If you’re looking to start an eCommerce business, automation is your best friend. Automation saves time and money for businesses of all sizes.
It also helps with marketing, customer service, and inventory management.
We’ve compiled a list of 10 affordable tools that can help you automate your eCommerce Shopify business, so it runs without any hiccups or delays.
What Is Automation in Ecommerce?
Automation is a system that does your work for you. The goal of an eCommerce business is to make money. Automation helps you spend more time on the important things, like driving traffic to your store and marketing your business.
What Is Marketing Automation?
Marketing automation refers to a set of technology and business processes designed to recognize customers, personalize experiences, and find and qualify prospective leads.
When you use marketing automation, your website will automatically follow up with leads by sending emails after a new subscriber enters your site’s name and email address. However, this only happens when they provide you with their name and email address (most of the time through a sales funnel).
Here’s an example of how a sales funnel works:
A website visitor enters their information into your lead capture page (like a sign-up form).
When people subscribe to your list, they automatically get put in a certain category (A high-priority contact, for instance). The customer now begins a journey through your sales funnel.
The website visitor will then get an email from this business (i.e., the business owner), and they’ll follow up with their subscribers every day – if not more often! So, the marketer’s goal is to get as many website visitors as possible onto the subscriber list.
Shopify is the best eCommerce platform. It has everything you need to create an online store, including a website builder and apps that give your business more functionality like shipping management tools or pop-ups for abandoned carts.
Here are some of Shopify’s best automation apps you need:
Marketing – HubSpot
If you’re looking for an all-in-one marketing solution, HubSpot is your answer.
HubSpot includes sales and marketing automation features that help you get leads into your system.
It helps you manage your entire sales funnel from your website to a customer’s inbox.
HubSpot also includes creating upsells, abandoned cart recovery emails, and retention campaigns for a more personalized customer experience.
Pricing:
Starter – $50 per month
Professional – $890 per month
Enterprise – $3,200 per month
Reviews – Trustpilot
Trustpilot offers the ability to add reviews to your Shopify store.
When a customer adds a review to your store, Trustpilot automatically sends an email to notify you. It also includes the ability to reply and forth with customers that leave reviews on your store.
Pricing plans:
Free plan available
Standard plan: $199 per month paid annually
Email Marketing – Mailchimp
Mailchimp offers an email marketing automation that helps you create drip campaigns.
It also helps you create an email sequence on a specific product that’s been purchased, as well as a series of emails that are sent after someone subscribes to your list.
You can also create a welcome email for your new subscribers, which is triggered after someone signs up on your website.
Pricing:
Free plan available
Essentials – $10.39 per month
Standard – $15.52 per month
Premium – $310.45 per month
Abandoned Cart Recovery
If someone leaves a product in their cart on your Shopify Store, you can send them an abandoned cart email to entice them to purchase the item.
Abandoned Cart Recovery allows you to create automated emails for customers who have abandoned their carts.
For example, if someone abandons a shopping cart with three items, Abandoned Cart Recovery will send two follow-up emails to the customer.
Pricing:
One Plan – $19/month
Inventory Management – Stocky
With Stocky, you can easily track your inventory and automatically sync your products across different sales channels.
It’ll email you if your stock is running low and re-order the product for you based on your preferences.
Pricing:
Free to Install
Analytics App – RevTap
This app is developed for Shopify Store owners looking to view all of their data in one place.
The RevTap Dashboard allows you to monitor and analyze your business’s performance without having to use other apps.
It’s a customizable dashboard that includes key metrics, statistics, and graphs that you can easily edit.
Pricing:
Free to install and use.
SEO – MOZ
MOZ offers a variety of SEO tools that include keyword research and competitor analytics.
You can see how your website stacks up against your competitors and get recommendations for search engine optimization (SEO).
MOZ also includes guides to help you improve your organic search performance.
Pricing:
Standard – $99
Medium – $179
Large – $249
Premium – $599
Content Creation – Canva
Canva helps you create high-quality images for your social media posts.
It’s a graphic design tool that includes pre-made templates, customizable layouts, and drag & drops editing features.
Pricing:
Free basic account available.
Plus – $12.95 per month
Business – $12.95 per user, billed annually at $119/year.
Lead Generation – Snovio
Snovio uses a database of information to deliver contact details for more than 14 million people worldwide.
It lets you generate your leads by finding their email and social media information in their database. It also includes a Chrome extension to further search for information on people right in your browser.
Pricing:
Free plan available
Pricing varies per Emails
SMS Marketing – Postscript
Postscript lets you schedule and automate your SMS campaigns, so you don’t have to send messages manually.
You can set up notifications to go out via SMS text messages, and you can also create campaigns to run year-round.
Pricing:
Starting at – $25/ month for 2500 SMS
Tips on how to Choose the Right Tools for your Business
Let’s now see the tips you need to consider before choosing any automation tool for your business:
1) Consider the value each app brings to your business before you purchase a plan.
2) Determine which tools can be used for both short-term and long-term purposes.
3) Ask yourself how much time you’re willing to spend learning about each eCommerce automation tool.
4) Consider what extra features the app offers that are not included in a basic plan.
5) Ask other store owners about their experience with each tool to see if they recommend it. Then, if you’re satisfied with your research, you can purchase a plan right away!
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do we need eCommerce automation software?
Automation apps make your life easier by completing processes with little to no manual work. You can set the software to run on its own when you need it, and all the data is available in one place within the automation platform.
Who should be using these tools?
Everyone should use automation software! They’re useful for different types of Shopify Store owners looking to run their stores more efficiently.
If you’re a full-time employee with little time to spare looking for your life of freedom, you can utilize the services provided by eCommerce automation apps.
If you’re an SEO expert looking to boost your organic search rankings, eCommerce automation tools may help you.
Whatever business model you have and whatever services your Shopify store provides, automation apps can help run your online store.
Why is Shopify the Best?
Shopify is a prime choice if you’re looking to launch an eCommerce store. It’s a simple platform that makes it easy for anyone to create and sell products online.
If you currently have a Shopify store, the benefits of using automation tools are obvious: they’ll save you time and money while ensuring that your work gets done.
Do drop shippers make money?
Dropshippers are businesses that sell goods for other companies. Many dropshippers work by selling items wholesale and then shipping them directly to their customers, so they never actually own inventory themselves.
Dropshippers make money by sharing a profit margin with the companies they source products from.
Last Thoughts
Marketing automation has changed the way that eCommerce stores do business.
Automating marketing allows you to focus on your customers without updating their information or sending emails manually.
These tools can help with customer retention in email campaigns, so it’s important to choose carefully.
We hope this blog post helped you identify a few key considerations for choosing the right platform for your needs!