A complete guide to eCommerce marketing automation

Learn all about eCommerce marketing automation, use cases, best practices and automation tools that are built to ensure your campaigns succeed.

Senior Content Marketing Specialist

Monika Lončarić

Senior Content Marketing Specialist

eCommerce brands invest loads of time, money, and effort into ensuring marketing campaigns reach their desired goals. Adding automation and various channels into the mix will help amplify marketing efforts and enable real-time engagement with behavior-based triggers – allowing eCommerce brands to interact with customers at the perfect time.

73%

of 46,000 surveyed shoppers leverage multiple channels to shop

47%

more likely to spend more if customers get personalized experiences

80%

of consumers believe new technologies can improve their eCommerce experiences

What is eCommerce marketing automation?

eCommerce marketing automation is when brands use software tools to automate certain marketing processes and use cases. Automation helps streamline complicated and time-consuming marketing processes, improves efficiency of campaigns, and enhances overall customer experience. 

5 reasons why eCommerce brands need marketing automation

A breakdown of 8 eCommerce marketing use cases ideal for automation

Let’s deep dive into eight common use cases from the world of eCommerce and how brands can use automation or AI to enhance experiences.

1. Welcome new users

The use case checklist:

  • Thank your customer – their time is valuable  
  • Personalize the content based on their signup data
  • Include a clear CTA on what they should do next – browse, subscribe, or buy  
  • Add a failover channel  
  • Segment the campaign based on if they made a purchase or not
  • A/B test recently viewed items versus best-sellers to see what converts them 

2. Promote recently viewed items

The use case checklist:

  • Thank them for viewing the web shop
  • Offer additional assistance or an incentive to complete a purchase  
  • Use product images and offer recommendations
  • Include a link to the items viewed
  • Set a trigger to halt messaging when they add the item to their basket or make a purchase

3. Cart abandonment messages

ecommerce marketing automation cart abandonment

The use case checklist:

  • Trigger messages after customers abandon their purchase
  • Include images of the products left in their carts
  • Send a second reminder with a time-sensitive offer or discount to encourage conversions
  • Use an OTT channel like WhatsApp or Viber to grab their attention

4. Send delivery campaigns

The use case checklist:

  • Ensure you leave enough time following a purchase to the time of delivery  
  • Be contextual and remind them what they bought  
  • Set up triggers for transactional notifications, delivery updates, and review requests  
  • Thank your customer 
  • Segment customers based on lifecycle stage 

5. Send repurchase reminders

The use case checklist:

  • Include an image of the product and link to purchase  
  • Offer a gift or incentive for repeat purchase  
  • Segment communication based on customers lifecycle stage  
  • Include upsell recommendations 

6. Re-engage dormant customers

The use case checklist:

  • Remind them about the benefits of shopping with you  
  • Segment based on customers’ past lifetime value to offer personalized incentives
  • Include recommendations based on past behavior
  • Add a failover channel  
  • A/B test newest products versus personalized recommendations to monitor conversions 

7. Automate loyalty campaigns

The use case checklist:

  • Thank them for being a loyal customer 
  • Personalize the offer according to their habits  
  • Recommend products with AI-based product recommendation
  • Segment your loyal customers based on tiers
  • Add a failover channel

8. Launch special occasion campaigns

The use case checklist:

  • Trigger the communication based on a specific date on their People CDP profile  
  • Personalize content based on lifecycle stage and past behavior  
  • Include product recommendations and a gift according to membership status, past behavior and interests 

Best practices and tools for eCommerce marketing automation

Having a grasp on the best use cases for automation is just one step of the process. The planning and execution behind each use case will determine how successful your automation efforts will be. Take a look at some best practices to keep in mind while planning eCommerce marketing campaigns. 

Segmenting audiences with AI

Segmenting the flow of your marketing automation campaigns helps create a more personalized journey flow across different customer groups. By dividing your audience based on their past interactions with your brand, purchases, and browsing history you can send the relevant campaigns to the right customers. 

customer data platform segmenting for ecommerce marketing

AI in combination with a customer data platform (CDP) can make segmentation more efficient and accurate. AI can streamline the segmentation process and accurately group audiences with ease. This way, brands can target groups quickly and more accurately and predict what customers want to see.  

Read more about how a CDP and AI can improve segmentation and enable predictive marketing capabilities:

AI-generated personalized content  

Personalization is the king of customer engagement. The more you can personalize your campaigns to customer personas, the better your marketing efforts will perform. Behavior-based campaigns are more personalized than a broadcast blast, and marketing automation powered by AI lets you take that a step further with personalized recommendations, incentives, and promos. 

Personalization for ecommerce marketing automation

Similarly to how it works with segmentation, AI algorithms can pinpoint patterns and behaviors in massive amounts of customer data. This allows for more accurate segmentation and hyper-personalization of the content you send to your audiences. 

AI combined with a customer engagement solution can personalize content through:

  • Personalized subject line and body copy, incorporating data from past purchases, browsing history, etc.
  • Creative banners and relevant call-to-actions
  • Personalized recommendations, such as product or store locations
  • Meaningful incentives and offers

Go omnichannel

Reach your customers on the channels they prefer by delivering consistent brand moments and messaging across all channels. Mix traditional channels like Email and SMS with digital channels and in-app messaging to boost visibility around your campaigns and offer customers better overall experiences.  

For example, if a high-value customer has abandoned a purchase, why just send an email? Send them an SMS or a WhatsApp message to prompt instant and effective action. 

Some popular channels for omnichannel marketing include:  

WhatsApp

Viber

Email

Use social media entry points

Speaking of omnichannel, make sure to use social media platforms to their full potential. If you follow these best practices, you will have detailed and accurate audience data segmented into relevant groups for your campaigns. You can personalize the campaigns and send them over any channel – including socials.  

For example, you can launch a targeted campaign on Instagram or Facebook, and include a click-to-chat on WhatsApp button on the ad, giving customers easy access to speak with your brand and find out more about the offer. Once they have reached out on WhatsApp, you can guide them through the customer journey with an interactive and personalized conversation.  

How to get started automating eCommerce marketing efforts?

Automating marketing campaigns and incorporating AI can be a daunting task for brands. How do you know you’re making the right moves? Targeting the right groups? Did you properly train and implement your AI?

Our professional services team take the stress away from eCommerce brands when it comes to marketing automation. With CX consulting, customer integration, migration services, your brand can focus on customer experience strategies while we take care of the heavy lifting.

Customers know what they want from eCommerce brands – personalization and ease of service. Give them what they want while simplifying internal processes with marketing automation tools and techniques.

Boost conversions and increase satisfaction with marketing automation

Discover our eCommerce solution

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Feb 26th, 2024
8 min read
Senior Content Marketing Specialist

Monika Lončarić

Senior Content Marketing Specialist