneously, freeing up human resources for more complex tasks. Also, chatbots are instrumental in collecting customer data for analyzing behaviors and preferences. This valuable information can be utilized to refine products and services, ensuring they meet the evolving needs of your target audience.

Furthermore, chatbots can be integrated with CRM, enhancing their effectiveness. Not to mention, AI-driven chatbots can provide a multilingual service catering to a diverse, global customer base. To resume, all of the above results in better customer service, cost, and workload optimization and easier scalability of your e-commerce business.

Email Marketing Automation

Email Marketing Automation is by far the most cost-effective marketing tool, generating an ROI of $36 for every $1 spent. Thanks to automated tools, e-commerce businesses can create a segmented list of customers based on their collected information. It sets a foundation for personalized communication, such as offering smart recommendations, birthday discounts, or adapting newsletters to suit contacts at different marketing funnel stages. Omnisend, for instance, enables its users to create segments based on custom criteria or use their pre-selected settings. The website automatically splits your contact list, offering many ready-to-use categories such as:

• Active email subscribers. Subscribers who've opened at least one promotional email in the last 30 days.
   
• Window shoppers. Subscribers who frequently visit your store but haven't placed any orders yet. They've visited your store at least twice in the past 14 days.
   
• Added product to the cart but didn’t place an order. Subscribers who’ve added items to their cart in the last 14 days but haven't placed an order.
   
• Started checkout but didn’t place an order. Subscribers who’ve started checkout in the last 14 days but haven't placed an order.
   
• Celebrating birthday. Subscribers who'll celebrate their birthdays in the upcoming 7 days or within your selected period.
   
• Deal hunters. Subscribers who made a purchase during one of your sales.

… only to name a few!

When it comes to email marketing, personalization extends beyond just addressing customers by name. Adjusting your content depending on whether you address new subscribers or existing customers significantly impacts the efficiency of your emails. Tailored campaigns improve the customer experience, increase brand awareness, and encourage repeat purchases, turning first-time buyers into loyal customers. Furthermore, retargeting emails can offer deals on products that the customer had previously shown interest in, increasing your conversion rates!
 

Use Push Notifications to Increase Sales

Gaining customer’s consent for push notifications is often easier than for emails. It can be achieved by a simple pop-up prompt on the landing page of your online store, making the opt-in process straightforward and less intrusive. Push notifications are also a valuable retargeting tool!

One of the key advantages of push notifications is their directness. The information appears on the customer’s phone screen, ensuring immediate visibility and engagement. This line of communication cuts through the crowded digital space and captures customers’ attention. Online stores can tailor these notifications based on specific triggers, such as recent purchases, browsing history, or customer preferences, making each message relevant. By responding to these specific triggers, push notifications can effectively draw customers back to the online store, perhaps to items they viewed but didn’t purchase or to new products that align with their interests. Analogically, to email campaigns, it is possible to create segments to deliver targeted messages!

Lead Scoring Automation

Lead scoring automation enables businesses to track the readiness of their leads, ensuring that potential customers are addressed at the most opportune moment. It is a great tool for improving your lead nurturing process and introducing automated customer journeys. 

This method enables e-commerce owners to score leads by attributing them points based on customized criteria, often including both behavioral tracking and demographic data. The scoring software assigns points for various actions and characteristics, effectively measuring how close each lead aligns with your ideal buyer persona. The more points a lead accumulates, the more likely they are to make a purchase.

Once a lead accumulates enough points and is deemed sales-ready, this readiness is signaled to the sales team. This process ensures that the employees focus their efforts on the most promising prospects. A lead scoring system enables businesses to track their prospects at all customer journey stages and facilitate marketing operations and sales processes.
 

Automated Order Tracking
 

Automated order tracking in e-commerce stores is a win-win solution that benefits both customers and the company, streamlining operations and improving the customer experience. This tool allows live tracking of stocks, preventing overstocking and overselling. Consider featuring this information on product pages to let customers plan ahead and give them an incentive to order before the item runs out of stock!

Moreover, automated tracking enables customers to check the status of their orders and the estimated delivery date in real time without the need to contact customer service. This diminishes the workload on your employees and gives customers a sense of control and transparency over their purchases.
 

Automated Product Photography Solutions for your E-commerce Store

When it comes to building an online brand identity, the importance of product photography cannot be overstated. Product photography significantly impacts conversion rates, customer satisfaction, the number of returns, and the overall perception of your e-commerce store. Leveraging adopted automation technologies in this domain will enable you to simplify your content creation process without compromising on the quality of the imagery. Here is where Orbitvu comes into play!

Orbitvu offers automated photography solutions that cater to e-commerce stores. Our meticulously crafted devices and performing software effectively address the challenges of capturing consistent and repeatable shots of products of all types and sizes!

For instance, let’s look into the features of our Furniture Studio. The furniture industry is particularly demanding because of the size and weight of the products. Our studio, fully customizable and equipped for in-house content production, enables e-commerce owners to save time and money on logistics while delivering professional product photos. This solution combines precision-engineered hardware with cutting-edge software, Orbitvu Station.

Orbitvu’s solutions are designed to be operated easily, even by non-professionals, with minimal training. Once the perfect shot is achieved, settings can be saved and then applied to similar products. Orbitvu enables you to streamline your workflow, significantly shortening the time between the moment the photo is taken and its publication on the e-commerce platform of your choice. The software also supports automatic background removal and batch post-processing, including cropping, scaling, alignment, and direct uploading to Magento, Shopify, or PrestaShop.

Orbitvu also offers automated product photography solutions for flat-lays, smaller fashion studios suitable for shooting live models, or devices adapted for smaller items, and even jewelry, just to name a few!

Final Thoughts

As you can see, adopted automation technologies can truly take your e-commerce venture to the next level! Its advantages are numerous and profoundly impactful. From streamlining operations and enhancing customer engagement to driving sales and fostering brand loyalty, automation is a cornerstone of modern e-commerce strategies. It empowers businesses to operate more efficiently and tend to customer needs with little delay while providing a personalized experience. It also creates a space for potential growth. Automation allows businesses to scale without compromising the quality of their services and keep up in the highly competitive and dynamic e-commerce sector.

To learn more about automated photography solutions, visit our Knowledge Hub or reach out to our team!