E-commerce Tools: What They Are

E-commerce tools are built to automate the processes of online businesses. They encompass a range of functionalities, including customer relationship management, order processing, protection against scammers, and reporting. These tools are essential for online success, enabling businesses to efficiently manage transactions, understand customer preferences, and ultimately drive sales and revenue growth.

How Can E-commerce Tools Help Your Business?

Most online businesses use at least one e-commerce tool. However, what makes them so useful? Below we list some of the common benefits of using e-commerce tools for online-based sellers.

Taking into account all the advantages of e-commerce tools, it is definitely worth at least considering implementing some of them. Therefore, below, we list the essential instruments for online sellers that proved to be efficient in enhancing the effectiveness of the business.

Top Tools for Online Merchants

Today, the market offers a wide variety of tools for online merchant activity, and navigating through the endless list of options might be pretty overwhelming. Fortunately, we are here to help you. Here, we present the list of the most essential e-commerce instruments to enhance your work, as well as the experience of your clients.

Shipping Software

Manually calculating shipping for a small number of orders is manageable, but as order volume increases, it becomes time-consuming and inefficient. Shipping software automates this process, allowing merchants to handle high volumes of orders without excessive manual work. Moreover, manual shipping calculations are prone to errors, leading to overpaying for shipping costs. Shipping software provides accurate shipping estimates, helping merchants avoid these unnecessary charges and optimize shipping expenses.

Another great feature of shipping tools is that they simplify the process of generating and printing shipping labels directly from a computer, saving time and reducing the risk of errors. This e-commerce tool makes the product shipment process significantly more manageable and less time-consuming, minimizing mistakes, which is essential for businesses that sell physical products.

CRM System

Trusting customer-company relationships are vital for sales. But is there a way to manage them effectively? The answer is — yes. A CRM system is software that centralizes customer data, including contact information, purchase history, and interactions, to streamline sales, marketing, and customer service. This helps sellers understand customer needs and preferences, minimizing customer churn, boosting client loyalty, and increasing sales.

CRMs help merchants track leads, manage sales pipelines, and automate marketing campaigns. CRMs streamline customer service by providing representatives with immediate access to relevant customer data. Moreover, the detailed insights into customer behavior and sales patterns allow merchants to strategically improve product offerings, marketing, and service, resulting in increased revenue. If you’re looking for a reliable CRM partner, consider investing in Germius CRM.

Email Marketing Instruments

Marketing is crucial for merchants as it helps potential and loyal customers notice your brand, increasing sales. Effective marketing allows merchants to reach their target audience, making potential clients choose them over competitors. Email marketing is one of the primary advertisement strategies in e-commerce — unlike general ads, emails are more personalized and have a better chance of attracting customer attention.

Unless you have fewer than ten clients, writing emails to all your customers is pretty tedious. The solution to this problem? Email marketing software. Many software programs offer tools for creating and customizing email templates, helping companies design visually appealing emails that reflect brand identity. Furthermore, this application allows merchants to send automated emails triggered by specific customer actions and launch drip campaigns, sending a series of emails over a period of time. Moreover, by integrating with the CRM system, this instrument gives sellers an opportunity to create targeted advertisements that will attract more purchasers. Convenient and time-saving, this software is a must-have for an online seller.

Anti-Fraud Tools

Fraudulent activity is a never-ending problem for all e-commerce sellers. Scam transactions, such as unauthorized credit card use or chargebacks, can directly result in lost revenue for merchants. Furthermore, fraudulent activity can damage a merchant's reputation and erode customer trust.

That’s when fraud protection applications come in handy. By identifying and stopping fraudulent transactions before they occur, anti-fraud tools like Ethoca and Verifi (available within Germius) protect merchants from financial losses and processor fees. Additionally, they secure customer data, reducing the likelihood of data breaches. This creates a secure and reliable shopping environment, enhancing clients’ confidence and helping retain customers.

Reporting Software

Analyzing data is crucial for making business decisions. Looking through sales statistics, customer behavior dynamics, fraud, and chargeback rate can help sellers find weak spots in their performance and eliminate them, preventing financial losses and boosting sales. Collecting the necessary data might be challenging, though.

To make the process easier, consider investing in reporting software. This instrument collects and presents your company’s transaction information in a convenient dashboard, offering a full view of your business operations. Reporting applications like the one available within Germius offer data on refunds, chargebacks, cancelled payments, and customer activity details. By gathering and organizing information automatically, this tool saves a lot of time, helping merchants identify issues and strengths of their current business strategies to enhance their performance effectively, avoiding financial losses in the future.