Running an eCommerce store is no small feat. You can have a lot on your plate; collecting leads, attracting new customers, creating and managing the websites, retaining existing customers, and the list just keeps going on.
You think things just couldn’t get any more complicated, right?
Until you realize that you are also put into direct competition with more than 2-3 million competitors out there. Here comes the headache!
But, hey, don’t fret. This is where eCommerce tools come into play and are going to save your day.
eCommerce tools can help you unleash your maximum potential in the most seamless way possible.
Those such tools help you automate and simplify a wide range of tasks pertaining to your business. Therefore, they will not only help you to save more of your precious time managing an eCommerce business, but they will also save your budgets.
That being said, with tons of eCommerce tools out there, it can be quite challenging to pick the right ones for you. And that’s what this post is for.
We’ve compiled a quick list of popular and high-performing eCommerce tools so that you can complete all your eCommerce store-related tasks effortlessly.
Let’s start with the very basic, shall we? In order to start your eCommerce journey in the first place, you’ll need a website. When your tech skills are fairly limited and you don’t have enough resources to hire a professional web developer, you can use the eCommerce platform instead.
And Shopify is one of the most-used eCommerce platforms in the market. It allows you to sell anything everywhere from your eCommerce store to online marketplaces and social media. Its easy integration with loads of third-party payment gateways makes your eCommerce stand out from your competitors.
It also provides you with tons of templates for different niches. Also, since it’s a plug-and-play eCommerce platform, it wouldn’t even a couple of hours to create an online store and start selling your products.
Looking for an easy way to increase your revenue and build a loyal customer base? Upsell and cross-sell strategy can help you achieve that. In this case, you might need to add ReConvert to your eCommerce toolbox.
This Shopify plugin can take your post-purchase strategy to the next level. It makes it easier for you to create an optimized thank you page and add upsells or cross-sell. This way, you can re-engage repeat customers and make them keep coming back.
ReConvert provides you with a drag and drop interface, making the tool easy to use even for a complete beginner. Its wide integration with some popular apps on the platform also allows you to add the built-in widgets you need (other than upselling and cross-sell widgets, of course) to your thank you page, including call-to-action buttons, post-purchase surveys, images, videos, birthday collectors, and more.
#3. Chargeback Automation Tool: Chargeflow
Chargeback mitigation is an uphill battle that gives merchants only a 12% chance of success. And there are several reasons for that. On the one hand, the chargeback process is mostly customer-focused. On the other hand, even though chargebacks keep merchants accountable and help cardholders seek remediation for payment issues, the concept hasn't lived up with today's fast-paced technology evolution and eCommerce dynamics.
Hence, online shoplifters take advantage of the loopholes to game the system. Research shows that 85% of online chargebacks are fraudulent and consider as friendly-fraud. That's where Chargeflow comes in.
Chargeflow helps e-commerce merchants recover credit card chargebacks on autopilot. They use Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to help merchants fight and win more chargebacks. Instead of relying on your power of logic and writing skills when fighting a payment dispute, educating your team, which not always work, Chargeflow’s chargeback automation platform pulls data points that relevant with your disputed order, to create the compelling evidence on your behalf, and it’s seems comprehensive according to Shopify merchants recent feedback.
Onboarding Chargeflow on your eCommerce store is seamless and within 60 seconds you should be up and running. Any open disputed transactions will be handled right away.
An exciting feature we have noticed is ChargeScore®, which helps you gain deeper insights into the transaction and predict your chances to win a chargeback before you respond, similar to Stripe win likelihood feature but on steroids.
Their business model is win-win, and only once they recover revenue they will bill a flat success fee. There are no minimum or monthly fees related, and you can leave at anytime so it’s really straight forward.
Every eCommerce beginner can agree that one of their main concerns when it comes to running an online store is the type of product they’re going to sell. In this case, you need a tool that can help you to find high-demand products for you.
Oberlo is one of the best options out there. Not only it makes it easier for you to find the right products that match your niche through merchants that you can trust, but you can also drop-ship them directly to your customers – without having to worry about inventory management, packaging, or even shipping logistics.
In other words, you don’t have to create and sell your products yourself. All you have to do is display some products on your online store that Oberlo picked for you. And when a customer purchased it, your supplier will ship the product from their warehouse straight to your customer’s door.
However, Oberlo can only import products to Shopify from AliExpress to sell from merchants.
Many eCommerce stores rely on visual search and recognition technology to give potential customers an alternative to keyword searches.
By simplifying the search process, visual recognition technology can improve search results and product recommendations. This, in turn, will lead to increased conversions.
One of the most popular product searches and discoveries is Syte. This tool uses AI-based visual recognition and search technology for e-commerce to help your potential customers find you much more quickly, helping you build a solid online presence.
Professional-looking and trustworthy eCommerce stores provide enough visuals to show their potential customers the detail of the product they sell. After all, no one will buy a thing without even understanding how it looks or how does it even work in the first place, right?
That’s why most eCommerce stores invest in splashy product images and short videos. While you can take professional photos with your smartphone, you might need a little bit of a more advanced tool when crafting eCommerce videos – whether they’re eCommerce product videos, explainer videos, how-to videos, even customer testimonials videos.
Shakr offers you an easy way to edit and share video content. With a stock image gallery and over 2000 video templates, this tool helps you create professional-looking videos through their drag and drop builder.
Let’s admit it. We can spend hours on an eCommerce platform just to find a product we want to buy at the lowest price, can’t we? Now it’s clear that you need a pricing tool to give your potential customers the best price for your product. Wiser is one of the most reliable ones for that.
This tool powers eCommerce businesses with critical data and insights, helping them drive effective decision-making and boost their revenue. With its price intelligence, you can ‘spy’ and understand your competitors’ pricing strategies so that you can outsmart them by making more effective pricing decisions.
Email marketing offers the biggest bang for your buck of any marketing channel. Seriously, good email marketing can generate 4200% ROI (Yup, that’s $42 for every $1 spent!).
At the heart of great email marketing is a solid email software. Mailchimp is the most intuitive platform out there - you’ll find it easy to build pop-ups, create email flows that welcome new subscribers, recover abandoned carts and promote your latest offers.
Plus they’ve added a bunch of new features recently - you can now use Mailchimp to schedule your social media posts, track customer journeys and even build your eCommerce store right on their platform.
There’s no denying the importance of a killer social media presence for brands in 2021. But creating engaging content can be tricky at the best of times.
Use Canva to help you quickly and easily create stunning social media content that’ll move followers closer to your brand. The beauty of Canva (unlike honorable mention Photoshop) is that you don’t need design skills or experience to get started.
Remember to focus on bringing value to your followers - while killer designs are important, nothing will make up for content that doesn’t help nudge your followers towards their goals.
#10. Dropship platform: Convictional
With Convictional, Shopify merchants can quickly and easily dropship with new retailer partners, expand their sales channels, and reach new customers. The platform provides a centralized hub where merchants can manage all their orders, inventory, and pricing information, making it easy to sync this data with other retailers and avoid overselling or underselling products.
Convictional offers a range of features designed to help merchants grow their sales, such as automated order processing, real-time inventory management, and customizable pricing rules to make selling your products in other retailers dead simple.
Get The Best eCommerce Tools Today
Building and managing an eCommerce store can be quite challenging. Thanks to the internet, though. All the tools are now available to make all of it less stressful and even more effective. The key here is to use the tool that matches your eCommerce’s needs and preferences.
Author Bio:
Andre Oentoro is the founder of Breadnbeyond, an award-winning explainer video company. He helps businesses increase conversion rates, close more sales, and get positive ROI from explainer videos (in that order).
Twitter: @breadnbeyond
Email: andre@breadnbeyond.com
LinkedIn: Andre Oentoro