If you’ve started your own e-commerce business, you’ve made a smart entrepreneurial decision.

The demand for e-commerce is on the rise, as people increasingly buy everything from food to clothing online. To make your business as successful as possible, you want to do all you can. Integrating digital technology into your eCommerce business is one way to streamline your business operations, reducing waste and improving profits.

This guide explains how you can implement digital transformation at every step in your e-commerce company.

1. Recognize the advantages of embracing digital transformation

Integrating digital technology into your eCommerce business requires time, effort, and money. Of course, if you’re going to make this kind of investment, you want to make sure it’s worth it.

Digital transformation offers many advantages for e-commerce companies, such as improving information flow, enhancing the customer experience, and boosting employee expertise.

Digital tools also make it easier to acquire information about business trends, which can help to inform smart decision-making for the future.

2. Try business process management to streamline processes

To facilitate digital transformation, look to business process management, BPM. Automation tools plus business process management can help simplify everyday workflows, reducing bottlenecks and saving time on previously tedious tasks. By simplifying difficult business operations, you’ll also make your employees’ jobs easier.

This ensures they’re more likely to facilitate your e-commerce company’s digital transformation. As you implement your BPM strategy, monitor it regularly and make updates to improve it as needed.

3. Create a mobile website

The first step in implementing digital transformation in your e-commerce company is to create a mobile website.

Increasingly, customers are using their smartphones instead of desktop computers to purchase goods online, so this can help you win more customers. A mobile website should have clear content and be easy to navigate.

4. Utilize big data to optimize workflows

Another element of digital transformation tools you can use to optimize workflows is big data. Big data refers to the use of large swaths of information, organizing them in ways to identify patterns and gain information. Linn Works has a guide explaining how big data can be used specifically in the e-commerce context.

Examples include predicting trends, optimizing pricing, forecasting demand, and improving customer service. In the big picture, big data can also be used to generate more sales.

5. Try artificial intelligence tools

Artificial intelligence is another tool you can use to bring digital transformation to your e-commerce company.

AI can help enhance the customer experience, for example by improving customer service with the use of automated chatbots. Many aspects of AI can be implemented in e-commerce.

For example, data mining can be used to gather historical information about customer behaviour, making it easier to meet their future needs. Other useful elements include machine learning and natural language processing.

6. Embrace automation at every step

Ecommerce automation uses software to simplify campaigns, processes, and tasks. It allows you to make better use of both technical and human resources, saving time and money.

Automation can be used in fulfilment—for example, when an item is in the store, a text message or email can be triggered, alerting the customer. Automation can also be used to assess inventory levels.

For instance, if a product is low in stock, an automatic alert can be sent to your marketing and advertising teams, telling them to stop pushing that product.

7. Get task and time management technologies

Ultimately, digital transformation is all about saving your business time, which also saves hassle and money.

One of the most straightforward ways to implement digital transformation is to adopt time and task management tools. The HubStaff Blog has a list of productivity tools that are specifically useful for e-commerce teams.

Examples include technologies designed to improve budget control, customize workflows, and track the time needed to complete specific tasks.

8. Get employees on board to boost the odds of lasting success

Digital transformation won’t make an impact if it isn’t implemented correctly. For this to happen, you need to get your workers on board. Your employees are the basis of your e-commerce company’s success, responsible for the everyday processes that keep it running optimally. Their buy-in is critical.

Startups Magazine offers tips for encouraging your teams to participate in digital transformation projects, such as prioritizing open communication and investing in digital skills training. This ensures workers are comfortable with new processes.

9. Invest in digital marketing to reach your customers

Your digital transformation shouldn’t stop within your organization. There are also ways to implement digital transformation externally.

Digital marketing is a prime example, allowing you to reach customers more easily, attracting more consumers, and boosting business. There are many types of digital marketing possible, including social media, blogging, and pay-per-click advertising.

If you aren’t a digital marketing expert yourself, there are expert consultants you can hire to take care of this job for you.

10. Audit your digital transformation’s success and make changes as needed.

Digital transformation is an ongoing process. It’s not something that you do once and then never revisit. As you implement new processes and tools, like automation, check to see what impact they make. Towards this end, set key performance indicators, KPIs, that you can use to measure success.

For example, if you implement digital marketing techniques like social media, you can check how many new customers are driven to your e-commerce website via social media channels. Based on this feedback, you can tweak your efforts as needed.

Wrapping it up

The idea of implementing a “digital transformation” at your e-commerce company might seem daunting at first. However, it’s important to realize that this large-scale transformation is actually made up of many small and manageable steps.

From embracing automation to adopting digital marketing techniques, it’s all about the holistic approach. The above guide covers the basics to get you started. With these measures, you can leverage digital transformation to boost your e-commerce company’s success.