6 Ways to Build a More Efficient E-Commerce Business

With e-commerce continuing to accelerate, it’s important that merchants build more efficiencies into their processes to keep up with growing demand, and scale their own businesses as they drive more sales and ship more products.

Some e-commerce trends we’re watching highlight the need to build more efficient processes to meet an evolving industry landscape, including an anticipated boom in consumer spending as the economic outlook improves, and continued investments in digital experiences as retailers who moved online during the pandemic revisit their omnichannel strategies.

What can merchants do to get ahead? Check out our tips for building more efficiencies into your e-commerce business:

Define and document your operational workflow

It may sound simple, but this important first step of actually writing your process down on paper (or on your laptop!) will help you see how every aspect of your workflow fits together, and identify opportunities to optimize.

Integrate your e-commerce solutions

For example, connecting your online store with your shipping solution will allow you to easily import order data for a more streamlined fulfillment process. You can also connect a marketing automation tool with your website and social channels to help you more efficiently track customer behavior and plan marketing efforts. 

Automate processes wherever you can

Many e-commerce tools enable merchants to build more automation into their process to easily manage the more tedious or simple aspects. These suggested shipping automation use cases, for example, will save you time and help you deliver a more frictionless experience for your customers.

Compare rates across carriers in real-time

This will ensure you’re getting the most bang for your buck depending on your business’ specific speed, size, destination, and budget needs.

Schedule package pickups

Another simple but very effective time-saver, scheduling pickups directly with your carrier of choice is a great way to build more efficiency into your e-commerce workflow.

Measure and optimize for peak efficiency

Decide which metrics are the most crucial for tracking spend and growth for your business, and then, well, track them! By keeping tabs on how different aspects of your business are performing week-over-week, month-over-month, or year-over-year, you’ll be able to iterate and optimize for continuous improvement.

To see first-hand how the team at Shippo is helping e-commerce businesses of all sizes build more efficiencies into their workflows, check out the recording of our latest webinar featuring Co-Founder and CEO Laura Behrens Wu, SVP of Product Brandon Terry, and Director of Product Gil Chan — All Things Shippo: What’s New and What’s Next.