All About eCommerce Marketing Automation: How and When To Utilize Automation Software, Benefits, and Best Marketing Automation Software To Deploy in 2024
There is simply a lot to do when running your own business. It’s important to interact on various platforms, talk to customers, and display the appropriate content on the website. The best eCommerce stores employ marketing automation to automate each of these activities.
According to studies, marketing automation is used by 49% of eCommerce companies. As a result, you and your marketing staff will save a tonne of time each month, which is a significant advantage. Additionally, you might significantly boost your revenue by better optimising your marketing initiatives.
You might not have enough time to manually send SMS, email, or chat messages to your clients or leads, for instance. But with automation, you can communicate with each user at the most advantageous moment and in the most effective manner. According to studies, the likelihood of a user making a purchase increases by 287% when they are engaged across three or more eCommerce platforms.
This article will explain eCommerce marketing automation in detail and show you how to employ it within your business.
- What is eCommerce Marketing Automation?
- Advantages Of Marketing Automation For eCommerce Businesses
- Types Of eCommerce Marketing Automations
- How To Utilize Marketing Automation Software in eCommerce?
- 6 Factors to Consider When Choosing an E-commerce Marketing Automation Platform
- 5 Best eCommerce Marketing Automation Software and Platforms in 2024
- Conclusion
- Marketing Automation FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions
What is eCommerce Marketing Automation?
eCommerce marketing automation is a term that describes software that increases a business’s productivity by automating routine marketing operations and workflows. As a result, you may concentrate more on other aspects of your business by using marketing automation to put chores like lead management, email nurturing, and remarketing advertisements on autopilot.
Marketing frequently entails repeating the same actions or tracking the same data. As a result, the individual handling it may become frustrated and spend their capacity on tedious activities.
eCommerce marketing automation frees human personnel to handle other business activities or administer sales and operations.
WareIQ, an eCommerce fulfillment company, empowers online brands with a superior-tech platform to compete with Amazon like service levels by bringing their average delivery timelines from 5-10 days to 1-2 days.
Advantages Of Marketing Automation For eCommerce Businesses
There are many advantages to implementing eCommerce marketing automation software for your business, which can help you grow your organization.
And in this section, we’ve covered a few of the most essential and valuable advantages of eCommerce marketing automation that can support your company’s expansion.
Reduces Manual Mistakes
Errors and blunders are inevitable while performing your job manually. However, you can eliminate manual errors and make sure that your campaigns are always successful by utilising eCommerce marketing automation.
Therefore, you’ll be able to streamline your marketing workflows, save time, and eliminate errors by utilising marketing automation.
Time-Saving
Saving time and streamlining your marketing efforts are two significant advantages of automating your marketing process.
With the use of solutions that automate social media posts, abandoned shopping cart alerts, email campaigns, and other marketing tasks, you’ll be able to spend less time on tedious jobs and more time on tactical endeavors that will expand your company.
Average Order Value Increases
Ecommerce marketing automation can also help you raise your average order value, which is a fantastic advantage.
You can entice customers to add more goods to their basket and spend more on each purchase by using automation technologies to send targeted upsell and cross-sell offers.
This can significantly affect your revenue and aid in the long-term expansion of your e-commerce firm.
Additionally, eCommerce marketing automation may assist you with real-time campaign optimization and overall results improvement.
Marketing automation solutions can help you achieve your goals to improve sales, build brand recognition, or draw more customers into your business.
Enhances Consumer Engagement
eCommerce marketing automation can also increase engagement and conversions by automatically distributing relevant content to leads and consumers. Owning a business necessitates regular communication with clients and other companies. As a result, you should consider investing in practical, cost-effective platforms like Constant Contact or some of its top competitors that can automate your email follow-ups, scheduling, and other tasks.
You may keep your audience interested in your brand and raise the possibility that they’ll shop at your store by delivering customised emails at the appropriate moment.
Improved Audience Targeting
Automation also makes it easier for you to target particular consumer segments with greater accuracy in your eCommerce fulfillment services.
You can divide the audiences on your email list into groups based on their interests and demographics, then send them tailored, targeted emails.
This allows you to design campaigns pertinent to your target audience’s wants and needs, increasing lead conversion and sales.
Nurture Your Clientele
You can cultivate your leads with eCommerce marketing automation by engaging with them consistently, which can help you do the same for leads and customers over time.
You may strengthen the bonds with your audience and raise the chances that they’ll shop at your store again by using automated technologies to give them educational content, special deals, or other materials.
Improved Consumer Insights
Consumer analysis is essentially made easy by marketing automation. You get consumer data, such as email addresses, dates of birth, and product preferences, every time someone subscribes to an email newsletter or buys something. Follow-up surveys might assist you in gathering further data. Additionally, you can monitor user engagement, including bounce rates, popular pages, time spent on your website, busy hours of the day, monthly unique visitors, and visitor location. All of those insights can be used to create more successful marketing initiatives.
Enhancing Workflows
Every touchpoint in the customer journey should deliver a tailored experience, according to customers. Unfortunately, that isn’t easy to do when data needs to be integrated and supplied to every company’s marketing tool. Therefore, it’s crucial to design automated workflows transporting consumer data.
Automated workflows include return operations, shipping notifications & delivery notifications, and marketing communication for new consumers.
Types Of eCommerce Marketing Automations
The most popular kinds of marketing automation campaigns that are appropriate for utilization by eCommerce businesses are listed below.
Automating Email Marketing
Business owners can plan the delivery of personalised emails to customers by automating emails. It spares internet marketers the added work of creating and sending new emails whenever a customer expresses interest in a brand or for marketing promotion objectives.
For instance, sending automated emails with suggestions for similar things that a consumer has purchased from a website or reminding a customer who placed an order but neglected to complete the transaction.
It’s a tested method of customising the user experience. You can develop a segmented mailing list using email automation to strengthen the bond between your consumers and your company.
According to studies, email is the preferred communication method for 60% of customers, making it the most efficient tool for lead generation and brand engagement.
Businesses can use email automation to build segmented subscriber email lists based on information from customer relationship management systems. Increased sales and revenue enables eCommerce marketers to convert prospects into customers.
Omnichannel Automation
In contrast to traditional marketing techniques, omnichannel automation places the client at the center of all campaign activity.
To offer a more individualised customer experience, this comprehensive multi-channel strategy incorporates the seamless integration of offline touchpoints and digital marketing channels like email marketing, SMS, and social media posts.
Omnichannel automation’s primary goal is to enable customers to interact with brands on their terms, independent of the media.
Customers frequently start their buying journeys via one media before switching to another.
By building a linked process that enables organisations to engage with customers regardless of channel, the omnichannel fulfillment strategy delivers a cohesive experience.
For instance, a brand’s website and social media pages will notice if a customer starts shopping on its mobile app. In addition, the customer will receive reminders across all platforms even days after starting the purchase.
Related Article: Omnichannel Order Management for Retailers
Automated Analytics for Customers
It is the procedure of gathering and studying user data from numerous channels. These analytics provide the practical knowledge required to develop strategies around the goods and services that clients from a particular group are interested in.
The automatic customer analytics tool can be beneficial for:
- Retaining Consumers
- Higher level of consumer involvement
- Choosing the appropriate market
- Reducing acquisition expenses
Knowing your customers’ preferences is one of your most critical goals, regardless of the medium used. Businesses may visualise data in real-time and gain a deeper understanding of their customer’s thanks to customer analytic solutions.
How To Utilize Marketing Automation Software in eCommerce?
The advantages of e-commerce marketing automation are now known, so let’s look more closely at what it can accomplish for your company. The purposes and applications of marketing automation in e-commerce are numerous, and just a few are listed here.
Emails To Rescue Abandoned Carts
Despite having the intention to buy something, clients frequently become distracted and abandon your website after adding the products to the cart. As a result, customers abandon their online carts at an average rate of 69%.
To get their attention back, in this case, you can use automation to send them abandoned cart rescue emails.
Captivate New Clients
By surprising potential customers and enticing them to continue engaging with your brand, you can use your initial campaign to draw new leads to your company. The key at this point is attractive, pertinent, and engaging content, whether it be shared via social media, a lead magnet like a free ebook, or a competition for new subscribers.
Marketing automation platforms offer drag-and-drop editors and various eCommerce-specific templates to simplify creating content. Use this to your advantage by providing your audience with enticing material. Then, draw them closer by offering a simple sign-up option (via pop-ups, for instance) for email and SMS campaigns.
Win-back Campaigns
You may also use eCommerce marketing automation to re-engage clients who haven’t interacted with your business recently.
You can re-engage these clients and persuade them to do more business with you by sending automated emails with unique offers or other niche content.
If you want to expand your eCommerce firm, use win-back programmes, which can be an effective marketing tactic.
Instantaneous Communications
eCommerce businesses can also employ marketing automation solutions to enable real-time interactions and maintain constant contact with the audience.
eCommerce marketing automation technologies make it simple to rapidly reply to consumer feedback, solve customer inquiries and problems, or offer individualised service.
You could, for instance, design an automated email pipeline that sends an email immediately after a user interacts with your website. As a result, eCommerce businesses may offer a better customer experience and raise the possibility that customers will do business with them in the future using real-time communications.
Engage Existing Consumers
Recurring clients are essential for business growth since they raise revenues by 25–95% with a 5% increase in customer retention. In addition, you have won their faith and trust since they have previously demonstrated their desire to buy your stuff.
By making it simple to provide exciting material automatically, marketing automation can help increase brand loyalty. In addition to boosting customer lifetime value (LTV) and your bottom line, setting up a post-purchase email campaign for consumers who have already made a purchase can foster brand community building and encourage them to view you as a “lifestyle choice” rather than a one-time buy.
Gather Customer Feedback
Social proof is a must for eCommerce companies. You may quickly create social proof by creating an automatic email or SMS inviting clients to post reviews. You can gather new customer reviews by strategically timing and creatively approaching this workflow, encouraging new customers to trust your brand and purchase.
6 Factors to Consider When Choosing an E-commerce Marketing Automation Platform
Marketers can access many marketing automation systems, but not all are created equal. This section will focus on how selecting the appropriate software can mean the difference between success and failure.
When trying to choose software for your company, there are several factors to consider, including:
Features Of the Product
Asking yourself questions will help you assess whether a software package provides the required capabilities. For example, what specific tasks must the software perform for you? Does it hold up against the software that your rivals are using? Will it be compatible with the tools you already have?
Remember that any new software should help your decision-makers do their duties more effectively and maintain the centralization of your organisation.
User Experience
As it is essential to your daily operations, this is one of the most important characteristics of this kind of software. Make sure the software you choose is user-friendly, responsive, and intuitive. This implies that it shouldn’t be overly tricky while enabling hassle-free switching between the tools, functions, tabs, marketing communications, etc.
Related Article: How to improve Mobile Shopping Experience?
Technical Assistance
If you experience any technical issues or questions regarding the programme, you should contact your marketing automation platform developer as soon as possible. The most popular assistance methods are live chats, emails, and phone calls. They should be dependable, responsive, and accessible throughout business hours, if not around-the-clock, to ensure that you do not lose any business due to technological difficulties.
Cost
The best action is to select marketing automation software that is both cost-efficient and effective for your company. Many vendors impose hidden costs for extra features that you might not require.
Weigh your automation equipment accurately to be safe and avoid burning a hole in your wallet.
Integration
Pay close attention when selecting a platform that is right for your company to ensure that it will integrate easily with the systems you already have. For instance, when using marketing automation for an agency, you might need to confirm that it is compatible with your customer relationship management system and any software you use for tailored communications.
Scalability
How much you can do before needing a different solution depends on the software’s scalability. An expandable platform will also enable your business to expand, cutting overhead costs and obviating future software upgrades requiring a new onboarding and training procedure.
5 Best eCommerce Marketing Automation Software and Platforms in 2024
There are countless platforms and tools for automation, and each one is the finest. Let’s examine the most widely used marketing software programmes and their differences.
Hubspot
For a good reason, Hubspot is a household name in e-commerce marketing. Hubspot is an innovative and user-friendly tool that can assist you in creating landing sites and forms, publishing a company blog, managing your social media profiles, creating email campaigns, and generating leads. In addition, Hubspot is a fantastic option for most online shops because it connects with various well-known eCommerce systems, including BigCommerce.
Hubspot has a range of pricing options, from free to thousands of dollars each month (ideal for enterprise-level companies with hundreds of thousands of customers).
Omnisend
Omnisend, which targets eCommerce marketing enthusiasts, excels at segmentation and personalisation. The detailed reports provided by this programme make it simple to divide subscribers into groups and deliver them personalised ads regularly. Furthermore, with Omnisend, you can automate emails based on various trigger events, such as customer site behaviour, birthdays, and abandoned shopping carts.
A leader in the marketing software market, Omnisend has features like a drag-and-drop newsletter builder, a popup builder, and split testing possibilities. In addition, Omnisend integrates with SMS texting, enabling businesses to contact customers with shipping updates and promotional offers.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact is powerful marketing automation and email marketing system that aids companies in improving their email and social media advertising skills for consumer acquisition, conversion, and retention.
When new leads are interested in your brand, it automatically sends a targeted welcome email.
You can assist your company produce more effective and intelligent email marketing with Constant Contact, saving time while expanding your company.
integrates with Facebook, Google, Salesforce, Office 365, and WordPress
It automatically delivers personalised abandoned cart emails to clients who have left things in their cart; it recovers lost purchases.
It allows you to quickly drag & drop products and email discount coupons from your store.
With constant contact, you can also use social media to connect with new audiences and make it simple for users to locate you on Facebook and Instagram, increasing traffic to your website.
Marketo
Marketo is a high-end marketing automation system that can scale swiftly for any company looking to expand quickly and effectively.
All firms who want to increase their digital marketing efforts can use this cloud-based marketing tool.
Through strategies including search marketing, landing pages, online personalization, forms, social media, and behaviour tracking, Marketo facilitates lead generation by appealing to and engaging new consumers from the beginning of their customer journey.
It personalises lead experiences, turns them into customers, and scales cross-channel using automated campaigns. It supports real-time and batch-triggered emails, automatic lead behaviour segmentation, and mobile marketing capabilities to reach clients wherever they are.
Most CRM systems are compatible with Marketo, enabling you to recognise your most valuable prospects and quickly alert your sales staff. Then, your sales team can concentrate more on converting prospects rather than wasting time on ineffective contacts.
Leads Squared
This marketing automation software automates lead monitoring, nurturing and management for B2B and B2C businesses.
LeadSquared is more akin to an automated tool for the one-customer journey that is mainly devoted to the lead nurturing stage of the procedure. The gadget design makes it possible to acquire more new clients quickly by accelerating the flow of information through the funnel.
Workflows based on triggers for communicating with prospects can be created fast. For example, with Leadsquared, you may contact your clients via their preferred channels, such as email, text, WhatsApp, phone calls, or self-service portals, in response to their activities and inquiries or regularly.
Conclusion
The eCommerce industry lives and breathes automation. Delegating tedious tasks to extremely effective software promotes meaningful and individualised customer connection.
This improves conversion, customer acquisition and retention, and marketing strategy, keeping online marketers at the top of their game.
Correct eCommerce marketing automation strategies combined with intelligent software selection will help your company expand quickly.
- Pan India Fulfillment & Darkstore Network: Plug-and-play fulfillment infrastructure with no minimums, which is compliant with Amazon Seller Flex, Flipkart Assured, Myntra and other marketplaces
- Inventory & Network Planning Excellence: Best-in-class AI models for sales forecasting, product segmentation, and inventory management to reduce inventory by 40% and increase revenue by 10%.
- Vertically Integrated Fulfillment Tech Stack: Our Fulfillment Tech Solution supports integrations with 20+ top marketplaces & D2C platforms, and prominent national, regional and hyperlocal couriers, enhancing reach by covering deliveries for 27,000+ pin codes
- Supply Chain Productivity Applications: Integrate a host of supply chain productivity apps with a single-click to your existing CRMs, ERPs & accounting software to manage your logistics workflows from one command center. Use Apps like RTO Shield to get 100% RTO protection, Branded Tracking to turn your order tracking page into a profitable marketing channel, and many more.
Trusted by 300+ top Indian brands, we are helping them accelerate online sales and expedite their growth through a synergistic combination of advanced technology, robust fulfillment infrastructure & seller enablement services!WareIQ is backed by leading global investors including Y Combinator, Funders Club, Flexport, Pioneer Fund, Soma Capital, and Emles Venture Partner.