In 30 seconds
- Five repetitive shop tasks you can automate without coding using Make, Zapier or n8n.
- Each recipe has a trigger, steps and an outcome, with the tool and the data you need.
- Start with drafts and human review: the automation suggests, the person decides.
- Don’t do all five at once: the one-week plan leaves you with one running and another ready.
In a shop, the manager’s time is one of the most expensive things there is. Every hour spent copying data from one system to another is an hour off the shop floor, away from the team and the customer. Repetitive work can be automated with tools such as Make, Zapier or n8n, which connect apps without any need to code.
Three words you’ll see in every recipe:
Trigger
What sets the automation going: a fixed time (every day at 8:00) or an event (a form comes in, an email arrives).
Steps
What it does next, in order: read data, calculate, write to a sheet, send an alert.
Data needed
The information that has to exist and be accessible. If the data isn’t there, no automation is possible.
The daily sales report
The problem: imagine a clothes shop with 3 branches. Every morning someone exports the sales from the POS, pastes them into a sheet, compares them with last week and sends an email. If that person is on holiday, the report doesn’t arrive.
Data needed: sales per shop and day, a history in the sheet to compare against and the list of people who receive the summary.
Your first step today
- Write down on a piece of paper the three figures you look at every morning. Just those three. That’s your report.
Cashing up the till
The problem: the close ends up in a notebook or in a sheet with amounts typed in by hand, and discrepancies are found days later, when nobody remembers what happened.
Data needed: POS sales per shop and day, each shop’s fixed till float and the tolerance threshold.
Your first step today
- Create the form with those six fields.
- Ask for tonight’s close to be done with it. You can connect the automation tomorrow.
Orders and stock alerts
The problem: every week someone counts, notes down and writes the order from scratch. Or nobody notices a product has sold out until a customer asks for it.
Data needed: up-to-date, reliable stock, the master sheet with minimums and each supplier’s email address.
XLSXTemplate: stock master sheetExcel with the columns ready and the formula that flags what to order.Download ↓Your first step today
- Pick the 20 items you sell most.
- For each one, note the minimum stock and the quantity you usually order.
An Amazon seller stops handling orders by hand
A German Amazon supplier handled around 30 batch orders a week with a spreadsheet. The consultancy Techflow.ai used Make to automate order confirmation, shipping labels, invoices, warehouse notifications and real-time stock updates, with a forecast based on sales and production lead times.
The takeaway: the big saving didn’t come from the hours, but from having reliable stock. With good data it was possible to order less and with fewer mistakes.
Source: Make, Techflow.ai case ↗. Figures published by Make.
Team rotas
The problem: holidays, shift swaps and sick leave arrive as scattered WhatsApp messages. Someone has to sort them out and tell each person. Messages get lost and gaps appear that nobody covers.
Data needed: team list with email or mobile, base rota and a shared calendar.
A €42,000 fine over a work WhatsApp group
The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) fined LVMH Iberia for adding an employee’s personal mobile number to a work WhatsApp group without her consent, and for adding her again after she had objected in writing. The proposed fine was €70,000, reduced to €42,000 for voluntary payment and admission of the infringement.
The takeaway: if rota notices go to someone’s personal mobile, ask for permission in writing and offer another channel, such as work email or a company app.
Source: ECIJA, October 2025 ↗
Your first step today
- Create the request form.
- Share it with the team with one clear sentence: “from Monday, changes are requested here”.
Google reviews with AI
The problem: Google reviews are the shop’s digital shop window. Many go unanswered because nobody sees them in time, and unanswered negative ones carry weight.
Data needed: access to the Business Profile, an AI API account and a tone guide of 5 or 6 sentences.
Your first step today
- Write your tone guide: how you greet, how you sign off, what you never say and how you reply to a complaint.
Everytable, 38 outlets: from one person answering everything to AI drafts
This takeaway food chain receives hundreds of reviews a month. Its customer service lead answered all of them to keep up the quality, which was impossible to sustain. They started using AI-generated drafts tuned to the brand’s tone.
The takeaway: AI drafts let you share out the task without losing the tone. That’s exactly what the recipe above suggests.
Source: Marqii, Everytable case ↗. Figures published by the tool’s provider.
All five, compared
| Task | Difficulty | Recommended tool | Estimated weekly time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily sales report | Low | Zapier or Make | 1 a 1,5 h |
| Cashing up | Low | Make | 1 h |
| Orders and stock alerts | Medium | Make or n8n | 1 a 2 h |
| Team rotas | Medium | Zapier, Make or Power Automate | 1 h |
| AI reviews | Medium | Make or n8n | 0,5 a 1 h |
The times are estimates for a hypothetical small or medium-sized shop. In your case they may be higher or lower.
One-week plan
Don’t try to do all five at once. This plan leaves you with one automation running and another ready.
Measure and choose
Note down how much time you spend on each task. Pick the one that takes up the most time and is low difficulty.
Gather the data
Logins, sheets and lists. Create the spreadsheet or the form.
Build
Open a free account on the tool you’ve chosen and set up the automation with test data.
Test it for real
With real data, but sending alerts only to you. Fix whatever goes wrong.
Switch it on
Open it up to the team and explain in two minutes what changes and what doesn’t.
Check
Check in the tool’s run history that it has worked every day.
Measure and repeat
Note the time freed up and pick the next task for the following week.
With one automation that works and a real time figure, deciding on the next one is much easier. And once the team sees it working, they’re often the first to suggest it.