Analytics & TestingEcommerce and Retail

Three Apps You Need to Run Your E-commerce Business Efficiently

There are so many e-commerce retailers out there – and you’re one of them. You are in it for the long haul. As such, you need to be able to compete with the best of the hundreds of thousands of online stores currently on the Internet today. But how do you do that?

  1. You need to make sure your website is as appealing as possible. If it is poorly designed, does not have a great name, your fonts are too small (or too big), your logo blends in with the background of your online store, the navigation buttons are in an awkward location (think search bar!), or if the colors you have chosen on your website do not work well with the culture you are selling to, then you will need to rethink your design. That is your starting point.
  2. If your e-commerce store has a professional feel to it, then you need to look at the products you are selling. Are they ones that appeal to the widest audience, or are you aiming for a more specific cohort of customers? Either way is fine, but it might affect your success if you are not catering to your clientele. Also, are these items of high quality, or are they cheap imports? If your products fall apart, then so will you.
  3. Take a look at your marketing. How are you marketing your business? Which sites are you advertising on and how effective are those platforms? Is it a good use of your money? Make certain you are getting the biggest bang for your buck and your efforts are as efficient as possible.

If all of that is working, then it is time to streamline your business. If everything else is in place, you can start looking at your individual processes and functions to improve customer service, speed of service, and merchandise replenishment.

To help you with these aspects of your business, we discuss some of the best apps you can have to manage your e-commerce store.

Google Analytics

The Google Analytics app will give you an edge in both the marketing aspect of your business and sales. The app allows you to keep track of your website visits. You can see the number of views each individual page is receiving. You can also see the number of visits they get over the course of time, determined by the filters you set in the app.

This app lets you see where the views are coming from. The majority of your customer prospects may be shopping your e-commerce site from overseas and you not realize it. Seeing these leads will allow you to alter your business model and cater your online store more towards the foreign clientele who is interested in buying your products.

Also, by seeing the pages that are selling, you can see the types of products your customers are buying. This will give you the chance to clearance out any items that are not selling and bring in a line of products your customers do want.

Sign Up for Google Analytics

Oberlo

This is a wonderful app! Brick and mortar businesses have to rely on the more traditional model of supplying their stores with products: they have to find wholesalers who carry the products they want to carry in their stores, then buy them in bulk amounts in order to get the best pricing deals (or because the wholesaler requires a minimum order size to be reached).

Then they have to wait for the product to arrive weeks later. In the case with chain retailers like Wal-Mart and Target, the wholesale items must first be delivered to a distribution center before being organized, loaded for each store, then shipped out to the separate stores.

Ecommerce retailers will rely on traditional wholesalers for the majority of their products. But times are changing, and Oberlo is giving small, online stores a better way of selling their products.

Instead of buying from a supplier in bulk, you do not have to order a thing – at least not until a customer places an order. Oberlo allows you to import products from thousands of suppliers directly to your online store. You will then place the customer’s order with the supplier. The supplier will then drop ship the order to the customer’s front door.

This is a great change to the typical retailer / wholesaler relationship because the retailer doesn’t have to pay for large quantities of products. The item just goes straight from the wholesaler to the buyer.

Register for Free at Oberlo

SalesforceIQ

SalesforceIQ is one of the best apps for your Customer Relationship Management. This app gives you the ability to react to customer issues; if there is a problem in the processes, your customers will definitely let you know. This CRM app will let you respond to those problems, both from the customer’s point of view and from your own internal standpoint. You can initiate fixes to the problem instantly.

SalesforceIQ also integrates all of your social media channels into one central platform. You can reach out to your happy guests and interact with them, thanking them in a way all can see. You can also engage with friends and friends of friends of your customers with the intention of converting them into new customers. With this CRM app, you can generate repeat business as well as initiate new streams of revenue for your e-commerce store.

With these apps, you will be able to manage your business more effectively and efficiently. You will be able to maintain your product selection and in-stocks while taking advantage of interconnectivity with vendors and suppliers for fast replenishment.

You will also be able to manage your client relations and interactions, and market to potential others. Reviewing sales from these apps will also give you the ability to react to business trends in real time, giving you the opportunity to increase sales that same day.

Through these apps, you will make your business more efficient and competitive.

Sign Up for a Free SalesforceIQ Trial

Sarah Saker

Sarah Saker is a business coach and freelance writer that specializes in helping SMBs setup processes for customer support and predictable growth. When not writing or coaching, Sarah can be found on her (small, but growing!) family farm. Connect with Sarah on about.me/ssaker for coaching or writing help.

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