68 Ecommerce Tools: The Ultimate List of Everything You Need
Updated on June 17, 2021
Trying to drive growth into your ecommerce business? I have good news and bad news.
The good news (great, even) is that ecommerce is still on the up. According to Shopify, total online sales will reach $6.5 trillion by 2023. That’s nearly double the $3.5 trillion in global online sales recorded in 2019. These figures are showing that consumers are increasingly turning to online retailers.
As awesome as this sounds, the other side of the coin is that if you’re not set up to maintain that growth, your ecommerce business will get left behind.
Thankfully, there are plenty of tools available to help you sustain your business’s growth. It’s especially important that your operations are streamlined, since ecommerce businesses tend to have so many moving parts.
It’s a good thing there are stacks of sophisticated and innovative tools to help you manage all of these different processes. By having the right software toolkit to automate many of these processes, you can consistently perform well in each related area, create a stronger brand, and increase sales.
That means the only question is “what are the best ecommerce tools I should be using?”
Glad you asked.
We’ve compiled a list of fantastic tools to help you not only ride the coming wave of growth, but also create a reputable brand that buyers will pay top dollar for.
Before you start signing up for everything that’s available, let’s remind you that you won’t need them all, even though they’re highly recommended. However, many of them were created by fellow ecommerce business owners. These owners focused their products and services around familiar pain points in order to make their entrepreneurial journey a bit easier.
When the tools work, a lot of founders had a lot of positive feedback that their operations were streamlined and it made data analysis so much simpler.
Automating as much of your business as possible frees you up to focus on growing your business instead of worrying about time-consuming tasks.
You can also expect a higher future valuation for a profitable exit thanks to the above.
The Ultimate List of Ecommerce Tools
The tools you pick depends largely on your goals and current setup. That being said, there are tools here for you whether your focus is on gaining new customers or trying to retarget previous customers.
Let’s break down the different types of tools using specific categories to help you navigate this list.
Ecommerce Tool Categories
Each category will have a small introduction explaining why the tools matter and each tool will have reasons why you should (and shouldn’t) use it.
Ecommerce Analytics and Operations Tools
Analysis is the bread and butter of ecommerce. You make smarter decisions to reduce expenses or start investing in a new area of your business when you have enough data in front of you.
There are plenty of tools that help you analyze your business’s sales and traffic data, but some of the best present real-time data in an easily digestible format while helping you see where to focus on improvement.
Naturally, you’ll want to test what works and what doesn’t to see which tactics will drive growth for your business. With these analytics tools, you won’t need an advanced degree in statistics from an Ivy League school to make sense of your numbers, which will let you start experimenting with new growth strategies.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is the most familiar analytics tool that all online business owners likely use when tracking incoming traffic and customer behavior.
Pros – Relatively simple to set up and provides deep analytical insight on the pages that receive the most views and highlighting the acquisition channels that generate the most traffic. As one of the market leaders in this category, it also integrates with several other apps.
Cons – Setting up customized reports can be quite time-consuming. It’s also been noted that since this is one of the oldest analytics tools available, you will probably find tools with more intuitive interfaces and presentations.
Facebook Pixel Analytics
This might be the most under-utilized tool that many ecommerce owners are sleeping on. It’s relatively straightforward to install on the Facebook dashboard and is arguably as powerful as Google Analytics.
Pros – Particularly useful for tracking conversion rates, helps you to create lookalike audiences, and makes retargeting users who interacted with your online storefront pretty easy.
Cons – Sadly, the organic reach of Facebook is poor, which means you’ll need to pay for advertising. By extension, you’ll need to constantly monitor the ads, which can be somewhat time-consuming.
Neatly
Another analytics tool that is just as powerful as Google Analytics while helping you to track everything you can think of. Thanks to its feature-rich benefits, Neatly is suitable for small to medium-sized ecommerce businesses.
Pros – Gathers all data for viewing from a dashboard where you can study insights based on recent data. Makes KPI measuring straightforward, lets you manage several brands from a single dashboard, and (best of all) it’s mostly free to use.
Cons – While the features are available at the free base option, additional support and onboarding will cost you. Free users are also limited to a set number of creatable companies within the dashboard. Finally, it’s been noted that this tool is somewhat limited in its profitability analysis and forecasting based on available data.
Wigzo
An automated marketing solution designed to improve CRO and help with your retargeting campaigns in order to save you time you’d spend creating personalized messages.
Pros – The automations are created based on user behaviors. From there, the tool produces customized emails, notifications, and pop-ups for your site or online storefront. It also integrates with popular platforms, such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and HubSpot.
Cons – Somewhat hit or miss with its customizations. Furthermore, feedback from previous users have highlighted limited troubleshooting support.
Visual Website Optimizer (VWO)
Tools that help you test new strategies and monitor performance are in increasing demand. VWO is one such tool that provides advanced analytics to monitor any A/B split testing on marketing campaigns.
Pros – Features heat maps and click maps to review user behavior and interactions with your store. Its interface is intuitive and takes little time to become familiar with.
Cons – While VWO is easy on the eyes, previous users have noted a steep learning curve to draw out its full potential. There’s also a minor lag on real time data. Compatibility issues with certain sites have been noted to cause issues as a result of different programming languages.
Kissmetrics
Kissmetrics is a popular analysis tool for segmenting data so you can identify where leads come from and which channels need more work.
Pros – Straightforward setup to create customized reports for viewing specific data and KPIs as well as to track goals.
Cons – Another steep learning curve despite its popularity as a SaaS tool. There might be better options for ecommerce that serve the same purpose.
Metrilo
An all-in-one tool for email marketing, CRM, and analytics, Metrilo is useful for measuring important ecommerce metrics (like cart abandonment, attrition rate, and conversion rate) to help you improve your business’s marketing.
Pros – One of Metrilo’s most useful features is its ability to update order statuses in real time, making revenue tracking more accurate.
Cons – The biggest downside is that Metrilo doesn’t measure refunded or cancelled orders, which can skew its numbers slightly.
CrazyEgg
Another popular tool for heatmaps and click maps, Crazy Egg is useful for monitoring customer behaviors during check out.
Pros – Many previous users agree that the tool is simple and intuitive to use.
Cons – While viewing replays is simple, getting snapshots can be a bit tricky.
User Testing (usertesting.com)
While the brand name is pretty plain and difficult to find on Google, this tool helps you get unbiased and authentic live feedback on your ecommerce store.
Pros – One of the most innovative ways of getting feedback on your ecommerce store’s interface, it asks users to complete tasks within 20 minutes and records what happens.
Cons – No automation exists for data review, so you’ll need enough time to manually watch all the 20-minute videos generated. Furthermore, the data quality depends on whether your testers are from the target demographic (for example, they may be too advanced or have no idea what your store is about).
Ecomdash
Being able to view your inventory levels in real time can be a game changer in helping you manage your orders. Ecomdash is a tool that manages inventory across different ecommerce platforms and is ideal for small to medium multi-channel businesses.
Pros – If you’re selling across several ecommerce platforms (like eBay, Amazon, and Shopify), you can monitor all of your inventory from one dashboard.
Cons – Previous users have mentioned a slightly steep learning curve. Furthermore, the overwhelming number of features can slow down the tool.
Veeqo
Another multi-channel inventory management tool, Veeqo syncs your stock levels across different ecommerce platforms.
Pros – The interface is neat and well-organized, making it easy to navigate. Among the different features, the Scanner tool is particularly useful for its ability to update live inventory numbers.
Cons – Getting started is a bit time-consuming. There may be better options if you’re looking for an inventory management tool that works right out-of-the-box.
Skubana
Skubana’s a cloud-based inventory management tool that also helps with accounting. There’s value here for high-volume ecommerce businesses.
Pros – The powerful automation tools means you can outsource all your orders based on stock levels. Skubana also has customer support available to assist.
Cons – Locating certain stats from the initial dashboard can be difficult. You may also need the support team to explain some features to get the most out of Skubana.
Quickbooks
Staying on top of your ecommerce business’s finances is an important part of operations, especially when you need to create a P&L statement. Quickbooks is a popular accounting tool that helps you track payments and invoice customers with ease, ideal for fast-growing or large ecommerce businesses.
Pros – Whether you’re a seasoned bookkeeper or accounting novice, Quickbooks helps streamline payment processes. It also has a well-designed mobile app so you can check finances and request invoices while you’re on the move.
Cons – While there are many great features, you might find yourself only needing certain ones. Unfortunately, you need to pay to use the entire package, and since you can’t subscribe for certain features, this might be an expensive option. Furthermore, there’s limited integration with other platforms.
Sellbrite
Sellbrite offers you the option of being able to manage all your inventory and product listings under one roof.
Pros – You don’t need an ecommerce store to use Sellbrite, which allows flexibility on how and where you sell your products. Furthermore, you can set your price listings differently across various sales channels.
Cons – There have been compatibility issues noted across different sales platforms, which means certain information isn’t carried over (e.g. some fields can’t be filled in.
TaxJar
This sales tax compliance platform is used by some of the biggest retail brands, such as Coca-Cola and Microsoft, and can be a highly valuable tool when determining tax compliance with regions that might require VAT registration.
Pros – Simply put, TaxJar is very efficient at simplifying tax calculations. It calculates taxes in real-time, adjusts its calculations based on certain rates, and helps you anticipate future tax filings.
Cons – As you’d expect, getting such a sophisticated system to work well means setting it up properly. Getting started can take a while to account for all the necessary details.
Zapier
Perhaps one of the most powerful operations tools in this list, Zapier is an automation tool that integrates with a large variety of platforms to automate workflows.
Pros – The tool helps you save time and money by connecting otherwise disconnected apps and tools. You can automate processes based on certain triggers to make your ecommerce business even more hands-off than before.
Cons – While many SaaS tools aim to be Zapier-compatible, this tool occasionally misses a feature during the integration process, which can cause workflows to miss crucial functions. Furthermore, Zapier can become bloated when connected to too many apps, causing the tool to run slowly.
Quickbooks Commerce (formerly known as TradeGecko)
Quickbooks has broadened their horizons by assimilating TradeGecko into their package. This inventory management tool tracks stock levels across different platforms.
Pros – Quickbooks Commerce gives ecommerce business owners inventory control that synergizes other tools you’re subscribed to thanks to its wide variety of integrations.
Cons – This tool has been occasionally buggy with limited support.
Viabill
An alternative payment tool that provides payment advances for customers, Viabill gives customers the option to pay in installments.
Pros – The tool offers your customer base the flexibility and convenience of payment plans instead of paying for goods upfront.
Cons – While the concept sounds great, its usability is limited to certain US states at this moment in time.
Monday.com
To keep track of a multitude of different tasks, a whiteboard won’t cut it. Monday is a project management software that’s designed to monitor various projects and their individual components with ease.
Pros – Monday’s simple start using thanks to its drag-and-drop system, and it’s easy to set up automations that notify team members about task progress.
Cons – The basic features are easy to use, but that intuitiveness doesn’t extend to full functionality. Depending on the size of your team and how many automations you have running, it can become too easy to miss notifications within the system.
Asana
Another reputable project management system that has an interface and functionality similar to Monday.
Pros – Very simple to use because of its drag-and-drop system. Asana also boasts a wide variety of integrations, which means you can refer to different files seamlessly between apps.
Cons – Asana’s mobile app is not fully optimized. Suffering from the same issue as Monday, it can be easy to miss notifications that can lead to missed deadlines.
Ecommerce Website Tools
Creating an online storefront couldn’t be easier today. Compared to the early days of ecommerce, now you don’t need to know how to write a single line of code and plenty of tools exist to help you build a site or a store from scratch.
One thing to bear in mind is that these tools require recurring monthly payments if you’re building an ecommerce store yourself. As such, it can be economical to pay a developer (who has much more experience in building stores) to develop your online storefront. If a developer isn’t an option for you right now, consider the following platforms to build your ecommerce storefront.
Shopify
One of the most popular ecommerce platforms that’s especially popular for dropshipping stores, Shopify claims 1,000,000 ecommerce stores in over 175 countries were built using its platform.
Pros – Its popularity stems from ease of use. No coding is required since there are many professional and aesthetically diverse templates to use as your site’s foundation.
Cons – If you’re looking for further customization, you’ll need additional tools or apps, which can entail extra payment. Also, while Shopify accepts payments from certain countries, you’ll incur transaction fees if you use a third party gateway, such as Stripe.
Gatsby
If you have a deft hand with software development, consider Gatsby as your site builder. It uses React and combines with Shopify to create ecommerce stores.
Pros – One of the great things about Gatsby is that it automates image optimization. Instead of having to manually edit an image’s resolution and size so it doesn’t clutter the site, Gatsby automatically compresses images for you to keep the site running smoothly and loading times quick.
Cons – Gatsby is only suitable for individuals with Javascript programming knowledge, meaning its barrier to entry is high. It also has a limited number of templates compared to similar site-builder alternatives.
Magento
One of several open-source platforms for building your ecommerce store. Magento caters to a wide spectrum of entrepreneurs with varying degrees of coding experience. At its simplest, you can create a site with its drag-and-drop functionality, but There are a large number of customization options available to you if you know how to code.
Pros – Being an open-source solution means a high degree of flexibility. There is a wide range of integrations with popular tools, and it’s easy to create a mobile-friendly store. In addition to a large community to learn from, the above factors make Magento a good solution for creating a scalable ecommerce storefront.
Cons – Limited direct support might raise a few hurdles further down the line, as there aren’t many developers who are familiar with Magento. Loading times between pages are slower compared to other ecommerce platforms, and you’ll need to sort out your own hosting and domain registration.
Woocommerce
If you have an existing site but want to add an ecommerce element to it, you might consider Woocommerce. It’s an open-source WordPress plugin that turns your site into an ecommerce store.
Pros – If you’re looking to upgrade on a budget, this is a handy solution since the plugin is free. Integration with several payment gateways makes it a flexible and scalable solution if you’re building an ecommerce arm to existing revenue streams.
Cons – While it sounds great in practice, the plugin can seriously slow down your site. Furthermore, potential coding conflicts with other plugins mean you might need to hire a developer to make sure your site is compatible with all the plugins you use on a regular basis.
BigCommerce
It’s no surprise if you’ve heard of BigCommerce before. This ecommerce platform is dedicated to setting up online stores and is Shopify’s closest competitor as far as features and functionality are concerned.
Pros – If you prefer having a smaller software toolkit, BigCommerce offers an all-in-one solution that caters to entrepreneurs with varying degrees of coding knowledge. Thanks to a variety of paid plans to suit different store sizes, you can choose a subscription plan that’s appropriate for your business’s current stage. There are also no transaction fees and it has a built-in blog, so you can start creating content to drive external traffic to your store.
Cons – Annual sales limits might require plan upgrades so you can maintain your cash flow, even if you don’t need all the other features offered at more expensive price plans. Furthermore, the free themes leave much to be desired due to a lack of variety.
3DCart
Another all-in-one ecommerce store builder suitable for smaller ecommerce businesses.
Pros – Offers many payment gateway options for greater flexibility for customers, and more affordable pricing plans than other site builders.
Cons – Harder to use than more established website builders. Also lacks a mobile app, presenting a potential sales bottleneck as many consumers like using mobile devices to research and make online purchases.
Easy Digital Downloads
An alternative to Woocommerce if you’re looking for a WordPress plugin to sell digital items from your blog.
Pros – Consider this if you’re just looking to integrate a shopping cart into your site. You can sign up for a free starter plan with affordable premium plans available with more advanced shopping gateways, such as Stripe or Paypal Pro.
Cons – Only has WordPress compatibility right now with limited customer service if you need troubleshooting.
OpenCart
Another budget-friendly open-source platform for building an ecommerce store.
Pros – It’s free to use and has an active community that provides OpenCart with great peer-to-peer support. You can also establish an international storefront in multiple languages while combining integrations with most payment gateways.
Cons – One recurring issue is SEO cannibalization caused by duplicated pages. There are also compatibility issues with extensions and plugins.
ProsProfs Help Desk
Having a great storefront and site also involves having a great customer support service on the backend so you can address any problems your customers have. ProProfs is a popular cloud-based help desk ticketing platform used by some of the biggest retail brands in the world, such as Adobe, Sony, Nestle, and Mercedes-Benz.
Pros – Takes most manual customer service work out of the equation by automating the ticket creation process and assigning tickets to team members, letting you focus on helping customers. It’s easy to build up a knowledge base for customers to find answers quickly and the interface is similar to Gmail, making learning quicker and easier.
Cons – A major drawback is that ProProfs has no mobile application. It also requires teams and business owners to log in via their laptop or desktop to address issues through the ticketing platform, which can be inconvenient if you’re looking for flexibility.
Zendesk
Once known as the WordPress plugin “Zopim”, Zendesk’s popular help desk software ranks among the leaders of customer support.
Pros – Relatively easy to set up with automated messages to support the checkout process, so you maintain a positive customer experience. Furthermore, Zendesk is mobile-friendly and analytics are simple to understand.
Cons – While it solves the issue it set out to address, Zendesk’s chatbot can feel clunky. Another drawback is that there isn’t a screenshare functionality to help customers during particularly tricky situations.
Ultracart
Created by BPS Info Solution, Ultracart is one of the older store-building solutions on this list and is designed to integrate with an existing site rather than be a standalone platform.
Pros – Ultracart is suitable for fast-growing businesses, thanks to its ability to manage just a few or several thousand products on its dashboard. No-frills pricing plans make it simple to choose a subscription that meets your business’s needs, so you can leverage tech support when you run into trouble.
Cons – Despite its benefits, there is a steep learning curve to face before settling in with Ultracart. Moderate coding experience and knowledge are required to use this tool effectively.
Big Cartel
Since budgets vary, it’s a big relief there are free SaaS solutions to help entrepreneurs build stores when creating their foundations. Big Cartel is one such free ecommerce store builder that’s suitable for small businesses just starting out.
Pros – Free doesn’t mean poor quality; Big Cartel has a clean layout and interface, making it easy to use. Also, when they say it’s free to use, they mean it; there are no hidden charges or transaction fees.
Cons – If your business experiences fast growth, you may run into issues as Big Cartel struggles to handle bulk orders. To get the most out of this tool, you’ll need coding knowledge to fully utilize it. Ultimate, its lack of scalability may require moving to other platforms in the future.
Prestashop
This open-source ecommerce site builder helps you create an innovative storefront that reflects your unique product and service offering. It’s free to download but you’ll need to pay for hosting and additional core features.
Pros – Relatively user-friendly, Pretashop comes with multiple language support if you need additional help beyond their FAQs. Its integration with major payment gateways and how easy it is to customize a size are also noteworthy.
Cons – Pretashop’s biggest drawback is its lack of scalability; the site struggles to keep pace with growing stores and increased demand. Furthermore, the design is lacking somewhat when compared to the more established ecommerce site builders, and additional features can be pricey to add to your subscription plan.
Volusion
If you’re looking for a basic self-hosting ecommerce store builder, Volusion might be what you need. This tool is suitable for first-time founders looking for a one-stop shop.
Pros – Relatively competitive pricing plans, and you won’t have to worry about transaction fees, no matter which payment gateway you opt for.
Cons – If you’re selling (or plan to sell) across different platforms, you’ll need to pay for multi-channel selling. The lack of an integrated CMS means you’ll also need to set up a separate CMS and integrate it with your Volusion storefront. Finally, its inaccurate search function sometimes returns zero results for common search terms.
Zen Cart
Another option for entrepreneurs with considerable coding knowledge, Zen Cart is an open-source ecommerce shopping cart tool suitable for medium-large businesses.
Pros – Zen Cart is completely free to use and is feature-rich with extensions, strengthening their claim that you can build an ecommerce storefront with them in just a day. There’s also a strong community for additional support, and you can integrate your online store with most payment gateways.
Cons – Their USP is a double-edged sword; it’s really only usable if you have in-depth coding knowledge. While it offers excellent features, using them without coding expertise is difficult. Other drawbacks include its outdated design and a lack of SEO tools to help drive external traffic to your store.
Shogun
A page builder to help you create an ecommerce store on Shopify and Bigcommerce.
Pros – Getting started is easy thanks to its drag-and-drop function and several templates to choose from. You can also use A/B split testing to measure landing page effectiveness.
Cons – Notable issues include limited customer support and limited design if you don’t have coding experience.
CoreCommerce
A cloud-based ecommerce store builder with self-hosting, making it suitable for small to medium businesses. It also offers diverse marketing tools for promoting your business outside of the usual paid advertising routes.
Pros – As it’s cloud-hosted, CoreCommerce updates automatically so you always have access to the latest features. Other strengths include constant uptime (servers rarely go down), excellent customer service, and no need for coding knowledge.
Cons – Even if you sign up for a premium paid plan, storage is limited, making scalability a concern.
Empire Flippers Valuation Tool
If you’ve already got a well-designed storefront that’s live and generating decent cashflow, you might not need any other tools from this section. In fact, you might be in a position to start planning a profitable exit. Our valuation tool is backed by data from over 1,300 deals and will give you a pretty useful estimate of your business’s value.
Pros – Our valuation tool is entirely free and gives you a ballpark estimate that no other broker offers without booking a call and going through an unnecessary pitch.
Cons – The tool provides an estimate, which shouldn’t be used as a guaranteed figure to start negotiating deals. If the estimate is lower than you’d expect, feel free to speak to our team of business analysts.
Ecommerce Marketing Tools
Product-market fit and an in-demand MVP are important pieces of the puzzle, but don’t complete the picture. After all, if you don’t promote your business, how will people learn about your awesome products?
Ecommerce founders often stick to PPC campaigns. However, venturing out and driving traffic through external sources, such as search engines or social media platforms, are vital if you want to grow your store. The following tools will give you greater flexibility when planning and executing innovative marketing strategies.
Klaviyo
An interesting email marketing tool designed for ecommerce businesses. The tool analyzes a lead’s behavior and recommends action based on how subscribers engage with your storefront or content.
Pros – Klaviyo’s effectiveness lies in its Facebook integration for increasing conversion rates on PPC campaigns with that social media platform. It tracks customer behavior on your site so you can see where potential leads are spending the most time. It’s easy to set up, has automated workflows based on triggers, and you don’t need advanced programming skills to operate it.
Cons – Klaviyo is considered expensive compared to similar email marketing tools. Furthermore, its complexity might require outsourcing to experienced marketers familiar with the tool.
Spyfu
Many ecommerce businesses underestimate the power of SEO optimizing not just on their storefront, but also on external platforms, like a blog. Spyfu contains SEO tools for ecommerce businesses to help with keyword research and PPC campaigns to drive external traffic to their product listings.
Pros – Spyfu’s various tools help you monitor various marketing campaigns. A popular feature is the ability to search for domains of any kind.
Cons – Its PPC reporting is notably inaccurate. Furthermore, you might need to do more digging into search results to find what you’re looking for, which can be time-consuming. One thing that sticks out is that Spyfu doesn’t crawl the entire web, unlike other SEO tools.
Optimizely
Whether you’re starting a new email marketing campaign or establishing a new traffic channel from scratch, experimenting and knowing what results your copy and image tweaks will have is invaluable to your ad CTR. Optimizely is a full-stack experimental software tool with a variety of A/B testing features to achieve this end.
Pros – Powerful and in-depth, the tool caters to marketers of varying experience and coding knowledge. Most of its features are user friendly.
Cons – To take advantage of more complex testing, deeper HTML knowledge is required.
Buzzstream
In digital marketing, your on-page and off-page SEO optimization are equally important when it comes to making your content findable through search engines. Buzzstream is a link-building tool that helps with the off-page side of things.
Pros – Buzzstream consolidates all potential leads on a single dashboard. You can find prospects based on certain criteria, track the effectiveness of your email outreach, and create custom link types.
Cons – Potential leads can get missed if text is embedded in images, and the interface is somewhat difficult to get used to.
ActiveCampaign
Managing email workflows and funnels become imperative when you’re growing an email list. This email marketing automation tool focuses on enhancing customer experience.
Pros – The tool is intuitive to use and contains various features to get the most out of your email campaigns, such as A/B testing. ActiveCampaign integrates with Zapier so you can synergize with other apps as well.
Cons – Reporting is difficult to understand and the number of features can be overwhelming if you’re new to email marketing.
ConvertKit
An email marketing tool designed to help marketers nurture an audience through creative content.
Pros – Provides a straightforward means of creating a landing page for new email marketers. The tag-based subscriber system means ConvertKit is more flexible than using email lists when managing new subscriptions.
Cons – ConvertKit’s convenience comes at a slightly steeper price than other available options. Functionality is also limited with fewer starting templates, basic reporting features, and restricted A/B testing.
Omnisend
As the name implies, Omnisend is an omnichannel email marketing automation tool that lets you create eye-catching newsletters and engaging SMS offers.
Pros – The tool comes with a large library of templates to choose from when building your email campaigns. It’s easy to incorporate discounts into your offers and there are integrations with many apps to help you maintain your workflows.
Cons – As all-encompassing as Omnisend may seem, there aren’t any themes for holiday-oriented marketing. It also requires you to input new social media campaigns from scratch.
Campaign Monitor
If you like simplicity, this may be the email marketing automation tool for you. Build smart newsletters with Campaign Monitor’s drag-and-drop system similar to Mailchimp’s functionality.
Pros – The tool and its features are intuitive to use with flexible font types for a more tailored copy presentation.
Cons – This simplicity comes with a hefty price tag, and A/B split testing only allows you to send out two copy variants.
MeetEdgar
Establishing a social media presence can be tough but valuable if you can gather a following on the right platform. MeetEdgar is a social media marketing tool that allows you to schedule posts in advance, so you can plan a content calendar for future events and deals.
Pros – The scheduling is simple to use, so you can work on your strategy rather than spend time managing each post. MeetEdgar also shortens URLs automatically to keep your copy concise and within character limits.
Cons – Smaller companies may want to consider other tools for budget purposes as this one only has one price plan. Furthermore, companies are granted access to a single personal account, preventing multiple users from logging into a shared account. A major limitation is the limited number of social media accounts that this tool supports, and that you can’t interact with users through the tool.
AgoraPulse
One of the most popular social media marketing tools used today, it lets you schedule your content and analyze user engagement with ease on one dashboard.
Pros – AgoraPulse integrates with most social media platforms, so you can grow your brand’s following while managing interactions. You can also set up automations to respond to different types of engagement.
Cons – AgoraPulse is expensive compared to its competition and lacks integration with other major apps, like Zapier, suggesting limited scalability and workflow flexibility. It also doesn’t have a unified feed, so you’ll need to spend more time examining responses on each platform with a different dashboard.
Omnistar OSI Affiliate
This customer referral solution tool encourages customers and influencers to share your products and services on different social media platforms. You can create another revenue stream with affiliate marketing with this tool.
Pros – OSI is intuitive and you can set up new campaigns quite quickly, while the contest manager is easy to navigate. Noteworthy features include OSI’s ability to support multiple payment gateways and its accurate lead tracking.
Cons – There are a limited number of affiliates to choose from, and the tool is quite expensive, posing a barrier for smaller companies on limited budgets.
Antavo
To increase your monthly recurring revenue with repeated sales, it’s important to retain a base of customers who love your brand. Antavo is a customer loyalty management tool designed to engage your customers, so you can nurture a loyal customer base.
Pros – Antavo is feature rich with automated email solutions, a reward scheme you can implement based on certain actions, and mobile wallet compatibility. Its intuitive interface makes for easy setup.
Cons – The main drawback to Antavo is its minimum subscription-based price point.
Smile.io
A customer loyalty management tool designed to increase your customer LTV through reward schemes.
Pros – Offers many reward programs to choose from and implement that align with your ecommerce brand. It’s simple to use for consumer and business accounts while also integrating with many popular tools.
Cons – If you need features beyond your initial subscription plan, this tool can become expensive. It also lacks customization due to the limited API.
Canva.com
The right image can say a thousand words, and Canva is a graphic design tool for producing creative assets no matter how experienced you are with design.
Pros – Very intuitive and simple to use with a large content library of templates to get started, whether you’re designing Facebook banners or mockups for similar products.
Cons – You’ll need to pay for premium images even if you’re on a paid subscription. The sheer volume of options can also be overwhelming unless you know where you want to start.
Drift
One way to create a hands-off turnkey ecommerce solution is to install chatbots for responding to common questions. Drift aims to meet that need by providing a live chat messaging solution.
Pros – You can create customizable chat experiences based on user behavior. As complex as that sounds, Drift is intuitive and simple to use. You can also automate sales workflows as part of your chat responses.
Cons – Commonly raised drawbacks include the price point, the limited keyword search function in chats when you’re conducting research, and the limited reporting to provide analysis.
AdEspresso
Made by Hootsuite, AdEspresso is a social media ad management tool for small to medium-sized companies to streamline product promotions on social media platforms that generate the highest ROI.
Pros – AdEspresso gives you control over the timing and placement of your ads, as well as targeting your intended audience.
Cons – The tool is notably expensive, has issues with its reporting system, and limited customer support.
ReferralCandy
A customer referral program tool that rewards product referrals to drive ecommerce sales.
Pros – This tool has many well-designed templates to choose from for building your ad campaigns. It’s intuitive to use and has multi-channel support.
Cons – The functionality is somewhat limited due to the lack of integration with other major apps. As well, no new features have been added in a while and ReferralCandy only pays out in USD, which can be a turn-off for customers who want to be paid out in other currencies.
Sumo
Capturing emails can be a powerful way to start nurturing a loyal customer base. Sumo is an email marketing tool designed to collect emails with ease, so you can start building an email list.
Pros – Sumo can be used on nearly any type of domain and makes it easy to create automations based on triggers.
Cons – Sumo’s freemium model has plenty of features to help smaller ecommerce companies get started, but the free plan places Sumo branding on all of its creative assets.
Privy
An email marketing tool suitable for smaller ecommerce companies. Lets you create campaigns that use pop-ups, retargeted emails, and SMS offers.
Pros – You can create powerful automated email funnels for capturing emails with little effort in the long run. Privy also integrates with many popular apps and offers different payment plans to meet your business’s needs.
Cons – One bottleneck for creating effective email marketing campaigns is that Privy offers a limited number of templates.
KingSumo
Everyone loves giveaways and highly discounted quality products. KingSumo helps you leverage this type of promotion to capture emails for your ecommerce store.
Pros – Using a promotion tool designed to increase email capture through contests, you would be expected to receive a considerable number of emails, especially if you run many contests throughout the year. KingSumo addresses this by offering unlimited email collection and affordable bonus entries based on actions taken by users.
Cons – One drawback is the inability to personalize emails, since you can only capture email addresses. Furthermore, a lack of action verifications means the tool is vulnerable to bot accounts signing up.
Fomo
If you’re not familiar with what Fomo stands for, it means “fear of missing out”. This social proof marketing tool aims to increase conversion rates by showing how other customers are interacting with your store.
Pros – This unique and effective concept provides live social proof of customers taking action on your store. You can automate workflows thanks to integrations with other popular tools.
Cons – As interesting as Fomo’s service sounds, users have expressed concerns over the frequency of popup notifications deterring potential customers. Furthermore, there’s limited customization available for the popups themselves.
Ecommerce Research Tools
The previously mentioned tools covered how to create your storefront, streamline your ecommerce business operations, and promote your products. But what about tools that help you find and manufacture a winning product?
Years ago, finding the right product, shipping company, or even supplier all required manual work. There wasn’t any way around it. You needed to establish a relationship with suppliers and send orders for new inventory when necessary.
Now, several tools exist to help you find products in demand and automate workflows so you can streamline the logistics side of your business.
Jungle Scout
One of the most recently popular tools in this category, this Amazon product finder helps identify products to add to your existing range or to use as the foundation of your ecommerce empire.
Pros – You can find products based on daily, weekly, and monthly sales or customer reviews and ratings. It’s intuitive to use so you’ll be able to pick it up easily.
Cons – As powerful as this tool is, the cheaper pricing plans are notably limited in functionality. Additionally, the Chrome extension has been found to have occasional issues.
Helium10
When people mention Jungle Scout, they’ll usually mention Helium10 in the same breath. This equally effective product research tool is considered by many Amazon FBA owners to be a core part of their software stack.
Pros – You can find in-demand products through Helium10’s keyword research tool, which also increases the likelihood of your product listings being found by directing you on how to optimize them.
Cons – Helium10 is one of the more expensive product-finder tools available. If you want a multi-user login account, you’ll need to spend a minimum of $200 per month.
Ahrefs
One of the most popular SEO tools for keyword research and backlink analysis, Ahrefs is used to find trending niches and conduct thorough product research by finding out what people are looking for.
Pros – The keyword research analysis is extensive, demonstrated by Ahrefs’ ability to include Google Snippet Features as part of its searches. This tool is considered by many to be the gold standard for establishing domain ranking.
Cons – Despite its power, Ahrefs’ interface can feel busy and cluttered. It also lacks integration with Google Analytics, so you can’t always track your own content’s performance in real time. Other tools may be a better option if you’re looking for a more complete keyword explorer function for more content ideas.
BuzzSumo
While you can perform keyword research, you can also analyze content itself to see what people are talking about. BuzzSumo is a content analysis tool that aims to help with content ideation.
Pros – Ecommerce businesses can use BuzzSumo for its real-time analysis to see what competitors are writing about. You can also perform social media analysis to see which products or trends are in vogue.
Cons – BuzzSumo’s pricing plans may be beyond your budget if you run a smaller ecommerce business.
Sparktoro
Sparktoro is a customer research tool suitable for small teams or individuals. It might be the product research tool for you if you enjoy adopting a fly-on-the-wall approach to customer feedback.
Pros – The tool’s design is easy on the eyes, making core features easy to find. Thanks to its intuitive interface, you can start using it effectively within a short period of time.
Cons – Sparktoro seems to be aimed at a niche group of marketers and may not suit everyone’s needs. We recommend trying the free plan before upgrading to a paid option.
Wiser
A data analysis tool that recommends actions based on your needs and available customer data. Wiser helps you audit price changes and inventory levels across different sales channels, so you can position yourself strategically with competitive prices and offers.
Pros – The intuitive dashboard makes it easy to find key data and reports.
Cons – Although the tool promises a unique service, Wiser’s solutions are tailored to each business’s situation. Due to the varying needs and demands to meet, offered services have been noted to be hit and miss on deliverability.
Sourcify
Finding a reliable supplier can be challenging, especially if you’re looking for a cost-effective solution in another country. Sourcify aims to help you find the right supplier for your business through its real-time sourcing management platform that features several suppliers in China via Alibaba.
Pros – The user interface is simple to use so you can start searching for suppliers that meet your criteria. The biggest pro lies in its unique offering of removing any middlemen, so you can establish direct relationships with suppliers.
Cons – Sourcify has limited payment plan options.
EasyShip
Managing where your inventory is coming from and going to manually can be a huge headache. EasyShip is a global shipping management and coordination tool for maintaining a handle on your business’s logistics.
Pros – You can establish exclusive partnerships with different warehousing and shipping companies through EasyShip. Its tax calculator is also handy for budgeting logistics expenses, and you can integrate EasyShip with popular ecommerce platforms.
Cons – Right now, users are limited on how many shipments that can be processed monthly. The tool is also only available in a limited number of countries.
Freightos.com
Finding a good solution to transport inventory from manufacturers to warehouses or FBA fulfillment centers can be tricky. Freightos is a comparison tool for freight forwarders to make this process easier.
Pros – The user interface is intuitive and the feature rich tool supports finding freight forwarders based on chosen criteria.
Cons – If you run into any issues, you may have to wait for help from the limited customer support.
Use These E-Commerce Tools to Get a Wild Exit
The sheer number of tools in this list illustrate just how many moving parts there are in running an ecommerce business efficiently.
You can make these processes simpler by compiling a stack of ecommerce tools to automate these processes according to your business’s needs.
However, not all tools will be suitable for your business, depending on where your business is regarding its projected growth trajectory. Finding the right combination of ecommerce tools can hypercharge your business by handling all the time-consuming tasks, so you can focus on steering your business towards improvement and scaling to meet bigger demands.
When you figure out what you need and get the tools to help you manage your business effectively, you’ll be on your way to consistently meeting your customers’ needs. Happy customers will lead to positive reviews that serve as positive social proof signals to potential future leads.
All of the above compounds into a business with more value, a stronger brand, and a higher sales valuation.
If you’re already using these tools, consider using our valuation tool to see how much your business is worth right now.
