Small business managers and eCommerce entrepreneurs are always preoccupied with several things such as marketing the business, improving sales and revenue, boosting their brand awareness, and much more. However, at a point, these will inhibit your growth as you won’t be able to handle every aspect properly as your attention will be divided. When faced with this situation, you need to re-strategize and look for a way to use eCommerce process automation.
What is eCommerce Process automation?
Business automation is a broad topic that is hard to define. However, for some businesses, it might mean automating every automatable process of a company. In contrast, it can also mean setting automated emails to respond to customers once a particular action is taken. In this article, our focus will be on key principles to eCommerce process automation.
Key principles of eCommerce Process Automation
Repetitive tasks
Business automation is perfect when your business usually runs repetitive tasks. You can think of anything a small business manager repeatedly does without adding any significant thought or value. These repetitive takes include report creation, auditing, accounting functions, and email marketing. However, with an automation system, you can avoid these repetitive tasks and allow the software to automate the process.
Specific tasks
Your goal should be to automate some particular tasks instead of automating the larger ones. Therefore, focus on creating reports that display how works access the learning management system. You can either automate the creation or monitor the analytic data. Furthermore, you can create automated emails to provide information about your daily sales.
Aim to save time & money
For a small business, automation should save your money, time, or both. Small business owners often work longer hours than expected. It can be a great relief when you automate your business processes to have free time. Likewise, if you struggle with the issue of cash flow, automation can help you save money.
Running an automated process that doesn’t provide any return on investment means your business is suffering. An important part of the eCommerce process automation principle is to measure if your automaton is saving your money or not. With this, you can know if to continue with the automation or stop it.
Work with easy workflows first
Once you start automating your business, ensure your workflow comes first. If you operate a small business, you can start with marketing since they are somewhat direct. For instance, a new customer subscribes to your emails, and you send them an automated welcome message. Today, several tools and platforms allow you to automate processes like this.
Daily tasks first
Once you start to automate your business processes, you should begin with the daily tasks. When you ask any time management expert, they will tell you the best way to save time is through batch activities. For instance, you save more time checking your emails in batches than flipping through the mails every minute. Furthermore, some weekly tasks might not contribute to your business growth, but automating daily tasks can help you understand where you are going.
