Have a website = will sell. If only it was that easy.
Online retailers running an eCommerce business know it’s a lot more complex than building a website and counting cash. From product fit to pricing and logistics, getting your go-to-market strategy right is a lot more complicated than it seems. From the outside looking in, eCommerce businesses have the illusion of being operationally easy. Without a shopfront or retail sales staff, there’s a huge misconception that the website itself does the heavy lifting, creating an add-water-stir appearance to success.
That’s not to say it’s all hard work – there’s definitely a range of digital tools that can help you build and boost your business. From helping you acquire customers to segmenting your demographic, here are 4 tools to help you gain insights and automate your online business.
MailChimp
In our humble opinion, email marketing is a handy weapon to have in your digital arsenal. When it comes to business growth, it’s not only about acquiring new customers, but also about nurturing your existing database. When it comes to email marketing, MailChimp is often the tool of choice for early-stage eCommerce businesses.
This cloud-based email marketing platform has a fantastic amount of integrations which means it seamlessly syncs with most eCommerce platforms. With many other balls to juggle, the last thing any online business wants to think about is technical integrations.
Packed with tools to help your business grow, MailChimp can do more than simple email campaigns. Easy to follow online tutorials can help you set up automated marketing campaigns and cart abandonment campaigns to help you win back lost sales. On top of all this, you can use MailChimp to make personalised product recommendations to cross-sell and up-sell. Much more than email marketing, you can also create and manage your Facebook and Instagram ads using this tool.
Monetate
You only have to look at giants such as Amazon to realise the importance of personalisation in eCommerce. Monetate is considered one of the best digital personalisation tools currently on the market. Built on the premise of delivering individualisation through their personalisation engine, Monetate leverages AI to bring 1-to-1 personalisation at scale. For online retailers, the value of personalisation ultimately means offering the right product suggestions at the right time. This is where personalisation platforms like Monetate can help marketers individually merchandise and personalise their customer experiences.
SEMrus
W. Edwards Deming famously claimed, ‘Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.’ When it comes to making smart digital decisions, data is a deal breaker. Tools like SEMRush are a lifeline to making smarter, data-driven insights into your user behaviour, keywords, backlinks, ad campaigns, website traffic, SEO and social media campaigns.
As an online marketer, you’ll understand the importance of a solid SEO strategy and how much of a competitive advantage SEO can give your online business. With cost-per-acquisition rising, it’s understandable why so many businesses are vying for the much-coveted top ranking. Using an insights tool like SEMrush can give you the insights you need to help you make the most of your digital strategy and optimise your website to capture the right traffic at the right cost.
Shippit
Whether your shipping operations are simple or complex, large or small, Shippit can help streamline your shipping and ensure you make smarter, more profitable choices. Because it’s cloud-based, you can access it anytime, anywhere, and seamless integration with most eCommerce platforms means it’s a plug and play solution to smarter shipping.
Within minutes, you could be offering your customers multi-carrier, multi-service option. And from an operational side, you can take the guesswork out of logistics by plugging-in to real-time tracking and reporting. Automated shipping and returns mean you can streamline your packing and shipping decisions. On top of that, seamless order notifications keep your customers informed with an amazing experience that stops them asking for updates.
The Takeaway
If you want to start, grow, build and scale your online business, digital eCommerce tools should be in your arsenal. These four tools will help you analyse your stats and stay one step ahead of your competition. Find low hanging fruit, get more customers and make smarter shipping choices.
