The workflows
| Workflow | What it does | Human check |
|---|---|---|
| Late-order alert | Flags open orders close to or past their ship-by date, with the order and a link | The owner decides what to tell the buyer. See how to set it up |
| Customer message drafts | Drafts replies from the order, the conversation and approved policies | Every draft is read before sending. See the rules |
| Listing drafts and checks | Drafts titles, descriptions and attributes, and flags mismatches in size, material or price across channels | Approval before anything goes live, plus the marketplace's AI disclosure rules |
| Internal assistant | Answers staff questions about packing, carriers, returns and product codes from your own documents | A named owner keeps the documents current. Start with a knowledge base |
| Weekly summary | Summarizes sales, ads and stock changes in plain language | The numbers behind it are spot-checked |
How a workflow gets built
- Map the task. What happens, how often, with what input, and what a mistake would cost.
- Write down the facts. Policies, processing times and product details in one document with an owner and a review date.
- Start with drafts and alerts. The system prepares or flags, and a person acts.
- Measure against a baseline. Time per task, reply time and errors, before and after. See how to calculate ROI.
- Widen one permission at a time, only after weeks of reliable results.
What I do not automate first
Refunds, price changes, ad budgets, inventory counts that feed several channels, and anything legal or tax-related. Those stay with a person until the simpler workflows have proven themselves. The same logic is in my 30-day plan for small businesses and in what to automate first.
One live example
Sellereply is a workflow I turned into a product: Etsy buyer replies, drafted from the order and conversation, reviewed and sent by the seller.
Keep reading
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Contact MeAbout the data
These are workflow designs and patterns I build for e-commerce operations. Specific tools depend on your channels and setup.