Video Editing
The rapid rise of online shopping has been steadily fostering the growth of e-commerce businesses. Shopping online is easy, quick, and effortless. In our fast-paced world, those qualities are valued more than ever.
Having an online store can be quite a profitable business. But this also means that the market is fiercely competitive. That’s why in this article, we want to dive into the best tools to power up your online store and make sure your business doesn’t get swept away by the tides of competition.
There are many types of e-commerce tools, ranging from tech tools to establishing your online store, all the way to product research and marketing tools. We have chosen some of the best e-commerce tools from different categories to help you optimize and promote your online store.
To make things clearer, we have grouped the tools into a few categories. With that being said, let’s jump right into it.
- E-Commerce Website Tools
- Shipping and Inventory Tools
- Research Tools
- Marketing Tools
- Project and Social Media Management Tools
- Analytics Tools
- Customer Service and Feedback Tools
E-Commerce Website Tools
Shopify has gained a good reputation among e-commerce platforms. With Shopify, you can set up your website from scratch. They have various templates for all kinds of businesses. The built-in tools and features allow you to pick your own domain, promote your products, manage orders and shipping. Moreover, due to its great and easy-to-use features, many people migrate their data to Shopify and start using this platform instead. You can kickstart with a free trial, then purchase a plan as your business grows.
BigCommerce offers website hosting and a simple drag-and-drop editor to help you create your e-commerce website as fast as possible. No technical skills are required, as the platform is beginner-friendly. It also provides you with customer data and analytics. BigCommerce offers an in-depth tour of its features if you’re just getting started. Pricing entirely depends on your annual revenue.
WooCommerce is a highly customizable e-commerce platform that integrates with WordPress. Creating a website with this tool is simple. The platform allows you to control taxes, shipping, and stocks. WooCommerce has free as well as paid extensions to meet any needs.
Magento is an open-source e-commerce platform with seamless third-party integrations. It offers a drag-and-drop page builder, product recommendations, customer segmentation and personalization. You can manage shipping and inventory as well. Magento works with businesses of any size, from small to enterprise. The size of your business is what determines the pricing.
Squarespace is a website-building platform that requires no programming skills. You can set up your online store with hundreds of ready-made templates and customize the design as you see fit. The websites are mobile-optimized, which is a massive advantage for your e-commerce store. A free trial is offered to get you started. The Basic Commerce plan starts at $30 a month.
3dCart is another user-friendly website builder for e-commerce businesses. The templates are mobile-ready and have over 200 built-in features. The software is quite affordable, starting at $9.50/month for building a basic startup store. You have an option for a 15-day free trial.
Shipping and Inventory Tools
Shipping Easy is online shipping software to help process orders, manage products, and simplify shipping. Shipping is done through DHL, UPS, FedEx, and USPS. The software lets you access the best shipping rates and print labels. It integrates well with e-commerce platforms. Shipping Easy offers a 30-day free trial, after which you’ll have to pick one of the four subscription plans ($29-$99/mo).
Oberlo is a software program that helps online store owners detect suppliers, import products, track sales, and ship directly to customers. It’s a great help to ensure your store never goes out of stock for popular items. Oberlo works well with Shopify. Three subscription plans are offered, including a free plan for up to 500 products.
As the name suggests, Sourcify is an automated sourcing platform. You can use it to source products and suppliers. This tool will save you time and effort on the sourcing process. It integrates with Shopify, BigCommerce, Amazon, and other big platforms. You can request a free demo.
Inventory Source is a platform to help you handle inventory syncing along with order and stock tracking. The tool integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Amazon, and Walmart. Inventory automation starts at $99/month.
TradeGecko is another excellent software to help you tackle inventory and order management, create product reports, and prevent oversells. You can manage orders from purchasing to shipping. It integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, etc. TradeGecko has four subscription plans: Basic ($99/mo), Business ($249/mo), Business Premium ($449/mo), and Enterprise ($999/mo).
FedEx Fulfillment is an excellent tool for small and medium businesses that need help with packaging, warehousing, transportation, and returns. The tool is designed to integrate with the major e-commerce platforms flawlessly. The pricing is determined by your business size and needs.
Using cloud software solutions, Dear Systems offers e-commerce businesses an online inventory management system. The tool provides a centralized platform that combines supplier analysis, financial summaries, product listings, sale and return management, and other services.
Research Tools
Moz is an all-in-one SEO toolset that can be used to identify keywords, track rankings and your overall traffic. It audits your site to identify any issues affecting your organic traffic and hindering your sales. Moz can be of great help to research your competitors, see their rankings, and analyze backlinks.
Pricing begins with $99 per month for the Standard version. Other versions are also available for those looking to upgrade.
Ahrefs is one of the best e-commerce tools, specializing in SEO analysis. With Ahrefs, you can examine not only yours but also your competitors’ websites. It gives you a look into marketing strategies, shows backlinks, and lets you monitor your niche more closely.
With as little as $7, you can start a 7-day trial. If you decide to purchase a plan, your options are the following: Lite ($99/mo), Standard ($179/mo), Advanced ($399/mo), and Agency ($999/mo).
SEMrush is an all-in-one research tool. It offers competitor research along with tracking your website’s performance. SEMrush will help to discover the top keywords in your field and use them to increase your domain authority. You can greatly benefit from this tool by analyzing your competitors’ websites.
SEMrush comes with a $69.95 monthly subscription fee. If used wisely, this tool will quickly pay for itself.
JungleScout is another helpful research tool specializing in product research. It helps to track your products’ performance on Amazon and see which items are in high demand. The monthly subscription is $29 for tracking up to 40 products.
BuzzSumo is a must-have for blog publishers. It helps you with post ideas. You can run a quick search on a specific topic with BuzzSumo and find the most-read articles along with their SEO analysis. Subscriptions start at $99 a month. You are also given a free trial.
Marketing Tools
Renderforest is a browser-based tool that can assist you at any stage of your e-commerce business. The platform offers promotional video templates that can be used to promote your brand and products in an engaging way.
You can also use ready-made mockups to display your brand logo or design on countless different products and items. This is a much faster and cost-efficient alternative to organizing professional photoshoots to promote your products. In case you are starting your business from scratch, you can even make a logo with the logo maker tool available on the platform. All the features are free to try, and if you’re satisfied with the result, choose a subscription plan.
Mailchimp is a well-known email marketing platform. It lets you create email campaigns and send out newsletters to keep your customers coming back to your store. Mailchimp has various customizable templates ready for use.
If your e-commerce business is still in the startup phase, a free version is available. As your business grows, you can upgrade to another plan.
Sumo is another popular email marketing tool. It helps you target your visitors and gain more subscribers for your email newsletter. It’s effortless to set up and is compatible with Shopify and WordPress.
The free version offers email opt-in forms and up to 10,000 automated emails per month. To unlock additional features, you can purchase the Pro version at $49/month.
Klaviyo is an effective and easy-to-use digital marketing platform for e-commerce businesses. It helps to personalize, measure, and optimize email marketing campaigns, drawing more traffic. Klaviyo performs SMS marketing as well.
The app offers up to 250 free email contacts. As your contacts grow, so does the price. Their website has a price calculator, where you can punch in the number of your contacts and see the estimated cost.
Smile.Io is a reward program for online businesses. It encourages customer referrals, offers points and rewards to build brand loyalty. The program is user-friendly and intuitive, thus doesn’t require any tech expertise. For new businesses, a free plan is available. The paid packages vary from $49/mo to $599/mo.
Feeds4 is a platform that provides content management and affiliate marketing services. It’s a good way to find affiliate marketing content for your website, such as product feeds, coupon feeds, banners, reports, etc. Both free and paid versions are available.
To stimulate more customer engagement on your website, OneSignal is the right choice. The platform delivers push notifications on web browsers and mobiles. This is a proven way to draw more traffic your way. Both paid and free versions are available.
PushEngage is yet another platform that sends push notifications on the web. It allows you to make price drop alerts notifying your customers every time prices drop. It also tracks user actions to send personalized notifications. PushEngage offers Free as well as Business plans.
OptinMonster provides a number of marketing services to e-commerce websites. It tracks customer behavior to improve sales conversions. The platform sends cart abandonment popups, email opt-ins, and other targeted web messages. The tool is fairly affordable, starting at $9/mo.
Project and Social Media Management Tools
Asana is a task-managing platform to help you monitor projects and track team productivity. This is a convenient tool to manage a big team, assign tasks and deadlines. If you work with freelancers, you can keep track of outsourced projects. The interface has a simple and user-friendly design. Asana has free and premium versions. The premium version is affordable, with a price of $6.25-11.99 per month.
Trello is a Kanban-style list-making application to monitor workflow, organize plans, create and prioritize projects. If you manage a large team or collaborate with freelancers, this is a practical way to stay organized. It’s also free to use.
ProofHub is an all-in-one project planning software. You can assign tasks, plan charts, and organize the workflow of your whole team. ProofHub is especially popular among remote teams. They have two subscription plans: Essential and Ultimate Control. The Essential plan comes at $45/mo and allows 40 projects.
Hootsuite is a social media management dashboard. You can manage several social media accounts at once. It helps you schedule all of your posts, saving you a significant deal of time. A free 30-day trial is available. Pricing starts at $19/mo with the Professional plan, which allows ten social profiles and unlimited post-scheduling.
Buffer is a software application compatible with the web and mobile. It is used to manage social media channels, schedule posts, and analyze the engagement you receive. For eight social accounts and 100 posts, Buffer charges $15 a month. As your brand grows, you have an option to upgrade.
Zapier is another workflow automation software with 2000+ app integrations. Link your apps to pass data between them in a matter of seconds. It allows you to free up time so you can focus on more important matters. You can try Zapier free for 14 days, then choose between the free and premium plans.
When it comes to handling multiple social media accounts, Bulk.Ly is another smart choice. It lets you monitor, schedule, and categorize your posts. The tool gives you to bulk upload capabilities. This can facilitate your work process a lot if you regularly post content across different platforms. Bulk.Ly gives you a free 7-day trial. If you choose to purchase it, you have a few affordable options.
Zoho Books is online accounting software that helps you handle money matters. You can record, view, and reconcile your bank accounts and transactions or communicate with your accountant in real time. Pricing is quite affordable, ranging from $9-29/month. Zoho Books is accessible on mobile devices.
Analytics Tools
Google Analytics is a powerful free tool for e-commerce websites. It tracks your website traffic and measures conversions. You get a look into what demographic visits your site often, what they look for, and why they leave. With Google Analytics, you can increase ad conversions and improve product descriptions.
Google offers guided tours to help you get started. Take advantage of this free tool, especially if you’re on a tight budget.
Optimizely is a split-testing platform. Use it to evaluate your website’s performance and improve the user interface. The platform provides real-time data to assist you in making faster decisions. Their Stats Engine delivers quicker and more accurate results, allowing you to access the statistics any time you wish.
Optimizely gives you three choices for a subscription plan: Essentials, Business, and Enterprise. A free trial is offered for Web experimentation.
Visual Website Optimizer is a platform that performs A/B testing and optimizes conversions. It’s a great tool to test ideas and improve engagement on your website. Creating and running tests is quite simple, even with no IT expertise.
Pricing hugely depends on the type of plan. The most affordable option is VWO Engage, with a $99 monthly payment. A free trial is available.
Metrilo is a growth program for e-commerce brands. It offers a KPI dashboard, revenue breakdown, and product performance reports. Metrilo tracks on-site customer actions, identifies particular customer groups, amplifying customer engagement.
All features are free to try for 14 days; then you may pick a suitable plan. Pricing starts at $119/mo for analytics only.
Crazy Egg offers heatmaps, recordings, and A/B testing to analyze and optimize your site performance. You will get an insight into how your visitors interact with your website and improve accordingly. Crazy Egg offers a 30-day free trial.
Lucky Orange will help you with tracking conversions and identifying why your visitors leave your website. You can analyze the conversion process through heatmaps, click maps, user recordings, polls, and live chat. The tool is budget-friendly with a $10/mo fee. You also have a 7-day free trial.
AdEspresso is an ad campaign analyzing tool for Facebook, Instagram, and Google. You can use it to perform A/B tests to determine which ads work better for your audience. This tool will give you suggestions based on specific metrics. A free 14-day trial is available.
Customer Service and Feedback Tools
ZenDesk makes CRM software for support, sales, and customer engagement. The software offers customer support live chat and messaging, along with voice support. Zendesk works for any size of business and always provides a free trial. The pricing entirely depends on what services and features you want to include in your plan.
FreshDesk is an AI-driven customer service tool. You’ll be able to keep track of conversations, prioritize and categorize them, manage support tickets from multiple channels, and handle other support-related tasks. You can try Freshdesk free for 21 days.
Gorgias is a help desk designed for e-commerce stores. It provides automated responses and multichannel customer service from a single interface. It collects customer data and gives you access to customer profiles. You can start a free trial, then switch to one of their subscription plans.
SurveyMonkey is a cloud-based software program to help you create surveys and get valuable customer feedback. The program has free questionnaires that you can embed in your online store. Additionally, it offers market research and event planning tools. You can sign up with a free account for the basic features. More advanced plans are available if you’re looking to upgrade.
Feedback Genius provides review management for Amazon sellers. It generates automatic emails to get feedback from your customers. You can keep track of every product review you receive and prioritize them. Feedback Genius comes with an A/B testing tool to test email templates.
Sign up to start with a 30-day free trial. If you decide to purchase a plan, choose one based on your annual sales volume on Amazon.
Final Words
There is no shortage of e-commerce platforms and tools for your online store. This can make it more challenging, though, to pick the right ones to invest in. It’s essential that you give careful thought to what works in your niche and is worth your money and time.
If your e-commerce business is still in its early stages of development, we recommend you start with free or low-cost tools. As your business scales, you can always equip yourself with upgraded and more advanced options.
