4 Functions of Your Ecommerce Business That Should be Automated

4 Functions of Your Ecommerce Business That Should be Automated Automated Ecommerce functions are the most disruptive force in online business right now, learn what Ecommerce functions you should automate.

Time is money in business.

You only have so many minutes in a day, and every one of them is an opportunity to generate income. If you’re doing something productive, you’re generating money for the business. If you’re wasting time, you’re losing it. This means that you’re losing money if you’re wasting time doing things that could be automated. This is why business automation is taking off in a big way. However, you may not be comfortable automating certain processes.

Here are 4 functions in your ecommerce business that should be automated.

1. Marketing

Content marketing can be a full-time job for someone and can be extremely time consuming. However, it doesn’t have to take up so much of your or your employees’ time, and it could be easily automated using the right resources.

You can use apps to find content based on images, hashtags and locations. Then you can choose the best pieces for your marketing campaigns. You can let the system post curated content and crafted marketing pieces on your social media accounts on a set schedule. You can also capture leads by offering free content in exchange for signing up. They input their information, and the system automatically sends them the video, PDF, eBook or other incentive for signing up.

Marketing automation can take other forms. This includes but isn’t limited to tracking prospects, generating to do lists, ensuring follow-up and capturing data when closing sales. For example, your team could be sent an immediate assignment to follow up on email contact requests. Ecommerce Automated software should take contact information from the online form and save it into your database while relaying the information to your sales team. You can also use software to send a personalised message based on a pre-written template to the prospect.

Automation allows you to respond quickly to the prospect, and responding in the first 30 minutes correlates to 20 times greater odds that they buy from you.

You can also use automation to follow up with new networking connections.

Don’t forget to follow up with existing customers. New prospects have a 5 to 20 percent chance of buying from you, compared to 60 to 70 percent for an existing customer. Use automation to send emails to remind customers to stock up, opposed to slowly realizing that they need to buy more. This way, they’re more likely to buy from you. Reminding customers about abandoned shopping carts increases the odds that they will complete the purchase. This will significantly increase sales because around two thirds of customers abandon their shopping cart. This may be because they weren’t ready to buy, but it may also be because they forgot.

2. Human Resources

Nearly every aspect of the recruiting process for Ecommerce businesses can be automated. For example, you can automate the collection of resumes and testing of candidates. You can use software to automate steps like asking candidates to submit their names and contact information and confirm their email address. Let the system send them a list of preliminary questions. The software will inform the appropriate person when the candidate has submitted their answers along with the job application. This process will weed out people who can’t follow simple directions or won’t follow through. You’ll also have all of the applicants’ information in a single location, making it easier to sort through.

Small businesses also benefit from using automated tools to manage employment benefits, taxes, insurance, payroll and insurance. This moves HR away from paper based systems, saving them time and money. It frees them up to focus on the human element.

3. Finance

Many aspects of business finance can be automated. A simple starting point is mileage tracking. Let employees record their mileage and other travel expenses in apps for their expense reports. Some apps let your employees automatically track mileage and time driven by activating and deactivating the app when driving during business hours. You can automate the entire time-tracking process as well. These tools can alert employees when they need to submit their timesheet.

You can automate your accounts payable and receivable, too. For example, you want to stay on top of customers with failed billing charges. You don’t want to lose business because customers forgot to update their credit card information with you, and then you have to reject their next purchase. Be proactive by collecting payment via automated processes. This includes any subscriptions and other recurring fees. Scan customer information in the client management system for credit cards expiring in the next month, and send a reminder to customers to update their information.

The benefits of process automation are perhaps strongest in accounts payable automation. People like Efficiency Leaders can create smart, simple to use interfaces that integrate with your accounting software, no matter what software or systems your organisation uses. The automation saves everyone time, improves accuracy and makes it easier to take advantage of a variety of services. You can also combine document process automation with financial process automation. For example, this allows you to send important documents like contracts and tax forms to the appropriate people automatically. You can also receive contracts and tax documents and have the information automatically feed to your database. With automation, you will send bills, invoices and payment reminders effortlessly.

4. Customer Service

Customer service can be repetitive. You can use the tools to automatically fill in reason codes and issue stock replies for the most common questions customers ask. A side benefit of accounts receivable automation is that tasks like sending bills and receiving payment are handled automatically, allowing your team to focus on detail oriented and strategic tasks. They will then be able to handle any inaccurate invoices or customer complaints. The information about customer interactions is also collected in a single location, so your team has all of the information on invoices, payments and orders at hand.

Business process automation doesn’t mean you have to give up control of the process or remove the human touch. Instead, it automates a lot of rote work and frees up your team to do what automated systems can’t.

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by Chris London of Pixel Productions Inc. The Everything Design Company