Starting a business is an exciting time, but that excitement can also be a little overwhelming. There are so many responsibilities you have as the owner of a business to take care of and it can feel like you’re constantly juggling. This is especially true for those who have their own ecommerce site. When you build out your website, you’re responsible for creating and managing all aspects of the platform, which leaves you with little room to focus on other areas of your business and thrive in your success.
E commerce is a dynamic and evolving industry. To stay on top of the game, you need to be constantly looking for new tools to optimize your site and increase sales. With so many options you may feel at times that you’re taking a shot in the dark by choosing a new plugin or theme for your store, but it doesn’t have to be this way.
Although most of us don’t think about it, the ecommerce tools we use have the potential to positively or negatively impact the success of our small business. Choosing the wrong shopping cart software or failing to maintain a professional looking website with social media links can present hurdles that are difficult to overcome during periods of seasonal high demand.
If you think about your average E-commerce site, it’s not hard to find out that there can be a lot of tools that you need to set up your website. That’s why shopping cart vendors are taking advantage of the huge vendor market there is online. Before even getting started with setting up your online store, you’ll have to choose the right eCommerce software platform.
Ecommerce Platforms For Small Businesses: Comparison Criteria
What do I look for when I select the best ecommerce platforms for small businesses? Here’s a summary of my evaluation criteria:
- User Interface (UI): Is it clean and attractive? Is the experience clutter-free? Are the logical steps clearly laid out at the right place to execute the features swiftly?
- Usability: Is it easy to learn and master? Does the company offer good tech support, user support, tutorials, and training?
- Integrations: Is it easy to connect with other tools? Any pre-built integrations? Does it integrate with apps like Stripe, PayPal, and QuickBooks? Does it work smoothly with marketplaces like Amazon and eBay? Do the integrations and extensions work smoothly without hiccups? Integrations can become jarring, so they must work as smoothly as possible.
- Value for $: How appropriate is the price for the features, capabilities, and use case? Is pricing clear, transparent, and flexible? Do the deliverables justify the pricing plans?
1. An e-commerce platform
The first and most important tool for a successful e-commerce enterprise is the platform itself. Platforms such as Shopify and WooCommerce were designed specifically for e-commerce storefronts. These platforms come preloaded with a slew of tools and services to help you manage your business. Each platform has its own themes and included services. Pick the one that’s right for your business. (Are you looking for a storefront option where your internal team can order branded merchandise (SWAG), official print materials, and more? Mimeo has you covered. We offer corporate-branded storefronts via our Mimeo Marketplace platform.)
2. Digital payment processing systems
You can convert more business by making your products or services purchasable on your website. Thankfully, several third-party payment providers make online transactions trouble-free and easy to manage. PayPal and Stripe are two of the most popular solutions available today. Nearly all e-commerce platforms can integrate these payment solutions into their website infrastructure.
3. Email marketing platforms and print marketing
To let new and existing customers know about products, you can turn to email marketing. This is a great way to get the word out about your brand. MailChimp is an invaluable tool you can use to grow your email list and execute coordinated marketing campaigns. What makes MailChimp so great is its ability to automate many of your marketing tasks. It also helps to track abandoned shopping carts and send customer follow-ups automatically to maximize conversions.
Another effective way to spread the word about your brand is through direct mail. With direct mail, you can break through the constant digital noise and land in your target customers’ hands. Mimeo has been helping clients print and distribute captivating direct mail pieces for over 20 years. Our print solutions include postcards, flyers, brochures, catalogs, newsletters, and SWAG. Learn more about Mimeo’s direct mail printing services here.
4. Advanced analytics and tracking
Once your e-commerce site is up and running, you need to track and analyze all pertinent sales information for your company. Kiss Metrics provides behavioral customer engagement automation that helps you better understand the purchasing habits of your customers. Regardless of whether you’re focused on making more sales or increasing the performance of your website, Kiss Metrics’ website integration helps test valuable data points on your storefront to see what changes you should make to maximize efficiency.
5. Shipping service integrations
All online businesses need to have a solid understanding of how to handle their logistics efforts. Shipping service integrations through companies like Shipping Easy and Ordoro take the heavy lifting out of shipping quotations and label generation for your order fulfillment. Both companies are ideal for e-commerce businesses and can help automate order generation and marketplace fulfillment with high efficiency and minimal lead time.
6. Social media management solutions
Every successful company needs to maintain its social media presence. That being said, keeping social media profiles updated regularly is extremely time-consuming, especially for smaller teams. With the integration of social media management solutions for your e-commerce storefront, you can keep customers engaged while automating the legwork required to do so. HootSuite is one of the gold standards in social media automation, allowing you to access and post all your branded digital content in one easy-to-use platform. This platform is great for helping you organize your content and automate posts based on your editorial needs.
7. Customer relationship management software
Regardless of all the tools and services you use to benefit your e-commerce setup, nothing is more important than your customers’ satisfaction. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools have been around for years now, but Zendesk is by far one of the most popular tools in use today. That’s because out of all the customer service tools available, Zendesk concentrates on creating the best customer experience on your website while tracking those experiences through an extremely intuitive interface. In combination with a dedicated customer support team, using Zendesk can give your company a real competitive edge when compared to other companies’ lack of customer engagement.
Running an e-commerce business can be a great step forward for any small business owner looking to improve sales and brand awareness. With the use of these e-commerce tools and services, you can maximize your results online while ensuring the best overall shopping experience for your customers.
Ecommerce Platforms For Small Businesses: Key Features
Inventory Management
Does the tool make complex inventory management tasks simpler? Does it have features like tracking the stock levels? Does it let you add multiple variants to each product? Does it give you real-time data about stock levels?
Inventory management is one of the most crucial aspects of an ecommerce platform and also its most complex one. Doing this right solves a major barrier that ecommerce business owners face while competing with large retail giants.
Analytics
Does the tool provide useful insights and data about your store performance? Are digital analytics laid out strategically to assist optimization?
Customization
What is the level of customization you can achieve with the product? As a small business owner, you need to depict and customize your ecommerce platform according to the brand’s design language and tonality of your business.
You need to maintain consistency between the look and feel of your online store with that of your website. So we need to look for things like customization of the header, footers, brand colors, fonts, and more.
Support
How good is the platform’s support feature? What are the various modes of support? Is support available 24/7 or just on weekdays? Is there a knowledge base available? Is there an active community of customers and developers behind the product?
Support is a critical aspect of using any new product. It becomes all the more vital for products like ecommerce platforms that directly deal with revenue generation.
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CONCLUSION
The best small business ecommerce tools are those that help you automate. Automate steps like email follow-ups, automating the trip from new visitor to sale, improving the amount of page views per visitor, creating social media promotions and advertising. All of these will have an immediate impact on your bottom line.
e-commerce is a huge industry, there’s no doubt about that. So many businesses are embracing online sales and this has led to a rise in the number of e-commerce tools available. Whether you’re looking to improve your existing website or starting a new business from scratch, there’s an endless list of ecommerce tools that you can use to make your life easier.