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Online Store Management Tools

Category: Guest Posts

Online Store Management Tools
Mohab Guest Posts, Social Commerce 0

Online Store Management Tools

Creating eCommerce stores can be a very complicated process not to mention it’s very expensive and time-consuming. But if you have the right set of tools at your disposal then it might be possible for you to streamline the development process, reduce the costs and manage your eCommerce shop more efficiently. If you collaborate with an eCommerce development company then they can do it all for you while you can sit back and focus on your core KPIs.

But it doesn’t matter if you are building a site in-house or outsourcing it to developers, eCommerce management tools play a vital role in helping business owners develop and manage their online store. They not only help you run your eCommerce business smoothly but also help you grow your sales and stand out from your competition.

A wide range of online store management tools are available in the market and every one of them has something unique to offer but all of them have one function in common, i.e. to help you build, manage and boost your online business. In this article, we are going to discuss different types of tools that can help build and grow your eCommerce business.

7 Types Of Ecommerce Tools

You can build and boost your online store in several ways. Here we are going to talk about some tools that are widely used by eCommerce companies around the world to achieve their goals.

1. Ecommerce Platforms

The most important decision you have to make while creating an eCommerce website is to pick the right eCommerce platform for it. Such tools can take care of all the development-related requirements from building product pages to shipping orders.

  • Shopify: Shopify is an eCommerce platform and online store builder. The Shopify app allows you to create a secure online store that can be customized with your own branding, logo, and products.
  • BigCommerce: BigCommerce is a platform for online stores, with over 100 integrations with other systems. It has been developed by Shopify and is used by more than 3 million small businesses.

Some other popular eCommerce platforms include Wix, Squarespace, WooCommerce, and more.

2. Content Creation

When you create a website, you also have to create the content to put on it. Sharing content is one of the most effective ways you can make your site visible to potential customers.

  • Canva: It’s a tool that can help you with designing even if you don’t have any prior experience. It comes with drag-and-drop tools that make it easy for you to create and share aesthetically pleasing designs.
  • WordPress: Not every eCommerce business needs to have a dedicated blog but those who plan on providing one for their customers need to use a CMS such as WordPress. This platform can help you build and manage customer relationships, grow your brand and bring in more traffic with the help of blogging.

3. Online Payment Tools

Payment tools for eCommerce are essential. There is no commerce without an exchange of funds. eCommerce sites have to integrate with secure payment tools like Paypal, Stripe, and Paymes. It is highly recommended that you use online payment tools that must be trusted by your customers. And yes, you can use multiple payment gateways to provide options or cover your wide range of customers.

Paymes: It is a secure online payment tool that is popular among customers because it allows you to make secure and instant payments. Paymes also provides you with several payment options including payment via a link or QR code. It is loved by a large segment of home-based business owners, freelancers, consultants, and other professionals.

4. Sales and Logistics

Another important aspect of the eCommerce business is sales and logistics. Many eCommerce platforms provide logistics tools as a part of their services too. If your platform doesn’t offer suitable tools, you can pick standalone options as well.

Shipwire: It is a global platform that manages orders for retail, dropship channels, and direct-to-customers. You will be able to provide logistical support for both national and international shipping if you integrate your marketplace and shopping cart with Shipwire.

5. Marketing

To increase the reach of your site, you can undertake a wide range of marketing campaigns. A variety of marketing tools are available out there that can help you achieve your goals.

Mailchimp: It is a powerful email marketing tool. They provide a dedicated space to share important updates, promotions, and more with customers. It also helps you streamline your entire marketing process by enabling you to create, and track the progress of your email marketing campaigns. And the best thing is it can be easily integrated with any eCommerce development platform.

Constant Contact and Buffer are some other famous options available in the market.

6. Analytics

Without having the right eCommerce analytics tools to track the performance of your site and the user behavior, you can’t expect to get a high return on your investment. These tools are used to gather enough information that can help you make better decisions.

Google Analytics: Probably the most unrivaled, popular, and widely used tool in this article. There’s no doubt that Google is the most used search engine so it makes better sense to use its tools to keep track of how your eCommerce website is performing on search engines. Using Google Analytics, you can gather all the necessary visitor data needed to help you make better decisions.

Apart from Google Analytics, Optimizely is also an efficient analytics tool that would allow you to conduct A/B testing and more.

7. Customer Service

Online shopping seems easy but sometimes it’s hard for a customer to find products to their preferences. To help them through their entire customer journey, eCommerce sites offer customer support services. Better customer service is a good way to retain customers and bring in new ones as well

Zendesk: This popular eCommerce tool enables you to provide customer support through different channels like chat, email, social media, and more from a single platform. Zendesk also helps you troubleshoot your customer support tickets faster.

Final Thoughts

Choosing the right eCommerce management tool can help you a great deal with your online business. It doesn’t matter if you are just about to start your online business or you already have one and are just looking for some way to increase your reach, you can easily find the answer to your problems from the tools we discussed in this article.

However, it is important to mention that not all of these tools are available for free. Some of them offer a free version, free trials, or demos but many of them come with a paid plan as well. You can use this opportunity to decide which online store management tools can help you achieve your goals.

Vishal ShahVishal Shah
Vishal Shah works as an executive at TatvaSoft.com. He is responsible for new technology integrations in development projects. He prefers to share his valuable insights among the development audience by blogging.

2 years ago
Why it's important for SaaS businesses to educate their customers
Mohab Guest Posts, Payment Orchestration 0

Customer education is not a revolutionary idea at all, although it sounds fresh enough. We encounter it every day: welcome letters when registering for a new service or pop-ups on the website are some of the most frequent tools for customer education. However, there are others.

Why it's important for SaaS businesses to educate their customers

Like all digital, the principles of customer education are changing very quickly. The speed at which businesses adapt is more important than ever. This is because of new technologies, more resources (and easy access to them), and a higher awareness of users. If 10-15 years ago the Internet was still fairly uncharted territory for the then adults (service consumers), the current generation Z (1997-2012) grew up with a PC or even a smartphone in their hands. So the demanding nature of today’s audience is already a fact, which should not just be accepted, but something should be done about it.

In this article, we will talk about why it’s important for SaaS businesses to educate their customers.

Why it's important for SaaS businesses to educate their customers

What is customer education?

Customer education means applying tools and resources, like next-gen payment solutions, that help customers use your SaaS product more successfully. 

The goal of customer education for SaaS businesses is to guide people through the customer journey from initial interaction to continued use. Customer education must eliminate the lack of information at different stages of the customer journey. Objectives of customer education for SaaS business:

  • Mastering the product through education
  • Better acceptance of the SaaS product
  • Connecting users through community, certification, etc.

Customer education is a set of tools that help scale other customer success processes. It’s like standing next to the user when he or she fills out a form on the website, and just in time to hold his or her hand saying, “wait, wait, don’t press that button, fill in this information.”

What’s important! Customer education is not the very task of writing documentation or developing learning management systems, courses, and certificates. All of the above are customer education tools. And customer education itself is the implementation of those processes for success. You can find more about customer education on Studocu.

Why it's important for SaaS businesses to educate their customers

Why is it important for SaaS businesses to educate their customers?

Customer education, like many interdisciplinary digital activities, is tightly connected to different aspects of SaaS business. That’s why customer education doesn’t provide one or two clear benefits but rather has a holistic effect on the entire SaaS business, driving its growth and development.

Customer education can impact all steps of the sales funnel. A strong education strategy can lead to thought leadership, a better understanding of what your SaaS brand offers, and higher conversions in the long run.

There are 5 main reasons why it is important to invest in customer education for SaaS businesses:

  1. It shows the customers how to best use your SaaS product, explains its features and strengths, and shows the best practices and tips for a successful SaaS application. Educational content is especially relevant to SaaS and eCommerce industries. In general, the more complex and innovative the product, the more critical customer education is for it. 
  2. It strengthens the support team by giving operators more tools to influence customer decisions. Effective documentation for customer education will help agents better answer questions and can even offload the support team through user self-learning. For example, the same way IVR in IP telephony reduces the number of calls by having the user answer in a voice menu rather than with a real operator. By the way, IVR can also be used as a tool for customer education.
  3. It increases customer satisfaction. Customers have the tools and support they need to use the SaaS product successfully. When customers use the SaaS product successfully, they are more satisfied with both the product and the brand. When a customer is more satisfied, they are more loyal. And this provides some other benefits.
  4. It strengthens the brand. Expertise and awareness don’t just promote the brand and increase reach. It strengthens the SaaS business’s position in the marketplace, promotes “word of mouth marketing,” improves social proof, and ultimately gives a better NPS. And better NPS = satisfied customers = more orders = more profits.
  5. It helps to scale the business. The more customers are aware of the product effectively, the faster the SaaS business grows due to all the benefits listed above. People are more willing to recommend the product to friends and colleagues, leave feedback on it, and use it longer (which increases LTV and improves LTV/CAC). 

Customer education is a win-win for customers and SaaS businesses. The customers get more pleasure from the product (because they understand it better), while SaaS businesses get more profit due to better reviews, outreach, and conversion. 

Conclusion

Of course, customer education is important not only for large SaaS companies like Slack, Checkr, Box, and Optimizely. It is important and necessary for companies of any profile and size. The plan for implementation and optimization of customer education is based on the available resources of the company.

ConradConrad is a professional blogger, content maker, and freelance writer. He has written many great and valuable posts on a variety of topics. Conrad loves outdoor activities. He believes the fresh air brings him inspiration for new ideas.

2 years ago
How Real-Time Onboarding Works And What Are Its Benefits
Mohab Ecommerce, Guest Posts 0

Whether you’re a retailer or a B2B service provider, automating processes is key to success. Perhaps you’re looking to increase ecommerce conversions, or your customer service team spends too much time addressing routine issues that enterprise app modernization could solve.

One big improvement you could make to your business, whether you’re improving your own software or getting a B2B solution right off the shelf, is real-time onboarding.

What Is Real-time Onboarding?

Real-time onboarding is one major time-saver for businesses. It lowers your customer acquisition cost by automating the onboarding process and improves customer experience by getting them up and running with your solution as soon as possible.

How Real-Time Onboarding Works And What Are Its Benefits

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Benefits

There are several benefits to a real-time onboarding process for both business and their customers, including:

Automates compliance

Sectors like banking and law are the most tightly regulated by Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti Money-Laundering (AML) laws. These sectors were ripe for real-time onboarding because businesses can automate these processes with document scanning and facial recognition technology on their customers’ smartphones. Processes that used to take days or weeks can now be carried out in minutes, allowing people to access these services no matter where they are.

The experience should work seamlessly no matter what device they’re on. Real-time onboarding features like document scanning and ID verification work best on mobile. And a good mobile app means your customers have your services in their pocket, ready whenever they need you.

Improves communication

Your onboarding process can be closely monitored for friction points that lower conversions or require customer support, who aren’t available 24/7. Real-time onboarding should be as self-serve as possible, with customers directed to an FAQ page or forum like Stack Overflow for common questions.

Increases engagement

Real-time onboarding helps customers with potential roadblocks, but it also gives you a chance to direct them through your app or store. Tutorials and UX copy can sell the user on the features you want them to use, and personalized onboarding emails can pitch customers on deals they might not know.

Improving Real-time Onboarding

Automated, real-time onboarding enables data-driven decision-making for retailers and SaaS companies. Customers can get started with your product at whatever time suits them, and retailers can welcome them in with an automated onboarding flow that responds to user data for constant improvement.

Matthew CooperMatthew Cooper – Marketing Automation & Operations Manager, Global App Testing
Matthew Cooper is the Marketing Automation & Operations Manager at Global App Testing, a best-in-class software testing company that has helped top apps such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Craigslist deliver high-quality software at speed all over the world. Matthew has over 14 years of experience in the I.T Networking, Software & Services Industries. He is highly skilled in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Content Marketing, Digital Advertising, Social Media Management, WordPress, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, CRM, and People Management. Matthew has also written for other domains such as Codemotion and Plytix. You can find him on LinkedIn.

2 years ago
The Latest Disruptor in Digital Payment: What Are Invisible Payments?
Mohab Guest Posts, Payment Orchestration 0

If you’re in ecommerce, you’ve seen that it’s an exciting time for digital payments. Digital wallets are coming to Android, and “buy now pay later” is coming to Apple Pay. Those are just two of the big changes in digital payments.

If you want to move your business into this new era, all while transforming your customer service, you should think about moving to an invisible payments system.

The Latest Disruptor in Digital Payment: What Are Invisible Payments?

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What are invisible payments?

“Invisible payments” refers to any payment made to the customer automatically, without them having to lift a finger. As ecommerce businesses try to find easier ways for customers to make transactions on any channel, invisible payments will become more common after the leadership of companies like Amazon, Alipay in China, and Uber.

As brands strive to serve busy customers, it’s obvious when considering time management techniques that if customers have a choice between two mobile food delivery apps, they’ll go for the one that doesn’t require them to search for their credit card.

When companies have a customer’s payment info on file, and that customer’s phone has a biometric sensor, it’s easy to validate the payment with a quick scan of their face or their fingerprint.

Benefits of invisible payments

Invisible payments are particularly useful for food delivery apps, where the time-pressed customer can just click to confirm their order. From there, payment can be taken automatically while they’re moved onto a progress report on their order. When customers are treating themselves, the delivery of this kind of step-by-step, workflow builder style of UI is what customers are interested in, not the details of their receipt.

Other significant business advantages of invisible payments include:

  • Reduced human error. The Amazon Go grocery store uses invisible payments so that customers can just walk out. By removing the cashier, the whole transaction is streamlined and the chance of error is reduced.
  • Speedier processes. By removing the friction of the payment step, you can provide faster experiences for customers and staff. Uber, for example, uses invisible payments so customers can just get out of the car and the driver can move on to the next ride.

The power of invisible benefits

Invisible payments free you up to do whatever it is you do best. Whether it’s prepping food or helping customers pick the perfect gift, you no longer need to stop to collect payments that technology can take for you.

Matthew CooperMatthew Cooper – Marketing Automation & Operations Manager, Global App Testing
Matthew Cooper is the Marketing Automation & Operations Manager at Global App Testing, a best-in-class software testing company that has helped top apps such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Craigslist deliver high-quality software at speed all over the world. Matthew has over 14 years of experience on what is automation testing , I.T Networking, Software & Services Industries. He is highly skilled in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Content Marketing, Digital Advertising, Social Media Management, WordPress, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, CRM, and People Management. Matthew Cooper has also written for domains such as BigCommerce and Custify. You can find him on LinkedIn.

2 years ago
Explaining Frictionless Payment And Its Impact on Digital Business
Mohab Guest Posts, Payment Orchestration 0

In the digital age, customers expect a smooth and stress-free payment experience. 

Unfortunately, too many businesses get it wrong regarding the checkout process, often leading to cart abandonment.

Explaining Frictionless Payment And Its Impact on Digital Business

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Recent research suggests that average cart abandonment across all industries is 69.82%. However, adopting a frictionless payment strategy could be the key to decreasing cart abandonment and boosting conversions. 

This short guide will explain frictionless payment and its impact on digital business. 

What exactly is frictionless payment? 

Frictionless payments simplify the buying process so that minimal effort is required during transactions. In other words, there’s less potential friction involved. 

A frictionless payment process should fulfill these criteria: 

  • Reduce checkout waiting times. 
  • Optimized checkout process with minimal steps required for completion. 
  • Intuitive experience that’s easy for the customer and seller to use. 
  • Reduces frustrating aspects such as remembering pin codes. 

Frictionless payments are on the rise; common uses include mobile payments (mobile can also be used for mobile invoicing), digital wallet payments, contactless payments, one-click payments, and auto-renew subscription payments. 

What is the impact of frictionless payment on digital business?

The digital transformation has improved many business processes by making them efficient and stress-free. From ad hoc testing in software development to API legacy systems in insurance industry, there’s a tech solution for most processes. 

Frictionless payments are the same. Keeping customers satisfied with an optimized payment process could lead to increased conversions and lower cart abandonment. It’s a win-win for everyone involved– the buyer and the seller. 

Here are some ways frictionless payments help businesses. 

Decrease cart abandonment

In 2021, 81.08% of website users abandoned their carts in retail, fashion, travel, and utilities. A time-consuming and complicated checkout process is often the reason customers get frustrated and leave. 

Luckily, frictionless payments keep the whole process smooth and hiccup-free to prevent cart abandonment. 

Increase customer satisfaction

Frictionless payments help keep customers satisfied throughout the checkout process by reducing the input required. 

No one wants to be asked repeatedly to input their details for a repeat order. Have customers who need to renew their subscription? These things shouldn’t slow the customer down. Frictionless payment methods like auto-renew and auto-fill make it light work for both parties.  

Greater Security

Protecting yourself online is important, and digital payments can help. 

Not only do online sellers no longer need access to your bank card, digital frictionless payments come with a unique digital signature making them more secure. 

This goes one further for iOS and Android users who have the option to use a fingerprint for added security. 

PayTabs frictionless payment service

PayTabs’ SwitchOn® platform offers unrivaled capabilities, value, and flexibility to established financial institutions, Fintech’s and merchants in the MENA region.

Find out how PayTabs can help you here. 

Emily RollwitzEmily Rollwitz – Content Marketing Executive, Global App Testing
Emily Rollwitz is a Content Marketing Executive at Global App Testing, a remote and on-demand app testing company helping top app teams deliver high-quality software and get good app store ratings anywhere in the world. She has 5 years of experience as a marketer, spearheading lead generation campaigns and events that propel top-notch brand performance. Handling marketing of various brands, Emily has also developed a great pulse in creating fresh and engaging content. She’s written for great websites like Airdroid and SME News. You can find her on LinkedIn.

2 years ago