As the ecommerce industry continues to grow, technology plays an increasingly important role in business’s success. Automation has become invaluable for managing and streamlining common processes that would otherwise be time-consuming and error-prone.

In this blog post, we will explore 17 of the best ecommerce automation tools you can use to help grow your business in 2023. From marketing automation to inventory management, you’ll find the ecommerce automation tools you need to take your online business to the next level. Let’s get started!

What is eCommerce automation?

Ecommerce automation is the use of specialized software tools to automate common and repetitive tasks that occur during the selling of goods and services online. These tools help businesses streamline their operations, freeing up time for them to focus instead on growth and other core processes. With ecommerce automation, businesses can also reduce costs associated with manual labor while increasing efficiency in other areas such as order processing, product management, inventory management, customer service, marketing and more.

What categories of automation tools are there?

Marketing automation tools

Ecommerce marketing automation software helps businesses streamline marketing tasks and reduce the amount of manual labor involved in tasks such as copywriting, email marketing, social media posting and more. Popular automation tools in this category include Mailchimp and HubSpot, which both offer powerful features such as email campaigns, automated segmenting, landing pages, social media scheduling, and analytics. The more powerful tools in this category provide detailed automation options to let businesses really tailor and customize their experiences for their customers.

Inventory management tools

Inventory management tools are essential for ecommerce businesses, as they help to keep track of stock levels and orders. Popular ecommerce automation tools in this category include Linnworks, Square and Fishbowl, which offer comprehensive features such as inventory tracking, order processing, barcode scanning, sales forecasting, and real-time analytics.

Payment processing tools

Payment processing allow companies to accept payments from customers securely and efficiently. Popular ecommerce automation tools in this category include Stripe and PayPal, which offer features such as payment gateways, fraud detection, invoicing, and secure checkout.

Customer service tools

Customer service software help businesses provide a seamless customer experience at scale. Popular ecommerce automation tools in this category include Zendesk and Freshdesk, which offer features such as ticketing systems, automated responses, live chat, and customer feedback surveys.

Benefits of using tools For eCommerce automation

Ecommerce automation tools offer several key advantages, including but not limited to the following:

1. Improved customer service: Automation tools help streamline the customer experience, from simplifying product searches and checkout processes to providing personalized recommendations. They also enable faster resolution of customer queries or complaints, which can result in better reviews.
2. Increased efficiency: Automation can help ecommerce business owners save time and money by automating mundane tasks such as data entry, repetitive communication tasks and more. This helps to free up resources that can be used to focus on other aspects of the business.
3. Enhanced marketing efforts: Automation tools can help business owners optimize their marketing campaigns, enabling them to target specific demographics and reach potential customers more effectively. Automation also makes tracking and analyzing customer behavior easier, allowing businesses to continously refine their strategies for increased effectiveness.
4. Improved scalability: With ecommerce automation solutions, business owners are no longer limited by manual processes and can instead scale up their operations quickly. For instance, instead of manually typing out each and every shipping label, which would take hours every day, business owners can use software to automate this task to happen in the background while other tasks are being done. Automation also helps maintain consistent customer service standards as businesses grow.
5. Reduced risk of errors: Automation solutions help business owners avoid costly mistakes and errors due to human error or oversight, ensuring accuracy and consistency across the entire ecommerce process.

By taking advantage of ecommerce automation tools, business owners can increase efficiency, improve customer service, optimize their marketing efforts, and scale up operations quickly and effectively. These powerful solutions not only allow companies to scale up efficiently, but also pivot when they need to to stay competitive in today’s digital landscape.

Are there any downsides to using automation tools?

Using these tools can have some drawbacks. Here are a few of the potential disadvantages to consider:

1. Difficulty of setup: Some automation tools require a complex initial setup which may be time-consuming and difficult for those without technical experience. While we believe the benefits almost always outweigh the costs, it is still important to note this if a business is looking to enact change instantaneously.
2. Expense: Automation tools can often be costly, depending on the features and levels of customization needed. This is where automation tools that provide benefits in more than one category can be advantageous compared to a myriad of point software solutions. 
3. Maintenance: Automation tools must be maintained and kept up to date to run effectively, which may require additional resources.
4. Security: Automation tools can also put your ecommerce store at risk if they are not properly secured. Cybercriminals have been known to exploit weaknesses in ecommerce automation tools. Thankfully all of the tools we are recommending in this list have top-notch security features.
5. Limited customization: Automation tools may be limited in their ability to be customized according to specific business needs. This can lead to inefficient processes or a lack of functionality if the tool cannot accommodate your unique requirements.

By understanding the potential drawbacks of ecommerce automation tools, you can make an informed decision about whether or not they are the right fit for your online business. Automation tools can be extremely beneficial if used correctly, but there are always risks that must be considered.

Best eCommerce automation tools

CartHook

CartHook is ecommerce automation software that helps online businesses increase their average order volume with automatic smart offers and discounts. This post-purchase upsell tool lets owners create offers to customers based on what is currently in their shopping cart.

With CartHook, users can easily create customizable one-page checkouts, set up post-purchase offers, measure the effectiveness of these campaigns and more.

Shopify Flow

Shopify Flow is an automation add-on specifically for Shopify users. With Shopify Flow, merchants can easily create custom workflows to automate tasks in their stores and across their apps using a simple and easy-to-use interface. Shopify Flow is only available to customers on the Shopify, Advanced or Shopify Plus plan.

Zapier

Zapier is an e-commerce automation tool that allows businesses to connect and automate tasks, making it easier for them to grow their online business. With Zapier, users can create connections between thousands of web applications such as Shopify, Woocommerce, PayPal, and many more. These connections are called ‘zaps,’ which allow data to flow between applications, so users can automate repetitive tasks. Users can customize these zaps to suit their e-commerce needs and set up triggers and actions to ensure data flows where it needs to go. With Zapier, users can save time and resources, streamline operations and increase productivity.

ReCharge

ReCharge is an ecommerce automation tool that helps turn buyers into repeat customers. It automates subscription management by enabling customers to set up recurring orders, manage payment plans, change delivery dates, and easily upgrade or downgrade service levels. ReCharge seamlessly integrates with Shopify, Stripe, Braintree, and other ecommerce platforms, making it easy to set up and manage ecommerce subscriptions to boost average order value, decrease churn and maximize lifetime value.

CartStack

CartStack is an ecommerce automation tool designed to help ecommerce businesses maximize their sales by reducing cart abandonment. CartStack’s cart abandonment recovery tool allows ecommerce businesses to target customers who have abandoned their carts and send them personalized emails, text messages, and web notifications to increase the chances of recovering those abandoned sales. The automated email marketing feature helps ecommerce businesses send targeted emails to their customers and track and analyze customer behavior.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a powerful ecommerce automation tool designed to help businesses of any size succeed in multiple digital avenues including landing pages, email marketing and more. With comprehensive reporting tools and marketing automation capabilities, Mailchimp gives ecommerce marketers access to customer insights, marketing analytics, and the ability to easily segment customers for targeted campaigns. The platform offers an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface that makes creating beautiful email campaigns simple without needing coding skills.

AutomateWoo

AutomateWoo is an ecommerce automation tool for WooCommerce that helps online merchants grow their business by automating common tasks. With AutomateWoo, ecommerce merchants can create triggers and automated workflows for any number of customer-facing activities such as follow-up emails, SMS messages, loyalty programs, and more. AutomateWoo makes ecommerce automation easy and efficient, helping ecommerce merchants save time and effort while also giving customers an incomparable shopping experience.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud

Salesforce Commerce Cloud is an ecommerce automation tool designed to help businesses grow and expand online. Its powerful features allow users to optimize customer interactions, track analytics and insights and scale ecommerce operations with ease. With its intuitive user interface, merchants can easily create and manage website storefronts and handle transactions. Additionally, the platform enables customers to purchase on any device with a seamless shopping experience.

ActiveCampaign

With ActiveCampaign’s powerful suite of automation tools, online businesses can easily create personalized customer experiences, automate marketing and sales tasks, track performance metrics, and gain valuable insights into their ecommerce business. From creating triggered email campaigns to segmenting customers based on their shopping habits, ActiveCampaign gives ecommerce businesses the power to reach more customers and drive higher conversions—all from one platform.

Automizy

Automizy enables e-commerce merchants to create automated email campaigns tailored specifically to their customers’ needs and preferences. With the software, ecommerce businesses can segment their subscribers easily based on user behavior or other criteria, allowing them to target specific segments of customers with highly personalized messages to improve open rates and thus create more sales opportunities. Automizy also makes it easy to manage campaigns and track results, including key metrics such as open rate, click-throughs, and conversions. Automizy’s drag-and-drop editor allows ecommerce businesses to design engaging email templates that are visually appealing, making it easier for customers to connect with the brand and making them more likely to respond to the message.

Autopilot

Autopilot’s ecommerce automation tools enable ecommerce business owners to set up automated customer journeys and campaigns tailored to the individual customer’s preferences. Features allow businesses to send personalized emails and messages, create targeted customer segments and gain insights into customer behavior to drive more conversions. Autopilot’s ecommerce automation platform also offers features such as A/B testing, segmentation and analytics reports that help companies optimize their ecommerce marketing strategies.

Klaviyo

Klaviyo is an ecommerce automation tool that provides advanced features that allow ecommerce store to segment their customer base, personalize emails and deploy targeted campaigns. It also integrates with many popular ecommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento.

Keap

Keap is a CRM, sales and marketing automation tool designed to help ecommerce businesses collect and convert more leads into customers. With Keap’s intuitive platform, ecommerce businesses can streamline their workflow processes, eliminate time-consuming manual tasks, and save money on marketing campaigns. From automated email marketing campaigns and targeted ecommerce campaigns to ecommerce integrations with popular ecommerce platforms, Keap provides the tools and features needed to help ecommerce businesses reach their growth objectives.

Omnisend

With Omnisend, ecommerce businesses can quickly and easily create automated marketing campaigns tailored to customer needs. Omnisend allows users to automate marketing campaigns, create targeted email and SMS campaigns, track customer behavior and engagement and customize customer communication with triggers, filters and personalization options. The platform also provides advanced segmentation capabilities that allow ecommerce businesses to create custom segments based on customer data or demographic information. Additionally, Omnisend integrates with ecommerce platforms such as Shopify and BigCommerce, allowing businesses to sync data from multiple channels.

Drip

Drip is an email marketing automation platform that helps ecommerce businesses grow with automated campaigns to send personalized emails and messages to your customers, segmented lists of subscribers and customers and powerful analytics. You can also use Drip’s ecommerce automation tools to automatically trigger actions based on customer behavior and send shopping cart abandonment emails to boost sales. With Drip, ecommerce businesses can nurture their relationships with customers, grow their subscriber base, and increase revenue.

Hunch

Hunch is an automated media buying platform for ecommerce stores. It leverages AI-driven algorithms combined with human expertise to optimize campaigns for ecommerce store owners, ensuring maximum efficiency and results from your marketing budget on social. With Hunch, you can easily manage your ecommerce advertising across multiple channels such as Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and Instagram Ads – all in one place. The platform offers powerful features such as automatic bidding optimization, budget management, real-time data reporting and analysis, campaign monitoring, automated audience segmentation, and more.

How’s your order management going?

Switching to an automated order management solution like Linnworks can be a great way to manage and grow your online business in conjunction with the tools we’ve listed above. With features like inventory management, order processing, shipping integration, customer communication tools, and more, you have the power to streamline your operations so that you’re spending less time on mundane tasks and more time connecting with customers and growing your business. Pairing Linnworks with these ecommerce automation tools will enable you to efficiently scale your sales volume as other tools help get you get more sales. Contact us today and see how we can help your business grow.

Tips on getting started with eCommerce automation tools

Here is a great list of tips for choosing automation tools that are right for your business and some suggestions on what to make sure you do with the tools once you have them implemented.

Identify the ecommerce automation tools that fit your business needs: Different ecommerce automation tools have different features, so it’s important to identify the ones ideal for meeting your specific requirements. For instance, if your business doesn’t involve drop shipping, you likely won’t need Orderlytics, but you could still leverage Drip for email marketing if that is an important sales channel for you.

Investigate ecommerce platforms and integrations: Before investing in ecommerce automation tools, investigate ecommerce platforms and the available integrations. This will help ensure you secure a platform and tools that can integrate seamlessly. Linnworks offers 100+ integrations to let ecommerce businesses run their company, their way.

Find ecommerce automation tools with user-friendly interfaces: Automation is only successful if your staff members can easily use the ecommerce automation tools. Look for ecommerce automation tools with user-friendly interfaces that make it simple to set up, launch and manage ecommerce campaigns. Using online reviews can help filter out tools that are not easy-to-use.

Leverage ecommerce automation tools for customer segmentation: Ecommerce automation tools can segment customers into specific groups (e.g., by location, purchase history, demographics, etc.), allowing you to create more targeted ecommerce campaigns that are tailored specifically to each segment. This can lead to more specialized marketing campaigns and customer support initiatives which can result in higher ROI than non-segmented initiatives.

Utilize ecommerce automation tools for product promotions: Automation can create and launch ecommerce campaigns that promote specific products or services, helping you increase your sales and customer loyalty.

Use ecommerce automation for personalization: With ecommerce automation tools, you can send out personalized ecommerce emails, coupons, and other promotions to your customers. This helps create a more personal ecommerce experience that can help boost customer loyalty and conversion rates.

Take advantage of analytics: Advanced ecommerce automation tools provide in-depth analytics that can help you better understand your ecommerce performance and adjust accordingly. Leverage these insights to improve ecommerce campaigns and maximize sales.

FAQs about eCommerce automation tools

What are ecommerce automation tools?

Ecommerce automation tools are software programs that help ecommerce store owners automate tasks and streamline processes. These tools can assist with activities such as inventory management, customer relationship management (CRM), business analytics, email marketing, payment processing, and more.

What features should ecommerce automation tools have?

Ecommerce automation tools typically fall in one of two categories. They either offer a number of features across disciplines or they offer in-depth features for a specific benefit. For instance, Zapier allows businesses to integrate various systems together to sync up processes while a tool like 

should offer features such as inventory management, CRM integration, analytics, and reporting capabilities, email marketing support, payment processing integration, and more. They should also be secure, user-friendly, and have scalability options so that ecommerce store owners can grow their businesses with minimal effort.

What are the risks associated with ecommerce automation tools?

The main risk associated with ecommerce automation tools is data security. It’s important to ensure that the ecommerce automation tool you choose has adequate security protocols to protect your customer data. Additionally, ecommerce automation tools should be integrated with existing business systems, such as accounts and inventory management applications. This will help ensure accuracy and consistency across all processes.

How do I choose an ecommerce automation tool?

When choosing an ecommerce automation tool, it’s important to consider your ecommerce store’s specific needs. Consider the features of the ecommerce automation tool and how they align with your business goals. Additionally, consider user reviews, technical support services, and costs before deciding. You should also ensure that the ecommerce automation tool integrates with existing business systems.

Final thoughts

Ecommerce automation tools are essential for ecommerce businesses, as they help to streamline processes and provide a seamless experience for customers. In this blog post, we explored 17 of the best ecommerce automation tools you can use to help grow your online business in 2023. From ecommerce marketing automation software to inventory management, we’ve covered many of the ecommerce automation tools you need to take your business to the next level.