If you already have an e-commerce business and are looking for e-commerce tools to help you grow it, then you are at the right place. With an estimated 12-24 million e-commerce sites across the world, we will be showing you the 12 best e-commerce tools that we think will help you stand out against competitors and take your business to the next level.
Key Takeaways
E-Commerce is always changing, so it is important to do your research on the latest tools and trends. The recommendations in this article are our honest opinion and we are not associated with or endorsed by any tools mentioned in this article.
AI Tools have extremely high potential to help you accelerate your e-commerce business. However, it must be used with caution and with human supervision to ensure information are accurate and user-friendly.
Each tool have different strengths and weaknesses so it is up to you to choose the right tool for your business. Sometimes a simple solution is enough.
What are Ecommerce tools?
E-Commerce tools are software such as apps, plugins, and platforms that were invented to help business owners manage their online stores. There are a variety of tools that solves different challenges, such as Production tools, Accounting tools, Marketing tools, and Business Management tools. Within each of these categories, there are dozens of tools available, and in the next section, we will be going over our top picks from each of these categories.
Now, without further ado, let’s dive into the e-commerce business tools that will change your business.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools
AI tools are tools that mimic human intelligence using machine learning and computer systems. Currently, AI tools are disrupting our traditional workflows at an accelerated rate and it might just be a matter of time before their usage in the workplace is normalized.
With this in mind, we will cover some of the best AI tools that we think E-Commerce business owners can take advantage of right now.
Fraise.io
Fraise.io is an AI research & writing tool that helps you produce content in minutes. If you understand SEO, you will know that content is King, and producing high-quality content is often the most difficult part of doing SEO. Additionally, you can also use it to write social media posts, create briefs or research your competitors.
The reason why this is such a powerful tool for E-Commerce websites is that it can free up your time from researching, writing content briefs, writing content, and even some content optimization so you can focus on improving your products, logistics, and building partnerships.
However, a word of caution is to never use pure AI content on your published content because Google will penalize your AI-generated content if it is deemed as low-quality and does not provide any additional value according to the E-EAT guidelines.
If you are interested in learning more about Fraise, we recommend that you go through this crash course that they have built to help users.
Below are Fraise's pricing details:
Solo - $14.99/mo - 1 user seat, write & optimize 4 articles and 4,000 AI words/month.
Basic - $44.99/mo - 1 user seat, write & optimize 30 articles and 4,000 AI words/month.
Team - $114.99/mo - 3 user seats, write & optimize unlimited articles and generate 4,000 AI words/ month.
Persado
Persado is an AI platform that was founded by Alex Vratskides and Assaf Baciu on 12/12/12. Unlike Fraise.io, Persano provides the only "Motivation AI platform" that enables personalized communications at scale. How effective is this tool you ask? According to their client testimonial, JPMorgan Chase used AI-generated content to increase online mortgage applications by 82%.
When applying this to E-Commerce businesses, you can use this tool to produce the right words for customers and deliver a faster and more satisfying solution. Additionally, you can also generate engaging and consistent language across multiple touchpoints. Last but not least, it helps businesses with risk management by hardwiring legal compliance and policies into the brand voice. The Persado Motivation AI Platform will help you eliminate any potential human error by setting the right tone so your messages will come across as intended every time.
If you are interested in trying out Persado, you can request a free demo on their website.
ChatGPT
ChatGPT made headlines recently for setting a record for the fastest-growing user base in consumer applications, reaching 100 million users. It is a conversational language model that was designed to generate human-like responses to our text inputs. Below is a screenshot of how powerful this tool is.
Useful ChatGPT prompts for your E-Commerce Business?
Hey Chat GPT, write a detailed product description for [your product].
Create a Social Media strategy for an E-Commerce business in [your industry].
Create a promotional idea for different seasons and important dates.
Write an email sequence to promote my [your promotion+product] for new users.
Write a blog guideline for an article called [Your blog article idea]. If you don't already have article ideas? You can ask ChatGPT for that as well.
Now that we have covered AI tools, we recommend you experiment with how to apply them to your business. The prompts we have provided above are only basic examples of their applications to help you get started.
⚡Caution: When using AI tools to create content, try to not use 100% AI-generated content. This is because it lacks E-EAT which increases your risk of Google algorithms devaluing your content.
Business Management Software
There are many types of business management tools available, each with its own set of features and capabilities. There are many tools that fall under this category. For example, tools such as Asana, Trello, and Basecamp can all be considered business management tools. Alternatively, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Zoho CRM can also be considered one as well. However, these are not the ones that we will be covering here today.
This is because these tools can all be used to help a company optimize its processes, and improve efficiency. In this article, we will focus on two tools that we think will help E-Commerce businesses the most.
Xero
Xero is a cloud-based accounting software launched in 2006 by Rod Drury and Hamish Edwards in New Zealand. Xero was built to help small and medium-sized businesses manage their accounting, invoicing, bookkeeping, and other financial tasks. Their user-friendly design and accessibility from anywhere in the world as long as you're connected to the internet have made them very popular amongst E-Commerce businesses.
The key reason why Xero is good for E-Commerce businesses is that it can connect to other apps and services, such as banks and payment processors, to optimize their workflow while making it a more affordable alternative to traditional accounting software.
Below are Xero's pricing details:
Starter - $25/mo - Good for sole traders, new businesses, and the self-employed.
Standard - $40/mo - Ideal for small to medium-sized businesses
Team - $54/mo - Good for established businesses of all sizes.
There are also options to increase add-ons such as Claim expenses, Track projects, and Analytics Plus.
Veeqo
Veeqo is another powerhouse when it comes to business management tools for E-Commerce. It is essentially a free shipping software that helps you control inventory, pick, pack, and ship your orders as well as integrate with Amazon. The best part about all this is there is no monthly cost and it is completely free. If you have any plans on starting an E-Commerce business on Amazon or already own an E-Commerce business on another platform, then you should consider adding Veeqo as one of your business management tools.
Marketing Tools
E-commerce marketing tools are essentially created to help online businesses, in general, to help promote, attract, engage, and eventually convert customers. The tools are not exclusive to e-commerce businesses, although we do think that these tools that we are about to suggest are extremely effective for e-commerce businesses.
Without further ado, let us dive right in!
Google Advertising
Google Advertising is the first marketing tool that usually comes to mind for most businesses looking to grow. The reason is when customers are researching the product that they want to buy, Google is usually the first place they will look. Google's concept of this is very simple, which is "Show up when people search for what you offer".
To explain this process, Google Ads essentially allows you to pay to be at the top of search results for specific keywords, and the business model is pay-per-click. Therefore, you only pay when a customer lands on your e-commerce website. There are also many campaign types within Google Ads, such as Display ads, YouTube ads, Shopping ads, and much more.
This option is great for e-commerce businesses because it allows you to target bottom-funnel keywords. For example, for someone searching for "buy a white wedding dress," you can bid against other advertisers to appear at the top of search results which increases the likelihood of your ad getting clicked by high-intent buyers. Another benefit is the results are almost immediate compared to other methods such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which takes up to 6-12 months to see results.
However, the downside is other advertisers will also be looking to pay to appear at the top of search results. This means that the bidding price for each click increases with the demand. It's important to keep in mind the cost per click and your profit margin to ensure you are not losing money on advertising.
Meta (Meta Business Manager)
Meta (Facebook) is one of the largest social media platforms on the planet. This means that odds are likely that your customers are also using this platform. To utilize Meta for your online store, there is a function called "Business Manager". Within Business Manager, e-commerce business owners are able to manage all the assets on the platform such as their Facebook Page and Ads Manager.
The Facebook page allows e-commerce businesses to publish and share content related to their product or services for free. The key to unlocking the potential of this platform is to create high-quality and engaging content that your customers want to engage with. This article explains some useful ways to use Social media for e-commerce.
As for Facebook Ads, it is a tool that allows you to advertise to your customers on the platform. They have a powerful machine learning algorithm that helps you reach users who are most likely to buy your product or services. The secret is the more you use Facebook to run ads, the more they will be able to find the right user. You can also use Facebook ads to retarget people who visited your online store and retarget the products that they looked at or abandoned the cart on. We recommend learning about Facebook ads through their Facebook blueprint program first before you start running any ads because you want to maximize your return on ad spend (ROAS).
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is an incredibly powerful Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tool used by many e-commerce business owners. This tool allows them to conduct keyword research, competitor analysis, monitor your website's health, backlink analysis, and track keywords on SERP. To power all this, they use something called "AhrefsBot" which is a Web Crawler that visits over 6 billion web pages every 24 hours and updates Ahrefs' index every 15-30 minutes.
A study conducted by a third-party concluded that AhrefsBot is the second most active crawler after Googlebot.
This provides a lot of value for e-commerce businesses because it helps them improve their SEO performance and analyze their competitors in the market. For example, if there is a competitor that is performing well and bringing in a lot of organic traffic, you can use Ahrefs to reverse engineer their SEO strategy and apply them to your online business. We recommend this keyword research guide to help with this or you can watch this video.
Below are Ahref's pricing plans:
Lite - $99/mo - Good for small businesses and hobby projects.
Standard - $199/mo - Ideal for freelance SEOs and marketing consultants. This is the ideal package for most E-Commerce businesses.
Advanced - $399/mo - Perfect for in-house marketing teams and medium-sized businesses.
Enterprise - $999/mo - Ideal for agencies managing multiple clients and enterprises.
Reporting Tools
Analytics tools are software applications that help businesses track, analyze, and report on data related to their operations, customers, and performance. These tools can be used to collect, process, and visualize data from a wide range of sources, such as websites, mobile apps, and marketing platforms.
There are many types of analytics and reporting tools available, each with its own set of features and capabilities for the purpose of using data to tell a story and make improvements within the business through data-driven decisions.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is an extremely important tool for e-commerce businesses. So crucial, in fact, that Google Analytics even has a section dedicated to e-commerce.
How it works is you have to create a Google Analytics account, create a JavaScript code, and then the code to each page on your website. This allows Google to track every user that visits a page on your website and collect pseudonymous information about that user's interaction on the page.
By integrating Google Analytics with your e-commerce website, you will gain specific insights into your performance such as:
- Bounce rates.
- The number of sales.
- Conversion rates.
- How many pages users visited before conversion.
- First landing page.
- Buying trends and behavior
- Website Visitor demographics such as age, gender, location, etc.
- Track visitors from multiple channels such as direct, organic, social media, paid, etc.
💡Tip: Setting up goals on Google Analytics to track important KPIs will help you measure your data over time which you can use to improve your marketing activities or identify which areas to improve.
Overall, Google Analytics is an essential tool that all e-commerce websites cannot afford to ignore. There is Google Analytics 360 (GA360) available as well, but for 99% of e-commerce businesses, the free version should be enough.
Hotjar
Hotjar is essentially a product experience insights tool that allows websites to gather and analyze user behaviors. It is a tool that complements other analytics tools such as Google Analytics because it gives a deeper insight into how individual users interacted with your website. For example, it gives you an at-a-glance overview of how your customers interact with your page, such as how far they scroll and what they click so you can see which call-to-actions are generating the most click-throughs.
This is useful when you are trying to optimize your customer journey, so you can increase the conversion rate as much as possible.
Below are Hotjar's pricing plans:
Basic - $0 - 35 daily sessions.
Plus - $32/mo - 100 daily sessions This is the ideal package for most new e-commerce businesses.
Business - $80/mo - 500 daily sessions. This is ideal for medium-sized e-commerce businesses.
Scale - Custom Pricing /mo -1,500+ daily sessions. This is ideal for agencies and large established e-commerce stores.
To learn more about Hotjar's pricing details we recommend visiting their pricing page.
Payment Gateways
Payment gateways are an online payment solution that provides secure and convenient online payments between consumers and e-commerce businesses. As an e-commerce business, choosing the right payment gateway for your customer is almost as important as choosing the right product to sell. This is because not all payment gateways accept all types of cards, nor do they offer payment options for international shoppers.
Imagine that you are on an e-commerce website, and you found what you wanted and you're ready to buy, and then you get to the payment page and you don't see a payment gateway that you are familiar with?
Chances are, you will leave the website since you don't trust the payment gateway and will look for another competitor that has what you need.
Therefore, choosing the right payment gateway to work with is very important in gaining user trust and getting them to transfer their funds. With all this considered, we will share two payment gateways that we think most e-commerce businesses can benefit from.
Stripe
Stripe is a payment infrastructure for businesses of all sizes. Many e-commerce websites today use Stripe's software to accept and send payments online. They have 47+ countries with local acquiring and 135+ currencies and payment methods supported.
They also provide an optimized checkout experience for customers by supporting global payment methods that adapt to a customer's language and device. In doing so, e-commerce businesses are able to increase their conversion rates and revenues as a result.
They are also partnered with popular e-commerce platforms and most of these platforms offer plug-ins that you can integrate with today.
Below are their pricing details in the US.
Integrated - 2.9% + 30 cents per successful card charge - This includes everything you need to manage payments and it is suitable for most e-commerce businesses.
Customized - Their customize package is suitable for e-commerce businesses that have large payments volume, high-value transactions, or unique business models.
While their prices can be considered high compared to traditional payment solutions, it is undeniable how much impact a familiar payment gateway has on consumer behavior. If you are a new e-commerce business entering the market, then we recommend you tailor your payment gateways toward your local market.
PayPal
Paypal is a payment platform that was originally well-known for sending and receiving money from family and friends. Its exponential growth was largely due to eBay's acquisition in 2002, and as of March 2022, PayPal has 429 million active accounts.
With this in mind, we now know that almost half a billion people are using PayPal and are familiar with its platform. To put this in perspective, Stripe is second only to PayPal and they have less than half of PayPal's market share as well. This means that most of your customers are likely to know about or have used PayPal before. This gives customers the trust and confidence that they need to buy from your store.
PayPal's fee structure is a little more complicated than Stripe, with lots of different fees for different currencies, so we recommend you view the full breakdown on their pricing page.
💡Tip: Learn how to accept payments via Paypal on your website.
Final Note
With proper implementation and dedication, e-commerce tools can help you take your e-commerce business to the next level. The tools are only as good as their wielder, so we recommend you spend some time learning how to use the tools properly in order to use their full capabilities.
The tools that we have recommended are from our personal experience and we are not affiliated with any of these tools.
FAQs
What is eCommerce software?
ECommerce software are tools and platforms that help businesses build and manage their online stores. This includes different types of software ranging from accounting, marketing, AI tools and payment gateways.
What is the best eCommerce software?
How to start using eCommerce software?
