Most ecommerce business start out small with only a handful of orders every week. However, the sheer scale of the Internet and the viral nature of social media can create challenges in staying on top of all the work that goes into fulfilling customer orders correctly and on time.
In many cases there is more than sufficient stock to supply the demand however the number of human hands available to facilitate orders are not sufficient to ensure customer's receive their orders in a timely manner.
To make matters worse, delayed orders causes more work due to the added burden of dealing with queries from disgruntled customers, processing refunds and constantly reorganising your work schedule to account for cancelled orders.
If this situation is not solved quickly, ecommerce business could stand to lose a lot of money and suffer permanent damage to their reputation.
Order automation is the use of software to perform some or all of the tasks required to process and fulfil customer orders. Ecommerce businesses can use order automation to streamline their operations, improve customer service, and save time and money.
A very simple example of order automation that is very common is the customer notifications that get sent out automatically when an order is received and shipped. In some case it may be desirable to notify customers that there might be a delay with their order in advance. This type of notification could be automated as well to save you the embarrassment of forgetting to do that yourself.
But it does not have to stop there, one can automate placing orders with suppliers to correspond with the sales order received from customers. You can take it a step further by automating picking and delivery instructions to your warehouses and couriers, recording the tracking numbers, receive and process progress updates in real time, etc.
Order automation may be beneficial to many types of business from retail and wholesale to manufacturing, but for the purposes of this article we'll focus specially on ecommerce businesses.
It some case it may be that customer demand is seasonal and having a full complement of staff throughout the year may not financially viable. In such cases, order automation can help reduce the workload to such an extent that your team can copy during your peak season.
Some business may rely on certain events to achieve their sales goals. One may want to be able ramp up for a very short periods of time (during Black Friday weekend, for instance) but hiring and training staff for such a short stint is just not practical.
Not only could order automation software help you cope during sudden spikes in demand, but it could also become the brains behind more sophisticated promotional offers, such as: customer loyalty programmes, bulk discount offers or limited time special discounts based on custom rules you define
When you run a business on a part time business, you may find it difficult to juggle your different commitments during busy times. Implementing order automation software can be great way to flatten out spikes in work load caused by sudden customer demand or to free up some of your time to help you take care of other things.
After a few years of running all aspects of your business, you might start to feel the monotony of the repetitive tasks get to you. This is where order automation software can alleviate some of the pain by taking care of the repetitive tasks allowing you to focus on more interesting work.
Most of the time order fulfilment may include making certain decisions according to the information provided on the order.
By setting additional business rules you can make the automated processes smarter to recognise when different actions need to be performed in various possible scenarios based on the information stipulated on the order.
For instance, one could set a rule that collection orders are not shipped out, or international orders are sent to a different courier than orders delivered within borders.
One can even program in all the small exceptions and optimisations that needs to be considered on a daily basis. For instance, you may want all orders from Joe’s Bakery around that courier to be hand delivered and not sent to your courier.
By automating all these daily decisions, you are able to action orders without needing to wait for someone to decide the course of action required. Not only are you able to execute a lot faster, you will also be making far less mistakes.
When business rules are programmed it serves as a documented way of doing things like a standard operating procedure. This helps to keep the whole team on the same page and assists in getting new team members up to speed a lot quicker.
If you want your eCommerce business to grow, implementing automated systems can be one of the best ways to go about it.
Growing businesses generate a lot of data, and order automation systems can help you keep track of this data more effectively. In turn, this allows you to make better decisions about inventory, marketing, and other areas of your business.
Another big benefit of order automation is that it can help you save time and money. For example, if you automate your shipping process, you can eliminate the need to print and manually attach labels to each package.
Order automation can also lead to happier customers. Systems that automate the order process can help to ensure that orders are fulfilled correctly and on time. This can help to reduce customer complaints and increase customer satisfaction.
Overall, order automation can be a big benefit for eCommerce businesses. It can help you save time and money, and can also lead to happier customers.
Many repetitive tasks that are performed manually can be automated by software. Reducing the need for manual order processing and fulfilment. By ensuring all the information is provided correctly the first time, no time is waisted by correcting or redoing tasks. Proactively communicating with customers reduces the time spent dealing with customers enquiring about the progress of their order.
Order automation can help improve the accuracy of order processing by eliminating manual data entry and reducing the chances of additional costs incurred due to human error.
Reducing the workload means you can keep your team small and lean and ensure your business is more profitable.
Automated tasks are completed faster and means orders are ready for delivery sooner. Ensuring all the order is processed correctly saves your business the embarrassment of incorrect items being delivered to your customer.
Automated communication ensures that your customers are always informed of the progress of their order. This offers a delightful customer experience which is fundamental to overall customer satisfaction and will not only increases customer loyalty and repeat business but will have a positive impact on word of mouth and referral business too. Not to mention helping you to establish a reputable and professional brand.
If you're thinking that order automations seems too good to be true, we are here to tell you that it is indeed possible to automate quite a number of different tasks being performed manually. In some cases the entire process from receiving and order to delivery can be automated, but in most cases at least a couple of tasks in a typical online ordering cycle that can be automated. Automating only a couple of tasks on a high volume of orders can have a significant impact.
One of the not-so-secret components behind order automation is a concept called "Application Programming Interface" or API for short. It is a technical term that refers to the ability for two systems to communicate with each other without the need of a human to facilitate it.
The way that this is implemented in order automation is by letting your order automation software communicate with your supplier's systems on a daily basis without needing your team or your suppliers staff to be involved each and every time.
API's is in fact not a very new concept and is as old as the Internet itself, but the adoption of it by more and more companies over team has reached a tipping point where there it's starting to become so ubiquitous that it could benefit almost all ecommerce businesses.
More and more companies are offering APIs as a means to send instructions to them and receive information from them in realtime. Order automation software can make use of these APIs to send instructions to 3rd parties such as warehouses, courier companies, suppliers, email delivery providers, online shopping platforms, etc.
Traditionally these instructions could only be sent by a human sitting behind a desk sending emails or making phone calls and updating your own records accordingly. That is slowly changing as more and more companies offer their services via API's and more and more business make use of software that engages with those API's.
In future we see more technologies like Artificial Intelligence further enhancing the ability of software to automate even more of the mundane and routine tasks that people are dreading every day.
Human interaction still plays and important role in conducting business and ultimately it is for each business owner to decide what the ideal balance is between efficiency and personal service for them. You are still firmly in the driver seat and you know what's best for your business and customers. Software is simple the tool and serves to help you achieve what you set out to do.
In my opinion, order automation software is a must for any ecommerce store that wants to streamline their workflow and improve the quality of their service.
Software can be used to automate the entire order process, from receiving orders, processing them through to dispatch. This not only helps you improve the speed at which orders are fulfilled but also reduces the amount of manual work involved in this process. This can result in a number of benefits for your business, including:
1. Reduced errors: Automating order processing can help to reduce errors and increase accuracy.
2. Increased efficiency: Order automation can help ecommerce businesses to be more efficient and save time on tasks such as order fulfilment.
3. Improved customer service: Automating order processing can help to improve customer service by providing customers with up-to-date information on the status
Are your current systems and processes hindering your business from achieving its next growth milestone? Now there is a smarter way to get work done.