E-commerce Automation: The Complete Guide to Smarter Webshops

Why e-commerce automation is essential

E-commerce automation is the use of software and tools to automatically perform repetitive tasks in your webshop. Instead of manual work, you let systems do the work.

The reality of manual work:

• At 10 orders per day: manageable, but time-consuming
• At 50 orders per day: you're running behind
• At 100+ orders per day: impossible without automation

What can you automate?

• Order processing and fulfillment
• Invoicing and VAT calculation
• Inventory synchronization
• Customer communication
• Reviews and feedback
• Reports and analytics
• Accounting integrations

The 6 processes every webshop should automate

Not everything needs to be automated, but these six processes deliver the most time savings:

1. Invoicing
Automatic invoices for every order, correct VAT calculation, upload to bol.com - without manual work.

2. Inventory synchronization
One inventory for all channels (webshop, bol.com, Amazon) that automatically updates with every sale.

3. Order processing
Orders automatically forwarded to your warehouse or fulfillment partner, including shipping labels.

4. Customer communication
Automatic order confirmations, shipping notifications, and review requests.

5. Accounting integration
Sales automatically as journal entries in your accounting software (Exact, Twinfield, etc.).

6. Reports
Daily/weekly overviews of revenue, orders, and inventory automatically in your inbox.

Each of these automations saves an average of 2-5 hours per week. Together, that's potentially 30 hours per week of freed-up time.

Automation for bol.com sellers

As a bol.com seller, you face specific challenges that call for automation:

bol.com specific automations:

• Uploading invoices: bol.com requires you to upload invoices to the customer portal. Manual is unworkable with more than 10 orders/day.
• Order status updates: Track & trace info must be sent to bol.com.
• Inventory sync: Prevent overselling with real-time inventory sync.
• Price adjustments: Dynamic pricing for the buy box.

How Winkel Factuur automates bol.com:

• Automatic invoice for every bol.com order
• Direct upload to bol.com customer portal
• Correct NL and BE VAT calculation
• Credit notes for returns
• Combined overview with other channels

Result: No more manual invoicing, better seller performance, more time for growth.

Inventory automation: never oversell again

Inventory problems are one of the biggest challenges in multi-channel selling. Automation is the solution.

The problem without automation:

• Product sold on bol.com, but still 'available' on your webshop
• Customer orders on webshop, but product is gone
• You have to cancel → bad reviews, fines from bol.com

How inventory automation works:

1. Central inventory database (your 'source of truth')
2. Real-time sync to all sales channels
3. Sale on channel A → inventory drops on all channels
4. Set buffer (e.g., show 95% of actual inventory)

Tools for inventory synchronization:

• ChannelEngine: Enterprise solution for large sellers
• Channable: Feed management with inventory sync
• Effectconnect: Dutch tool for bol.com
• Native integrations: Some platforms offer direct sync

Order and fulfillment automation

From order to delivery - every step can be automated.

The traditional order process:

1. Order received (manual check)
2. Create pick list (manual)
3. Collect products
4. Create shipping label (manual)
5. Ship package
6. Update status to platform (manual)
7. Create and send invoice (manual)

The automated order process:

1. Order received → automatically to WMS/fulfillment
2. Pick list automatically generated
3. Collect products (only manual step)
4. Shipping label automatically created
5. Ship package
6. Status automatically to all platforms
7. Invoice automatically sent

Fulfillment options:

• Own fulfillment + software: Sendcloud, Picqer, Exact
• Logistics via bol.com (LVB): bol.com handles storage and shipping
• 3PL partners: External fulfillment centers
• Dropshipping: Supplier ships directly

Choose the option that fits your volume and growth plans.

Automating customer communication

Good communication increases customer satisfaction and reduces support questions. Automate it!

Emails you should automate:

• Order confirmation: Immediately after order, with expected delivery time
• Shipping confirmation: With track & trace link
• Delivery confirmation: Package has been delivered
• Review request: After receipt, ask for review
• Follow-up: Cross-sell related products

Tools for email automation:

• Klaviyo: Powerful e-commerce email tool
• Mailchimp: Affordable for starters
• Shopify Email: Native for Shopify users
• WooCommerce AutomateWoo: For WooCommerce

WhatsApp and SMS automation:
More and more webshops use WhatsApp for shipping notifications. Tools like Trengo or CM.com make this possible.

Note: Automatic communication should feel personal. Use the customer's name, relevant product info, and a friendly tone of voice.

Accounting automation: from order to bookkeeping

The ultimate automation: sales directly as journal entries in your accounting software, without manual entry.

Without accounting automation:

• Manually entering invoices in accounting
• Manually checking VAT percentages
• Tracking Belgian VAT separately
• End of month: hours of work for VAT return

With accounting automation:

• Every sale automatically as a journal entry
• Correct VAT codes assigned
• Belgian VAT booked separately
• VAT return: just a click

Popular accounting integrations:

• Exact Online + Winkel Factuur
• Twinfield + Winkel Factuur
• Moneybird + native integrations
• Snelstart + middleware

What to synchronize?

• Sales invoices with correct VAT
• Credit notes for returns
• Customer data (debtors)
• Optional: bol.com/Amazon commissions separately

Read our complete guide on accounting integrations for more details.

Review and feedback automation

Reviews are crucial for your sales - both on your own webshop and on bol.com. Automate collecting them!

Why automate reviews?

• Customers forget to write reviews
• Asking at the right time increases conversion
• More reviews = higher ranking on bol.com
• Detect negative reviews early

Automate review strategy:

1. Timing: Ask 3-7 days after delivery for review
2. Channel: Email or WhatsApp works best
3. Incentive: Discount code for next purchase (check bol.com rules!)
4. Follow-up: Reminder after 7 days if no review

Tools for review automation:

• Feedback Company: Dutch, works with bol.com
• Trustpilot: International recognition
• Kiyoh: Affordable for SMB
• Judge.me: Popular for Shopify

bol.com reviews:
bol.com sends its own review requests, but you can optimize your service quality for better reviews: fast delivery, good packaging, proactive communication.

Automating reports and analytics

Making data-driven decisions is easier with automated reports.

Reports you should automate:

• Daily revenue: Per channel, per product
• Inventory status: Low stock alerts
• Margins: Gross margin per product/channel
• Seller performance: Monitor bol.com KPIs
• VAT overview: Per country for OSS return

How to automate reports?

1. Dashboard tools: Centralized overview of all channels
2. Scheduled exports: Daily CSV/Excel in your inbox
3. Alerts: Notifications for deviations
4. BI tools: Power BI or Looker for advanced analysis

Tools for e-commerce analytics:

• Google Analytics 4: Free, comprehensive
• Winkel Factuur: Revenue and invoicing overview
• ChannelEngine: Multi-channel analytics
• Klipfolio: Custom dashboards

Start simple: a weekly email with revenue per channel is already a good start.

The costs of e-commerce automation

What does it cost to automate your webshop? Here's a realistic overview:

Basic automation (€50-150/month):

• Invoicing automation: €9-29/month
• Email marketing: €10-50/month
• Shipping label software: €20-50/month
• Total: €39-129/month

Extended automation (€150-500/month):

• Everything from basic +
• Feed management/inventory sync: €50-200/month
• Accounting integration: €20-50/month
• Review automation: €30-100/month
• Total: €150-479/month

Enterprise automation (€500+/month):

• Everything from extended +
• ChannelEngine or similar: €300-1000/month
• Custom integrations
• Dedicated support

ROI of automation:
Say you save 20 hours per week × €40/hour = €3,200/month in time. An investment of €200/month in automation then delivers 16× ROI.

Step-by-step plan: Start automating

Ready to get started? Follow this step-by-step plan:

Week 1: Analysis
• List all manual tasks you do
• Measure how much time each task takes
• Prioritize based on time investment

Week 2: Automate invoicing
• Start with Winkel Factuur (biggest time savings)
• Connect all your sales channels
• Configure templates and VAT settings

Week 3: Automate communication
• Set up order confirmations
• Configure shipping notifications
• Create review request flow

Week 4: Inventory and orders
• Choose inventory sync tool (if multi-channel)
• Optimize order processing
• Integrate with fulfillment

Week 5+: Optimize
• Set up accounting integration
• Automate reports
• Continuously improve

Important: Automate step by step. Doing everything at once leads to chaos.

Conclusion: Automate or get left behind

E-commerce automation is no longer a luxury - it's necessary to compete. The benefits are clear:

• Time savings: Free up 20-30 hours per week
• Error reduction: No more human errors
• Scalability: Grow without more staff
• Compliance: Always meet requirements (invoices, VAT)
• Customer experience: Faster, more consistent service

The investment is relatively low (from €50/month for basic automation) and the ROI is enormous. Every day you wait to automate, you lose time and money.

Start today:

1. Start with invoicing automation (biggest impact)
2. Add more automation step by step
3. Measure results and optimize

Your competitors are already automating. The question is not whether you should automate, but when you start.