Rocking the e-commerce world is hardly a unique goal, but with the competitive nature of the industry weighing us down, it is difficult for a newbie or a smaller business to make waves among bigger names. With the rise of large competitors who have easier access to the latest e-commerce techniques at their fingertips, blowing away the competition can be quite a challenge. As a result, it’s harder than ever to reach business goals such as a five-star customer service ratings, becoming an Amazon top-seller, and selling products through the roof. In order to do so, you have to be on top of everything: from inventory to social media to customer service requests and more.
In order to get the extra edge on your competition, here’s some great e-commerce tools you can use to keep yourself professional, organized, and more customer oriented:
1. Webyclip
Though online purchases are becoming more appealing and commonplace than ever, there is still something innately satisfying about being able to visually experience the product prior to purchase. Although difficult to believe, the inability to visually interact with products online keeps many people in the dark ages of in store purchases rather than jumping on the online bandwagon.
That’s where Webyclip comes in. Webyclip allows you to give your customers a visualized shopping experience by instantly displaying top product videos of the merchandise your customers are eyeing. This way, they can automatically view interactive information about the products they are considering throughout the customer journey. With this tool, your customers can interact with excellent and informative product videos both on the homepage as well as category pages.
In addition, the tool’s algorithm can also recognize when a specific product is being featured in a clip or movie and will, as a result, highlight the product within the clip and display a link to purchase the merchandise at your store directly below. Not only does this help customers get a more personalized, interactive shopping experience, but it also increases the shop’s retention and engagement in a manner that is creative, efficient, and cost-effective.
2. Rejoiner
There is nothing more disappointing to e-commerce professionals than abandoned shopping carts. If people like your product, it’s functional, and accessible, why would they just let it fall by the wayside? As experienced e-commerce store owners know, parting with cash is not easy for many individuals. They begin to doubt that their purchase is actually a necessity or start to explore other sites to ensure they are getting real value. Sometimes your customers simply need an extra push to commit.
To make sure your customers don’t forget about your amazing offerings, give them the final push to purchase with Rejoiner. Rejoiner allows you to reduce your abandoned carts by 15% by sending your customers email reminders about the product they are missing out on and making it easier than ever to purchase. With just a click in the email, they arrive back at their cart, enabling them to pick up exactly where they left off.
The tool also features analytics to help you better understand your customer’s habits and deduce reasons why they may have been driven away. This way, not only can you regain lost customers through email, but you can also make simple changes to your approach in order to ensure people stick with their purchases.
3. Receiptful
Generally, receipts signify the end of an experience. It communicates to the customer that their transaction is complete and verifies proof-of-purchase, reflecting the ultimate culmination of the sales cycle . Despite the prevalence of this practice, making the receipt the end of the purchasing relationship is a missed opportunity. It is not in fact the end, but rather a first step in an ongoing retail relationship. Therefore, it is worthwhile to use a receipt as a means to continue marketing efforts rather than simply show what has been purchased.
Receiptful makes that possible. This convenient email receipt not only serves as a proof-of-purchase, but also automatically generates custom recommendations of products your customers may be interested in buying. In addition, the tool also maintains an ongoing relationship by sending reminders about merchandise they may be looking for as well as new deals that interest them. This way, you remain in tune with customer needs, and begin cultivating mutually beneficial relationships with users.
4. Topsy
We all know social media is an extremely lucrative tool for e-commerce marketing. Because you are able to casually reach out to your target market directly, social media can help you promote your brand while also enabling you to stay on top of customer service and experience. Nevertheless, in order for social media marketing to be most effective, you need to know which strategies appeal to your customers and which draw them away.
With social analytics tools such as Topsy, you can easily and conveniently derive data to develop an effective social media plan. The tool helps you find and target key social media influencers, allowing you to empower them to become brand ambassadors. Additionally, you can also ascertain information about your keyword usage in order to come up with the right content to draw people to your site. Best of all, you can also get access to key findings on your competition to help give you an extra edge.
5. Adroll
Campaign optimization can be a real pain. Yet, it is often necessary if we want our ads to reach our target audience at the most optimum time through the most effective vehicle. Adroll is an ideal solution to help you avoid campaign optimization and still receive optimum results.
This great tool helps you reach your target audience on social media sites, search engines, and across various browsers in order to draw them to make purchases on your site. Its smart algorithm identifies when people drop off your site, and places specially retargeted ads to drive them back. Best of all, it also helps you analyze your results to see which placements are most attractive to your target audience.
6. Online Conversion Insights
As we have previously mentioned, when it comes to e-commerce, the competition is fierce. Therefore, it’s vital to attain information on your competition in order to stay ahead of the game. Milward Brown’s Online Conversion Insights gives you record of your competition’s conversion rates so you see which opportunities you are missing, how to improve, and definite ways to measure your own success.
This way you can develop a strategic plan in order to increase your own conversions, leaving your competition in the dust.
While e-commerce is classically considered to be extremely competitive industry, there are many steps you can take in order to ensure you stay ahead of the crowd and blow away the competition. By combining your own insights with the above tools, you will have the ideal combination to conquer the e-commerce world once and for all.