Tools for Scaling eCommerce Business
Here is an overview of some of the tools we use to help scale eCommerce businesses.
eCommerce Platform / Shopping Baskets
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a flexible, open-source commerce solution built on WordPress.
A very popular solution, WooCommerce is highly scalable. We can testify to this having it taking hundreds of orders a day for some of our clients.
A host of plugins available to expand the functionality of your site and the open-source nature allowing the building of custom plugins and functionality.
It integrates with a host of shopping channels, payment gateways and shipping providers. Can also be setup to integrate with PIMMs, inventory management software and EDI / dropshipper integrations.
Shopify
Shopify is a paid eCommerce platform offering various levels depending on your needs. From Basic up to Advanced and Shopify Plus.
Again very flexible and has a host of inbuilt tools and Shopify marketplace Apps. Alongside the ability to modify and build custom Apps and requirements to match your business workflow and customer journeys.
Shopify integrates with a host of shopping channels, payment gateways and shipping providers. And like WooCommerce can also be setup to integrate with PIMMs, inventory management software and EDI / dropshipper integrations.
Marketing / Customer Lifecycle Management
HubSpot CRM
HubSpot can be used just for the rudimentary tasks of form capture and Live Chat.
The real power of HubSpot though is in integrating your customer lifecycle and workflow processes.
Manging Live Chat communications along with mapping Live Chat communications to HubSpot for onward delegation and follow up.
Mapping of contact forms / requests to HubSpot – for allocation to relevant departments. Allowing the conversation between the customer and the member of staff to continue and be logged.
Building out automations for management of received forms by routing to relevant internal departments and managing pre-defined onboarding process. This includes newsletter signups which can be captured and utilised for ongoing marketing and messaging.
Tracking of eCommerce interactions including following up, via automation, basket and checkout abandonment to bring the customer back to the site to complete a sale.
Mouseflow
Offering session replay, heatmaps, funnels, form analytics, advanced filtering, and more. Allows you to instantly identify customer pain points. Video replays allow you to view and analyse exactly what your customer experienced to help you prioritise modifications to your site.
Hotjar
Very similar to Mouseflow in offering both session replays allowing you to identify customer journey and pain points. Heatmaps give you a view of the main areas your customer utilises and clicks on your website.
Microsoft Clarity
Again similar to both Mouseflow and Hotjar, this Microsoft addition is a great tool for getting visual cues to where customers are dropping out from your site, not completing basket or checkout actions.
Google Analytics 4
Focused much more on statistics Google Analytics is great for tagging specific actions on your website for example contact form completion, basket and checkout abandonment.
Various reporting and metric matching / comparisons available allowing you to track activity from entry to exit on your site.
Google Merchant Centre
A platform to sell and promote your products Google Merchant Centre gives great visibility to your products. Integrating directly with both WooCommerce and Shopify, publishing products to the Google Merchant Centre is easy and straight forward.
Campaigns can be launched through Google Merchant Centre supporting the Pay Per Click model where you can target the right keywords and customers.
Amazon Seller Central
Similar to Google Merchant Centre, Amazon allows you to publish products to their platform making them visible on the Amazon website.
Campaigns can be created to support Pay Per Click campaigns to target the right customers for your products.
Can integrate with both WooCommerce and Shopify making the publishing of products easy to manage.
We utilise additional tools for implementation and delivery of marketing, advertising and promotion for our eCommerce clients.