14 Essential ECommerce Tools For Beginners In 2022

E-commerce tools are software solutions (e.g. apps, platforms, extensions, and plug-ins) that help business owners manage their online stores more efficiently. For example, such tools can be used to quickly create a website or increase your website’s traffic, as well as collect detailed and behavioural analytics such as session recordings and heatmaps. There are also handy all-in-one customer service tools for improved internal collaboration, tools for improved conversion rates, etc.

Why Do Businesses Need E-commerce Marketing Tools?

E-commerce marketing tools for online stores can be divided into several groups:

• Analytical tools. Designed to collect information on market trends, customer behavior on websites, etc.;
• Website builders. BrandID, Thrive Themes, Wix, YoRent and WooCommerce platforms offer multifunctional easy-to-use visual editors and other development software solutions that can be used to create an eCommerce website without any programming skills easily;
• Marketplace optimization tools. I.e. software that helps businesses manage and improve their sales for online stores, e.g. create product listings, manage inventory, pricing, shipping methods, etc.;
• Content marketing tools. These are software solutions used to attract and engage website visitors, as well as retain your target audience by creating and sharing relevant content: articles, reviews, videos, podcasts, and so on.

As a content marketing tactic, influencer content aims to reach new or larger audiences. That’s one of the reasons why the popularity of influencer marketing, especially on Instagram, is on the rise.

There are many influencer marketplaces like Ainfluencer to help make the most of Instagram influencer marketing fast and easily.

Marketing automation tools can be both paid and completely free. However, even paid services will often have free features for their users, which is especially beneficial for first-time online store owners on a tight budget.

Top 13 Efficient E-commerce Tools For Online Store Owners

Let’s take a look at popular eCommerce tools that will undoubtedly be useful for creating and promoting an online store as well as tools called CRO platforms that aim to help them to have greater conversion rates. 

1. WatchThemLive

WatchThemLive is a platform designed to simplify understanding user behavior by recording visitor actions in videos and collecting analytics on websites such as goals and heatmaps.

The application helps eCommerce website owners improve user experience and increase conversions by combining several valuable services as follows:

• Analytics: WatchThemLive’s website analytics feature helps you to understand your target audience better and make more informed decisions by determining which type of content best attracts visitors’ attention;
• Heatmaps: Heatmap tools help track visitors’ interaction on each page as much as possible, including the number of clicks. 
• Session recording: Session replays track the entire sequence of visitors’ actions on a page. It is possible to group sessions by device, browser, screen resolution, country codes, etc. Moreover, it provides a console error tracker and all data are exportable in CSV and PDF.
• User tracking. With user tracking, you can visualize the path taken by each user of your website and track their visited pages, and user experiences on your website.

The company also offers useful page optimization and conversion & goal tracking services to measure the success of your marketing efforts in design or marketing, as well as increase your revenue and build credibility with your website visitors.

Moreover, you can choose from several monthly or annual pricing packages, including a free plan. So why are you waiting?! Sign up on WatchThemLive and enhance your website’s conversions.

2. Sender

Sender is an email & SMS marketing automation tool that provides an all-in-one marketing solution for ecommerce businesses. Everything from popups & forms for lead generation to smart segmentation is included. And the best part – it’s super affordable and probably has the best quality and price ratio in the market.

• Email & SMS automation. Easily create effective email workflows complemented by SMS for the best conversions.
• Smart segmentation & personalization. Send the right message to the right audience and personalize your communication for a personal touch.
• High-converting premade email templates. Use Sender’s templates or easy-to-use drag-and-drop builder for beautiful emails.
• Popups & forms. Create appealing and converting popups and forms for lead generation.
• In-depth reports. See your customer’s journey with a heatmap, analyze the opens, clicks, and more!

Also, Sender lets you manage your email and SMS campaigns within one dashboard, so you won’t need to switch between tabs or use third-party software.

3. DSers

DSers is a leading tool for e-commerce businesses. It is paving the way for a new era of digital business by helping cross-border e-commerce merchants unlock more opportunities in the wake of COVID-19.

With its one-stop e-commerce solutions, DSers empowers merchants to streamline procurement, maximize revenue, and redefine the online shopping experience — all while addressing critical pain points in the post-pandemic era.

The main benefits DSers can provide:

• Supplier Optimizer: Help businesses source high-quality AliExpress suppliers that matched their exact requirements; enjoyed a fast, streamlined procurement process
• Automated order process: Help businesses process the orders automatically, so they can focus on curating their product selection
•  Create sales offers instantly: The feature allows BOGO and bundle promotions to entice customers to purchase more and increase average order value
• 24/7 customer support: DSers team is trying to solve all the questions you meet in timely
• Advanced Mapping: Mapping is vital for dropshipping business, DSers is here to help you sell one item even if one of your suppliers is out of stock. They always help you map different suppliers for your products.

DSers is always dedicated to helping people save money and time so that you can earn more benefits from your online business with less effort. It has tools to help the store’s conversion rate optimization. Anyway, DSers has a free plan, you can just try it out. 

4. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a completely free platform for selling products on WordPress-powered sites. Designed for open-source online stores, this top-notch eCommerce platform offers tons of efficient customization options and features. 

The main benefits of using WooCommerce are as follows:

• A large selection of beautiful themes to create attractive virtual storefronts for your online store;
• Reliable security. Secure gateways and you can also add a security plugin for extra measures;
• Easy to use. No need to be overly tech-savvy;
• Flexibility. You can sell all kinds of products, from hair products to comics;
• SEO-optimization tools;
• Large community. Currently, there are over 4.5 million WooCommerce websites;
• Unlimited customization options and full scalability.

WooCommerce provides access to WordPress experts for advice on platform features. There are both free and paid extensions.

5. SocialBee 

SocialBee is a social media content planning tool that allows you to easily schedule your posts in a calendar-like view and customize them for each social media platform (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Google My Business, and TikTok). 

The advantages of using SocialBee are as follows:

• Setting a posting schedule in a content calendar 
• Organizing your posts into different categories and then automatically post them on all your socials at once
• Customizing your posts for each social media platform 
• Reporting & analytics to analyze the performance of your accounts
• Recycling evergreen posts or expiring time-sensitive content 
• Content curation through RSS Feeds
• Canva integration inside SocialBee’s post editor 
• Real-time preview of your upcoming posts
• Using the URL shorteners to track your links
• Having multiple workspaces and team collaboration features

SocialBee has a 14-day free trial period for all users. After that, the client can choose one of their 3 plans with monthly or yearly payments. Besides the 3 standard plans, users can also request customized plans for their business needs. 

6. Magento 

Magento is a robust open-source eCommerce CMS. Its main features include creating an online store, managing all transactions, and tracking payments.

The benefits of working with Magento are as follows:

• Detailed website analytics;
• Large community;
• Tons of plugins, extensions, and customization options.

There is a completely free Community Edition. However, if you need to upgrade your Magento CMS to the Enterprise Edition, this feature is paid. 

7. Wix

Wix is a popular website builder with many ready-to-use customizable templates for commercial websites. Due to its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, built-in SEO tools, and completely free access to most of the platform’s features in Wix’s basic plan, it’s a great solution for small businesses. 

The advantages of Wix are as follows:

• Built-in SEO tools;
• Wide range of beautiful templates (over 500 customizable options);
• Easily design your commercial website, add content and advanced features to your online store or blog without any coding skills;
• 300+ app integrations are available.

If you need more features other than those included in the free plan, you can also always switch to Wix’s Business or eCommerce plan. 

8. Squarespace

Squarespace is an all-in-one eCommerce platform that offers a stunningly designed website builder with many ready-to-use templates to create a professional-looking website.

There is also the ability to edit your online store in real-time without design and coding skills. This software has over 100 templates to create an adaptive website or online store.

The advantages of Squarespace are as follows:

• Easy to install and use drag-and-drop editor;
• Unlimited storage and bandwidth;
• Fully integrated eCommerce features into most plans;
• Cloud-based web hosting is available for all plans;
• Built-in SEO tools such as sitemap.xml, meta tags, search keywords panel, and others;
• Customizable award-winning templates;
• Get a free custom domain name and email (1-year subscription required);
• Use the Site styles panel to quickly make changes to the design of your online store.

You can use Squarespace for free for a period of 14 days, then choose one of its higher-tiered 4 annual plans.

9. X-Cart

X-Cart is an eCommerce marketing tool that provides several lifetime membership options to customers. It’s an open-source platform that will best suit mid-sized and large businesses.

The shopping cart platform provides the ability to design custom online stores, host them on your own servers (if needed), manage inventory, set your own shipping/tax preferences, optimize layouts with complex marketing tools, and much more.

The advantages of X-Cart are as follows:

• A/B testing;
• Warehouse management;
• Reporting capabilities;
• Open and customizable source code;
• Tons of premium and free themes;
• Bulk import/export;
• Multiple currency and multilingual support;
• Over 120 payment gateways;
• Lifetime access to bug fixes;
• Ability to utilize mobile applications (Android/iOS); 
• Hundreds of available third-party apps; 
• Many scaling and customization options for online stores.

You can choose from 6 different packages and 2 payment options: monthly or annual plan. If you switch to another plan, the previous payment is automatically deducted from the total amount. 

10. Zendesk

Zendesk is a customer service solution and online sales tool that provides an all-in-one system for creating a database of all interactions with customers and tracking customer support tickets along with chatting, messaging, inbound/outbound calls, community forums, and knowledge base services. Thus, it’s easy to collect detailed analytics in real time. 

The advantages of Zendesk are as follows:

• Great ticketing management;
• All-in-one CRM for sales;
• Open API;
• Public and private forums;
• One of the best live chat solutions;
• Multi-channel support;
• Reporting and analytics;
• Ability to easily create your own landing page;
• Can be integrated with Salesforce; 
• Customization testing feature (sandbox);
• Knowledge base and help desk;
• High-quality customer service (social media, chat, and call center support);
• Multifunctional toolbar to track all customer requests and employees’ actions.

Zendesk is a fully paid software tool that works on a monthly basis.

11. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is one of the most popular mailing services that provides access to a large number of email templates and handy functionality. It also keeps your subscriber base “clean” by unsubscribing nonfunctional emails.

Plus, online store owners can use Mailchimp to remind their customers about items left in their carts without checking out.

The benefits of using Mailchimp are as follows:

• Create a variety of custom forms;
• Detailed reports on campaigns;
• Tools for building the semantic core;
• Automatic website audit, with recommendations on problem fixing;
• Library of handy automation tools;
• Tools for creating and filling out website content;
• Easy integration with many other services incl. WordPress, as well as online connectors like ApiX-Drive, Zapier or SaveMyLeads;
• Reliability is proven by a huge number of users;
• Adaptive design and periodic upgrades;
• Easily manage lists and add new clients to your database;
• Newsletter management feature;
• Detailed statistics and analytics on newsletters.

Mailchimp is completely free for small businesses. For other users, there are several pay-per-month options to choose from. The minimum cost for advanced features starts at $15.

12. SEMrush

SEMrush is a software solution for managing marketing campaigns and business strategies. It contains all the necessary SEO tools, as well as tools for website management and collecting analytics. 

The advantages of using SEMrush are as follows:

• Keyword and backlink popularity tracking tools;
• Backlink and competitor analysis;
• Website traffic and conversion tracking tools;
• A/B testing.

SEMrush has a free trial period for all users. After that, the client can choose one of 3 tariff plans with monthly payments.

13. Shopify

Shopify is not just a user-friendly hosting solution for online stores – it’s also one of the popular eCommerce platforms for small businesses, which includes an all-in-one streamlined dashboard, unlimited bandwidth, a convenient shopping cart, App store and Shopify Payments.

Any Shopify merchant will be able to build a modern online store and sell physical and digital products through marketplaces, social networks, blogs, etc. 

Shopify Advantages:

• Shopify analytics tools and website visitor trackers;
• Inventory tracking and management;
• Mobile app (iOS/Android);
• Unlimited products, bandwidth, and storage;
• Built-in SEO tools for better customer engagement;
• Ability to add a blog to your online store;
• Suitable for any type of online store;
• 24/7 customer support;
• 6,000+ app integrations. Shopify easily integrates with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr.

Shopify supports popular payment methods including PayPal, Meta Pay, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, and more, plus, there’s also a free trial period of 14 days.

14 . EasySendy

EasySendy Pro is an email marketing platform for digital marketing teams. It integrates with multiple email delivery API relay service providers and enables the delivery of email campaigns to a list of opt-in emails. 

You can split test email deliveries across the relay servers, do email list cleaning, email warmup and check reports, track email clicks, and open each email campaign. It also has a smart autoresponder and email list segmentation.

EasySendy Advantages :

• Connect multiple email delivery API relay servers
• Connect multiple SMTP email delivery services
• Connect email list verification tools
• Run Email Warmup Process
• Run A/B Split test along relay servers
• Easy Email Campaign Sending
• Reliable Email Deliveries
• Create Lists with Searchable Custom Fields
• Easy-to-Use Email Campaign Editor
• Create and Embed Email List Forms
• Single/Double Opt-in/Opt-out for Email Lists

So, if you make digital or physical products, provide services, build software, and market/ sell online, EasySendy Pro is for you. 🙂

15. SmartScout

Conclusions

E-commerce tools are reliable helpers for online store and corporate website owners. This article includes a variety of popular services that offer advanced website builders, reporting tools, tools for collecting analytics or filling out content, as well as useful SEO support and apps for adding items to online stores. 

Such eCommerce platforms allow you to automate the execution of work tasks and increase the level of productivity for your eCommerce business. With the help of customer service tools, you will be able to improve your conversion and user engagement rates.

Shopify is not just a user-friendly hosting solution for online stores – it’s also one of the popular eCommerce platforms for small businesses, which includes an all-in-one streamlined dashboard, unlimited bandwidth, a convenient shopping cart, App store, and Shopify Payments.

Any Shopify merchant will be able to build a modern online store and sell physical and digital products through marketplaces, social networks, blogs, etc.