Efficient management of online store thanks to e-commerce automation

Why is effective online store management a real competitive advantage?

Whether you sell electronics, clothes, or home accessories, as an e-commerce store owner, you are in a constant race for customer attention. Especially if you operate in dropshipping, where many sellers offer identical products, analyzing competitors' prices or monitoring CPC rates is probably your biggest nightmare. Without proper automation of e-commerce processes, it is very easy to be left behind — it is enough for your biggest competition to hire another person to manage marketing or sales, so that their content becomes more visible to potential customers. In digital marketing, even a small change can make a big difference. This is shown by the data from the VirtualDevelopment report, in which the author emphasizes that the first position in Google achieves a CTR of 32%, while the third already reaches only 19%.

We must therefore remember that even a small decrease in the visibility of our website or products on marketplaces can have huge consequences. More and more e-commerce companies are coping with these difficulties through implementation of solutions that automate business processes. Improvements such as automatic sales alerts or auto-monitoring of e-commerce KPIs are no longer just a convenience, but are beginning to be a necessary tool in the fight against dynamically operating competition. Read more about how automated solutions can support individual areas of your online sales, such as marketing or inventory management, in the next part of the article.

Optimize sales across multiple e-commerce channels

Multi-channel sales is one of the biggest challenges for companies scaling into multiple markets. In international e-commerce or manufacturers' stores selling in many markets, it is necessary not only to adapt content, language versions or currencies, but above all to manage product data in e-commerce in a consistent, efficient and as automated way as possible.

Centralization and automation of product information management

And this is where PIM systems come to our aid — they allow full centralization of product information and its distribution to all used sales channels — online stores, marketplaces, ERP systems, CRM systems or marketing automation tools. It is the integrations with the tools used in the online store that make PIM the foundation of the entire e-commerce ecosystem, thus enabling the creation of effective and advanced automation systems.

Thanks to PIM and dedicated automations:

• product data is consistent and always up to date
• updates can be performed simultaneously for multiple markets,
• errors resulting from manual rewriting of information are eliminated,
• it is possible to implement validation rules to improve the quality of the data,
• the introduction of new products is much faster,
• Teams have access to a single, structured database of information.

Data centralization in PIM is the basis for scaling sales in multiple countries and collaborating with external systems and integrators. However, remember to choose the right PIM for e-commerce, tailored to the needs of your business and processes. More about how to choose the right system in the omnichannel strategy, we wrote here: https://www.sagiton.pl/en/blog/pim-and-omnichannel-strategy

Automated management of store multilingualism and SEO

Another e-commerce challenge, which is mainly faced by entrepreneurs selling abroad, is the customization of product descriptions and names for SEO. Optimizing product management in many countries means not only preparing multilingualism, but also reducing the time to create and update product descriptions. Thanks to the implementation of PIM, it is possible to avoid language errors and automate the optimization of content for SEO in different countries - all you have to do is enter or generate an optimized description for one market, and the system automatically assigns the appropriate language versions for the others. If you have a multilingual online store, SEO optimization automation is sure to save your team many hours a month.

Measuring the effectiveness of marketing activities in the e-commerce industry

The worst enemy of making sound business decisions is data dispersion. How, as the owner of an online store, are you supposed to effectively plan activities if the number of products sold is in one system, the costs of advertising campaigns in the other, and the user engagement rates in the third? Such a division makes it difficult to react quickly, slows down the analysis and prevents a complete picture of the situation. Therefore, in today's e-commerce world, the automation of marketing analytics and sales data becomes key, which allows you to combine information from different sources in one place and support the current analysis of the results of an online store.

Marketing Analytics Automation — Possible Solutions

The solution to the problem of distributed data can be the implementation of a dedicated analytical dashboard that integrates all sources of information — online stores, marketplaces, advertising systems and analytical tools. Currently, there are many ready-made solutions for this type of analysis, but they often turn out to be insufficient. They limit flexibility by imposing a way to categorize data or lack dedicated integrations with certain marketplaces. That is why more and more e-commerce companies decide to create dedicated sales dashboards using no-code or low-code technology. This approach allows you to quickly build analytics applications without having to write code from scratch, which significantly reduces deployment time and reduces costs compared to traditional development. At Sagiton, we also create e-commerce dashboards, e.g. based on the Airtable tool, which allows flexible data integration and customization of functionality to individual business needs. This allows the team to track key sales metrics, campaign costs and conversions in a single panel, as well as assess which marketing channels are the most profitable. This type of optimization eliminates manual reporting, speeds up the decision-making process and allows you to instantly respond to changes in user behavior or sales results.

Case Study: Ecommerce Marketing Dashboard for Contact Lens Manufacturer

A startup from the e-commerce industry operating in the UK market which introduced the sale of contact lenses in a subscription model - customers could order products with delivery in selected cycles. However, such a sales system requires constant monitoring of profitability and dynamic responses, such as adjusting prices or advertising budgets in response to changing costs and demand.

The company's problem was the lack of a tool that would allow analysis of marketing data in e-commerce. The information was scattered between different platforms, which made it difficult to carry out an effective analysis of the results of the online store, as well as optimize advertising expenses and check the real return on investment.

So we implemented an interactive dashboard that integrated information from many sources — sales data, social media marketing campaigns and website traffic reports. With this marketing analytics automation, the team was able to precisely allocate advertising budgets, identify the most profitable sales channels and make decisions based on reliable information in real time.

Case study: Automation of e-commerce reporting for a customer from the electrical industry

For an international power tool manufacturer, we have implemented an extensive e-commerce platform with an online product catalog, allowing users to quickly go to dealer stores offering the selected product in their country. After the launch of the service, however, the integration of marketing analytics and the implementation of a system allowing online sales reporting and evaluation of the effectiveness of individual channels became a key step.

The customer's problem was the lack of tools to analyze the effectiveness of sales channels — he needed a solution that would measure how traffic from his product catalog translates into real sales results, how many users go to reseller sites and which of them generate the largest volume of orders.

As part of the solution, we combined the platform with analytical tools, which enabled detailed tracking of traffic sources (source/medium) and automatic generation of reports. Thanks to the automation of sales data, the manufacturer gained full insight into which distribution channels and which resellers are delivering the best results. The new reporting system now allows you to monitor the effectiveness of actions in real time and make data-driven decisions.

Efficient management of your online store thanks to customer service automation

A well-functioning customer service is an element that builds loyalty to your brand. Customers who receive quick responses, are informed about the status of the order and have a positive experience with the service, are much more likely to return for subsequent purchases. This way, your business doesn't have to constantly increase its budget for Google Ads or social media campaigns to attract new audiences. Instead, it builds a stable base of returning customers. Proper optimization of customer service processes allows, among other things, to improve communication, reduce the response time of support and reduce the number of errors resulting from manual handling of queries. Below you will find some good practices that will improve the quality of customer service in your online store.

Automated Ecommerce Notifications

Automatic notifications and notifications are one of the simplest yet most effective customer service automation tools. In e-commerce, these may include, but are not limited to:

• order and payment confirmations,
• information on the status of the shipment and the expected delivery date,
• notifications about the availability of products that were previously unavailable,
• Reminders of abandoned carts
• personalized product recommendations based on your purchase history.

Thanks to such automated messages, the customer has the feeling that the store is functioning efficiently and is oriented to his needs. At the same time, such automation of e-commerce processes effectively saves the time of the service team, which can focus on more complex cases thanks to it.

Automation of complaints and returns

The complaints and returns process is a frequent flashpoint in e-commerce. However, the automation of these processes allows you to significantly reduce customer frustration and improve the image of the store. Systems that generate return forms, complaint statuses or shipping labels streamline the entire process for both the customer and the service team. More complex optimizations in this area are, for example, automatic analysis of complaints in real time, which can relieve your team of persistent complaints resolution. We wrote more about improving efficiency in the area of complaints and returns in the article: https://www.sagiton.pl/en/blog/automation-of-complaints-returns-and-servicing

How does automation improve warehouse management?

Automation in the area of logistics and inventory management can also have a big impact on the efficiency of an online store. Properly created systems based on artificial intelligence and machine learning can allow you to predict the traffic of your online store. This is a rather complicated optimization, however, properly implemented, it allows you to better plan the demand for products and avoid both commodity shortages and excess stocks.

In addition to forecasting, it is also worth considering implementing a low inventory notification feature. Thanks to such notifications, the team does not have to constantly check the warehouse. If it has ever happened in your e-commerce that at a crucial moment of sales, such as Black Friday or the holiday season, the best-selling products disappeared from the shelves - then it is probably time to think about such optimization. Gain efficient inventory management and reduce errors due to delays or mistakes with automated e-commerce notifications.

Take back time with an integrated management system for your online store!

The optimizations we wrote about above — from the implementation of a sales dashboard for e-commerce, through PIM and customer service automation, to efficient warehouse management — are just examples of solutions that can really improve the efficiency of your online store. However, our experience shows that every e-shop has its own individual challenges — different processes, integrations and business priorities. Therefore, the key to success is not to copy ready-made tools, but to match the solutions to the real needs of your organization.

If you notice that your business is losing efficiency, information is scattered between different systems, and reporting takes too much time — consider implementing a dedicated automation system. This type of solution will allow you to combine and organize all your sales information in one place, thanks to which it will be possible to fully integrate data from marketing channels, analytical systems or sales platforms. Moreover, a well-designed system becomes a convenient e-commerce reporting tool that will reduce analysis time and facilitate data-driven decision making in your business. Managers will focus on business development, rather than manually organizing spreadsheets or spreadsheets.

If you want to find out which automation could best support your e-commerce — contact us and arrange a free online consultation. During the conversation, our specialist will preliminarily analyze the processes in your store and advise on what technological solutions will help you regain time, increase efficiency and gain an advantage over the competition.