Managing a well-structured ecommerce website that provides exceptional customer service can be challenging and time consuming. You have to ensure that updated material is uploaded regularly, reflecting price changes, special promotions and discounts.
Having a web designer or editor in place would take some of the burden off of the business owner. However, for those who can’t afford to hire a website manager yet, there are some great resources available to help ecommerce entrepreneurs oversee everything from their inventory to pricing to metrics in an automated fashion, and even help them communicate with their staff.
Here are 15 ecommerce tools to help you get started in managing day-to-day tasks:
Analytics
Starting a business that relies solely on online sales makes it imperative for business owners to understand how to gather and interpret marketing data that is coming in on a daily basis. These metrics also help businesses formulate strategies and decisions regarding sales, advertising and other areas of the organization.
1. Clicky is a web analytics tool that displays system information in real time, enabling users to view refreshed information at any given moment. It can also track Ajax and Flash events, a handy tool many other analytics systems don’t offer. It’s most conducive for small- to medium-sized ecommerce businesses.
2. GoSquared enables users to quickly and easily compare real-time revenue metrics and sales figures that refer to previous months as well as providing predictions for revenue and conversions.
3. Metrilo helps users track product performance and conversions across all devices; it also generates funnel reports that provide an overview of the customers’ purchasing process.
Product pricing
Automated product pricing tools give ecommerce businesses a competitive edge, helping them decide on the most optimum sourcing and pricing that will drive sales and increase revenue.
4. CamelCamelCamel is specifically designed to track pricing data on Amazon products, helping third-party vendors gauge products’ sales performance by looking at history charts, price watches and price drop alerts that they can set up in their accounts.
5. UpstreamCommerce is another pricing data tool that tracks, compares and analyzes the behavior of competing products, which assists in helping business owners develop a competitive pricing strategy.
User interaction
Having the ability to monitor shoppers’ behavior on your site is invaluable when it comes to knowing what motivates them to make conversions and purchase a product. This will help businesses determine what’s going on when visitors click through their website and how they can capitalize on that behavior.
6. Chalmark is a beta testing tool that enables users to get feedback on layouts prior to implementation. It offers screenshots and visual design preferences to the users, asking them what they would click on first when looking at the website as a whole.
7. Bounce Exchange is a website extension that has the ability to follow website visitors’ cursor movements in real time, offering users a call-to-action (CTA) with a special offer when the movement suggests they will be exiting the website, helping improve the bounce rate and increasing the chance for more conversions.
Content management
A robust content management system (CMS) that you can rely on is necessary for any ecommerce website. It’s a dependable and efficient way to upload content regarding your products, your blog posts, your marketing material such as videos, podcasts and press releases, anything you need to keep your landing pages updated and organized.
8. Magento is an inventory control system and content management tool that’s built on open source technology. It grants users the control to upload content and functionality of their online stores and offers additional extensions to broaden the platform for different types of tasks such as entering keywords and metadata.
9. PrestaShop is a CMS tool that includes over 275 features and is conducive for small- and medium-sized businesses. It allows users to track visitors’ behavior, view customer profiles, track orders and sales, view analytics and track affiliate statistics.
Cloud storage and back-up
Storing data in the cloud provides more security and convenience for ecommerce businesses, as cloud storage makes system backups fairly simple and affordable, keeping all pertinent information in one easily accessible place.
10. Carbonite provides services in the way of data backup, rapid recovery, and 24-hour access to your information from anywhere. It operates on Windows and Mac systems and its cloud backup and recovery plans are ideal for small and midsize businesses, as well as home offices.
11. CrashPlan offers ongoing local and offsite backup protection sans storage size limits, file-type restrictions, or caps on bandwidth. It can create multiple copies of your data and can be used on mobile devices.
Team collaboration
Team collaboration in any business streamlines daily processes, saving the company money and creating an efficient way to be productive. Equipping employees with the right collaboration tools makes their jobs more enjoyable and provides them with a more tangible way to keep up with their tasks.
12. Pingboard creates interactive organizational charts that are shareable among coworkers, making it easier to keep track of each team member’s projects. Team members can also access the org chart from anywhere at any time.
13. Trello is a visually-driven project management tool that is designed for users to drag and drop project cards into categories, indicating the progress of various projects that are assigned to different team members.
14. Skype is a conference call platform that also has individual and group chat capabilities. The collaboration tool provides audio calls for up to 25 people and video conference calls for up to 10 people at one time. The program can be accessed via desktops, smartphones and tablets.
15. Teamwork provides team collaboration and task management services combined with project management, billing, reporting, time logging, real-time messaging and trouble ticketing. The program also offers a central file management system, email and integration with other applications such as Google Drive.
Utilizing the automation and integration techniques that these ecommerce tools offer will help startups and newly established small businesses streamline their daily operations, better preparing them for the inevitable expansion they will all experience.
Implementing these programs early on will keep the mundane tasks operating smoothly in the background, allowing business owners to devote more time to growing the company and increasing revenue.
