E-commerce Automation: Recover Abandoned Carts, Build Loyalty, and Get More Reviews on Autopilot

The 4 E-commerce Processes Worth Automating

Every e-commerce store has the same four revenue leaks. The abandoned cart sequence plugs the largest one. The post-purchase sequence builds the loyalty that turns a one-time buyer into a repeat customer. Review automation builds the social proof that converts the next visitor. Inventory alerts prevent the stockout that loses the sale and the customer. All four are one-time builds that run indefinitely.

1. Abandoned Cart Recovery

Cart abandonment is not a problem you solve. It is a conversion rate you optimize. The global average is 69.99% — and for mobile shoppers, it is even higher. The shopper who abandoned is already high-intent. They found your product, decided it was worth adding to a cart, and then got distracted. A 3-touch email and SMS sequence reaches them while that intent is still fresh.

Klaviyo and Shopify data consistently shows that a well-constructed abandoned cart sequence recovers 5–15% of abandoned carts. The sequence works because it does not lead with a discount — it leads with a reminder, then a gentle prompt, and only introduces an incentive if the shopper still has not converted after 48 hours.

2. Post-Purchase Sequence

Most e-commerce brands send a shipping notification and go silent. That silence costs repeat purchase revenue. The post-purchase window — the 30 days after a customer receives an order — is the highest-intent period in the customer lifecycle. The customer has already bought from you, knows your product quality, and is predisposed to buy again. Klaviyo benchmark data shows that customers who receive a post-purchase sequence are 30% more likely to place a second order within 90 days.

A 5-step post-purchase sequence costs nothing to run after the build and touches the customer at every high-value moment: when they are eager about the delivery, when the product arrives, when they are using it for the first time, and when they might be running low or looking for complementary products.

3. Review Request Automation

Reviews are not a vanity metric in e-commerce. According to Spiegel Research Center data, products with 50 or more reviews convert at 4.6% compared to just 0.5% for products with no reviews. That is a 9x difference in conversion rate on the same product, to the same traffic, based entirely on social proof. A brand with 200 SKUs averaging 3 reviews each is competing at a structural disadvantage against a brand with 50 reviews per SKU.

The negative review flag is important: when a customer indicates dissatisfaction in the review request flow, they are routed to a private support ticket rather than the public review platform. This captures the feedback while protecting your product rating from a review that could have been resolved with a replacement or refund.

4. Low-Inventory & Restock Alerts

Stockouts cost US retailers an estimated $82 billion annually according to IHL Group research. For an e-commerce brand, a stockout is not just a lost sale — it is a competitor's gain, a customer trust deficit, and a potential negative review from a shopper who waited for a back-in-stock product that never came. The brands that prevent stockouts do not have better intuition. They have automated inventory monitoring that tells them before it becomes a problem.

Inventory threshold automation monitors every SKU in your Shopify or WooCommerce store and fires when stock falls below a defined level. High-velocity SKUs can trigger a draft purchase order sent directly to the supplier — reducing the time to reorder from a manual process that depends on someone remembering to check, to an automated alert that fires the moment the threshold is crossed.

What Does E-commerce Automation Cost?

Every build at Aplos AI is priced at a flat rate of $150/hr, scoped in hours before we start. No hourly surprise bills. No ongoing monthly retainers. You pay once for the build; you own it.

Does This Replace Shopify or Klaviyo?

No — we build on top of your existing platform and tools. If you have Shopify and Klaviyo, we build automation sequences that connect to both and extend what they already do. If you are running WooCommerce with Postscript for SMS, we connect to those. You do not need to migrate, cancel subscriptions, or learn new software.

The automation layer runs on n8n — an open-source workflow automation tool that connects Shopify or WooCommerce events to email, SMS, Slack, and supplier notifications. Nothing is locked inside a proprietary system you cannot access. n8n runs on infrastructure you control, which means your customer data stays in your accounts — not in a third-party SaaS platform with its own data retention policies.

Every automation we build is documented and handed off to you fully. If you want to adjust a message, change a delay, or add a new step to the post-purchase sequence — you can do it directly or we can update it for you at our standard hourly rate.

What Delivery Looks Like

From signed scope to live automation, most e-commerce builds are delivered in 1–2 weeks. Here is exactly what that includes:

On your end, we need: API access to your store (Shopify or WooCommerce), your email sending tool (Klaviyo, SendGrid, or Gmail), Twilio credentials for SMS, and approximately one hour for a final walkthrough to confirm everything is firing correctly with real order data.

Frequently Asked Questions