How to Maximize Your Workday and Run Your Online Business More Efficiently

You know what they say… Time is Money! And making the most out of your business is about maximizing the time you have. With just 24 hours in a day, you’re hopefully spending eight of them sleeping and taking time to enjoy the things you love but all too often, most entrepreneurs don’t know how to maximize the time they have for work, causing them to cut into time to rest and enjoy life.

When running an online business, you can work from anywhere, making it even more difficult to maximize your productivity due to various distractions. Everything from wanting to do a few loads of laundry to wanting to go sightseeing in Brazil, distractions can pop up at any moment but focusing on the big picture is one of the most important things to keep in mind to become a good entrepreneur.

Despite the distractions you’ll encounter, not all hope is lost. If you at least have the digital know-how to first and foremost make your own website, the aspects of productivity and efficiency will soon fall into place as you begin to run and operate your business.

Below, you’ll find some of the top ways to maximize the time you have within your 24-hour day running your e-commerce business. Take a look at how to make the most of your workdays.

Ways to Improve Your Productivity Running Your E-Commerce Business

Set Up Your Own Space and Hours

Many entrepreneurs may start working out of their own home or somewhere on the road. The first big step into being productive is having your own workspace. That could be a home office or even just a corner you have created for yourself in the living room. Whatever it is, whether you’re trying to be more productive in blog writing for your company blog or simply responding to emails, you need to be able to walk into that zone and be thinking “it’s time to work”.

Have your calendar and to-do list in front of you at all times. It’s a lot easier to remember your long-term and short-term goals when they’re staring you in the face.

Try to bring in some natural light or even add a plant or two to make the space as homey as possible. Put up a picture of your family or kids to bring it all together.

Set firm work hours and stick to them. You’re going to be more disciplined that way and maintain a better work-life balance in the process.

Using the Cloud

The cloud is that magical area in cyberspace that seems to hold all of the world’s secrets. In e-commerce, you can use the cloud to back up data, transactions, and other important information, saving you the time and hassle of using your own internal servers. It’s also the easiest option for collaboration among employees.

You can not only take something from the cloud and send it internally but it’s even more vital if you have employees or partners that are working at various locations. At the end of it all, the cloud is going to make your business much more efficient, secure, and it’ll save you money.

E-Commerce Automation

Investing in e-commerce automation tools is the ideal way to save you both time and money while growing your business. There are plenty of tools out there you can use to help automate plenty of those small tasks.

What are some of those small tasks that automation can be used for? Here is just a small list:

• Notify customer service members of high-value customers
• Schedule sales, price changes, promotions, etc.
• Remove items that are out of stock
• Send emails to team members notifying them of site issues, purchases, etc.
• Notify members of any high-risk orders
• Adjust site for certain promotions or product drops

While these tasks may seem small, doing them over and over again can waste time. Automation systems can remove these repetitive tasks from your team’s workload and ensure they use their time more efficiently.

AI Customer Service

Even though people are often frustrated by those automated voice messages over the phone, consumers respond more positively to customer service through the internet. Chatbots are how businesses are saving time and money, cutting back the need to have someone constantly monitoring all incoming traffic and responding to every inquiry.

Investing in an e-commerce chatbot comes with many benefits.

Chatbots should be one of the first lines of interaction a customer has with your website. They can help drive customer acquisition by easily directing a consumer to a page they are looking for and offer coupons or promotional ads. They can also be used to boost customer retention.

It can be hard to give that “personal” touch in a digital world, but personalizing a chatbot is one of the best ways to do so.

Using Omnichannel Marketing

“We all need to be on the same page” is one of those cliche business phrases that’s uttered hundreds of times every day. It's a cliche for a reason as being on the same page is vital for any e-commerce business. One of those ways of staying on the same page is through omnichannel marketing.

When omnichannel marketing, you want to be promoting your products and services in tune through all channels. Your email campaign should be linking to your social media pages which should be talking about events that should be mentioning your mobile app or site.

Having all of these channels working together in one ad campaign is a way to save plenty of time. Instead of coming up with various marketing methods and tactics for each channel, having them all come together as one is a much more efficient strategy.

Supply Chain Management

At the end of the day, e-commerce is about making sure that products and services are being brought to the customer in an easy, manageable, and efficient way. It’s important for any business to have seamless supply chain management but it’s especially important for e-commerce businesses.

One of the ways to maximize efficiency is by eliminating multiple databases. Multiple databases are how your workers become bogged down in multiple tasks and add to the confusion, likely resulting in more hours and more delays.

If you’re a small business or just starting out, then this process is much easier. As you grow and start to add more members to your team, then it’s imperative that communication stays open and you can transmit data easily and in real-time.