The benefits of marketing automation in e‑commerce

According to McKinsey, 90% of purchases will be made online by 2040, while global retail e-commerce sales reached - according to data reported by Shopify - 4.9 trillion dollars in 2021 alone: a figure that could increase by 50% in the next four years. Starting to sell online has become essential for small and medium-sized companies, but an e-commerce business alone is no longer enough: although the data provided by IRP Commerce show an increase of 1.83% in the average e-commerce conversion rate compared to the last year, there are still many companies in the field struggling to adjust to market changes. A particularly effective way to enhance this process is marketing automation, a powerful tool capable of managing relationships and communication with users by improving their involvement.Before evaluating the main advantages of marketing automation in e-commerce, it is essential to understand what it is and how this processes works.

What marketing automation is and how to integrate it into an e-commerce business

Often perceived as a software, marketing automation is actually to be considered as an approach or a strategy whose function is  speeding up and streamlining processes through automated workflows.

Nowadays, we talk more and more frequently about marketing automation, especially in the e-commerce sector, and about  its countless benefits for online sellers: from procurement to order fulfillment, inventory management to marketing campaigns and lead nurturing, there are several activities involved when managing an online store  and they require a considerable amount of energy.

In this scenario, workflows optimization - a process in which data plays an essential role -  becomes particularly useful and it generally takes place in 3 steps:

Monitoring;

Segmentation;

Automation.

Basically, after collecting the most important information about users through data monitoring, the second phase consists of audience segmentation by status and behavior; finally, in the last step, possible actions are implemented through an automatic mechanism (automatic sending of emails, activation of promotions, sending of promotional codes, etc.). This means that decisions and activities are substantially reduced,  as well as resources and time spent.

What are the main advantages of marketing automation in e-commerce and the best strategies to implement?

3 advantages of marketing automation

In recent years, automation strategies, along with  other newly developed technologies,  have brought many benefits to companies that operate online. .

In particular, they have contributed to:

Improving conversion rate. Whether it's about acquiring new users or recovering inactive customers, marketing automation for e-commerce is able to support  the creation of  automatic workflows that can improve the conversion rate. It is possible to maximize the effectiveness of campaigns by using technology and automation tools, which provide extensive control over the customer journey. 

Generating qualified leads. Process automation is essential for a company growth and it helps generate leads: the behavioral tracking techniques that are put into place allow us to know a user's entire journey through an e-commerce site, their interests and exact location within the purchasing flow and the life cycle. However, generating a high number of leads can be insufficient  if their quality is low. Furthermore, these leads must be "nurtured": in fact, not all contacts can be immediately converted into sales; according to Glenster Research, 50% of leads generated by companies, despite being qualified, are not immediately ready for the purchase phase. The scoring and classification of leads enables  the collection and processing of data from site visitors in order to develop targeted content marketing strategies, based on the user’s expressed preferences , and,  as a result, maximize return on investment.

Resources and Time Optimization. Reducing time invested in managing online activities is essential to focus on more profitable activities. Automation is able to boost internal productivity, maximize outcomes and minimize costs through the use of digital technology and the reduction of manual activities

Marketing strategies automation for e-commerce

Some of the strategies that  companies use the most include channels through which they can interact and communicate with their customers effectively, from emails to sponsored and customized campaigns.

Let us look in more detail at 5 examples of marketing automation that can  boost your online business.

Welcome Email. Personalizing a customer's onboarding journey with a welcome message can improve your conversion rate. Automating e-mails and customizing the subject or the first line of text with the user's name or the name of the company can make this type of communication more impactful, improving interaction with the customer and promoting their loyalty.

Birthday offers. Birthday offers or offers connected to special occasions, in which you can provide a dedicated and tailored discount or a gift, are another strategy that enables you to achieve remarkable results with marketing automation through the CRM. These opportunities represent an excellent way to gain the trust of customers and establish a lasting relationship over time.

Abandoned carts recovery. Another valid strategy can be abandoned cart recovery, a phenomenon which, according to a global survey conducted by Barclaycard, results in  losses of 18 billion dollars every year. To do this, it is possible to send  an automatic email  as a reminder to customers who have left the site without concluding the purchase 

Surveys and reviews.  Sending out surveys or requesting reviews and ratings from customers is a great way to know their level of satisfaction towards the products or services offered. Automation software can help make the task much easier by automatically collecting feedback.

Personalized Ads. Finally, marketing automation can be used to set personalized ads based on users behavior and interests, so as to increase the click-through rate and conversion rate.

For those who want to sell online and maximize the effectiveness of this channel, automating the handling of orders and returns inside an e-commerce business is essential: the marketing automation solutions for e-commerce of MBE offer maximum flexibility and highly customizable features for those who own an e-commerce site. With MBE Ship, developed both in a plug-in version and as an online platform, it is possible to automate the management of orders and returns by connecting your online store to MBE systems, the ideal solution for customizing prices and facilitating the sales process.