13 Must-Have Tools For Scaling Your eCommerce Business

If you’re wondering about ways to scale your eCommerce business, you’re in the right place.

The internet has become more accessible than ever before, and the number of digital buyers keeps growing.

By the end of 2021, over 2.14 billion people are expected to have bought goods and services online.

With that in mind, finding the best tools to scale your online business can help it thrive in a competitive industry. 

We’ve compiled a list of 13 must-have tools, from robust platforms to comprehensive marketing apps, for scaling your eCommerce business. Let’s get started.

1. WordPress

To create a scalable online store, you need a robust platform.

A great option is WordPress. With it, you can self-host your website and adjust resources as your business grows.

To do so, choose a reliable web hosting provider and select the most suitable hosting plan for your eCommerce store.

Take a look at features such as storage space and bandwidth.

Make sure there are enough resources to handle traffic spikes and large media files without compromising the performance of your website.

With WordPress, you can further scale your business using plugins.

The platform’s directory contains thousands of extensions to support business growth, like marketing tools to drive sales and boost conversion rates.

2. Google Ads

Google Ads is a great tool to grow your eCommerce business and drive more customers to your site.

Set your digital ads to appear on Google Search or Maps whenever customers search for relevant queries.

The tool also helps tailor your eCommerce marketing strategy depending on your goal, whether that’s more site traffic, calls, or clicks.

For example, if you’re looking for more website visits to grow online sales, bookings, or mailing list signups, the online ad will direct potential customers to your website.

If your goal is more phone calls, the ad will return a featured phone number with a click-to-call button to increase conversions.

It’s also possible to set a monthly budget for your ads and pause or adjust your spending anytime. Another great feature is that you only pay when a conversion happens.

3. Google Analytics

Understanding your customers is key to scaling your eCommerce business.

The right information can provide insight into what’s working and which areas to improve on – helping you deliver better customer experiences and drive results by making well-informed decisions.

Google Analytics is the perfect tool for that. It offers features to analyze your business data from an easy-to-use interface.

Here, you can process and share progress reports with team members covering a wide range of marketing aspects.

On top of that, this tool has easy integrations with other Google solutions to increase efficiency.

For instance, use Surveys 360 to get direct customer feedback and receive the data on your Google Analytics dashboard.

4. Hootsuite

Taking care of your social media channels is crucial for business growth, as it’s a great way to directly interact with your audience.

What’s more, consumers increasingly expect brands to be active on all of their social media platforms, which can quickly get overwhelming.

Hootsuite is a comprehensive social media marketing and management tool to help you manage multiple accounts.

You can publish, engage, and monitor all of your social media channels easily from a single platform.

A standout feature of Hootsuite is their single collaborative calendar tool that prevents double posting.

Team members can see all planned and scheduled posts, creating a streamlined and organized workflow.

Hootsuite also offers tools to manage other customer support channels such as SMS, WhatsApp, and live chat.

That way, you can reach out to more consumers via their preferred communication channels.

5. Canva

Research shows that people respond better to visual content, which is why it’s important to create appealing promotional ads and marketing campaigns.

If you’re looking for an easy-to-use design platform to aid your marketing strategies, Canva is an excellent choice.

It offers premade templates for a variety of categories, from social media posts to videos.

Once you find a suitable template to work with, edit the look and feel of the design to fit your brand.

For example, switch color schemes, alter fonts, and upload images. You can also create a custom brand kit to ensure all of your projects stay on-brand.

In addition, Canva offers a real-time collaboration feature. Easily invite team members to edit, download, provide feedback, and share designs from a single interface.

6. Zendesk

Fostering consumer relationships is important for business growth, customer retention, and overall scaling your eCommerce business.

Zendesk is a great customer service tool for this task.

Depending on the options you enable, customers can choose to interact via message, live chat, social media, email, or even voice call.

Zendesk also provides cross-channel support so customers can continue their conversations on other channels. 

Aside from being customer-focused, Zendesk also provides convenience for customer service agents.

All customer chats and data are stored in a centralized workspace so team members have the relevant context when continuing past conversations.

Another great feature is the Answer Bot that automates responses. This is especially useful for frequently asked questions or when customer service agents aren’t available.

That way, agents can focus on solving more complex issues and inquiries.

Zendesk also offers group messaging so you can connect all parties to make interactions more transparent and organized.

7. BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is a content marketing tool that can help scale your eCommerce business. It offers standout content creation features using content discovery and monitoring statistics.

For example, type in unique search terms related to your business, then use the collected data to identify trends, understand your audience’s needs, and monitor your niche.

BuzzSumo’s content finder also offers beginners comprehensive Search Tips to maximize results.

Additionally, users can save current searches and compile them into a list for future content creation.

Alternatively, search for content ideas through popular forums such as Reddit and Quora and discover trending topics related to your niche there.

BuzzSumo is also an excellent solution if you’re considering influencer marketing. Their tools help to scan, monitor, and shortlist influential content creators worldwide.

You can also filter searches by follower count, niche, and even language.

8. Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor is an email marketing service provider known for its drag-and-drop email builder that’s easy to use for marketers of all skill levels.

The intuitive interface lets users add elements such as dividers, videos, countdowns, social links, and buttons easily.

The platform offers pre-designed and responsive email templates but also enables users to create custom designs. For example, input your website URL to automatically import your brand colors and logo.

You can also segment and personalize email campaigns for different customers.

To do this, connect your website, app, or online store and transfer customer data to your admin panel.

Then, based on their consumer behavior, build targeted segments and send personalized emails that are tailored to customers’ individual interests. 

Campaign Monitor also offers tools to flag broken or outdated links by automatically searching your emails.

9. Syte

Syte is a product discovery platform for eCommerce businesses. It uses a visual AI tool to recognize consumer tastes and recommend them similar products available in your inventory.

So far, the tool has been extremely popular among fashion, jewelry, and home decor brands.

With Syte’s Visual Discovery Suite, shoppers can browse similar items within seconds through the Camera Search, Discovery Button, and Recommendation Carousels features.

For example, the Camera Search feature allows shoppers to find items by uploading an image instead of searching with keywords.

Meanwhile, the Discovery Button can help with continuous browsing.

10. Moz

Moz is a search engine optimization (SEO) solution that can help scale your eCommerce business. It offers tools to increase brand visibility, improve ranking, and attract more visitors. 

The platform comes with comprehensive functionalities for link building and analysis, keyword research, webpage performance, and local listing audits.

Moz’s keyword explorer tool comes equipped with databases to discover and prioritize popular terms by search volume.

The tool also has predictive metrics such as keyword difficulty and expected click-through rate scores to measure ranking possibility.

Utilize the keyword planner to generate and save keyword lists, and try their web browser extension to analyze search and page metrics of competitor sites.

For those who are just getting started or are interested in learning more about SEO, Moz provides a Beginner’s Guide, Learning Center, and The Moz Blog.

11. Smile

Scale your business by encouraging brand loyalty with Smile.io’s reward program and offer customers various incentives through Points, Referral, and VIP programs.

Smile.io enables you to maximize customer acquisition by rewarding actions such as account creation or purchases.

To help generate leads, reward activities like writing product reviews and social media shares.

Additionally, Smile.io has tools to boost engagement such as on-page nudges that encourage visitors to join your program.

Then, allow customers to redeem points or rewards like percentage or dollar discounts, free products, and free shipping.

You can also customize reward names to create a unique and on-brand customer experience. In addition, set limits and decide the terms on how often customers can earn points for any given action.

12. Yotpo

Yotpo is an eCommerce marketing platform that can help accelerate growth. Use their tools to showcase your business’ success via social proof and user-generated content (UGC) to encourage customer conversions. 

For example, show testimonials of your products or services via reviews, photos, videos, or even a Q&A format to impact potential customers’ purchasing decisions.

Yotpo collects reviews through various methods, ranging from email and SMS requests to community Q&As.

They also offer integrations with platforms like Instagram. With it, you can discover, curate, and showcase UGC on your own platforms to create engaging shoppable galleries.

Alternatively, opt to display customer-generated content on your checkout page to reduce shopping cart abandonment rates.

13. ReferralCandy

ReferralCandy is an easy-to-use customer referral program provider for online stores of all sizes.

Encourage loyal customers to become advocates for your business by promoting your referral programs across different channels.

For example, send email blasts to customers on your mailing list or show a pop-up invitation button to customers upon checkout.

As for the rewards, ReferralCandry offers options ranging from cash, store discounts, to custom gifts.

To help get you started, the platform offers live chat support. Once you have an account, view your referral programs data through the admin dashboard.

See analytics about who your top referrers are and how your program performs against industry standards.

The platform comes equipped with mobile-ready templates to make sure features are accessible across different devices.

You can also modify the appearance of your referral program invitations by changing its color scheme to better represent your business.

Conclusion

In this article, we shared 13 must-have tools for scaling your eCommerce business. Let’s recap what they are:

1. WordPress. A scalable self-hosted platform where you can configure resources and add plugins as your business grows.
2. Google Ads. An advertising tool to attract more customers and generate leads.
3. Google Analytics. A tool to gain insight into your audience and how to grow your online business.
4. Hootsuite. A management tool for social media channels, making it easy for audiences to communicate with you through their preferred platforms.
5. Canva. An online design tool to create aesthetically pleasing promotional ads and marketing campaigns.
6. Zendesk. A customer service tool to interact with customers via live chat, email, and voice.
7. BuzzSumo. A content marketing tool to discover and research content ideas.
8. Campaign Monitor. An email marketing service provider with targeted segments and personalization options.
9. Syte. A product discovery tool to help shoppers easily spot and shop similar items.
10. Moz. An SEO tool to increase your site traffic, ranking, and visibility online.
11. Smile.io. A rewards program provider offering several arrangements from Points to VIP programs.
12. Yotpo. An eCommerce marketing tool to showcase social proof across different platforms with user-generated content.
13. ReferralCandy. A customer referral program to increase loyal customers and gain new ones.

We hope this article has provided you with insightful tools to help scale your eCommerce business. Good luck!