10 Ecommerce Automations to Boost Productivity and Customer Engagement
Written by Ashutosh Cheulkar, Sr. Inbound Marketer at Automate.io. When Ashutosh is not geeking out about different ways to attract and engage users, you can find him on his couch binge-watching movies or on the quest for a gastronomical delight.
With competition in the ecommerce industry growing by the minute there are two problems every ecommerce store owner is looking to solve:
1. How do I manage everything from inventory to sales while running a tight ship?
2. How do I improve customer retention and drive repeat purchases?
The answer to both those questions is the same—ecommerce automation. If set up properly it will act like Robin to your Batman and help you fight all your worries related to scaling your business and improving customer experience.
“80% of people stop doing business with a company because of poor customer experience.”
To ensure that it doesn’t happen to your business, here are some automations every ecommerce business should set up right away to boost productivity and improve customer experience.
1. Sync ShipStation customers with your CRM
Syncs with: Mailchimp, Salesforce, AWeber
With most businesses now using multiple apps for different functions from marketing to support, customers are leaving a trail of their experience with your brand across these apps. In order for businesses to get a complete picture of their customer’s journey, it’s important for them to consolidate this data from different sources and store it in a single place. More often than not, that place is your CRM.
This is where an integration platform like Automate.io comes into play. It enables all your different apps to talk to each other and keep the data in-sync automatically, while you focus on making informed decisions rather than doing the grunt work.
One such instance in your customer journey that needs to be synced at all times with your CRM and email marketing software is when you receive a new order in ShipStation. It allows you to send the relevant communication to your customers right away and in doing so it improves the post-order experience for your customers.
How to set up the automation:
- Sync ShipStation customers as Mailchimp subscribers
- Push ShipStation customers as Salesforce contacts
- Add ShipStation customers as AWeber subscribers
Time saved: 56 minutes per week.
Outcome: Keeps your customers engaged.
2. Create new ShipStation orders from other apps
Syncs with: Google Sheets, Shopify, WooCommerce, Typeform, Stripe
Send order data from different ecommerce platforms, forms, and payment apps to ShipStation automatically.
This automation not only saves you from manually entering the order data in ShipStation, but it also helps you in scaling and making your shipping process efficient by eliminating human error.
By sending order data from different sources to ShipStation instantly, you’re also ensuring what all shoppers expect from an ecommerce brand—for their orders to ship and get delivered on time.
How to set up the automation:
- Add new Shopify orders to ShipStation
- Add new WooCommerce orders to ShipStation
- Add new ShipStation orders from new Google Sheet rows
- Add new ShipStation orders from new Typeform entries
- Create new ShipStation order from Stripe charges
Time saved: 45 minutes per week.
Outcome: Makes your shipping process efficient.
3. Create invoices for new ShipStation orders
Syncs with: QuickBooks Online, Xero
When you send out a sales invoice to your customers, you’re indirectly instilling a sense of trust in them towards your brand. The proof of purchase acts as a comforting reminder that if there are any issues with their order, they can always reach out to you for assistance.
What happens when there’s a delay in sending out an invoice? If you’re an established brand, the customers might treat it as a one-off case and expect the invoice to arrive shortly. That’s often not the case if you’re a new ecommerce player. A delay in sending out sales invoices on successful payment can negatively impact how your customers perceive your brand.
However, you can easily automate the entire invoicing process using Automate.io if you’re using apps like QuickBooks Online or Xero. All you have to do is set up an automation that runs every time you get a new order in ShipStation and creates an invoice in your choice of invoicing software. This automation is very useful for ecommerce businesses running a tight ship.
How to set up the automation:
Time saved: 45 minutes per week.
Outcome: Instills a sense of trust in your customers instantly.
4. Change order status in ShipStation based on new fulfillment events
Syncs with: Shopify, Google Sheets, Airtable
Online delivery tracking gives reassurance to your customers that their orders will soon be on their doorstep. However, with all the cogs involved right from placing the order to delivery, we know it’s easier said than done. That’s where this automation can come to your rescue.
If you’re receiving fulfillment events from your ecommerce platform, databases, or other sources it’s a good idea to automatically update the order status in ShipStation based on it. It’ll help you accurately report the order status to your customers and in turn improve customer satisfaction.
Note: You can use Webhooks in Automate.io to get fulfillment events from other sources.
How to set up the automation:
- Change order status in ShipStation on a new fulfillment event from Shopify
- Change order status in ShipStation on a row updated in Google Sheets
- Change order status in ShipStation on a record updated in Airtable
Time saved: 30 minutes per week.
Outcome: Helps in accurately reporting order status to customers.
5. Change deal stages based on order status
Syncs with: HubSpot, Pipedrive, ActiveCampaign
As a business owner, you and your team should always have a clear view of your sales funnel. One of the most effective ways to do this for an ecommerce business is to create a sales pipeline based on the order status in your CRM.
If you have a high-volume sales pipeline, manually changing the deal stages can be cumbersome and repetitive. Instead, you can use an integration platform like Automate.io to sync order status to your CRM of choice.
How to set up the automation:
- Sync ShipStation order status to HubSpot
- Sync ShipStation order status to Pipedrive
- Sync ShipStation order status to ActiveCampaign
Once that’s done, set up an automation in the respective CRM to change deal stages based on your Order Status field. With the grunt work taken care of by automation, you can use the time to improve your sales process.
Time saved: 20 minutes per week.
Outcome: Gives your team a clear view of the sales pipeline and helps in identifying bottlenecks.
6. Set up lead scoring based on user behavior
This one can be a game-changer in boosting your customer engagement. If you haven’t already, set up lead scoring in your CRM based on user behavior. It’ll allow you to identify your new customers, hero customers, inactive customers, and personalize your communication accordingly.
All leading CRMs like HubSpot, Salesforce, and ActiveCampaign support lead scoring, you can set it up right within your CRM. Some of the parameters you can use while setting it up lead scoring are website activity, email engagement, and purchase behavior.
Time saved: Invaluable.
Outcome: Allows you to effectively segment customers and personalize communication.
7. Enroll your subscribers in a nurturing workflow
Syncs with: HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp
“Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales leads at a 33% lower cost per lead.”
Now that you have your lead scoring in place, it’s time to create nurturing sequences that keep your shoppers engaged, drive repeat business, and win back cart abandoners. If you’re using apps like Facebook Lead Ads, Typeform, Wufoo to generate leads for your ecommerce business, you can easily enroll those leads into your preferred email marketing software using Automate.io.
With all the information from different apps at your disposal, you can also create goal-based nurturing sequences that focus on converting your new shoppers into loyal customers and then turn them into a brand advocate.
Here are some amazing nurturing sequences for ecommerce business that will inspire you to create your own!
How to set up the automation:
- Add new Facebook Leads to a nurturing workflow in HubSpot
- Add new Typeform entries to an ActiveCampaign automation
- Add new Wufoo submissions to a Mailchimp automation
Time saved: 60 minutes per week.
Outcome: Helps in engaging new shoppers, drive repeat purchases, and win back cart abandoners.
8. Send notifications based on order status
Syncs with: Nexmo, Twilio, Gmail, Slack
While email and order status pages are a great way to keep your customers notified about their orders, there’s another channel that your customers prefer to receive order updates: SMS.
A study by Retail Dive states SMS engagement rates are six to eight times higher than email marketing engagement rates. Time to boost your customer engagement by incorporating SMS as a communication channel.
Another way, you can use SMS is to notify your team and make sure they are always on top of any new orders that come your way.
How to set up automation for your customers:
- Send an email via Gmail on change in ShipStation order status
- Send an SMS via Twilio on change in ShipStation order status
- Send an SMS via Nexmo on change in ShipStation order status
How to set up the automation for your team members:
- Send a Slack notification on new ShipStation orders
- Send a message in Microsoft teams on new ShipStation orders
Time saved: 30 minutes per week.
Outcome: Always keeps your team and customers in the loop.
9. Create support tickets based on contact tags
Syncs with: Zendesk, Freshdesk
Your sales and support teams engage with your end users frequently on pre-sales questions, bugs, feature requests, stock availability, and other support issues. Not maintaining a process to actively track the first-response and resolution time on these queries can often lead to poor customer experience.
A common practice followed by most customer-facing teams is to tag customers based on their requests/issues to make the filtering process easier. If your team already follows this, you can take it a step further by using automation to create support tickets every time a contact is tagged in your CRM. It’ll help your team monitor and resolve all the queries effectively and in doing so also enhance the end-user experience.
How to set up the automation:
- Create Zendesk tickets on new contacts tagged in Intercom
- Create Freshdesk tickets on new contacts tagged in ActiveCampaign
Time saved: 45 minutes per week.
Outcome: Minimizes the first response time for support queries.
10. Ask your customers for product reviews
Your engagement with your customers shouldn’t stop after they have purchased from you. Work on creating an experience that encourages your customers to be a part of your growth story.
Remember, your customers are your most valuable asset and they can help you take your business to the next level. Ask them for feedback on how you can improve your shopping experience, incentivize them for reviewing your products, and don’t forget to include them in your market research and product launch surveys.
The best way to do this is to tag your customers and enroll them in post-sales email automation based on their behavior and lead score. You can reach out to this segment when you have a relevant communication to send.
Time saved: 60 minutes per week.
Outcome: Build social proof and credibility.
In conclusion, your team can easily save 7-8 hours of repetitive work every week and improve customer engagement by putting these automations to work.
Want to learn more ways on how you can improve the post-order experience for your customers? Check out Automate.io’s ShipStation integration.