Automating your eCommerce marketing efforts is easier than ever. If you’re not doing it, you may just be leaving money on the table. Marketing firms use automation to execute strategies at a much larger scale than would normally be possible with the same budget and team.

You can also massively scale your marketing when you know how to use automation to its full potential. In this short guide, you’ll learn what marketing automation is, why eCommerce stores can’t afford to ignore it, and how to get started with your own automation.

What Is eCommerce Marketing Automation?

eCommerce marketing automation refers to any use of tools to automate repetitive tasks. If you already have a basic marketing operation set up, you have to fill hours of your day with work that could be automated. For example:

• How often do you send email marketing to your mailing list? 
• How often do you send out SMS messages? 
• Do you have a process for following up on abandoned carts? 

If you have these channels set up, automation can help you double, triple, or further multiply your daily output. If you don’t have these channels set up, automation can help you hit the ground sprinting and start performing like a much larger marketing operation.

Automation is important for almost any type of business, but online stores are positioned to benefit from the advantages more than others. 

Why Marketing Automation Matters for Online Stores

Marketing automation matters for eCommerce stores for many reasons. The ones below are likely to make the biggest difference for your business. 

3 Reasons Marketing Automation Matters for eCommerce
Respond in Real Time	Build Better Relationships	Scale the Customer Journey
You need to move quickly if you want to secure an online purchase. For example, sending a follow-up message immediately after certain actions makes a big difference. If your campaigns are automated, you’ll always be able to respond to each near-buying incident.	The more orders you generate, the harder it is to build relationships with each user. Marketing automation makes it possible for you to send welcome, follow-up, order confirmation, and review request emails across thousands or millions of orders a day.	Building a comprehensive customer journey requires you to constantly respond to what customers are doing, whether that’s signing up for more information or abandoning a cart. Automation can keep you involved through the entire journey.

It’s possible to do all this and more when you’ve automated your workflows. Nearly all marketing work can benefit from automation, including search engine optimization, programmatic advertising, and email marketing. 

There may be more opportunities to automate than you’d first assume. Next, you’ll learn about some of the most essential workflows to start building right now.

Essential eCommerce Marketing Automation Workflows

eCommerce site owners have used automation to optimize their stores in all kinds of ways. The following are among the best places to start because they can help you generate conversions faster. You’ll learn why these areas matter and what automated workflows are intended to accomplish. 

Cart Abandonment	Automating emails or notifications to customers with abandoned carts (known as “abandoned cart recovery”) is a great way to target those who have already completed 90% of the buying journey. Abandoned cart reminders deliver excellent conversion rates, and when you automate your outreach, you won’t miss one. This would make a great
Email Marketing	Email marketing automation software has become significantly more advanced. It’s possible to set up dozens of attractive templates that automatically fill in and deliver automated emails based on the actions your visitors take.
SMS Campaigns	Text messages are one of the most reliable ways to reach customers. Automated text messages can be used to confirm appointments, upsell related products, or invite past customers to leave reviews.
Product Recommendations	You can cross-sell more effectively than ever by automating product recommendations. Remember that not only can you automate the recommendations themselves, but also the targeting and customer segmentation. You can customize automated messages based on factors such as location, average order value, repeat purchases, and other customer data.
Retargeting	Automated workflows can be set up to manage retargeting email campaigns, social media campaigns, and more. Using advanced automation tools, you can customize the message, frequency, and delivery times of all follow-up messages in your retargeting campaigns.
Post-Purchase Automation	Rapid post-purchase messages can help you start your relationship with your customer off on the right foot. It shows them your ordering system is working and assures them that their order is being processed. It also makes a great opening for future messages. Automating these post-purchase confirmations can help you build the right relationship, right away, with everyone who orders.
Win-Back Campaigns	Win-back campaigns seek to recover users who were once customers/subscribers through outreach and special promotions. Automating these attempts as part of your marketing strategy can make recovering these customers a lot easier and more reliable.

To describe how to automate any of these tasks would require entirely new guides, depending on the marketing automation platforms available to you. You can always choose a professional marketing team to streamline operations instead. 

Learn More about E-Commerce Marketing Automations from Orchard Marketing

Building automated marketing workflows takes a lot of time, education, and effort. You may also need to research and cover the cost of the best marketing automation tools for your eCommerce niche. 

You can hire an experienced marketing team to automate the most essential functions for you. Orchard Marketing has years of experience assisting clients in the eCommerce businesses. We can help you automate all types of marketing campaigns. Contact us to learn more about how to get started.