To run a successful ecommerce business, you are going to need the help of a few tools!
But there are lots out there, which is why we created a post to basically curate a list of tools that can help you grow your store and to help you out, we’ve broken it down into categories.
One thing we won’t cover in this list is ecommerce platforms as we have already done that in our Best Ecommerce Platforms post, instead, this list is all tools you will use alongside your website.
Performance Testing/Monitoring
Speed matters when it comes to ecommerce websites as the faster it loads, the better the user experience, which can lead to an increase in conversion rates.
So you want to monitor your site’s performance and there are some great tools out there to do this.
Google PageSpeed Insights
The first tool is a free tool available directly from Google called PageSpeed insights and for free, it is really good as it checks your sites against it own performance metrics, which they called Core Web Vitals.
These are metrics that Google feels are important to user experience, so it is worth running your site through the tool as it tests both your site’s mobile and desktop sites.
If your site is failing or there are areas for improvement, they will provide some vague details as to what is causing it so that you can try and fix it.
Pricing: Free
Uptrends
One of our favorite performance tools is Uptrends Speed Tool and we use it for our annual performance testing as it is free (there are a limited number of tests you can run a day/week) and allows you to test:
- On different devices including desktop using Chrome or Edge and mobile using Apple or Android devices
- From different locations around the world
- It tests for load time and also checks the Google PageSpeed scores
It also will give a waterfall breakdown of your site’s load time, which shows you what is causing any performance issues.
Price: Free
Social Media Marketing Tools
Social media is an important part of marketing your online store and you want to make the process of not only creating but also posting content to your socials to be a simple and also optimized as possible because it can save you a lot of time.
Canva
Canva is an all-in-one design tool that can be used for so many different purposes, including:
- Creating logos
- Editing images such as background removal or making them look better
- Creating social media posts with templates for Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Pinterest
You can also create multiple file types, including:
- JPG
- PNG
- MP4 (video)
They offer a completely free plan for beginners but their paid plan starts from $12.99 a month and offers access to all of the features, which makes designing and editing images so much easier.
Price: Free – $14.99/m
Adobe Express
When it comes to digital tools for images and video, Adobe are one of, if not the biggest name in the industry and while they mainly used to offer paid-for options, they now have a set of free tools available through the Adobe Express offering, which includes:
- Templates for logos and social media posts
- Image background removal, resizing and converting from one file type to another
- Basic video editing including converting file types, trimming, resizing and merging videos
There are also options for PDF files as well but if you want access to all of the tools they offer via Adobe Express, then this only costs $9.99/m.
Price: Free – $9.99/m
Buffer
Buffer is a social media management tool designed for small businesses that can work really well for online stores as you can manage all of your socials from a single dashboard and they offer some great features, including:
- Plan and schedule where and when you are going to post to your socials
- Analyze your posts to see what works and what doesn’t
- Engage with your audience directly from the dashboard
All of these can make managing your social media marketing much simpler and save you time and effort by not having to manage each platform individually.
Price: Free – $100/m
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is another social media management tool but one that is designed for larger businesses and it offers similar features to Buffer as you can:
- Plan and schedule posts across different social media accounts
- Engage with your audience across all accounts
- Analyze your posts to help you see what is working
Along with building your social media presence, Hootsuite are also focused on helping you increase your sales and customer care to help you grow your business.
Price: $49 – $739/m
SEO Tools
If SEO is part of your ecommerce marketing strategy, then you have to use some tools in order to get the most out of your efforts and there are some great options out there that are both free and paid.
Google Keyword Planner
So Google’s Keyword Planner is actually designed for use with Google Ads but it is a great free tool for SEO as it allows you to do:
- Keyword research
- Find new keywords
- See the search volume for these keywords
- Filter by country
This is all done using Google’s data (not estimated data like you get with 3rd party tools) and while it doesn’t offer as many fancy features as many of the other tools and the search volume is a bit vague, it still provides some really valuable information.
Price: Free
Ahrefs
One of the most popular SEO tools on the market and a favorite of many SEO professionals is Ahrefs, mainly because it is like a Swiss Army Knife for SEO as it offers many features, including:
- Weekly SEO audits, which check for technical SEO errors on your site
- Keyword research
- Competitor analysis
- Backlinks information for your site and your competition
- Ranking analysis
To access all of the features, you will need to be on one of their paid plans but their free Webmaster Tools offering is a great way to get started and gives you a taste of what the tool is like to use.
Pricing: Free (Webmaster Tools) – $999+/m
Semrush
Another very good and popular all-in-one SEO tool is Semrush, which is trusted by many of the world’s leading companies as it offers a great selection of features, including:
- Backlink analysis + a backlink gap tool
- Keyword research + a keyword gap tool
- Competitor analysis
- SEO Audits
To access all of the features, you will need to sign up to one of their paid plans but to get started, they do have a free plan that lets you perform 10 actions a day using their tools.
Price: Free – $449.95/m
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is owned by digital marketing specialist Neil Patel and offers a cheaper alternative to Ahrefs and Semrush but the number of tools you get and the accuracy of the data isn’t quite as good as the other two but it still allows you to do:
- Keyword research
- Backlink analysis
- Competitor analysis
Which provides you with a good level of information to start improving your store’s SEO.
Pricing: Free – $99/m
Grammarly
Even the best writers can use a little help as it is very easy to make errors when creating content for your site, whether it is product descriptions, blog posts or your about page and Grammarly is like having your own proofreader who checks for:
- Spelling mistakes
- Grammatical errors
- Possible rephrasing
But don’t blindly follow its suggestions, read them over yourself first before accepting the suggestion to make sure it makes sense.
It is also a great tool for when you are writing content for an audience who spells slightly differently, for example, US and UK English use different spellings.
Price: Free – $15/m
Email Marketing Tools
If you aren’t doing email marketing, then you are missing out on a serious amount of sales and not making the most of your efforts in marketing your online store.
This is because you can target people who have signed up for your email list and many of these will probably existing customers, which means they may be more likely to buy from you again.
Fortunately, there are some great email marketing tools out there to help you get started…
MailChimp
One of the most popular email marketing tools for small businesses is MailChimp, mainly because they offer a free plan, which includes:
- Up to 500 contacts
- Send up to 2,500 emails a month
- Integrations with most major platforms
They also have a range of paid options which includes more tools and higher allowances for contacts and the number of emails you can send a month.
Price: Free – $299+/m
Klaviyo
Klavyio offers both Email and SMS marketing software that is focused on ecommerce and includes a range of features to help you increase your sales, such as:
- Personalized emails
- Behavior-based automated emails
- Combined SMS marketing
They also integrate with most major ecommerce platforms, including Shopify, Bigcommerce and Wix along with many other tools.
Price: Free – $75+/m
Omnisend
Omnisend is another Email and SMS marketing tool that is designed purposefully for ecommerce websites and allows users to:
- Combine and manage Email, SMS and push notifications from one dashboard
- Create emails workflows for things such as welcome emails, abandoned carts and cross-sells
- Analyze your data to see what works and what doesn’t
They also integrate with many popular platforms including Shopify, Bigcommerce and WooCommerce along with many other tools but there is a smaller selection than Klaviyo
Price: Free – $59+/m
Affiliate and Referral Marketing
A great way to start generating more sales is by word-of-mouth marketing, either through an affiliate program or referrals from existing customers and there are networks and tools to help you maximize this sales channel.
Impact
Impact is one of the world’s largest affiliate networks and is a popular option for some of the biggest names out there, including:
- Adidas
- Crocs
- Levis
- Walmart
So they must be doing something right but the platform is designed for businesses of all sizes and will allow you to easily partner with affiliates and influencers while providing tools to make the whole process run smoothly.
Plus they have integrations with most of the popular ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, Bigcommerce and WordPress.
Price: On Request
ShareASale
Another very popular affiliate network is ShareASale, which has over 21,000 merchants including Reebok and Claire’s running their affiliate program through ShareASale.
Having been around since the early 2000s, they also have a good network of publishers that can get your site more exposure and hopefully more sales.
Price: $625 setup fee + commission fees
ReferralCandy
ReferralCandy is one of the most popular tools for customer-based referrals, which basically allows you to tap into that ever-so-effective word-of-mouth marketing by encouraging your existing customers to refer their friends and family to your store with incentives such as:
- Discounts on their next order
- A cash reward
- A free gift
They also have integrations with all the major ecommerce platforms, including Shopify, Bigcommerce and WooCommerce.
Price: $47 – $239/m
Smile.io
Smile.io is combined loyalty and referral program in one, meaning that you can incentivize customers to become repeat customers in a couple of ways:
- Loyalty points, not only from purchases but from things like posting product reviews and social media engagement
- VIP rewards for your best customers
- Referrals, when they refer a friend, they can get a discount of their next order or a free gift
Smile.io currently integrates with Shopify, Bigcommerce and Wix along with other software such as Klaviyo and Omnisend.
Price: $49 – $599/m
Shipping and Order Fulfillment
Whether you are processing all of your own orders or outsourcing the process with a business model such as print-on-demand, you want to use tools that are going to make your life easier and hopefully save you time, which you can use to bring in more orders!
ShipStation
If you are processing all of your orders in-house, then ShipStation can help you streamline the order management process by and allows you to:
- Bringing together all of your orders from your own website and your marketplace accounts into one dashboard
- Organizing and sorting all of your orders
- Choose the best shipping option for each order due to integrations with major shipping providers
- Bulk order management for updating statuses and tracking numbers
- Automate emails to keep your customer informed
All of which can save you a lot of time and make managing your orders a lot easier and also potentially save you some money on your shipping costs.
Price: $9.99 – $229.99/m
Printful
Printful is one of the biggest names when it comes to print-on-demand and offers a complete fulfillment service for a variety of different products, including:
- Clothing and accessories
- Jewelry
- Tech accessories
- Home accessories
- Stationary
- Drinkware
They offer over 400 products and have their own fulfillment centers across North America, the UK and Europe and partner centers in other parts of the world, which helps cut down shipping times and they also integrate with all the major ecommerce platforms and marketplaces.
Price: Free – $49/m
Printify
Printify is another big name in the world of print-on-demand but they work slightly differently as they work with different print companies around the world in order to fulfill your orders, this helps them offer over 700 products, including:
- Apparel
- Accessories such as hats, socks and bags
- Pet accessories
- Homeware
- Drinkware
- Stationary
They also integrate with all the major ecommerce platforms and marketplaces.
Price: Free – $24.99/m
Conclusion
Finding the right tool for the job can make a huge difference to your ecommerce business as they can not only help you manage your business more efficiently, which can result in you saving time and potentially money but they can also generate you more sales.
And hopefully this list has made it a bit easier to find some of these tools.
Hi, I'm Paul, the Owner and Founder of EcommerceGold.
I ran my own Ecommerce Business for over 7 years and now help others start their own online retail empires!