The eCommerce market is growing at high speed, making store owners constantly look for new ways to streamline their businesses. Automation in eCommerce means using technology to set up processes that can perform tasks repeatedly without human intervention.
Thanks to this approach, online stores can lower the costs of running the business, save significant time on repetitive tasks, reduce human error, and ultimately scale operations more efficiently. With the global eCommerce market exceeding trillions of dollars and consumer expectations constantly rising, automation has become a standard for sustainable growth in the eCommerce market.
Considering that, today’s blog aims to describe key areas for automation in eCommerce, showcase major benefits of the “automated” approach, and introduce examples of tools widely used for automation in eCommerce. At the end, we will provide some examples of automating processes based on our eCommerce projects.
Let’s get started! 👇
Key areas for automation in eCommerce
Automation in eCommerce can include almost every aspect of running an online business, such as logistics, order management, marketing, and much more. Due to that, let’s look at the six key areas that have the most impact on a store’s efficiency and can be automated.
Product catalog management
Let’s start with managing the product catalog. Efficient product information management forms the foundation of a successful online store, allowing customers to see the products and descriptions that match the reality. Managing product data across multiple channels (e.g., the store’s website, marketplaces like Amazon or Allegro, price comparison sites such as Ceneo) can be quite a challenge. Manual updates on each platform are not only time-consuming but also prone to errors, especially when we do them for several hours straight. Therefore, automating this area significantly reduces the human workload and allows us to coordinate the distribution of data from one place.
Order management
Secondly, let’s look at taking care of the customer’s orders. Order management involves the process of accepting and tracking customer orders in an online store. This way, customers can get order confirmation faster and are notified about the status of their order. However, similarly to managing product information, it’s a lot of work for people when the orders must be manually accepted and tracked.
Order Management Systems (OMS) are specialized solutions utilized in eCommerce to enter, process, and oversee customer purchases throughout their lifecycle. Order automation includes automatic order confirmations, automatic updates of order statuses (e.g., "in progress," "shipped"), generation of invoices and sales documents, and more.
In the era of omnichannel commerce, OMS becomes a standard for successful eCommerce websites, allowing people to focus on other areas of running a business.
Logistics and fulfillment
Smooth logistics management is often the biggest challenge for rapidly growing online stores. The increasing number of orders creates tension in warehouses, putting pressure on picking, packing, and shipping operations. Without automation, scaling these processes requires proportional effort in planning or managing warehouse staff, leading to higher costs and greater potential for errors.
Logistics automation solutions solve this by improving the entire fulfillment process. Today’s technology allows for intelligent inventory management systems that track stock levels in real time, automated picking systems using barcode scanners, or even robotics that increase efficiency. These solutions also generate shipping labels and documentation instantly, automatically select the delivery method based on order parameters and cost, and provide proactive inventory replenishment that uses sales velocity data and predictive forecasting algorithms.
Customer service
Providing high-quality customer service with a growing customer base is a full-time job. Manually answering questions, sending e-mails, and updating statuses about returned products quickly becomes overwhelming as sales increase, leading to delayed responses, frustrated customers, and team burnout. Luckily, there are many powerful tools for customer service, reducing the human workload needed and saving time both for customers and the store’s staff.
Marketing and sales
Effective marketing and sales strategies are crucial for eCommerce growth, but managing multiple campaigns, customer segments, and sales channels manually is highly time-consuming. Taking care of social media posts, uploading blogs, and sending newsletters can take hours of work in a week.
For this reason, there are many advanced automation tools designed to take over the repetitive marketing tasks, whether it is scheduling posts across multiple social platforms, sending targeted email campaigns, or personalizing product recommendations.
Data analysis and reporting
Making data-driven decisions is extremely important in eCommerce, but collecting, processing, and visualizing data manually is both tedious and error-prone. Spending hours downloading reports, combining data from multiple sources, and creating the same charts week after week isn't just inefficient but also a waste of valuable strategic thinking time.
Modern data automation solutions eliminate these repetitive tasks by centralizing information from various platforms and generating insightful reports automatically. These systems can pull data from your eCommerce platform, advertising accounts, email marketing software, and social media profiles into a single dashboard that updates in real-time. Instead of waiting for monthly reports, businesses can access up-to-date performance metrics whenever they need them.
Beyond simple reporting, automated analytics tools can identify patterns and anomalies that humans might miss. They can alert you when metrics deviate from expected ranges, helping you catch problems early, for instance, a sudden drop in conversion rate or an unusual spike in customer service inquiries.
Benefits of eCommerce process automation
Implementing automation across various aspects of your eCommerce operation can deliver substantial benefits that directly impact an eCommerce business. Let's explore the key advantages that make automation worth the investment.
<div class="rtb-text-box is-blue-50">Reducing human error and saving time</div>
One of the most immediate benefits of automation is the major reduction in manual errors. When humans repeatedly perform repetitive tasks like data entry, order processing, or inventory updates, mistakes are inevitable. These errors can lead to shipping the wrong products, overselling inventory, or miscommunicating with customers.
Automated systems execute processes with consistent accuracy, following the same rules every time. A well-configured order management system won't accidentally ship to an old address or forget to generate an invoice. This reliability not only prevents costly mistakes but also saves the considerable time that would otherwise be spent identifying and correcting errors.
Additionally, time savings extend beyond error correction. Many studies report that automation of routine processes can free up 20-30 hours per week for small to medium-sized eCommerce operations. This translates to approximately 1,000-1,500 hours annually that can be redirected toward strategic initiatives like product development, partnership building, or marketing optimization.
<div class="rtb-text-box is-blue-50">Enhancing customer shopping experiences</div>
Customers expect top-notch experiences when shopping online, and automation makes it possible. When product information is always consistent and accurate across all channels, customers are more confident to buy the product. Similarly, when orders are processed quickly and shipping notifications are on time, customers know that the store is reliable.
<div class="rtb-text-box is-blue-50">Boosting IT and marketing team productivity</div>
Perhaps the most transformative benefit of automation is how it changes the nature of work for your team members. Without automation, technical and marketing staff often find themselves trapped in cycles of repetitive tasks: manually updating product listings, individually processing orders, or copying data between systems.
Automation frees team members to focus on higher-value activities. Moreover, this shift also improves job satisfaction and prevents burnout. Working on creative tasks is far more engaging and satisfying than doing monotonous work over and over again.
Tools and systems for eCommerce automation
Now, let’s look at the powerful automation tools that can support eCommerce businesses in their day-to-day tasks.
Product Information Management (PIM) systems
When selling products across multiple channels, a Product Information Management (PIM) system serves as an essential automation tool that centralizes all product data in one place. Rather than updating information separately on your website, marketplaces, and other platforms, changes made once in the PIM automatically flow to all connected sales channels. This centralization ensures perfect consistency in product descriptions, specifications, and pricing across all customer touchpoints, building trust and reducing support issues caused by contradictory information. PIM systems also streamline product launches with workflows that guide items through various stages of data enrichment, including tools for managing translations across multiple languages.
For businesses with large catalogs or frequent product updates, these automation options save countless hours while significantly improving overall data quality.
<div class="rtb-text-box is-blue-50">Examples of PIM solutions are Pimcore or Akeneo, which allow businesses to benefit from a centralized source of product information, automatic distribution of data to all sales channels, easy editing of product attributes, and even automated translation of product descriptions.</div>
Integrations with ERP & WMS, and CRM systems
Apart from the really useful PIM systems, there are many other advanced solutions that automate and centralize data in eCommerce stores.
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) brings your entire business operations under one roof. It can be compared to the “brain” of the company, tracking everything from finances to inventory in real-time. When connected to the online store, ERP ensures that when a customer buys a product, the inventory updates automatically, the accounting team sees the revenue, and the suppliers know when to send more products. This data flow reduces manual work, mistakes, and improves the ability to make smart business decisions based on what's actually happening across the company.
- Warehouse Management System (WMS) solutions optimize the flow of products through warehouses by managing inventory locations, picking routes, and fulfillment processes to maximize efficiency and accuracy in order processing. These systems tell warehouse staff exactly where to find items and what is the fastest way to process an order. Most businesses connect their WMS to their ERP rather than directly to eCommerce, creating a smooth workflow from the moment a customer clicks "buy" to when the package leaves the warehouse. A properly implemented WMS system means faster shipping, fewer errors, and the ability to handle busy seasons without hiring additional temporary workers.
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) keeps track of the people who matter most in an online business - the customers. It gathers the information about what they bought, which emails they've opened, their support history, and even their birthday if the store collected that information. By plugging the CRM into the eCommerce platform, businesses can send personalized product recommendations, target customers with the right promotions at the right time, and give their support team the context they need to provide excellent service.
Automated customer service tools
As we mentioned earlier, tasks related to customer service can be overwhelming, especially with a growing customer base. Here are tools that can lift this weight off our shoulders.
Firstly, AI-powered chatbots are great at answering FAQs, product selection, and even returns and complaints processing when working 24/7. When integrated with eCommerce platforms and customer purchase history analytics, they can deliver dynamic answers that increase customer engagement and overall shopping experience.
What’s more, the ticketing systems can be used to gather all critical information from multiple channels (like chatbots, e-mails, social media) and create a “ticket” to manage all communication with the client from a single place.
When it comes to answering e-mails, the market offers "autoresponders", which are systems that automatically send messages prepared beforehand. Popular online email services like Outlook and Gmail provide basic automatic response capabilities for out-of-office periods. However, specialized email marketing platforms such as Mailchimp, GetResponse, and MailerLite offer a range of advanced functionalities and integration options with other systems, including CRM. This way, businesses can set automated email sequences tailored for new online store customers, post-purchase follow-ups, and targeted promotional campaigns based on customer behavior.
Case studies
Before we wrap up this blog, let’s look at the examples of our projects where we implemented automation solutions.
Clickable automotive
Clickable Automotive, an Australian online retailer specializing in BMW, Volkswagen, Audi, and Skoda parts since 2011, needed to replace their outdated Magento system that was limiting business growth. The company's success relies on quality parts, competitive pricing, and helping customers find exactly what they need for their vehicles without requiring specialized technical knowledge.
We implemented a comprehensive automation solution that integrated two separate warehouse management systems (using GraphQL and REST APIs) to create seamless inventory tracking across multiple locations. The automated system now updates product inventory with each order, performs scheduled data synchronization, and features an error detection system that ensures data consistency without constant manual checks. Customers can subscribe to receive automatic notifications when out-of-stock items become available again, making sure interested customers return when products become available.
Planeta Huerto
Next, Planeta Huerto, part of the Carrefour Group and Spain's largest online retailer of eco-friendly and organic products, needed a robust solution to manage their extensive catalog of over 35,000 products across multiple languages. We implemented a comprehensive automation system that integrated Sylius with Pimcore (for product information management) using Kafka messaging for seamless data synchronization. This integration allowed Planeta Huerto to centralize product data management in Pimcore, where they could efficiently handle descriptions, images, and other product-related information in both Spanish and Portuguese, while automatically publishing approved products to their Sylius-powered storefront. Thanks to this automated product management setup, Planeta Huerto has streamlined its operations despite its complex requirements, supporting over 816,000 customers and managing thousands of product reviews through a system that ensures consistent product information across all sales channels without requiring manual data entry in multiple places.
Albeco
Another great example of implementing automation is a Polish store selling industrial parts with over 30 years of market presence and more than 60,000 products - Albeco. Similarly to Clickable Automotive, the store faced significant challenges with their outdated eCommerce platform that was limiting business growth. The company supplies bearings, guides, lubricating oils, and other industrial components to over 10,000 contractors across 70 countries worldwide, making efficient inventory management critical to their operation. We implemented a powerful Sylius-based solution with a standout feature: real-time ERP integration that synchronizes inventory data for 120,000 products across multiple warehouses in under one minute. This lightning-fast inventory synchronization ensures customers always see accurate stock information and can place orders from different warehouses in a single purchase, while the automated system manages everything from product availability updates to multi-warehouse logistics without human intervention. Thanks to this integration, Albeco now operates with significantly reduced manual inventory management, eliminating data inconsistencies between its warehouses and online store.
Domotio
For our last example, Domotio, a modern Polish lighting manufacturer originating from ALDEX Dyderscy, needed to migrate from their outdated WooCommerce platform to a more flexible solution. As part of their project, we implemented an automated marketing system that sends personalized discount codes immediately after customers subscribe to their newsletter. It motivates new subscribers while building their marketing database without requiring any manual intervention from staff. The implementation also included broader marketing automations through Google ecosystem integration, making it easier to track customer journeys, analyze behavior patterns, and deliver targeted communications based on user interactions with the store.
Summary
Automation is no longer just a fancy buzzword in eCommerce, often still associated with sci-fi movies or large factories. It's becoming essential for keeping store operations efficient and preventing your team from being overwhelmed with repetitive tasks that consume hours of valuable working time. Getting started doesn't have to be complicated - take a good look at your daily operations, pick one repetitive task that's eating up your team's time, and automate it first to see quick improvements. While setting up these systems might seem too difficult initially, the payoff in saved time, fewer errors, and happier employees makes the effort worthwhile.
What's more, new technologies and tools powered by AI make automation better and more accessible even for smaller businesses. Therefore, it's always beneficial to follow the latest changes and brand-new systems to see if they can improve your store. When talking about automation, the business idiom "work smarter, not harder" perfectly fits here.
{{cta-service="/comp/cta"}}
