Top Tools for eCommerce Businesses
In today’s digital landscape, there are a lot of tools that can make your job in ecommerce a lot easier. In fact, there are some platforms that are downright essential—and without them, you’re practically leaving money on the table. Here are our favorite tools for enabling ecommerce success.
Conversational Marketing Tools
This term refers to a platform that creates a personalized, memorable experience for new or returning customers. Consider it a live chat, but with a marketing-centric approach. These tools can shorten the sales process and help to break down unique or complex products. One good example, Drift, offers a “conversation cloud” that connects marketing and sales teams with customers.
Email Marketing Tools
Some people say that email is dead—but they couldn’t be more wrong. Email is one of the most versatile marketing channels available, and it usually offers a higher ROI than other tactics, but the right email service provider is invaluable. The industry leaders tend to be HubSpot and MailChimp. Most people find MailChimp more intuitive for beginners, and it’s also more cost-effective for smaller organizations. HubSpot offers a comprehensive blogging and CRM suite, so it’s ideal for growing businesses planning to scale up their entire marketing operation.
Social Media Tools
Social media is an affordable way to create brand awareness and engage with your customers, but there are so many that it can be helpful to use a tool that manages your overall strategy, such as drafting posts, scheduling them, and monitoring analytics. HootSuite is a powerful social media management service that provides key insights into things like trends, branded content, ad performance, and engagement.
Search Engine Optimization Tools
Today’s marketing is simply incomplete without an SEO component, particularly in highly competitive markets like ecommerce. There are a few types of platforms out there to help you implement an SEO strategy, such as SEO software like Ahrefs and Moz, that offer rank-boosting insights—including a few free tools on their websites. Of course, no digital strategy is complete without Google Analytics, which shows you exactly who’s interacting with your website and how.
Graphic Design Tools
It’s important to have access to tools that can help you to create eye-catching visuals for your website, social media, marketing materials, and more. Of course, you can grab Photoshop (or its free and open-source alternative, GIMP), but this pro-level software requires a professional user for the best results. Non-designers should try the free online tool Canva for graphical elements like memes, social ads, or landing pages—you might be surprised what you can come up with!
Team Communication Tools
In any successful organization, communication is key. Being able to properly collaborate with colleagues will ensure you reach your goals faster. Slack is a fantastic platform for short-term, informal forms of communication, while you can keep your whole team on-task with a project management solution like Asana, a great way to track sprints or phases.
Customer Service Tools
It’s important that ecommerce businesses have tools in place to deal with customer service issues as quickly and effectively as possible. Most customer service platforms rely on an email ticketing system. Those on a low budget might want to rely on standard email forms, but if you have money to invest, you might try Zendesk or Zoho Desk for easier customer engagement.
Order Fulfillment Tools
Having the right support for your ecommerce business is essential. Having a full-service fulfillment and logistics partner will help you to take your operations to the next level. That’s why we naturally recommend that you save yourself time and money while growing your business with fulfillment services from Rocket Shippers. We provide all of the services you need to get your products into the hands of your customers safely, quickly, and cost-effectively. Contact us today for a free quote.