The world of eCommerce is growing at an incredible speed and retailers all over the world are transitioning to an online marketplace to expand their business. Anyone who runs their own eCommerce store knows how profitable it is and what benefits it offers.
However, eCommerce store owners also know that it’s challenging to keep up with rising demands from customers and a high number of competitors. To really make it in this industry, you need to use tools that are specially designed to make running your business easier and more efficient.
Luckily, we’ve prepared a list of tools every eCommerce store needs.
Contact picker
The importance of referral programs is simply underrated. They make it easy to attract new customers without practically any marketing efforts because your existing clients invite people they know to shop at your store.
Referral programs also offer many benefits to the customers, but only if you make it convenient for them to join your program and invite more people. That’s why you need to add a contact picker to your referral program software. The combination of these two will allow your customers to easily invite their contacts to join your referral program.
With a contact picker, users can share their contacts without uploading spreadsheets, typing anything, or copying information from another window. All they need to do is click the “Add From Address Book” button and select all the contacts they want to invite. This can easily double or triple the number of new contacts added to your email list.
It’s important to note that contacts will never be saved to the cloud or disk, as all necessary security measures are implemented to protect your customers and their contacts. You will be able to install your contact picker quickly and easily and choose to use it as is or customize it to fit your needs.
LinkedIn automation tool
While social media websites like Facebook and Instagram are used by both businesses and individuals, LinkedIn is a social media website used exclusively for professional purposes. It currently has nearly 700 million active users, which makes it the perfect place to grow your eCommerce business.
There are many reasons why you should create a LinkedIn account for your business:
- Sales and marketing opportunities. LinkedIn users can take advantage of features such as LinkedIn ads and company pages to turn this platform into a great marketing channel. You will be able to reach new customers and grow your business from a single platform.
- Industry networking. Connect with people from your industry to get invaluable insight into how they grew their business and what steps are necessary to make your online store profitable.
- Search engine exposure. When potential customers look for your business online, they will be able to find your LinkedIn page that will show you’re a legitimate and reputable business.
However, the biggest benefit of LinkedIn is finding and connecting with new contacts every day. To properly grow your business, you will need to send as many messages as possible. The best way to do that is by automating the process with LinkedIn bulk messaging.
With this top-rated extension, you will be able to:
- Send personalized invitations to targeted contacts, including 2nd and 3rd contacts
- Invite 1st contacts to join your LinkedIn group
- Build a targeted mailing list
- Build a lead generation funnel with a powerful list manager
- Send automatic endorsements to your contacts and get endorsements in return
- Automatically follow or unfollow any LinkedIn connection
- Add an automatic signature to every message you send
- Boost your profile to establish yourself as a leader in your industry
- Withdraw any sent pending invitation automatically
eCommerce plugins
It’s become easier than ever to create your own website, and most people who choose to do so use WordPress. This isn’t a surprise as it’s the most popular content management system in the world that currently powers 22% of the top 1 million eCommerce sites.
One of the reasons why so many people opt for WordPress is because it offers a plethora of useful plugins, including eCommerce ones. There are many different options to choose from, some better than others, but all of them have something great to offer.
Some things you need from a great plugin include:
- Payment solutions that support your preferred payment gateway
- Easy design and customization with multiple beautiful templates
- Integrations with third-party apps
- Great support that’s available 24/7
Top eCommerce plugins
It’s hard to say which one is the best of all the available WordPress eCommerce plugins, as the one you choose depends on what you need for your business. That being said, there are some plugins that stand above the rest:
WooCommerce
This is the most popular eCommerce plugin in the world with a large number of themes and add-ons. With it, you will be able to sell physical and digital goods, open an affiliate store, manage your inventory, and accept all popular payment options.
BigCommerce
This highly efficient plugin will allow you to create a secure and high-performing website that doesn’t require too much maintenance. With BigCommerce, you will be able to sell your products across multiple channels with absolutely no transaction charges.
Easy Digital Downloads
If you’re looking for a plugin that will help you sell digital goods, Easy Digital Downloads is perfect for you. It’s very easy to use and comes with hundreds of useful extensions, not to mention it works with almost any WordPress theme.
MemberPress
For those who sell subscription-based products, MemberPress is the platform that will help you achieve your goals and grow your business. It comes with great extensions as well as powerful access rules, allowing you to restrict who can access certain content on your website.
Shopify
If you’re a beginner who isn’t familiar with the technical aspects of WordPress, Shopify is a great tool for you. It’s easy to use but still very powerful. With it, you can sell physical and digital goods, have complete inventory management, and accept multiple payment options.
Email marketing tools
Email marketing is a big part of growing any eCommerce business and it’s a marketing technique that has been around almost as long as email itself. Today, there are more email users than ever, so it’s easy to reach your target audience and grow your business via email.
In the early stages of this marketing technique, marketers struggled to send a large number of emails every day. Nowadays, technological advancements have made it possible to automate your emails, making your campaigns simpler and more effective than ever.
Some email marketing tools you should consider include:
Klaviyo
Many eCommerce stores use this tool because it was designed specifically for eCommerce stores, which is evident from its features. It comes pre-built with features such as customer win-back and automated flows for abandoned carts.
Omnisend
This tool is great not just for email marketing, but it can do much more for your marketing campaign. It was designed to handle every omnichannel marketing effort, which means it can integrate your email with your website, social media channels, and other sales channels.
SmartrMail
This is another email marketing tool that can significantly improve your email marketing campaign. One of its main focuses is helping you create highly personalized messages that will further help you create upselling emails and recover abandoned carts.
Final thoughts
Growing an eCommerce business can be challenging, but it doesn’t have to be as hard as some business owners claim. For those who are smart enough to invest in automation and start using the right tools as soon as their eCommerce store begins operating online, growth is guaranteed.
But don’t pick just any tool for your business. Be smart about your choices and choose the ones you know will help you grow and find success.
