November 6, 2020
8 Apps You Need to Have For Your Online Store
Anyone who runs an online business knows that generating traffic and sales for your store is an ongoing process, and you’re tirelessly on the go every day. After all there’s so much to do – marketing management, sourcing, order tracking, analytics monitoring, financial management and much more. Sure, having a business online gives you the freedom to work from wherever you want, rather than being locked to a physical storefront. But as the owner, you still need to be in tune constantly with your business even when you’re away. With more than 50% of consumers shopping online nowadays, it’s more important than ever to keep an eye on your store’s operations and customer relationship strategies.
Thankfully, there’s an entire world of apps out there that can make your life as an eCommerce store owner a lot easier.
We’ve listed the top 8 apps that are guaranteed to make it easy for you to manage your store right from your smartphone.
Best Mobile Apps to Manage Your Online Store and Increase Sales
What you can use it for – Marketing Automation
As an ecommerce business owner, Mailchimp is a godsend. It is an all-in-one marketing platform for small businesses that lets you capture customer data, view purchase history and save time by automating your marketing.
Mailchimp also makes it insanely easy to gather insights, personalize your campaigns and reach customers through channels like email, landing pages and digital ads.
Wondering how to get started with Mailchimp? Sign up today and start marketing the smarter way! *affiliate link*
What you can use it for – Managing Finances
Mint helps you keep track of all your finances in one place with this highly-acclaimed mobile app. It lets you create budgets easily with tips tailored to you, gives you access to unlimited free credit scores, pulls information from credit cards, investments, savings and checking accounts. All you need to do is connect your financial accounts to the Mint app. You can then monitor all transactions to see where funds are coming in, when your bills are due and when payments post to your business account.
Related – 5 Accounting Tools Recommended by Small and New Businesses *insert link*
What you can use it for – Client Relationship Management
Booxi makes life easier for you and your customers by helping you manage all your booking and client relationship management needs in one place.
It lets your customers book online, avoid no-shows and last minute cancellations with automated text message and email reminders, manage appointments, reservations and availability, manage capacity limits, availability and attendee lists, accept payments, deposits and charge cancellation fees online and so much more!
What you can use it for – Shipping Application
If you have an online store, you’re going to need a shipping application. Ordoro lets you streamline your shipping operations and integrate with all major shipping carriers and postage providers, giving you access to a variety of shipping methods, services and more-than-affordable rates.
It also handles your inventory management for you, experience hands-free dropshipping, cuts down on the back-and-forth between you and your dropshipping suppliers by having them fulfill their orders on their own. It doesn’t stop just there – Ordoro also offers shipping insurance by partnering with Shipsurance, an Assurant company with an ‘A’ rated underwriter!
What you can use it for – Managing all Social Media Accounts
Nowadays, many if not all online businesses use one or two social channels for their primary marketing efforts, like Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. This can make it incredibly hard to keep up with each account, more so if you don’t have team dedicated solely for social media promotion.
This is where Hootsuite comes to the rescue. It helps you manage all of your social accounts from a single dashboard – social publishing, scheduling, campaign optimization, deploying social selling solutions, guarding against hackers among much more.
Considering this, we recommend you to get started with Hootsuite *affiliate link* – their Free plans for individuals include management of 3 social profiles and Professional plans include a 30 day free trial, after which you can purchase the plan at $29 per month.
What you can use it for – Tracking Website Activity
Google Analytics lets you access website data like site traffic, conversions, ad campaigns and keyword performance, all at your fingertips. This is especially helpful when you’re running multiple campaigns and need to constantly track each one’s performance while you’re on the go.
You can also access data easily from other Google solutions like Google Ads, Survey 360, Google Search Console and Data Studio while working in Analytics, for a seamless workflow that saves you time and increases efficiency.
What you can use it for – Social Listening
Social listening gives brands an opportunity to track, analyze, and respond to conversations about them on social media. And Mention lets you do exactly that – entrepreneurs can keep tabs on their businesses, industries and even competitors right from the comfort of their smartphones.
All you need to do is research which keywords or brand phrases you want to track, and Mention will monitor them for you in real time. You’ll be notified every time someone uses the keywords you selected, so you can always know which topics are trending, and what people are saying about your brand and products.
What you can use it for – Recover customers that have abandoned their cart.
You sell the products your customers love, and naturally expect them to fly off the shelves! But the reality is that a majority of shopping carts are abandoned, for many reasons – they may enough funds at the time or issues with their cards, or simply confused about what to buy.
MyAbandonedCart allows merchants to contact customers that have left an abandoned cart and motivate them to complete their purchase by creating a sequence of follow-up emails that will lead some of those customers back to checkout.
Note – This app is for entrepreneurs considering launching their store on the Lightspeed eCom marketplace.
The Bottom Line
Choosing the right e-commerce app for your business is a big decision – the solution you choose will have a direct impact on your sales, return on investment and conversion rates. It can also have the ripple effect of leaving your customers satisfied and happy, or frustrated and disappointed.
Which apps you already have? Which ones are you planning to use? Let us know in the comments!
Related – HubSpot vs. MailChimp – Which One is Better *insert link*
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