Ecommerce automation strategies to use in 2024

In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about e-commerce automation and 6 automation strategies to follow in 2024 and beyond.

What is ecommerce automation?

Ecommerce automation involves using software and tools to complete time-consuming manual tasks that usually require human input.

The ultimate goal of ecommerce automation is to streamline processes throughout the entirety of the fulfillment process, saving time and money for a business.

An example of this includes automatically marking products as ‘low in stock’ or ‘out of stock’ as soon as products sell out, improving the customer experience and reducing manual labour.

Why is ecommerce automation important?

Online shopping has exploded, pushing E-commerce sales to $361 billion in 2023. This growth has forced fulfillment operations into overdrive.

From click to customer stands a multitude of challenges, these challenges include:

• Aligning inventory and orders across multiple channels

• Complex shipping schedules and order profiles

• Tracking fulfillment

• Back-office reporting and analytics

To ensure an optimal experience, multi-channel and online retailers must fulfil an ever-increasing order volume quickly, cost-effectively, and seamlessly. This is no easy task at a time when supply chains are stretched, and consumer expectations are heightened.

The increase in consumer demand has been met by increasing new entrants to the ecommerce landscape (including those that have had to move from bricks-and-mortar). With each offering faster services, free delivery, and more to compete, it is forcing a rise in customer expectations.

These issues can quickly overwhelm even the most sophisticated online businesses. As a result, many retailers are looking to automate e-commerce to streamline operations, attract new high-value customers, and scale business growth. 

This guide will now explore six actionable strategies for streamlining your e-commerce order fulfillment process, giving you more time to focus on other business functions.

Strategy 1: Automate the ecommerce order process

Today, order management requires a multidimensional system that touches nearly every facet of your business's operation, including customers, sales channels, product information, inventory levels and location, suppliers for purchasing and receiving, customer service, and order printing, packing, processing, and shipping.

As your business grows to hundreds or thousands of line items, automation becomes a necessity. Having an automated order management process in place will reduce errors with repetitive tasks and help deliver a more responsive and consistent service. Order management software allows you to take control of the full dispatch process, from picking and packing to shipping orders. 

In essence, modern order management systems treat the complete supply chain as an interconnected ecosystem, allowing you to automate internal processes from order to fulfillment. When implemented well, these systems deliver major time, efficiency, and money-saving returns on your investment.

The benefits of ecommerce automation

• Improve order accuracy: Fulfilling orders without order management software increases the risk of human error. An order management system's basic feature is to reduce manual and repetitive daily tasks.
• Optimise processes: An order management system offers automation for various tasks in your workflows wherever it is possible, from calculating costs to storing customer information.
• Fuss-free returns: With an order management system, your E-commerce business can provide a fuss-free returns experience for everyone involved.

Strategy 2: Seamlessly manage inventory across all ecommerce channels

The past 18 months have been a period of extremes. Some companies have seen record ecommerce growth, while order volume has plummeted or fluctuated wildly for others. With volatile demand likely for the foreseeable future, ecommerce fulfillment operations must be ready to change course on short notice - ramping up or down as volume dictates.

Managing inventory across different channels is the third-largest challenge for supply chain executives. Keeping track of the volume, velocity, and fulfillment of omnichannel orders will bottleneck your business if you haven't set the right foundations for scalable growth. 

But accurate forecasting, as well as having a clear picture of your inventory management, means you can better plan for what you'll need to order from suppliers more frequently so you can continue to fulfil your customer orders.

Fulfilment operations must also be prepared for high return volumes. To keep customers coming back, returns, exchanges, and refunds must be fast and hassle-free.

Inventory management automation benefits

• Determine high-demand products: Ecommerce management software can help you adjust to accommodate peaks and valleys in order volumes.
• Automatically sync stock levels: Inventory management software will simplify your inventory tracking process. This will mean a more efficient use of resources, and the ability to spot problems and opportunities.
• Keep a close eye on stock levels: If you’ve got slow-moving products, use further clearance sales during peak times to clear it out, free up shelf space, and convert your stock into cash.

Strategy 3: Increase shopping and systems integrations

Today, retailers manage a growing number of sales channels - web stores, mobile apps, online marketplaces, and more. However, providing seamless online customer experiences across these channels can be challenging. 

What’s more, each channel can also have different fulfillment requirements. When you manage all these different online stores or offer your products through marketplaces like Amazon, it can be difficult to keep track of all incoming orders and stock levels for each online store. 

Whether you sell on Etsy, Amazon, Shopify Australia, your website, or WooCommerce, you can consolidate all your channels into a centralised place to keep an eye on what matters most - fulfilling shoppers' online orders on time. In addition, by connecting online stores and marketplaces into one account you can capture new audiences and sell wherever you are. 

You can also manage other back-office functions like accounting and invoicing without ever leaving the platform. You'll gain insight into accounts payable and receivable, as well as automate invoice and purchase order creation, with no manual data entry required.

Multichannel selling automation benefits

• Manage multiple sales channels seamlessly: A fully integrated order management system ensures you’re equipped to handle a wide range of sales channels, seamlessly.
• Easily switch between integrations: Managing all your systems in one place means you can easily switch between different integrations to process orders. 
• Access real-time data: This means your warehouse management software, inventory software, and shipping systems can communicate data in real time.

Strategy 4: Streamline logistics and shipping

In years gone by, most retailers could get by partnering with one shipping carrier to deliver their products. Today, however, carrier services and customer expectations are rapidly changing. The shorter the delivery times, the better the consumer response. 

Strategies such as “Express delivery” or “Next day delivery” are prominent crowd pullers, putting pressure on your logistics teams—particularly during super busy times like peak seasons.

Leveraging different options as part of a multi-carrier shipping strategy is critical to maintaining competitive advantage and providing a good experience. Having access to multiple shipping providers means you can offer the fastest shipping times and best customer experience for every order while keeping rates low.

Shipping and logistics automation benefits

• Pick, pack, and ship faster: Streamline the picking and packing process by automating stock levels in as little time as possible.
• Leverage a multi-carrier strategy: If you haven’t already, leverage a multi-carrier strategy to get products to customers quickly and accurately. Connecting with multiple carriers is one of the best ways to increase both conversion rate and customer satisfaction. 
• Analyse your parcel spend: With good OMS you can review your parcel spending to identify factors that may be increasing shipping costs.

Strategy 5: Build supply chain resilience

The recent HGV driver and petrol shortage have highlighted how vulnerable some supply chains are to spikes in demand. That’s why many retailers are now making plans beyond the immediate operational challenges to make supply chains more resilient and agile. 

A recent study from Deloitte revealed that nine in 10 companies are making significant investments to improve their supply chain resilience. 95% of these businesses indicated that stronger supply chains were either “important” or “very important.”

Not only does a strong supply chain make E-commerce brands nimbler, but it also gives them the power to scale and launch new go-to-market approaches for cross-border E-commerce. 

Dropshipping is a great way to build supply chain resilience while keeping overheads low. However, successful dropshipping also relies on choosing the right order management platform. Order management systems provide various features, such as catalogue management, which makes it easy to keep track of extensive inventories, even if you don't stock the products yourself. 

If supply chains aren’t an issue, but a shortage of floor space is a factor, consider how automation can help. From an order management perspective, you can use data to ensure you stock the right inventory and anticipate peaks in demand. 

Supply chain automation benefits

• Streamline dropshipping: Track orders and maintain profitability at any scale.
• Maximise floorspace: Use data to maximise floorspace by stocking the right warehouse inventory.
• Prevent stockouts and forecast inventory: An OMS with inventory control helps retailers combat both problems. 

Strategy 6: Exceed customer expectations

Consumers are demanding, and they want to stay informed about every step. In response, retailers are increasingly seeking to manage inventory better, handle order velocity, and meet fulfilment requirements. That's why things like live order tracking for customers and dynamic pricing to compete with competitors quickly can help you manage expectations.

Some 97% of customers expect to have insight into the status of their order—including its current location and estimated delivery date. 

With an order management system, you can keep all the customer and order information in one place. This way, you can keep your customers fully informed through a complete view across multiple sales channels. Additionally, the shipping delivery, order return, or even cancellation details can be quickly passed across.

In addition to tracking the entire order process internally, with the right OMS, you can also provide tracking information directly to your customers. By integrating your online stores with your chosen couriers, automatic updates, tracking numbers and despatch status are provided instantaneously, so your customers will always be kept in the loop about their order.

Customer service automation benefits

• Speed order cycle times: With a robust Order Management System, efficient processes and automated fulfillment solutions can save precious hours in customer support and get orders out the door much faster.
• Protect your brand identity: Many order management systems allow branding.
• Provide live order tracking: Customers love to see the status of their orders and the estimated delivery times.

Automation helps scale and streamline your ecommerce business

Automating ecommerce may seem a little scary at first. But a small investment in cloud-based software with the right automation tools and integrations can make a lot of difference to your business needs. 

Through automation, you can save time and money while offering a best-in-class shopping experience across multiple marketplaces and channels.

Ecommerce automation software can simplify your ecommerce processes, minimise manual work, reduce the risk of human error, and allow you to operate with fewer internal resources, which facilitates growth and scalability.