Introductions
I cannot recall the last time I went to a shopping mall to buy products like cosmetics, detergents, or clothes. During the pandemic, 80% of my shopping habits switched to the internet, and it has remained that way even though it has been some time since we regained the freedom to go outside. I’m sure many people can relate to that. As a result, e-commerce sales have experienced a rapid growth. However, companies face the challenge of keeping track of the amount, location, and pricing of products available for their customers.
Fortunately, there is a technology that can support handling repetitive and manual tasks, enhance processing speed, significantly reduce operational costs, and improve the customer experience. This technology is a game-changer, and it’s called Robotic Process Automation (RPA). In this blog post, we will explore how RPA is transforming the e-commerce landscape and revolutionizing various aspects of the industry.
What is RPA?
RPA is a software-based technology that utilizes software robots to emulate human execution of business processes. In other words, it performs tasks on a computer, using the same interface a human worker would, including clicking, typing, opening applications, and utilizing keyboard shortcuts. RPA bots can work 24/7, increase processing speed, and reduce error rates. By implementing RPA technology, it becomes possible to reorganize transactional tasks, free up a significant amount of time and resources, and enable organizations to focus more on strategic tasks.
What processes in E-Commerce sector could benefit from RPA?
Now let’s dive into the processes in the e-commerce sector that could benefit from RPA:
Order Processing: As a critical aspect of e-commerce operations, ensuring efficiency and optimal processes is crucial. RPA can automate tasks such as order entry, data validation, and updating inventory systems. It effectively eliminates manual errors and reduces processing time.
Returns and Refunds: Managing returns and refunds is essential for ensuring customer satisfaction. Personally, I often order more products knowing that I will likely return some of them. RPA can handle tasks such as extracting relevant information from customer requests, creating return labels, and updating inventory systems upon receipt of returned items.
But enough with the talking! Let’s see an example process.
What did NashTech Japan do in E-commerce?
NashTech created a demo of an RPA solution built in UiPath that automates the process of new product email marketing. It is a hypothetical use case but I am sure a lot of companies could relate.
For the purpose of the demo, we named our company EC Sports shop. Their website contains all sports items, and the organization is sending a new product quotation to all prime customers (Schools) with product details (Product name, product code, unit price & offer price). The offer discount percentage varies for each customer based on the student strength of each school.
The business challenges we wanted to address were:
- Tedious and time-consuming process
- High possibility of error
- Huge manual efforts
- Employee dissatisfaction
The applications automated in this process are EC website, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, PDF documents, and Gmail.
Here is the amount of time we managed to save by automating the process:
This workflow represents steps of the process that are handled by the bot:
Let’s see it in action!
Conclusion
In conclusion, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has emerged as a powerful tool in the e-commerce industry and beyond. By leveraging RPA, e-commerce companies can optimize multiple processes, including but not limited to order processing, inventory management, customer service, personalized marketing, and returns processing. With the e-commerce landscape constantly evolving, embracing RPA can provide a significant competitive advantage, enabling businesses to efficiently scale, improve employee productivity, and meet the ever-increasing demands of online consumers.
Do you see any areas in your company that could benefit from our solution or RPA in general?
