Top 8 Benefits of Automation in eCommerce

eCommerce has become a lucrative industry. The times are changing, and so are consumer habits. This works in eCommerce’s favor as around 94% of global internet users have bought products online.

People are starting to purchase and browse products on the internet increasingly. Once a feared activity, digital shopping is now an integral part of our lives.

If you run an eCommerce business, this means you should think ahead. Your business will grow, and its customer base will increase. You won’t have time for repetitive tasks or room for mistakes at one point.

What would you do then? Let your consumers down? Absolutely not—you should have a trick up your sleeve. In this case, that trick is called automation.

Automating your online business will give you the most valuable resource—time. When you automate content creation or mundane tasks, you can focus on improving your marketing strategies and increasing conversions.

In this article, we’ll talk about eCommerce automation, its benefits, and more.

What is automation in eCommerce?

eCommerce automation refers to the use of software or tools to complete various tasks, which eliminates or minimizes the need for human intervention. This speeds up the processes and ensures a smooth operation within your company.

Why should you leverage eCommerce automation? As your business grows, the demands increase. Strategies that used to work become ineffective and useless. You have to find a solution, or customer satisfaction, team productivity, and sales will decrease.

Automation is the solution you need. eCommerce automation platforms can help your company streamline various business processes. From content generation courtesy of AX Semantics to automated emails thanks to Mailchimp, your eCommerce business can continue to grow without a problem.

Although specific tasks can’t be automated, many require some or no human input.

For instance, there’s no need for your team to write product descriptions with a similar structure every day. That would be time-consuming, not to say a complete waste of your resources. Instead, you can use a natural language generation tool like AX Semantics to create product descriptions using the structured data you put in. In that way, you have complete control over your content.

Identify which areas to automate

As your online business grows, you should search for new technologies that can make your life easier. eCommerce automation tools are a great starting point if you want to take the workload off your employees’ shoulders and improve your processes.

This has been recognized by other businesses that leverage automation tools:

• 76% of companies use automation
• Almost 40% of marketers plan to utilize automation more

The question is—how did these companies know which eCommerce processes they could automate? There are no rules per se, but there are some guidelines you can follow.

Automated tasks: How to determine what to automate

Time-consuming tasks can exhaust your employees. They might slow them down, with your consumers paying the price because your business is sticking to the traditional way of doing business. Don’t let this happen—use today’s technology to its full potential.

Introduce automation to your business processes. If you can’t determine what to automate, keep this in mind:

1. More than two people are completing a task manually. A process isn’t efficient if it takes more than two people to accomplish it. If they have to do it manually as well, you have room for many human errors.
2. A task is time-sensitive. Your employees inevitably have deadlines for certain tasks. For instance, they need to deliver several finance reports every day. Why not leverage AX Semantics’ Natural Language Generation (NLG) software for data-based writing and enable your employees to focus on more creative tasks once they set up the rules? Our software will complete the task on time.
3. Too many human errors occur. Mistakes are bound to happen. Too many mistakes, however, can slow down your business processes and ruin the customer experience. If this happens, you should invest in automation tools.
4. A task involves reporting and analysis. Data is everything in today’s business world. Creating reports and analyses, however, can be time-consuming and mundane. This is where automated workflows come in to streamline the process.

If your tasks check some of the above boxes, it’s a clear sign you need eCommerce automation tools. 

Examples of automation in the eCommerce industry

As eCommerce automation becomes more prevalent, we’re finding more ways to use it. eCommerce businesses that want to grow will leverage automation for various tasks. Here are a few examples of eCommerce automation.

Generate content with automation tools

Content is king. This is an adage we’ve all accepted. What you write on your eCommerce website can make or break your business. For instance, a survey found that 40% of customers returned an online order due to inaccurate product descriptions.

You don’t want to move customers down the sales funnel only to disappoint them when they reach its end. The customer experience you offer should be impressive throughout every stage. This means that even your content needs to be engaging and accurate.

Sometimes, however, your content team can’t meet every deadline. There are dozens of product descriptions or category pages they need to write. Why would they waste precious time on this when they can leverage workflow automation?

eCommerce automation enables you to use content generation tools such as AX Semantics. Instead of exhausting your employees with repetitive tasks, you can use software that does the work for them. This automated workflow allows them to focus on more pressing tasks while the tool takes care of content generation for them.

AX Semantics analyzes just the data you input, and the rules you define—no additional (external) data is used. The finest feature is that when you have a huge number of items with multiple variations, it handles it efficiently (grammatically correct) and gives a large number of descriptions.

One significant benefit of this strategy is that you only need to create the rule set and statement text for a specific type of product once. After that, AX Semantics can repeat the process for hundreds, thousands, or even millions of items.

When you use our product description generator, you automate the creation of SEO product descriptions and meet all your business needs. Say goodbye to mundane tasks and embrace the future of content creation with AX Semantics.

Automate inventory management

eCommerce businesses need to have an efficient inventory management system. Without it, they can lose revenue and customer loyalty when products continue to go out of stock.
You can avoid this by automating your inventory management if you have an online store. You will always know when an item is low in stock. Inventory management automation will also enable you to update products quickly and easily.

Send emails to customers who abandon their carts

Shopping cart abandonment is a huge issue for eCommerce brands. One research showed that the average online store loses 75% of their sale revenue to digital cart abandonment. 

How do you connect with those customers who leave your website without buying? With eCommerce automation!

Instead of accepting your fate and losing revenue, you can send abandoned cart reminders. These emails can be automated and targeted at consumers who have products in their shopping cart.

Tools like Squarespace have an abandoned cart recovery feature. It sends reminders to shoppers who have added products to their cart and left without finishing the purchase. The emails are sent 24 hours after they abandoned a cart, ensuring your brand reaches consumers while you’re still fresh in their minds.

8 benefits of eCommerce automation

Workflow automation is all the rage right now. It is prevalent in the eCommerce industry where businesses can automate:

• Marketing campaigns
• Content, e.g., an automation tool can write weather reports, stock market news or product descriptions
• Email marketing
• Advertising

As your business grows, automation can take on specific tasks. You won’t need to worry about:

1. Whether or not you sent a welcome email to select customer groups
2. Content writing as content generation tools will do the writing for you
3. Customer experience because automation will improve it with personalization
4. And many other things.

If your eCommerce store is considering automation, here are the benefits you can take advantage of.

Save time

eCommerce automation saves time. For instance, we at AX Semantics know you can save up to 80% of the time by automating repetitive parts of writing. If you want to take advantage of this, sign up for AX Semantics and let our software do the work for you.

Aside from content writing, you can automate numerous everyday tasks. Many of them are repetitive and time-consuming, but you can’t eliminate them because they ensure your eCommerce business runs smoothly.

What can you do then? You can determine which tasks take up most of your team’s time. When you have singled them out, find ways to automate them. As a result, you’ll get more done in less time.

Your team can save time with eCommerce tools that:

• Schedule discounts and sales
• Automate new product descriptions and category pages
• Send automatic emails to existing customers
• Provide loyalty points and rewards
• Segment customers based on some criteria

With AX Semantics, you can generate content in more than 100 languages! How come? For example, it is possible to generate multilingual text. Semantic rules in your projects are developed independently of the language and can thus be applied to any language.
So, after adapting the sentences into the desired language, the logical parts can be taken over. Because of these interactions, AX Semantics can localize contents into multiple languages in record speed. Nevertheless, the initial set of statements must be translated by a native speaker.

Now you can enter new markets and reach the very summit of the eCommerce industry with AI-generated content.

Minimize human error

A human error is bound to happen. Everyone makes mistakes no matter how many times they have done a task. eCommerce businesses should accept that. At the same time, they should introduce automation to minimize human errors.

You don’t need to keep an eye open for mistakes by automating workflows. You can, in fact, breathe a sigh of relief because reputation-damaging errors won’t occur.

Remember that eCommerce automation isn’t only about completing tasks on time. It can also be used to process huge chunks of data efficiently. When you have automation, don’t worry about order statuses, customer data, product stock, or invoices.

Consumers will receive accurate information from eCommerce automation tools, while your employees will focus on more creative tasks.

Increase team productivity

A satisfied employee is a productive employee. When are they the happiest? When they don’t have to do the same manual tasks every day.

Let’s say you’re running an e-commerce business. Your employees must write product descriptions for thousands of products every day (let’s say a round neck t-shirt). Those descriptions all have the same structure, and your employees only change the color of the t-shirt. After some time, your team will get fed up. They are basically writing the same thing every day, and it’s draining them.
Don’t allow your employees to be dissatisfied. Show initiative and introduce an eCommerce automation tool like AX Semantics. Writing product descriptions is like a walk in the park for our AI-powered content automation platform.

Our point is—automating repetitive tasks and procedures can increase productivity. Your team will complete everyday tasks quickly and efficiently. With automation tools taking care of repetitive tasks, your team can focus on things that need their constant involvement.

The system is based on predefined statements that the customer enters and sets—so that the content looks exactly how they want it to. All statements can grow into a distinct branch to produce variants for every given product.

The AX Semantics tool's fundamental operation is divided into three steps:

1. Upload your data - You can submit your data here, such as product features from your PIM system, and then wait for it to be successfully uploaded.
2. Configure a rule set - In the second stage, you'll create the rule set for your text project to fit your brand's style, tone, and other characteristics.
3. Generate content - The final stage is to create your content. It's so simple that you'll accomplish it with a single button click. Readers will find the content interesting, and it will be SEO-friendly for Google!

Now that you have the automation part covered, your team can take your business to the next level by paying attention to these growth strategies:

• The launch of a new product line based on customer feedback
• The release of a rewards program to build customer loyalty
• The implementation of new marketing strategies

The above can accelerate your company’s growth. Your team will have more time to devote to these strategies if you use eCommerce automation tools.

Boost customer satisfaction

More than 50% of consumers have made an additional purchase from a brand after a positive experience. Happy customers are returning customers. If you want to generate more sales, you’ll need to boost consumer satisfaction.

It all starts with customer service. Sure, it’s easier to handle queries in the early days of your business. However, when it becomes more popular, you’ll get hundreds of calls and emails. People from different countries and time zones will ask about your products.

It won’t be as easy to respond to each query or focus on individual customers. Their satisfaction might suffer if you don’t have eCommerce automation in place.

With automation, you can follow your online shoppers and their journeys. You will know their wants and preferences. As a result, you can personalize their digital experience.
For instance, your website will serve relevant offers and products to consumers. Instead of suggesting sneakers to a fan of boots, you can deliver just what they are looking for. This will increase sales.

Provide personalized content

According to research, 80% of customers are more likely to buy a product or service when brands provide personalized experiences. Personalization is what makes your brand stand out from the sea of others.

Unique experiences attract more customers as well. They are tired of getting the same messages over and over again. New and personalized content is what will draw them to your brand.

What can you personalize with automation? Here are some examples:

1. Recipient name in newsletters
2. Product recommendation emails based on a user’s order history and website activity
3. Messages about content they may like based on the previous blog posts they read

Our tool takes personalization to the next level. We know that product pages aren’t just about recommendations. They are effective when they can turn interest into purchases. That’s why our advanced content personalization software can help you create personalized product pages.

Our AX Personalized Commerce is a tool that relies on real-time user data to create product descriptions and category pages targeted towards each visitor. It delivers hyper-personalized messages to help you convert more consumers.

Improve marketing campaigns

Marketing automation is useful when you want to simplify tasks and understand your audience better. You can develop a marketing campaign strategy based on actual data with automation.

The process will be aimed at your target audience, catering to their needs. This will make it more relevant than other campaigns you launch without automation.

Online marketing automation helps you streamline customer communications, nurture leads, and improve your campaigns. One research showed that businesses that leveraged marketing automation to boost prospects generated a 451% increase in qualified leads.

There is no need to focus on traditional online methods when marketing automation improves your processes. Repetitive and mundane tasks like data entry are time-consuming, taking resources away from you.

You should turn to marketing automation to minimize human error and allow your employees to pay attention to more complex tasks.

Increase sales

Sales automation is helpful if you want to optimize the lead nurturing and increase your revenue. Its primary benefit is that sales teams have more time to engage with customers, answer their questions and analyze their buying behavior.

As a result, you will understand which marketing effort you need to undertake to close more deals.

How can you increase sales with automation? For instance, you can send follow-up emails about order status or order fulfillment. These automated emails mean a lot to customers who always want to be in the loop.

Their positive experience will encourage them to either buy more from you or recommend your brand to their family and friends.

Improve product descriptions

Besides team productivity and customer satisfaction, eCommerce automation also improves product descriptions.

Existing and new customers rely on your product pages to get accurate descriptions of your items. These pages help them decide whether or not they need a specific product. You should keep product descriptions up-to-date and accurate at all times.

However, it takes time for your employees to write new product descriptions manually. They use the same structure for each text and change only certain data. This can become boring to them, and opportunities for errors arise.
Eliminate the possibility for those errors by using AX Semantics—a user-friendly NLG software that helps you generate thousands of unique product descriptions.

Automate content writing with AX Semantics

AI-generated content enables you to automate the content writing process and generate thousands of texts. AX Semantics ensures eCommerce businesses, publishing companies, finance, banking, and pharma organizations save money on content writing and streamline the process.

How do we do that? Our advanced tool leverages Natural Language Generation to create human-like text based on structured data (the data only you enter).

As we mentioned above, you need to upload your structured data, e.g., product features. After that, you should configure the rule set to ensure the texts match your brand voice. Finally, wait for our software to generate your content.

The process is easy, quick, and cost-effective. You will have thousands of texts in no time.

What can you automate with AX Semantics?

AX Semantics has numerous use cases. To bring them closer to you, we have highlighted them in the below table:

Conclusion

Automation isn’t going anywhere. As long as it speeds up processes and completes tasks, eCommerce businesses will continue embracing automation.

Although you might not need automation when you’ve just started a business, you won’t be able to live without it once your company grows. Thanks to automation, content generation, personalization, and marketing campaigns can all be improved.

If you want to save a fortune on content writing, AX Semantics is there. Leave content generation to us and focus on growing your business and attracting new customers.

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