Understanding Your Target Audience
Why do we assume people want what we’re selling. Maybe, maybe not. It’s a leap of faith for anyone entering the world of ecommerce.
But - and this is a big one - it’s easy to forget we’re not always the customer. So, how do you figure out who your target audience is.
It’s like playing Where’s Wally, but if you don’t find him, you lose money. Automated platforms, I think, give us all this cool data. What are customers buying. When are they buying it.
What are they ditching at the last minute. It’s sort of like eavesdropping on their shopping thoughts without them knowing.
Yes, automated platforms sound intrusive but they’re not that deep. So, what is the point here.
Well, by understanding patterns in customer behaviour - yes, that’s online behaviour - you can sort of tailor your marketing campaigns and product recommendations to be more effective. Sounds simple when you read it like that but there is a fair bit of trial and error involved before you get there. The most important thing about targeting an audience is to remember to never get cocky about thinking you know it all or have hit the jackpot the first time.
Shopping preferences change faster than the weather so it pays to keep your eyes and ears open.
Choosing the Right E-commerce Platform
So, you want to start an online store. That’s wonderful. But, have you decided on the right software to use. Picking the best solution can be quite a challenge, especially since so many exist today.
Some people may think it doesn’t matter. As long as your platform looks good, that’s all you need. But, no – some platforms are not created equally and this is especially true if you want to automate your store as much as possible. If the website builder of your choice doesn’t offer comprehensive automation support, it might affect your business’ growth.
Luckily for you, most eCommerce platforms allow users to add automation features through app integrations and plug-ins. The most popular apps offer Shopify support as well as WooCommerce (if you already have a WordPress site). If they don’t do one of those, then another major solution they would likely integrate with is BigCommerce.
Since eCommerce platforms are so important for automated stores, picking one that offers great flexibility in terms of customisation or one that is easy to use for beginners is key. This way, even if it doesn’t offer native support for your chosen tools, you should still be able to make them work without too much coding knowledge.
Streamlining Inventory Management
How do some online stores always seem to have what you need in stock, while others leave you waiting. The big secret is inventory - and how well the brand knows what's on hand and when they might run out. Looks Like it's one of those details that doesn’t get much attention until it goes wrong.
More or less. From a seller's perspective, streamlined inventory saves a fair bit of time and worry. It’s important to know when there’s only one item left or when something has been sold out for a while. It seems like this is where automation comes into play - it's not just about being able to restock when you're running low, it's about knowing exactly which products are making money and which ones aren't.
With automation, all the information gets funneled straight into an easy dashboard on your computer or phone. You can pretty much set up notifications for specific scenarios: maybe you're getting ready for a big sale or launching something new. It's all doable with automation, freeing up your team to work with customers instead of scanning barcodes all day. When brands are careless about their inventory, things can quickly get out of hand - especially during busy times like the holidays.
If an item sells out, customers may not find anything similar from the same brand and start browsing elsewhere (competitors included). Bringing automation into play means you'll always have key products in stock with minimal delay between restocks even if there was a little mishap previously. If you take away anything from this conversation, let it be this - you can't afford to make mistakes with inventory management and experience any downtime as an e-commerce business. Sort of.
There are too many tools available now with various price points that can work for all kinds of businesses (and budgets).
Implementing Effective Marketing Strategies
Have you ever noticed how some brands just seem to 'get it' when it comes to catching your attention online, while others are more or less invisible. I think that sort of difference usually comes down to marketing - and it’s quite the science, by the way. There’s often a misconception that automating ecommerce platforms means a brand is opting for a set-it-and-forget-it approach. It appears to be a bit more complicated than that.
Automated systems are excellent at giving companies the information they need for smart marketing decisions - but humans still need to decide which information matters. It seems like for example, using automated systems to collect data about buying trends is a fantastic idea. But identifying patterns and making recommendations based on them still requires a human element.
So instead of viewing automated ecommerce platforms as the decision-makers, it’s probably better to see them as an all-knowing assistant. An assistant who has their eye on everything, sure, but an assistant nonetheless. Effective marketing strategies for ecommerce platforms typically involve learning what resonates with customers and automating parts of it. This could be as simple as automated reminder emails when people leave things in their shopping carts or advanced retargeting campaigns using social media ads.
All this is made possible by automation but these approaches can fall flat without effective segmentation, personalisation, and creative communication from actual people in marketing. To sum up, automating marketing has always been about balance rather than leaning one way or the other. And making automation work means using it smartly - getting all the information you can about your audience and then doing something unique with it. That sort of thing is rarely almost entirely human work.
Enhancing Customer Experience Through Automation
Are your customers supposed to rely on customer service or reach out to an employee if they have queries related to their order. That’s a lot of added pressure and needs lots of time and energy. On top of that, you may not even be able to cater to all your customers and answer their problems in time - especially for a business that has grown huge.
You need a solution that helps the customers and you. Automating customer experience can help build trust in customers, allowing them to have a more positive approach towards online shopping. You can automate customer journey mapping by identifying and outlining all possible pathways customers may take throughout their interactions with the business. Data analytics can help you optimise customer journeys based on their real-time activities and interactions with the website.
It seems like there is also the option to set up a chatbot that helps your customers with queries about your products, ordering, payment process, tracking of orders, etc. With chatbots, you can rather create a custom journey for each individual based on their browsing history or past purchases. This way, chatbots also reduce the time it takes for customers to be able to contact someone from your business.
Then there’s also the option of automating content personalisation using behaviour tracking and AI-powered software systems. With such tools at hand, you can personalise emails that are sometimes sent to users based on their interests, preferences, and previous purchases. Automated emails are popular since they also keep customers in the loop about products and promotions but they also help guide users back to abandoned carts when needed.
Analyzing Data for Continuous Improvement
Ever wondered why some online shops seem to get it right almost every time while others fizzle out after a few years. You’d think it’s about luck, but it’s not - or at least not entirely. It appears to be more about this ongoing thing called ‘learning from the numbers’ - data, as we call it - and using that to drive every new action you take as an e-commerce brand.
The thing with online shopping is that customers are sort of unpredictable. They might like the same product one month but hate it the next, want something else the following month, change their mind about how they pay for it, and then say they want free shipping and returns too. If brands did what worked for them last year and made a decent profit off that, they’d be out of business before they knew what happened. This is why analysing customer data is important for them to continue operating as profitable businesses.
On a very basic level, they study customer preferences and behaviour patterns using algorithms and AI-powered analytics tools. The good thing about using machine learning this way is that you keep learning (and evolving) forever - or for as long as you care to exist in a competitive space like e-commerce. It does this by ‘feeding’ on all the data available to it in real-time and delivers suggestions based on how a given demographic behaves under specific circumstances. That could be by gender, age group, household size, income level or even location.
So if you say you’re married with children and live in inner Sydney, you’re likely to be shown different ads than someone who’s retired on the Gold Coast. And if brands see sales decline when they don’t offer free returns or discounted first purchases. They’ll know exactly which knob to turn up next time so they can keep increasing those numbers consistently into the future.