5 Ecommerce Tasks to Automate Today

But clever solutions are available to help you automate the way you work, saving you both time and money.

Automation software turns repetitive manual tasks into workflows that can be carried out automatically, freeing you up to focus on other aspects of your business.

These tools can be easily applied to virtually all parts of an ecommerce operation to help your processes run more efficiently.

Here are five different tasks you can stop doing manually with our favorite automation apps…

1. Marketing: Automated Email Flows with Klaviyo

Email remains one of the most effective marketing tools out there, but doing it manually takes a lot of effort.

Automating this important task allows you to stay connected with customers and personalize their experience – without having to do the work every single time.

Klaviyo is a full-stack marketing tool for Shopify merchants which allows you to trigger “flows” (planned sequences of pre-written emails) based on dates, events, list membership, and use splits, filters to target and optimize their impact.

Another benefit is the collection of relevant customer data, which can be used to create stronger relationships, drive sales and deliver more memorable communications and experiences.

Klaviyo also integrates with Sufio, our automated invoicing app, to enable customers to download, print, or even pay their invoices directly from their email.

2. Accounting: Automated Invoices with Sufio

Sending invoices, keeping track of payments, or dealing with overdue balances can be laborious and painful.

Thankfully, automated technology means that you don’t need to be an accountant to stay on top of your company’s cash flow, and instead, your time can be freed up for other tasks.

Sufio is a fully automated invoicing app for Shopify, capable of automatically generating professional invoices for every order in your store and sending them directly to your customers in their language and preferred currency for great ease of use.

What’s more, Sufio can save large-scale stores hundreds of hours by automatically creating credit notes, pro forma invoices, quotes, and estimates. It can also send invoice reminders, helping you make sure everyone gets paid on time. Finally, there’s even an option to build custom workflows that cater precisely to your business needs.

Created by professional print designers, Sufio invoices can help grow your brand through beautiful invoice templates, which can be customized to suit your branding needs.

Sufio invoices are compliant with legislation in more than 50 countries and available in more than 30 languages, plus it can validate EU VAT numbers and automatically set business customers as tax-exempt.

3. Business Management: Automated Data Pushes with Arigato

The smartest ecommerce businesses leverage data to help inform decisions and improve processes.

But this information can come from various means, so relaying every detail can end up becoming a slightly monotonous process.

Arigato is a personal robot “Virtual Assistant” for Shopify merchants, which can listen for a specific event or rule in your store and automatically respond with an action.

The app performs more than seven million tasks per month for its users and can carry out 47 different actions in thousands of different configurations, including sending data directly to Google Sheets.

It also integrates with apps such as Trello to create a new card when an order is placed or Slack to send you a message when a payment is received.

4. Customer Experience: Automated Messaging with Intercom

Providing excellent customer service is an achievement every ecommerce owner strives for, so for many, a live chat function has become an integral tool for communicating with customers in real-time.

But manually answering every message and query can be both time-consuming and expensive, particularly for those with international customers.

Intercom is a Shopify app that can boost the customer experience by offering personal, real-time support.

It allows customers to check the status of their order by simply entering their email address or order number, reducing the volume of queries to your support team.

The app can also save your support team time as it can pull in order details from the Intercom inbox, so that they can be dealt with in one place.

5. Customer Experience: Automated Back In Stock Alerts with Low Stock - Back In Stock

Products go out of stock for a number of reasons, but it can be frustrating for your customers who are desperate to make a purchase.

Worse than a lost sale, however, is that it may drive them to shop with a competitor and could have a longer-term impact on customer satisfaction.

Low Stock - Back In Stock is a fully customizable Shopify plug-in that instantly notifies customers when their desired product is available, turning a negative customer experience into a positive one.

Customers can be automatically alerted via web push notifications, as well as Facebook Messenger and email, as soon as you've restocked to save you time.

It can also help to increase sales as customers are encouraged to return to your store.

Ready To Start Automating?

When it comes to saving time and money, it’s clear that automation has the power to be a game-changer. Investing in a well-considered solution can more than pay its way.

So, take a moment to assess your current workflows and analyze exactly where your time is being eaten up by manual tasks.

These are just some of the automations that could help your business to thrive and free you up to get back to working on what really matters.

Is invoicing draining your time? Sufio can automatically create and send beautiful documents for every order in your store.