
10 Benefits of Automation and Integration In E-Commerce
Automation and integration are no longer just buzzwords. Automation, which is the way of converting manual processes into automated ones, and integration, which involves assimilating third-party technological solutions into your existing processes and tools, can revolutionise how companies do business. Organisations which implement effective automation and integration strategies can help improve operational efficiency and increase revenue.
Let’s take a look at ten examples of how companies can reap the benefits of integration and automation.
Automation Saves Time
Time is our most valuable resource. Every second of time saved will allow us to free up and allocate our other resources toward more productive tasks.
Automation saves time by automating repetitive tasks. According to one study by consulting firm McKinsey, 60% of all professions have minimally 30% automatable activities. In another research, McKinsey stated that up to 45% workplace tasks can be automated using existing technologies.
74% of marketers believe that automating process and production such as social media postings, email marketing and collating data will help their organisation save time. Even employees are excited by the potential of automation. In a survey released by the International Federation of Robotics, almost 70% of employees believe that automation will provide them with the chance to perform higher-skilled work.

Integration Streamlines Order Processing
Placing one order for one item hardly requires automation. What about placing 500 orders for 500 different pieces of content daily? This is where automation comes in. By creating a platform that integrates, for example, your storefront with your supplier’s backend, you can automate the entire content creation process.
At Contentor, we have customised solutions which allow us to offer a variety of options for integrating a wide range of e-commerce platforms used by our clients to content creation and translation workflows. We provide ready-made solutions for clients to place orders as well as direct publication of those content to storefronts. This provides them with savings on time, manpower and costs.
Automation Increases the Quality of Marketing Leads
The quality of leads is directly proportional to the client close rate. If your leads are poor, your close rate will be equally poor. Not only that but wasting your resources on such leads will prevent you from spending time with great leads.
Automated tools for lead generation, which can range from something as simple as an opt-in button to something as complex as an automated posting schedule across multiple marketing channels, can help to reduce low-quality leads.
By reaching a wider audience consistently, you will be able to use data like engagement and click-through rates to identify high-quality customers. Once you have done so, you can use these data to nurture the leads until they are prime and ready for conversion.
Integration Improves Speed of Deliveries
Whether your product is digital or tangible, deliveries will progressively consume more resources as your business grows. Gone are the days when inventory management and label printing operate in isolated silos. Today, companies must use automated and integrated solutions to manage their deliveries. Integrating software solutions for deliverables will provide instant productivity and cost-saving boosts to businesses.
Automation Helps to Maintain A Consistent Brand Presence
In the digital age, a standalone newspaper advertisement is no longer sufficient to market your products or services. To reach your prospective clients, you will have to market your offerings across a wide variety of channels, including, but not limited to, social media, email marketing, search engine marketing and content marketing.
The efficacy of this approach relies on consistent branding and messaging across your entire marketing channels. Additionally, your marketing efforts must be done continuously, at regular intervals, to ensure your engagement rate remains constant.
Automating this process will eliminate a lot of repetitive and subjective tasks that routinely consume the time of marketing personnel.
Integration Optimises Operational Structure
Integration of various workflows in your organisation can help optimise your operational structure. Scandis, a home furnishing retailer, successfully implemented seven different workflows across their different Shopify storefronts and brick-and-mortar store to create a unified ordering experience for customers.
Instead of employing a large workforce across multiple departments, you can use customised integration solutions to link your content creation process to publication to strengthen your operational structure and manage your storefront, inventory, payment processing and much more from one centralised location.
Automation Helps to Improve Analysis of Performance Data (ROI)
One of the greatest challenges of marketing is demonstrating a return of investment (ROI) for their efforts. However, by switching to automation, companies will be able to ascertain the ROI of their initiatives by individual channels and length of time.
An automated platform will help businesses to find targeted data such as triggered emails and open rates, close rate on nurtured leads, inbound marketing conversion, conversion rate among specific demographics, etc. These ROI data will help companies progressively improve on their marketing endeavours.
Integration Reduces Customer Churn Rate
Acquiring new clients can cost up to five times more compared to retaining existing clients. As such, managing your churn rate is critical to reduce your acquisition costs.
How would integration help with that? By helping organisations to maintain their relationship with clients. Marketing integration software such as HubSpot, Salesforce and Sendinblue can help deliver highly targeted, relevant content at regular intervals to clients. These will keep them engaged with your latest offerings and enhance their loyalty.
Automation Helps to Improve Customer Satisfaction
Satisfied customers bring numerous benefits to companies, including a recurring source of revenue and provide positive word of mouth promotion. This will indirectly improve your customer retention and reduce customer acquisition cost. Low customer satisfaction levels cost businesses up to $62 billion in losses annually.
How do you improve customer satisfaction? Well, aside from a consistently high level of service, automation can also help by automating the entire customer journey. Automated tools such as Zapier, Contalog and Infusionsoft give customers instant access to product information, inventory level, discounts and other valuable information that will help them make more effective decisions.
Integration Offers Easy [and instant] Scalability
In today’s hyper-competitive e-commerce landscape, the ability to scale instantly could give businesses a huge advantage over their clients. Integration tools like third-party connectors allow businesses to seamlessly connect their ERP and e-commerce platforms with service providers and suppliers. This will help them to easily expand their offerings, inventory, communication platforms and market reach with just a few clicks. With the right set of tools in your corner, the sky is indeed the limit.