When most ecommerce teams decide it’s time to “do automation,” they start in the same place: a to-do list.
"What tasks can we automate?"
"What emails can we trigger?"
"What tags can we apply?"
Before long, they’ve built a respectable collection of automations: customer tags firing, Slack alerts pinging, orders being neatly labeled behind the scenes.
Efficient? Yes. Transformative? Probably not. Because the truth is this: automating tasks rarely fixes what’s actually slowing your store down.
To get real impact from automation, you have to look outward, not inward, to view the bigger picture. You need to start by examining your processes, your customer journey, and the friction points where things actually snag.
In other words, stop automating functions. Start automating flow.
The Difference Between Task Thinking and Process Thinking
Task-led (inward) automation usually sounds like this:
“Let’s auto-tag VIP customers.”
“Let’s notify support when an order is delayed.”
“Let’s archive canceled orders automatically.”
Useful? Absolutely. But these automations are reactive and operational. They optimize admin. But... wouldn’t you rather have optimized outcomes?
Process-led (outward) automation sounds a little different:
“Where do we lose repeat purchasers?”
“Where does fulfillment slow down?”
“Why is support drowning in tickets every Monday?”
This is where automation becomes truly strategic. It looks at the end-to-end system and targets the friction inside it.
A helpful way to frame it: If tasks are symptoms, processes are causes.
Want to get started with process-led automation? Let’s take a look at what the path might look like for your ecommerce business…
Step 1: Map Your Customer Journey (Properly)
Before you automate anything, zoom out.
We’re starting back at brass tacks here. And that means mapping the full lifecycle of a customer, from first click to repeat purchase.
Discovery → First visit
Browsing → Product engagement
Add to cart → Checkout
Purchase → Confirmation
Fulfillment → Shipping
Delivery → Unboxing
Post-purchase → Loyalty / repeat buying
Most automation strategies over-focus on the top of the funnel (marketing) or the checkout moment (conversion). But some of the biggest automation wins sit after the sale, in fulfillment, comms, and retention.
As you map, ask:
- Where do customers wait?
- Where do they get confused?
- Where do we create manual work?
- Where do we lose revenue without noticing?
Remember, you’re not looking for tasks. You’re looking for snags. It can be tricky to reframe this exploratory stage and approach it from this purely diagnostic perspective, but it will pay dividends down the line.
Step 2: Identify the Operational Snags
Every store has them — the messy, slightly chaotic friction points everyone knows about but no one owns.
A few usual suspects:
1) Fulfillment bottlenecks
Manual fraud checks. Stock mismatches. Priority orders buried in queues.
Once identified, automation here might include:
- Auto-holding high-risk orders
- Routing express orders to priority fulfillment
- Triggering back-in-stock workflows when items run out
This doesn’t just save time, it protects customer experience.
2) Support overload
If your support team spends half their life answering “Where is my order?” emails, that’s not a staffing issue. It’s a communication gap.
Automation opportunities:
- Proactive shipping updates
- Delay notifications before customers ask
- Delivery confirmations with next-step guidance
The best support automation doesn’t just respond to tickets, it removes the need for them in the first place.
3) Post-purchase crickets 🦗
Many brands work incredibly hard to win the sale… then disappear immediately after.
No review requests. No product education. No replenishment reminders.
Automation here can drive:
- Reviews and UGC
- Cross-sell education
- Refill or reorder prompts
It’s retention hiding in plain sight.
4) Loyalty leakage
One-time buyers who could become repeat customers, but don’t.
If your high-value customers are treated exactly the same as discount code grazers, something’s wrong.
Automation can recognize and respond to value:
- VIP tier triggers
- Surprise & delight moments
- Early access invites
Because in today’s crowded market, loyalty rarely happens by accident.
Step 3: Prioritize Impact Over Effort
Once you’ve spotted the clogs, resist the urge to automate everything at once (we know the urge is overwhelming!).
Instead, prioritize using an impact lens:
High impact / Low effort (Start here)
- Delivery updates
- Review requests
- Back-in-stock alerts
High impact / Higher effort (Plan next)
- Returns automation
- Loyalty tiering
- Subscription nurture
Low impact / Low effort (Nice to have)
- Internal tagging
- Admin notifications
Low impact / High effort (Hold off - for now)
- Edge-case workflows
- Over-engineered exceptions
A good rule of thumb: Don’t automate the low-hanging fruit. Automate what’s actually slowing you down the most (without the act of automating becoming the thing that starts to eat your time!).
Step 4: Design Automations Around Outcomes
As we’ve discussed, one simple shift keeps automation strategic:
Stop asking, “What can we automate?”
Start asking, “What outcome do we want?”
For example:
Outcome: Reduce support tickets
→ Automation: Proactive delivery comms
Outcome: Increase lifetime value
→ Automation: Post-purchase nurture
Outcome: Speed up fulfillment
→ Automation: Order routing rules
Now that you’ve started making some positive and (most importantly) well-calculated changes, it’s a good time to start tying automation to some clear KPIs such as retention, LTV, and CSAT.
This is where process-led automation stops being a technical exercise and starts being a properly impactful growth lever. This is where you start to see the tangible difference automation is making to your business – something you’d struggle to see and track from a purely task-led approach.
Step 5: Start Small, But Start Smart
Process-led automation doesn’t mean boiling the ocean.
Remember to focus on “high impact, low effort” deployments. Start with:
- One journey stage
- One friction point
- One measurable outcome
Common high-return starting points include:
- Shipping and delivery comms
- Review requests
- VIP recognition
- Back-in-stock alerts
These sit at the intersection of customer experience and revenue, which is exactly where automation shines.
Build momentum there, then expand outward.
Automation Should Do More Than Reduce Effort – It Should Remove Friction
It’s easy to think of automation as a productivity tool – something that saves your team time. But the most valuable automations don’t just reduce effort. They increase flow.
They make buying smoother. Shipping clearer. Support quieter. And loyalty that much stronger.
And that only happens when you stop looking inward at task lists… and start looking outward at the systems your customers move through every day.
Because when you shift the question from: “What can we automate?” to “Where are we stuck?” you start to see the truly impressive impact that a process-led approach brings to your business.