Ecommerce Marketing Automation: Strategies & Tools

With increasing companies enter the eCommerce field, the daily business on the eCommerce platform has become more and more repetitive and complex, such as email marketing, sms marketing, WhatsApp marketing, etc. Traditional manual processing is time-consuming, laborious, and prone to errors. To solve these problems, more and more eCommerce merchants are applying eCommerce marketing automation platforms to automate their daily operations. It is also a great choice for anyone looking to save time and be more productive.

Our blog will introduce you to everything concerning eCommerce marketing automation, including the practical strategies and tools for marketing automation that you can use in your online shop.

What is marketing automation?

eCommerce marketing automation involves using software tools to automate repetitive marketing tasks for online retailers. eCommerce marketing automation flows, are sequences of actions triggered by specific customer behaviors. For example, if a customer abandons their cart, an automated email can remind them to complete their purchase. This not only saves time but also ensures that no potential sale slips through the cracks.

There are various types of eCommerce marketing automation, each catering to different aspects of your business:

• Email marketing automation can enable marketers like you to deliver more effective, personalized email at scale, better engagement, conversions, and customer relationships.

• Social media automation can help you save time, maintain consistency and optimize their social media strategies across multiple channels, like X, Facebook, Thread, etc.
• CRM automation(customer relationship management) helps you improve customer engagement, and provide data-driven insights for better decision-making in sales and marketing.

Apart from the above mentioned types also include Omnichannel Marketing Automation, Analytics and Reporting Automation, Loyalty Program Automation, and Ad Campaign Automation.

eCommerce marketing automation aims to enhance efficiency, reduce human error, and deliver personalized shopping experiences that can boost sales and customer engagement.

Why you should implement eCommerce automation?

Embracing eCommerce automation is not just a passing trend; it is a necessity for any business that wants to remain competitive in today's fast-paced market. The following are some of the benefits of marketing automation:

1. Save Time and Reduce Manual Efforts
2. Better Way to Manage the Customer Journey: You can automatically keep your customers engaged by setting up real-time triggers. Additionally, you can set them up to send customized messages at the right time during the customer journey. You decide how much you want to automate. With the right software, you can get it just right by automating touchpoints and encouraging your customers to buy.
3. Increase Conversion Rates & AOV: Automated workflows, such as abandoned cart reminders and follow-up emails, help you capture potential sales that might otherwise be lost. By engaging customers at the right time with the right message, you can significantly boost your conversion rates. In just one month, Adidas, a global sports retailer, increased its average order value by 259% by automating its marketing campaigns.
4. Improve Data Accuracy and Insights: Automation tools provide real-time data and analytics, giving you a clearer picture of your marketing performance. Accurate data helps you make informed decisions, optimize your strategies, and identify areas for improvement.

Practical eCommerce marketing automation strategies

If you get the eCommerce marketing automation strategies right, it can really help your business to work better and be more effective. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Personalized Email Marketing

Email has consistently been the dominant digital marketing channel, and there are no indications that it will relinquish its position in the near future. Marketers are turning to email as a channel because it offers numerous ways to engage with customers and numerous profitable ways to automate the process.

The fundamental objective of an email marketing automation strategy is personalization. To maximize the potential of your automation tools, it is essential to streamline your email campaigns while catering to the specific needs of each recipient.

As a first step, consider personalizing both the headline (the main structure of your email) and the call-to-action phrase. This automation can result in a 202% increase in conversion rates.

From there, you can automate your entire campaign workflow. It is recommended that you create automated welcome messages and follow-ups to ensure that your customers feel taken care of and appreciated when they opt in to your brand's emails.

This is just the tip of the iceberg for successful email marketing, and your automation strategy is only limited by how creative you choose to be in your customer journey.

Personalized Customer Experience

It's also a good idea to optimize your website. Remember, it's all about creating the perfect customer journey. 73% of customers say experience is an important factor in their purchase decision. Landing pages, web layouts, and relevant content snippets can really help you engage your audience and get them to take action. Your marketing automation software can also help you make your efforts more efficient.

Automated marketing tools help you make data-driven decisions about the unique content you show each customer. It's also called a personalized recommendation. Instead of just guessing what they might want to see next, you can automatically suggest things based on what they've done before. That way, you can make sure they get the experience they're looking for.

And that's just the beginning. You can use your marketing automation software to optimize the entire customer experience and create custom landing pages to drive prospects or repeat customers on their buying journey.

Seasonal and Event-Based Campaigns

Make the most of holidays, seasons, and special events by creating marketing campaigns that are timely and relevant.

Implementation:

• Holiday Promotions: Plan and automate campaigns around major holidays like Black Friday, Christmas, or Valentine’s Day.
• Seasonal Sales: Promote seasonal products with automated email sequences and social media posts.
• Event Reminders: Send reminders and special offers for events such as back-to-school season or summer sales.

Multichannel Marketing Integration

Bring together different marketing channels to give customers a seamless experience.

Implementation:

• Email and SMS: Combine email and SMS campaigns to reach customers through their preferred communication channels.
• Social Media Retargeting: Use retargeting ads on social media platforms to remind customers of products they viewed or added to their cart.
• Push Notifications: Send push notifications for timely updates, such as flash sales or restocked items.

Which platform is best for ecommerce marketing automation?

Knowing about the strategy, you can find out that if you want to finally form the eCommerce automation that fits your business requirements also need to use external forces, so choosing the right eCommerce marketing automation platform can really make a significant difference in your business's success. Here are some top platforms:

AfterShip Personalization

AfterShip Personalization is an excellent tool for delivering personalized shopping experiences. It uses customer data to create personalized product recommendations, targeted promotions, automized product tagging and so on.

Supported automation features

• Product personalization AfterShip Personalization integrated AI-powered recommendation engines to dynamically display products based on the customer's purchase history, browsing behavior, and preferences. You can simply plug and play for all customer touchpoints and to populate with product recommendations automatically.
• Product tagging You can auto-generate a trove of product tags through AI-powered automated tag extraction and prediction. Enrich product data, boost product discoverability, and improve website performance.
• Strategic Merchandising You can pin or exclude products, make them easier to find, or set up automated rules to trigger specific actions. With AfterShip Personalization, you can scale your merchandising strategies with ease.

Success Example

Elegoo saw a 70% increase in average order value (AOV), 40x return on investment (ROI), a 6.4% conversion rate, and a 4.5% increase in total revenue after implementing AfterShip Personalization. Now, Elegoo can easily connect with major subscription apps in just one click. This seamless integration also allows for automatic synchronization of subscription selling plans from Shopify.

Klaviyo

Klaviyo is a powerful marketing automation platform that helps ecommerce businesses enhance their email and SMS marketing strategies through automation and personalization. You can use it to build customer profiles and split users into groups based on things like their location or buying habits. It’s also got features to make your campaigns more effective, like sending at the right time and a builder for making changes without having to code.

Success Example

Every Man Jack grew their flows revenue by 25% year-over-year using AI-powered flows in Klaviyo. They focused on personalized email sequences based on customer behavior to drive engagement and sales.

Omnisend

Omnisend is a complete marketing automation platform designed with ecommerce businesses in mind. It brings together different channels like email, SMS, and social media to create marketing campaigns that are all connected and tailored to each customer.

Success Example

By implementing Omnisend, 3V Gear was able to set up automated workflows for welcome emails, abandoned cart reminders, and post-purchase follow-ups.

AfterShip Email & SMS

AfterShip Email & SMS provides a powerful way to engage with customers through automated email and SMS campaigns. It ensures timely and relevant communication, helping to improve customer relationships and drive sales.

Supported automation features

• Newsletter Campaigns: Our pre-built templates allow you to easily customize your newsletter campaigns with a variety of themes. Engage with your customers by providing them with updates on a regular basis, whether monthly, weekly, or bi-weekly.
• Customer Segmentation: Send precisely targeted campaigns to different customer segments based on customer attributes, campaign behavior, and other relevant factors. It is essential to guarantee that the appropriate customers receive the correct message at all points of contact.
• Predicted Demographics: Use AI technology to forecast customer demographics based on past behavior. It is important to identify the key characteristics of your audience in order to refine your marketing strategy.
• Email & SMS Automation: Flow Automate and personalize your email communications with ease. Create sequences triggered by customer behavior, product-related actions, or shipping events using a conditional split, trigger split, or random split.
• SMS Trigger Filter: You can send a more targeted message by narrowing the audience to a specific segment. You can also set up SMS triggers based on different event properties, such as sign-up source, cart value, and status.
• A/B Testing: A/B test which email & SMS templates work best for the target audiences under one email flow. Increase conversions by knowing your customers' preferences to optimize your campaign effect.
• Email Analytics: Measure, visualize, and analyze your email campaign metrics such as open rate, CTR, conversion, and revenues in one portal. Get reliable insights to make future email campaigns more effective.

FAQ

How do I choose a eCommerce marketing automation tools fitting my needs?

1. Identify Your Business Goals: The first thing you need to do is figure out what you want to get out of automation. Are you looking to keep your customers around longer, make more sales, give your customers a better experience, or make your marketing more efficient? If you know what you want to achieve, you'll be able to choose the right tool for your online shop.
2. Evaluate Features and Capabilities: Write down the features you absolutely need. This could include things like email marketing, SMS campaigns, customer segmentation, personalized recommendations, and returns management. Take a moment to compare the different tools based on these features. This will help you see which one offers the most comprehensive solution.
3. Consider Integration Capabilities: Make sure the tool works well with your current eCommerce platform and other software you use. For instance, if you're using Shopify or AfterShip, make sure the automation tool can sync with these platforms to give you a smooth workflow.
4. Assess Usability and Support: It's important to have a user-friendly interface and solid customer support. Look for tools that have simple dashboards, a quick setup, and full tutorials. Having reliable customer support can make a big difference, especially during the initial setup phase.
5. Check Scalability and Flexibility: It's important to choose a tool that can grow with your business. As your customer base expands, you’ll need a solution that can handle increased data and more complex automation workflows. Flexibility to adapt to changing business needs is also a big plus.
6. Read Reviews and Case Studies: Check out reviews, testimonials, and case studies from other businesses that are similar to yours. Success stories can give you a good idea of how well the tool works in the real world and whether it lives up to its promises.
7. Take Advantage of Free Trials and Demos: Most automation tools offer free trials or demos. Use these opportunities to test the functionalities and see if the tool fits your workflow. This hands-on experience can be invaluable in making the right choice.

Does AfterShip offer support different eCommerce marketing automation?

Yes, AfterShip can provide you with different eCommerce marketing automation such as AfterShip Personalization, Email & SMS, Reviews and much more for your need. You can book a live demo with eCommerce marketing automation experts.

How Does Product Events Marketing Automation Work?

Product events marketing automation is a powerful strategy that leverages specific customer interactions with your products to trigger personalized marketing actions. Here’s a breakdown of how it works:

1. Tracking Customer Behavior
2. Defining Event Triggers
3. Creating Automated Workflows
4. Personalizing Marketing Messages
5. Using Multiple Channels
6. Analyzing and Optimizing