E-commerce has long ceased to be something new and unique. We live in a world where almost every company has an online sales platform. However, not all of them can boast of success, and the reason for this often lies in insufficient process automation.
Today, marketing automation is an integral part of online business strategies, greatly easing customer interactions and boosting efficiency. It affects all aspects of e-commerce, from customer acquisition to after-sales service.
What is marketing automation and how does it work?
Marketing automation refers to leveraging technology to autonomously perform various marketing activities, such as:
- distributing email newsletters;
- launching advertising campaigns;
- collecting analytics;
- or even engaging with customers.
You no longer have to send each message to a client by hand, as a program now does all this work by analyzing user behavior and making decisions accordingly. Automation tools can work 24/7, without forgetting about a single client, and relieve employees from routine work so that they can focus on more creative and strategically important tasks.
An example of such tools can be CPaaS provided by BSG world. It includes voice bots, bulk SMS, and many other useful features for communication with clients, thereby saving time and increasing work accuracy.
The impact of marketing automation on e-commerce sales
The transition to automation in e-commerce has a direct impact on sales. First, due to increased personalization. Marketing automation helps collect and analyze information about customers, allowing you to tailor offers that appeal to each individual buyer. For example, the system may easily determine that a customer has viewed a certain product but didn’t purchase it. The trigger is then automatically activated, sending a reminder or discount proposal. As a result, the likelihood that a person will return and make a purchase increases.
Moreover, automation greatly increases the speed of order processing and boosts customer service quality. Automatic alerts regarding the delivery status, reminders for items left in the cart, or personalized discount offers – all this helps to maintain the customer’s interest and simplify their path to purchase.
What is important to consider when implementing automation in a business process?
Thus, automation can make a lot of tasks much easier. And this is indeed true. But if it is implemented incorrectly, you may not get what you expect. There are a few important points to consider:
- Configurations. It is essential to configure the system properly to ensure it benefits the business and does not create unnecessary challenges. Companies often worry that automation will take work away from people, yet in reality, the opposite happens — it frees up resources, allowing the team to focus on more creative and strategic tasks. This is especially true in fields like content creation or setting up advertising campaigns.
- Integration. CRM systems are often used in e-commerce, so it’s important to integrate automation with existing tools to ensure they function seamlessly together. Otherwise, you can easily miss important details when communicating with clients.
- Data analysis. Don’t forget about data. Marketing automation is usually associated with the analysis of huge amounts of information. The right analytics tools can help avoid mistakes, making marketing strategy more accurate and personalized. BSG offers detailed reports to track campaign performance across a wide range of metrics. This, in turn, allows for more informed and, importantly, more profitable decisions for business.
As practice shows, companies that competently implement automation increase sales and significantly increase customer loyalty. This is exactly the case when technology works for people, and not vice versa. After all, the main goal of automation is to improve the quality of customer interactions, and not just simplify business processes.