Streamlining your eCommerce business can help you run your operation more smoothly, avoid human errors, and scale your operation without getting overwhelmed. This is especially important if you have a very small team or operate your business on your own with the assistance of subcontractors. If this is where you are, you will need to take steps right now to automate and streamline your operation as much as you can.  Let’s take a look at some of the easy ways that you could streamline your online business.

Have Custom Checkout APIs Built

APIs are an invaluable tool for most eCommerce businesses, and you could benefit greatly from having your APIs custom built. Already made APIs are not necessarily made to work with each other or with your resources. Having your APIs built by a professional will allow you to coordinate all your applications correctly while reducing risks and improving performance. 

Another benefit of having custom APIs built is that you will have more control over the development process. You could take an API first approach as explained by Kong HQ and build a single API that will be highly versatile and will be able to stand alone while you make changes at both ends. 

Try to Focus on Online Payment Methods Specifically

Even though eCommerce businesses process most of their sales online, many of them still accept orders via phone, check, or other traditional methods. All of this will complicate things for you, and make things like forecasting, managing margins, and accounting much more difficult. 

This is why you need to minimize traditional payment methods and try to push your employees to make electronic transactions whenever possible. If you have salespeople taking orders by phone, for instance, then you should have them input the buyer’s information into an online order system in real time. This way, all their information will be in the system and orders will be processed more quickly. 

Automate Workflows

Another thing you should do is automate workflows as much as you can. An invoice could be generated in QuickBooks and marked as paid in your e-commerce system. A confirmation could then be sent to the client automatically. You could also set automation for when orders are shipped. All of this will allow you to save time and reassure your clients. This will put less stress on your customer service team and allow you to concentrate more on building and promoting your business than managing the backend.

Use a Strong CRM

CRMs are something all eCommerce businesses should use. A good CRM will allow you to gather leads seamlessly and customize interactions with them. With automation, you could add people directly to your CRM database after they’ve made a purchase and set your system to send special offers automatically after they have been absent for a long while. These might seem like simple things, but they could have a major impact on your bottom line, so don’t dismiss them.

These are all things that will allow you to run a much smoother operation. Always look for more ways to facilitate things for yourself through thoughtful automation and by integrating the right solutions.