Ecommerce tools list are the digital software and hardware applications which ease up the running of online business on the internet. An industry worth $2 trillion worldwide, e-commerce is not a small thing anymore. As a retailer, you must stay updated with the new trends and technologies used in e-commerce world to beat your competitors and increase your brand value.
An ecommerce website is a commercial site on the web that is used to sell things online to customers. You can make money with your own ecommerce store as well, but you will need tools for e-commerce in order to succeed. There are numerous different kinds of tools that can be useful for an ecommerce business and it is important to know what they are, so you won’t miss any important elements.
Ecommerce is one of the fastest growing market segments worldwide. It’s no wonder that every ecommerce professional wants to stay up-to-date with the best tools available to make their lives easier, or to better position themselves in their niche. While the options may be plentiful, choosing the right ecommerce platform, content management systems, shopping cart software and shipping logistics platforms doesn’t have to be a difficult task.
It is an online business communtiy where people share their experiences with tools that have helped them to become better at what they are doing. Here you can read, write and share your reviews of ecommerce software, services, platforms.
What are the ways to increase customer engagement in eCommerce?–
Some ways to increase customer engagement in eCommerce are:
- Customer feedbacks
- Rewards for reviews
- Loyalty programs
- Prompt reply to unsatisfied customers
- Engage with customers on social media
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.
Tools Used for Ecommerce Analytics
Analytics tools use data science to help you understand what your customers want, why they came to your store in the first place, and how you can attract more of them. Keeping an eye on these statistics is not a bonus in ecommerce; it’s a necessity. Up-to-the-moment accuracy, customer behavior tracking, report generation, and insights into your sales and marketing process and website conversion optimization insights are crucial to your business’ ultimate success. Luckily, getting your hands on massive amounts of useful data is usually cheap, if not free. The tools below make using that data easy, even if you aren’t a statistician.
VWO: Visual Website Optimizer
The list of features offered by VWO goes well beyond basic analytics. The tool offers heat maps and click maps you can use to optimize conversions. It integrates well with most major ecommerce platforms and allows you to test, analyze, edit, and target campaigns. Each plan offers custom pricing. Free trials are available for each product.
Optimizely Analytics
Developed in collaboration with Stanford statisticians, Optimizely’s analytics Stat Engine is a powerful tool that uses sequential testing to help you evaluate performance over time. One of a number of features included in Optimizely’s five ecommerce tools (their 6th tool is for TV), it’s the workhorse of these apps’ analytics. Pricing for Optimizely’s products in custom quoted, although a free trial is offered for the web experimentation tool.
Google Analytics
Free and brimming with information that can help you improve conversions on PPC ads, optimize your site and product descriptions, and track visitor behavior on your store, Google Analytics is a must-have for any ecommerce business. If you aren’t familiar with the way Google Analytics works, Google offers free training to help you master this powerful tool. There are many apps with better analytics, but Google is still the number one powerful analytical tool – use this tool AND something higher end to get the most bang for your buck. Of course, there are alternatives that you can consider
Neatly
Designed to ‘neatly’ organize all of your days, allow you to track and set goals, and deliver insights about your marketing, this analytics app offers a smooth and attractive user interface. Neatly gives you the ability to track all of your KPIs on a single, customizable dashboard. The tool integrates with more than 45 top ecommerce apps, including Shopify, MailChimp, QuickBooks, PayPal, and (of course) Google Analytics. The best feature of this app is price, though – although initially offered for a lifetime membership fee of $49 through AppSumo, the app is FREE (with some strings attached – onboarding and live chat support will cost you.) There’s a fair use policy to help limit the number of companies using the platform at a given time, so make sure to give it a good read if you opt for Neatly.
Ecommerce Marketing Tools
Your ecommerce store won’t make sales if you don’t market it. There are hundreds of marketing apps, addressing everything from social media automation to affiliate and relationship marketing and loyalty management.
You need an option that allows you track campaign performance, minimizes your time spent on tasks like social, email, and content creation, lets your segment and track your customers, and doesn’t cost a fortune. It’s a tall order, but several of the tools mentioned below qualify.
EngageBay
EngageBay is a platform that offers customer relationship management (CRM), marketing automation tools, a help desk, and live chat, all in one. It’s ideal to help with managing contacts, proposals and deals, sales, and scheduling appointments. You can also use it to build landing pages, forms, and email sequences.
Before, during, and after the sale, you need tools to help you manage your customer service. The help desk and live chat software help you do just that.
It integrates with many popular apps, including:
- Shopify
- BigCommerce
- WooCommerce
- DocuSign
- ReCaptcha
- Stripe
- Zapier
- And more…
Users can get the whole stack, or purchase only what they need. They’ve got a free plan for up to 15 users with no credit card required.
- The all-in-one pricing is $14.99/user/month.
- The Marketing tools are priced at $12.99/user/month.
- The CRM & Sales Bay tools are priced at 12.99/user/month.
- The Service Bay, or help desk plan, is free.
You can save 10% by signing up for an annual plan, and 20% with a biennial plan.
ProTexting
ProTexting is a SMS and MMS messaging platform that works in over 200 countries, with all languages supported. All major US carriers are supported, including AT&T, Verizon, TMobile, and U.S. Cellular. The platform operates in compliance with all mobile marketing rules and regulations.
Beyond text and multimedia messaging, Protexting also works with social media messaging. Multiple integrations are available, including:
- Shopify
- Constant Contact
- MailChimp
- Amazon Seller Central
- Zapier
- Custom integrations are available via API access
Pricing starts at $49/month for 1,000 credits and one keyword. If your business exceeds the limits of the Corporate plan at $499/month for 11,000 credits and 8 keywords, you can request a custom plan. There are no contracts or setup fees. Discounts are available for annual plans.
All plans include:
- Free unlimited signups
- Instant access to a text code
- Free unlimited incoming messages
- The option to change your keywords at any time
- MMS
- Unlimited email and phone support
Bulk.ly
In the world of simple social, Bulk.ly dominates by allowing you to upload a spreadsheet of social media posts and sending them to your Buffer account. You can shuffle post order, add relevant hashtags, categorize, and drip schedule your social media from a single CSV file. The tool makes content curation hassle-free but is still in beta, so you’ll need to request an invite if you want to use this tool. If you want to test the app, a 7-day free trial is available.
Buffer
Content is still king, despite yearly predictions that its reign will end. Tracking your social media audience’s interest in topics, planning your social media calendar, and boosting engagement are easy with the Buffer app. The browser extension makes it almost too easy, and the analytics dashboard offers interesting insights into your audience’s behavior. Individual plans range from $0-$10 but don’t include the analytics tools, RSS feed, or the social calendar. Team and agency plans range from $99-$399. Prices are annual. The free plan does not integrate with Pinterest, and all premium plans have a limit of 2000 posts per month, regardless of the number of users (up to 25 team members can be added to 150 total social accounts on the most expensive plan).
OmniStar (OSI Affiliate)
OSI Affiliate software is a web based software solution that allows any business to set up and manage their own affiliate or referral programs. The software includes tools that will allow affiliates to promote via email, social media or directly on their own websites. Through the administrative control panel the affiliate manager will be able to effectively track the activity and commissions earned of each affiliate. The commissions can also be easily paid through our direct integration with PayPal.
Antavo
Anything that makes shopping and interacting with your brand fun is going to drive sales. That’s the principle behind the gamification mindset, and you’ll find it echoed in Antavo’s app. Used by top retailers and small brands alike, Antavo will work to manage loyalty for your ecommerce store online and via mobile with more than 40 loyalty schemes. Pricing is quoted individually, based on your ecommerce store’s needs.
Smile.io
An alternative to Antovo, Smile.io offers points and rewards, encourages referrals from your customers, and helps you shower extra goodies on your top customers. The app is the new incarnation of Sweet Tooth, and has more than 15,000 active stores using it. Plans are available for ecommerce shops of all sizes, from single-person, single-product stores to massive ecommerce enterprises. The open API allows developers to integrate the app with any platform, and integrations with BigCommerce and Shopify are included right out of the box. Basic membership is $59/month, Small Business membership is $199/month, and Professional membership is $399/month. Enterprise clients are given custom quotes.
User Testing
Designed to give ecommerce businesses insight into their target market’s reactions to their store and site, User Testing is an invaluable tool. Pooling viewers from across the globe who fit target market segments, the app asks audience members to provide live video reactions to your site. Uncensored and honest, they can be tough to listen to, but they’re worth it. Mobile apps can also be reviewed, and if you don’t like the standard User Testing 20-minute review, you can set up custom questions. Pricing information is provided in custom quotes.
Wish Pond
Capturing and converting leads is the function of this powerful app. Using contests, popups, and landing pages, it helps you to identify and segment your leads. The app also allows you to target email campaigns to these newly captured leads. User-friendly features like a drag-and-drop editor make it easy to customize your campaigns. Relatively new, Wish Pond is still working on some internal bugs, and customer service isn’t as good as it could be, however. A 14-day free trial is available and the app’s pricing options are monthly charges of $49, $99, or $199. The $49 plan does not have access to the app’s API.
Klaviyo
Klaviyo is a one-stop digital marketing tool to handle everything from A/B testing to email autoresponders. If you’re a novice in ecommerce and don’t have the budget to hire a full-time digital marketer to help you start drawing traffic, this app is a solid option. You can use Klaviyo’s API to integrate with any app you want, or work with one of their myriad integrations, including CRMs and top ecommerce platforms. The app is free for up to 250 contacts and increases gradually with your number of contacts, reaching $1,700/month for 150,000 contacts and custom quotes for businesses beyond that size.
Buzzstream
A personal touch goes a long way in ecommerce, something Buzzstream exists to facilitate. By targeting influencers directly, building personal relationships, and tracking conversations, you can extend your ecommerce store’s visibility and rack up a little good karma in the process. Teamwork on BuzzStream is easy, as the platform provides one centralized database for your organization’s members to work from. Work on link building, drive buzz, get PR exposure, and promote your store’s blog content from one platform. Pricing ranges from $99-$999/month; free trials and some free tools are also available.
Exit Bee
Using behavioral psychology to target customers at the right moment, Exit Bee’s popups increase conversion and email subscription rates, decrease cart abandonment, and provide site visitors with the carefully targeted messaging. Pricing plans start at $22/month for three campaigns. Basic, Pro, Starter, and Enterprise options are also available, and pricing varies based on the number of campaigns, site visitors, and websites you want to address. Installation is fast and easy, taking less than 2 minutes – even without tech expertise. The UX is nice and performance is smooth, but faster exit-intent pop-up delivery might be more effective.
Metrilo
Metrilo is a combined growth platform for ecommerce brands. It tracks customer behavior on site and delivers marketing and sales performance insights to be used for optimizing marketing spend and ROI, CRO, product management. The customer database offers a comprehensive look into individual customer journeys and segmentation to identify particular customer groups. All this data is integrated with the email functionalities for relevant engagement and driving repeat sales (no limit on contact lists and emails sent). Pricing depends on the features used starting with an Essential plan, analytics only, at $119. Metrilo integrates fully with shops on Shopify, WooCommerce or Magento and doesn’t need any setup to start processing data.
Store Ya
Offering a full suite of ecommerce apps, Store Ya makes this list for the app developers’ creativity and friendly UX. Top apps include the Facebook Shop and the Traffic Booster. Designed to marry social media and digital marketing functions, most of Store Ya’s apps are free – a boon for ecommerce store owners on a tight budget. The most expensive app, Facebook Shop, is $79.99/month.
Instasize
Brands, no matter how big or small, need to create a consistent aesthetic that lets people easily identify with the lifestyle of the brand. Instasize is a mobile app that puts all the editing tools content creators need to ensure that their images are cohesive and on-brand. It’s an all-in-one photo and video editor that lets you play around with a variety of professionally-designed filters, themed borders, collages and customized text styles for a more personalized Instagram feed. The basic version is free to download on iOS and Android, but one can also opt to upgrade to Premium for $4.99 a month to access all the new filters and borders Instasize releases every month for their premium members.
What Do You Think Is The Easiest Ecommerce Platform?
These are my top picks to help you create, manage, and grow an ecommerce business with relative ease.
Now I want to hear from you. What do you think about this list? Which ecommerce plan fits your needs? What ecommerce platforms are missing from the list? Let me know what your top ecommerce platform tool is in the comments.
Do you know anybody in your network or community that needs to grow an ecommerce business and can use this information? Share this piece and be their hero.
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Conclusion
E-commerce tools are software and services created to help e-commerce sellers grow their businesses. E-commerce, short for electronic commerce, is a variety of activities that allow consumers to shop online. Tools for e-commerce professionals (like developers) are useful for creating and improving shopping experiences.
The ecommerce world has a lot to offer. New tools and products are always popping up to help businesses gain an edge over the competition. As we continue to witness the revolution taking place in the retail industry, Internet businesses are transforming just as quickly as traditional stores. With so much information at our fingertips, it can be complicated to determine which new tools will offer the most benefits — particularly when it comes to those that are geared towards ecommerce professionals.