Over the past few years, the internet has provided a revitalized, virtually unlimited opportunity for e-commerce to grow into an established and prestigious industry. In fact, this success doesn’t seem to be affected by the “coronavirus’ economic crisis” as the industry’s projections continue to increase in a greater scale.
Because of this, it’s inevitable that this enterprise will be saturated with numerous potential competitions. The e-commerce world, after all, is not an easy one to penetrate and master. At the same time, from the sales perspective, diligence might not be enough. That’s why there is a dire need for proper tools that will support and make your business prosperous.
There are several e-commerce marketplaces like Pinduoduo, Amazon, and Alibaba. These are amongst the largest and renowned ecommerce platforms in the market. So, if you want to be as successful as them, you could use the tools recommended in this article.
Here Are The Tools You Need To Grow Your Business
E-Commerce Website Tools
There’s no simple way to start your business than designing your online store. These tools can help you to: a) showcase the full range of your offering; b) make life easier for your customers which can increase your chances of getting sales; c) advertise more effectively; d) set-up all your contact details in one place; and e) engage your customers.
Shopify has an enormous ecosystem of developers and apps. Its template framework is really well-architected plus their host services are focused on your business instead of waiting hours playing system admin and troubleshooting server problems. So, if you’re looking for a highly customized solution and you don’t need a program to manage, then this is the platform for you.
This tool is not only used for e-commerce stores, but you can also create various websites with attractive templates for any niche. No wonder it remained on the top rank among the best e-commerce platforms. Its drag and drop system make this platform incredibly easy even for those with little or no experience plus it’s less expensive than Shopify for unlimited selling and engaging with your shoppers.
WooCommece is created on top of the incredibly popular WordPress and WooThemes brand. With just a few clicks, you can install the WooCommerce plugin and, violà! You have switched your WordPress site into an online store. It offers over 300 official extensions to customize your store, so you no longer need a developer. You can also add loads of free plugins and themes to tailor the rest of your WordPress site and the options are nearly limitless.
Business Tools
Once you’re done with your website, it’s now time to check on your business. These tools will help you monitor your finances, manage your team and of course, operate your online store.
If you’re after organization, productivity, and project management, then this tool is good for you. Monday is best for its distinctly flexible features. It can benefit you to keep track of your projects, oversee your group’s work, deadlines and collaborate with your team.
While Monday works for project management, Asana centers more on your internal team, on what they have for you and keep moving forward with your project. It can successfully manage your team across time zones by allowing you to communicate with them directly on the app, assign their tasks and implement deadlines.
If you want to keep track of your time and budget, then this software is definitely worth a shot. It records the hours spent for the projects and tasks and provides an immediate report about your budget.
Marketing Tools
These are the most powerful tools you need to focus on for this will assist you in gaining popularity of your brand and attracting your customers for greater sales opportunity.
MailChimp offers a spectacular automated marketing service to drive your sales and connect with your audience. It provides a whole package of tools from audience management, great-looking designs and templates for your contents, sends messages with no effort as well as delivering insights and recommendations to see what’s best for your business.
As one of the most distinguished social networks, Facebook Ads can be the right and efficient tool for advertising your online store. If you’re aiming for a specific audience to send the most suitable content with exceptional demand, then Facebook Ads is the key for your business goals. Moreover, it is comparably cheaper than any marketing tools available.
Accounting Tools
To guide you in taxing your business and running your online store smoothly and hassle-free, you need accounting tools to do this all for you.
Quickbooks is an easy-to-use accounting software that offers a whole bunch of cloud service features from remote payroll assistance and outsourcing, online payment, mapping quality through integration with most ecommerce platforms, to reporting data, tracking inventory, expenses, bills and more.
As one of the most affordable accounting tools on the market, Wave gives financial services including billing, invoicing, payment tracking, payroll and personal finance management as well scanning receipts. It also has a bank reconciliation function that can link the customer’s bank account for real-time transaction records.
Among the listed accounting tools in this article, Xero is much better. With its robust trait, users can view their cash flows, transactions and account details regardless of their location. It pulls in all your data automatically and you can link it up to specific bank accounts. Thus, it can improve your relationship with the suppliers that provide critical business materials.
Analytics Tool
These tools allow you to collect data from all areas that might affect your online store and use this information to understand customer’s behavior. These can also check how well your business is doing.
Google’s web statistics tool is one of the best in class, and it’s free too. You can use it to determine the number of visitors to your website, page news, and much more, including where your visitors are located (their country and approximate city). The most important thing it provides however is the number of people who have come to your site via search engine, and the keywords they have used. Once installed, Google Analytics runs in the background and you don’t have to worry about it.
Referral/Customer Loyalty Tools
A business is nothing without its customers, so in order to have them coming back to purchase your product and to invite more people, you can use the following:
ReferralCandy allows you to configure an affiliate network for your ecommerce business. It’s stress-free and automated software which encourages your customers to recommend your product or service. You just have to customize your brand and assign the type of rewards you want for your referrals. DropBox, Airbnb, Uber, Greats Shoes and Amazon are among the big companies who use this app for their referral strategy.
Another customer loyalty tool that can boost your sales is Smile.io (aka Smile Loyalty). It launches dominant rewards programs such as exclusive perks, engaging discounts and points as well as social shares from existing users that will truly drive them to refer your business to others.
Conclusion
Whether you’re just starting your e-commerce business and looking for ideal software for your online store, it is still important to plan deliberately, and pick out those tools that are worth investing in. These tools’ features should be beneficial to your e-commerce business, your objectives or goals, your skills and knowledge and of course, your budget.
Moreover, as the online marketplace develops, it is noteworthy to be aware and updated with the trending ecommerce practices. Try different things with new marketing and selling tools, make changes continuously to enhance the experience for your clients.