What is marketing automation?
Marketing automation is the process of using software and technology to automate repetitive marketing tasks, streamline workflows, and personalize customer interactions across channels.
For e-commerce businesses, this includes automating email campaigns, product recommendations, social media ads, and more to nurture leads and drive conversions without manual effort.
Example: A Shopify store uses marketing automation to send abandoned cart emails, reminding customers to complete their purchase with personalized product recommendations.
What are the benefits of marketing automation in e-commerce?
What marketing automation means to help businesses save time, cut costs, and boost efficiency. Simply put, with automation, you can do more in less time.
- Efficiency: Automate email campaigns, follow-ups, and ads to save time and scale faster.
- Fewer errors: Ensure consistent messaging and eliminate manual mistakes.
- Higher engagement: Send relevant offers at the right time to boost conversions.
- Personalized experience: Recommend products based on customer behavior to drive repeat purchases.
What should you automate?
Here are 7 things you can automate to boost your marketing efficiency:
- Cart abandonment emails: Recover lost sales by reminding customers to complete their purchase.
- Product recommendations: Suggest items based on browsing or purchase history.
- Welcome series: Automate onboarding emails for new subscribers or customers.
- Order confirmations & shipping updates: Keep customers informed post-purchase.
- Loyalty & win-back campaigns: Re-engage inactive customers with special offers.
- Review requests: Automatically ask for product reviews after delivery.
- SMS promotions: Deliver time-sensitive discounts or updates directly to mobile users.
What are the best marketing automation tools for e-commerce?
Here are some efficient tools to automate your marketing workflow you can consider. Most of them give you a free plan with limited features.
Just note that the right tool will depend specifically on your business requirements.
| Category | Tool | Best for |
| Email & SMS automation | Klaviyo | Email/SMS flows, abandoned cart recovery |
| Omnisend | Multi-channel (email, SMS, push notifications) | |
| Mailchimp | Basic email marketing | |
| Social media automation | Hootsuite | Scheduling posts across social channels |
| Later | Visual scheduling for Instagram/TikTok | |
| Retargeting & ad automation | AdRoll | Retargeting across web, email, and social |
| Google Ads (PMax) | Automated ad placements across Google networks | |
| Meta Ads Manager | Retargeting and lead generation on Facebook/Instagram | |
| Loyalty & reviews | Yotpo | Review collection, loyalty, and SMS |
| Smile.io | Loyalty and rewards program | |
| Stamped.io | Automating review requests |
