5 Must-Have E-commerce Tools To Grow Your Business
Ecommerce is an excellent way to make money in this day and age. Yet, getting started is always a challenge. Nonetheless, with appropriate tools and planning, you can get on the path to success. In addition, you must include exceptional hard work to make it in this competitive landscape.
To become successful, you will need to make full use of technology. For this reason and more, this article presents 5 must-have ecommerce tools to grow your business.
1. Shopping Cart Software
Just like a physical shop, you need a cart for your ecommerce shop. The primary difference is your platform requires a shopping cart application. With this software, you can automate the entire experience of a customer, which starts from browsing for products and ends at product checkout, making it ideal for international ecommerce. In addition, a functional shopping cart software should be:
- Easy to integrate with your platform;
- User-friendly;
- Compatible with mobile devices;
- Customizable;
- Secure for payment.
Below are some popular options to consider.
Shopify
Shopify is currently the most commonly used shopping cart application. The primary reason for its popularity is its features, which offer users a secure payment gateway, a user-friendly interface, and compatibility with other ecommerce tools.
WooCommerce
Next on the list is WooCommerce. This tool is open-source, which makes it free to use. Some of its features include customizable themes and compatibility with other popular tools.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce offers very similar services to Shopify and WooCommerce. The only variation is the difference in brands.
2. Email Marketing Platform
The power to acquire and retain customers mostly comes from the effective use of email marketing platforms. With this tool, you can create and manage effective email campaigns in any language. Ensure you use the best online translation services when searching for professional translators for your email campaigns. Below are some email marking platforms options to consider.
Mailchimp
As a popular tool, Mailchimp offers features, including campaign automation, detailed analytics, and customizable templates.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact offers clients the features Mailchimp offers and more. For example, this platform can help you run A/B testing and segmented email lists.
Campaign Monitor
With Campaign Monitor, you can run pro-grade email campaigns using detailed reporting, real-time analytics, and targeted promotions.
3. Social Media Management Tool
Effective operation of an ecommerce shop requires a solid digital marketing strategy. The best tool to use for this is social media via a management tool. Below are some social media management tools to consider.
Hootsuite
Besides posting scheduling, Hootsuite allows you to monitor social media activities and collaborate with your team.
Sprout Social
In addition to post-scheduling, you can access social listening and advanced analytics while using Sprout Social.
Buffer
If you are looking to manage multiple social media accounts, Buffer may be the best choice for you. In addition, it’s simple to use and user-friendly.
4. Customer Relationship Management
Customer Relationship Management or CRM is the engine house of ecommerce. These applications allow you to manage relations while tracking a customer’s interaction with your products. As such, a functional CRM should offer analytics, lead management, and client tracking. If you want to adopt a CRM, below are some to consider.
Salesforce
Salesforce is one of the top CRM applications that lets you perform sales forecasting and customer tracking.
HubSpot
On the other hand, HubSpot has all the features of Salesforce, including email marketing.
Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM offers multiple features, including process management and sales forecasting.
5. Analytics Tool
Although many ecommerce tools offer analytics to users, analytics-based platforms offer you the best performance. These applications mainly provide insight into customer behavior, sales data, website traffic, and other trends. If you are thinking of getting an analytic tool, below are some to consider.
Google Analytics
Although free, Google Analytics is considered the most powerful analytics tool out there. As such, you can access custom reports, real-time trends, and integration capabilities with other Google apps.
Adobe Analytics
If you are looking for something a bit more professional, you should consider getting Adobe Analytics. This tool goes further by providing advanced customer behavior tracking and segmentation.
Piwik
Piwik is an option for people who like to play around with open-source solutions. It lets you track client behavior, manage custom reports, and more.
Conclusion
There are 5 must-have ecommerce tools to grow your business in this digital age. With a shopping cart application, you can manage product browsing, checkout, payments, and more. An email marketing platform should let you handle email promotion campaigns.
On the other hand, a social media management tool helps you upload and manage social media feeds. A CRM ensures you maintain a good relationship with your clients.
Finally, analytics tools give you access to useful information that can improve your business by presenting sales data, website traffic, customer behavior, and much more.