Automation in Ecommerce Marketing: 3 Trends You Can’t Ignore

You can say a lot about the world of digital marketing, but you can’t say that it’s boring.

There’s always something new to learn; a game-changing technology that’s turning the industry on its head; or new trends and tips to help hone in your own strategy to help you sell more from your store and stay ahead of the competition. 

2022 definitely hasn’t been a disappointment when it comes to tech trends.

At BigCommerce, we’ve seen the world of ecommerce growing and changing faster than ever before. Many of those trends are helping drive the changes we’re seeing in the digital marketing space. 

Let’s take a look at three major trends we see emerging (or continuing) in the industry, and how one of our partners, Omnisend, can help you hone your digital strategies to stay ahead of the competition. 

1. The Continued Rise of Automation

What do you think of when you see the word ‘automation’? If you’re like most marketers, you probably think of email automation — automated nurture drips, campaigns and the like. But automation encompasses so much more than just emails.

Tools like SMS automation, chatbots and more can all be automated to give users a great experience online — and marketers the data they crave. 

In February 2022, Ascend2 found that over 75% of customer journeys were automated to some extent. By automating more and more processes throughout the customer journey, marketers have more time to optimize communications, to analyze data and to ensure that every touch point is an opportunity for success. 

Additionally, automation tools are helping marketers gather more information on prospective customers, which allows for not just more communication, but more meaningful communication. 

For example, marketing teams can set up abandoned cart SMS alerts, inactivity emails, page-closing popups that give users coupon codes depending on their history — the possibilities are endless.

As more teams begin to take advantage of automation, it’s clear that those who don’t will be at a disadvantage in the future. 

2. Email is Still King

Email has long played an integral role in any digital marketing campaign, but with advances in automation and data-gathering, email campaigns are delivering better results now more than ever. 

​​Automated messages generated 29.6% of all email marketing orders with only 2.2% of the sends. — Omnisend

Before we go any further, it’s important to make a distinction between an automated email and promotional emails.

According to Omnisend, “Promotional campaigns are one-off messages manually sent by brands, such as a weekly newsletter promoting special offers, discounts, new products and other promotional-style messages.” Automated messages, on the other hand, are “messages triggered by user behavior, such as when a user abandons a cart, subscribes to a newsletter or makes a purchase.”

Email marketing generated 72 orders for every 1,000 promotional campaign emails clicked on compared to 343 orders for every 1,000 automated messages. — Omnisend

The kinds of data used to send automated email messages are extremely useful for marketers. Based on a shopper’s past history, you can send emails that suggest new products they may tend to purchase next. If a shopper leaves an item in their cart, you can send a reminder, coupon code and even a few related products that could compliment their purchase. Personalizing email communication and granular messaging are imperative to any successful digital marketing campaign, and can really help boost your bottom line. 

3. SMS Marketing is Growing in Popularity

Over the last few years, a new tactic has emerged that has given marketers a direct line to their customers: SMS marketing. Customers opting to give  a brand their personal phone number is no small task (as if we don’t get enough spam on our phones as it is), so crafting a campaign can be challenging. But done right, that challenge can reap fantastic rewards. 

Promotional campaign sends increased 75% year-over-year while automated sends increased 258%. — Omnisend

Why has SMS marketing taken off? Because it gives brands the ability to talk to customers who opt-in on the same devices they’re purchasing from. Mobile commerce grew by 12.2% in 2021. The ability to connect with customers on such an intimate level makes SMS a real game changer for mobile commerce. 

“So what?” you ask. “I can already talk to my customer on their smartphone with email. What sets SMS apart?” Unlike a flashy email that calls for designed images and templates, SMS messages are just that, a message alerting a customer about a sale or an item in their cart. They can also be used as part of a larger campaign, allowing marketers to send SMS messages in between emails or other touch points. 

But with great power comes great responsibility. Think of your SMS messages as a more intimate and urgent message than an email. Start with automated messages triggered by your shopper’s behavior — then move into promotional messages around big events, holidays or sales. 

Make sure your messages are valuable to your customers by keeping them short and sweet. 

SMS drove 106% more orders in 2021 than in 2020. — Omnisend

These trends show a clear move toward more valuable, data-driven communication between businesses and their customers.

When it comes to your business, if you’re not leveraging technologies that allow this kind of communication, you risk falling behind. That’s why we’ve partnered with Omnisend to help provide our merchants with an automation, email and SMS solution that can help them reach their customers like never before. 

What is Omnisend? 

Omnisend is an ecommerce-focused email and SMS marketing automation platform that’s dedicated to helping brands understand their customers better, so they can communicate with them on multiple channels to increase loyalty and generate more sales. 

How Does Omnisend Work? 

Omnisend aims to help ecommerce brands understand how their contacts are progressing through the buyer’s journey, along with the features to help them nudge each contact further along that journey. This includes acquisition features, such as popups, landing pages and various signup forms, and activation and retention such as campaigns and automation using email, SMS and push, plus segmentation for targeted messaging. 

When connecting the tool to your BigCommerce store using the Omnisend integration, there is little to set up. You don’t need to be a developer to integrate the app, and automations can be created with an easy-to-use drag and drop builder. Added to its automation features, that can lead to more time saved, better targeting on more channels and better results.

What Makes Omnisend Different? 

Omnisend can work for businesses of all sizes, from one-person run ecommerce stores to large marketing teams in international companies. Omnisend provides the same tools across the board, no matter how big a company is, so they can provide professional, polished service to shoppers and customers. 

With its focus on buyer journey, Omnisend helps educate its users on which customers and prospects to talk to, how to talk to them and when. This customer-first mindset has helped them become the highest-rated and most-reviewed email marketing app in the BigCommerce App Store.

On the software rating platform G2, Omnisend also scores a 9.2/10 for ease of use (industry average is 8.6), a 9/10 for quality of support (industry average is 8.7, and a 9.2/10 for ease of setup (industry average is 8.4). 

The Final Word

Marketing technology and software have boomed in recent years. Thanks to these advances, teams can collect more data, create more relevant campaigns and serve them to customers in new, exciting ways. Using automated email and SMS campaign tools like Omnisend can give your marketing team the ability to communicate with customers like never before.

Not only that, but Omnisend also helps guide and educate its users to create more relevant campaigns for their customers, and that, in turn, will help put them ahead of the competition. 

Ready to try Omnisend in your ecommerce store? Download the Omnisend app today and see for yourself why it’s the highest-rated email marketing app in the BigCommerce app store.