Are you inspired to start your very own e-commerce business?
Great — I think you’re taking a step in the right direction.
The thing with the modern entrepreneurial sphere is that everything you need to start and grow an online brand is within your grasp. At any time, the perfect e-commerce automation software, website theme, or whatever service you need is merely seconds away through the internet.
Once you have a profitable idea and the determination to succeed, it’s only a matter of finding the right tools that can mobilize your plans.
Of course, there will be countless challenges ahead that can hinder you from moving your brand forward. But as long as you’re well-equipped and you persevere, you are bound to experience success.
It does, however, require extreme care to build an e-commerce ecosystem that perfectly resonates with your goals, target audience, and budget.
With the plethora of tools floating around the web, you can’t afford to be invested in the wrong ones.
In this post, we’ll help you find the elements you need to succeed in your online business.
1. Your Online Store Platform
As an aspiring e-commerce brand, choosing a website platform is one of the biggest decisions you have to make early on.
There are dozens of e-commerce platforms and content management systems out there that can help you launch a digital store.
There are sites like 3DCart, WordPress, Shopify, BigCommerce, etc.
These platforms have website builders that allow you to create an amazing e-commerce website in a matter of minutes.
The good news is, their site even has a chock-full of features that you can use to market your business, manage your audience, integrate products into your store, among other things.
2. A Keyword Research Tool
It doesn’t matter if you run an online store, a travel blog, a booking website, or what have you.
If you want to pull in visitors who are likely to turn into brand followers or paying customers, you need to uncover relevant keywords for your marketing campaigns.
Remember, keywords play a crucial role in connecting businesses with their audience in the online space. Whether you do SEO, PPC, or social media marketing campaign, one way or the other, you will need to work with keywords.
With a keyword research tool like LongTailPro, however, you can easily identify profitable keyword opportunities by expanding “seed” search terms into long variations with buyer intent.
All you have to do is enter these terms into the main keyword research tool and use “filters” to spot keywords with commercial terms, such as “buy,” “for sale,” “price,” and so on.
If you don’t feel like using LongTailPro because it is a paid service, then there are countless other free keyword research tools you can use to uncover profitable keywords.
3. Tools for Online Collaboration
Let’s face it — even if you label yourself as a solopreneur, there’s a good chance you’ll still hire freelancers because of the plethora of benefits they bring to the table.
Product copywriters, for example, play an important role in the pre-launch phase of your online store. The same can be said for UX designers, inventory managers, and graphic designers.
To make sure you’re always on the same page, use a secure messenger tool like Brosix — a desktop-based application with advanced collaboration features.
Another tool you can use to keep your team focused on your goals is Trello.
The platform is a straightforward project management app that allows you to organize tasks using cards, lists, and boards.
Basically, Trello Cards represent individual tasks that can be assigned to specific members of your team. It can contain pertinent details about the activity, attachments, and even deadlines to introduce a sense of urgency.
4. Lead Generation Tools
If your game plan is to greet prospects with a product offer upfront, you’ll have a lot of disappointed visitors leaving your site in droves.
What you need to do is to concoct a carefully crafted lead generation/nurturing strategy that shows visitors what they want to see — when they want to see it.
For example, suppose you’re getting loads of web traffic from a blog post. Instead of shoving product offers down their throats, you should ask them if they’d like to receive more great content through a newsletter subscription.
Typically, an email marketing platform like MailChimp can help you build signup forms you can embed in your e-commerce site. This will streamline your lead generation process as new leads can be automatically added to your mailing list.
To maximize the impact of your signup form, you can configure it as a popup that triggers after a time delay, upon exit, or once the user reaches a certain point of the page.
Popup builders like EasyBox for Shopify or Popup Builder for WordPress are also great alternatives that also offer these features.
After you get visitors to sign up, the next order of business is to create a lead nurturing strategy that will guide them down the conversion path. You can send them special discounts, abandoned cart reminders, or cross-selling emails if you want to squeeze more sales from existing customers — MailChimp already has automation templates you can use for these objectives.
Conclusion
Always remember that even the biggest online retailer would be nothing without their trusty tools.
To wrap up, here’s a quick rundown of the tools mentioned in this post:
- 3DCart
- Shopify
- WordPress
- BigCommerce
Keyword Research
- LongTailPro
Online Collaboration
- Brosix
- Trello
Lead Generation
- MailChimp
- EasyBox
- Popup Builder
What’s your favorite tool when it comes to managing your e-commerce business? Let’s hear it in the comments below!
