Hey brand builder, so listen, even a rookie knows that in order to operate a online boutique successfully, there are a few core ecommerce marketing tools and services they need to have in order to do business efficiently.
In this extensive post I share 67 ecommerce marketing tools designed to help you build, brand and grow your online store.
I appreciate everyone will be at a different stage, so use the jump links to take you the section most interesting to you, alternatively, just read at a leisurely pace.
My favourite Ecommerce marketing tools
Where would you like to start?
- Domain registration and website hosting
- Website themes
- Ecommerce platforms
- Payment gateways
- Workflow, productivity & team management
- Print on demand, wholesalers, drop shippers
- Social media management and automation
- Landing page creation
- Photography, video, graphics creation
- Outsourcing and hiring
- Business and mindset books, courses and resources
**I’ll update and add/take away from this page as I find and use tools which I think you’ll find helpful, so don’t forget to pin this post to your favourite Pinterest business boards and share it on social media.
67 Ecommerce Marketing Tools
Domain registration & website hosting:
Namecheap – Every killer brand needs a brand name and a dedicated domain/url.
I really love Namecheap because they make it quick and easy to purchase your domain name, and they don’t gouge you on prices or have sneaky renewals like some (no names mentioned). Plus they offer whois name privacy at no cost – and unless you want your home address easily searchable online you’ll want that facility.
WordPress: There are some who are not a fan of WordPress preferring platforms like Squarespace or Wix. Personally, I’d never use them or recommend them. If you want to blog, WordPress is where it’s at.
Bluehost – The system I teach here at BPL is based on creating an authority ecommerce site, and the way I recommend to do this is by creating a WordPress site and integrating your Shopify site into this.
Yes, it’s another minor expense, but you’ll soon find the sales made as a result of setting up your brand this way, soon outweigh the cost. With great customer support and shared servers, I love Bluehost.
Website themes:
Shopify: Shopify have a great selection of free and premium themes that are pretty easy to customise, and many of them can also be used straight out of the box.
If you’re looking to get started as quickly as possible, I suggest you sign up with Shopify and install a free theme. YOu can always upgrade to premium at a later date.
STUDIOPRESS – There are no shortage of free and paid themes out there, but there are a few key things I look for when purchasing a theme.
1. Solid code – you don’t want a fancy website built on code which keeps breaking
2. Regular updates – as the web changes it’s important that your theme is regularly updated
3. Great customer support – when you have a problem there should be someone willing to help
StudioPress by Copyblogger media offer all three plus no shortage of fabulous themes which give you a professional, fast, responsive website you can use pretty much straight out of the box.
Shopify – There are some pretty major players in the ecommerce space, but few are bigger or BETTER than Shopify.
They are the service I use and which 99% of my clients use. Those who don’t use it tend to have very good reasons why it doesn’t work for them, and this is usually related to having thousands of skus or a custom coded platform.
Payment processing and digital marketplaces:
Stripe: I found Stripe a tiny bit of a learning curve to get set up with, but there’s lots of support and I find it an easy and reliable process for accepting payments.
PAYPAL: Love it or hate it Paypal has become a normal part of how we do online transactions. I personally haven’t had too many issues with Paypal, but I also follow a rule of never allowing my account to have more than $500 in it at any one time.
In the event they freeze my PP account, I’d prefer my money in my bank account.
PAYONEER: Do you want to open an online boutique that focuses on selling to the US market, but find yourself getting stuck with the US postal address and bank account? We’ll when I was in the same boat Payoneer was the service I initially used.
GUMROAD: One of my favourite payment processing and selling platforms, Gumroad makes it easy to sell a wide range or products from physical to digital.
With its reasonable transactions fees and super easy to use interface it’s easy to see why it’s so popular.
My only complaint is when there are refunds given, instead of allowing you to re-credit them they hold all future payments until the refund amount has been reached.
A little risky on their side, and irritating on yours, but definitely one of my fave ecommerce marketing tools.
Workflow + productivity + team management:
ASANA: When I first got into digital project management I messed around with tools like Basecamp and Trello, but Asana has been the tool I’ve liked and used the most – it’s also free.
Harvestapp: Your ability to manage and use your time effectively will play a massive role in how successful you are with any business.
I love Harvest for helping me become very clear about where my time goes. There’s a free trial (which will get you hooked) but the low monthly fee makes it worth it for the gains you get from being so conscientious and organised.
GOOGLE DRIVE: I can’t remember what life was like before Google Drive, especially not when working collaboratively or managing teams. Google Drive and docs are my go-to tools for nearly all word processing, spreadsheets, and forms. Love it.
Google Analytics: While not exactly a tool for workflow, by knowing exactly what’s going on in your business then you know what you need to work on, so I use both the desktop and mobile version of Google Analytics.
In fact, this is probably your most value ecommerce marketing tools.
No need to be obsessive, but a quick check of your core stats every other day will keep you on top of things.
Print on demand, drop shipping, wholesalers
The Printful: As Printful is the only company I have personally used it’s the only one I feel comfortable recommending.
Of course there are no shortage of others, but my experience with Printful has been that their Shopify integration is easy, t-shirt and printing quality is great, and shipping is fast.
Saying that, when you get to the point where you’re selling more than 10 t-shirts a day the next step is to start buying wholesale.
Worldwide Brands: This was where I started. An almost endless directory of wholesale companies.
But here’s the thing, many are not willing to work with smaller companies, and others are just not that great. After lots of trial and error I narrowed down my top 50+.
Fashion wholesaler black book: This is a list of the top 70+ fashion wholesale vendors I’ve used, or found through personal research and hours of outreach. They’re also wholesalers my clients use and have had good experiences with.
Social Media management and automation:
- Latergram I use to help me plan out my Instagram feed and to stay consistent. While I don’t autopublish anymore (I find I get less engagement) I do find the post notification feature and ability to create posts in advance very helpful. Free and paid options available.
- Social Warfare: If you’re only using Shopify for your blog this won’t interest you. But if you’re building your brand the authority ecommerce way and you’re not using this fantastic premium plugin you’re really missing out.
- Tailwind: Before I discovered Tailwind, Pinterest was something I used only for pleasure. Since discovering Tailwind it’s become one of my most used ecommerce marketing tools, and I can honestly say it’s helped transform Pinterest into one of the biggest organic sources of traffic to my business.
Email Marketing/service provider and Opt-in software:
Klaviyo: I moved to Klaviyo when I finally got serious about email marketing for my online boutique. Hands down is the best tool for the job, and it’s very inspiring to press send on an email and literally watch sales come in.
Aweber: I was an Aweber girl for years, and when you’re just starting out I highly recommend them, especially as you’re able to do automation straight off the bat. The price is also incredibly fair for all the functionality you get.
MailChimp: My least favorite, I’d only use Mailchimp for free while building my site, but as soon as it was built and I was focused on email marketing I’d jump to Convert Kit fast
Email popup to collect emails: Below you’ll find my 3 favorite.
- Picreel – Shows a popup right before a visitor attempts to leave your site.
- ExitIntent – Shows a popup right before a visitor attempts to leave your site.
- Justuno – Exit intent, giveaways and locked content
- Klaviyo – They also have popups and landing pages which in my opinion makes them the best all in one option.
Landing pages software creation:
- Klaviyo: While there are tools which create pretty pages, I love that I can quickly and easily create landing page with the same tool I use to manage my mailing list, without having to splash out on a landing page creator.
- Instapage: I don’t use Instapage personally as I’m a loyal Klaviyo user, but this is the software I recommend to most of clients as it super easy to use, cheaper, and lets you go month to month.
- Leadpages: Personally I love Leadpages, yes it has its limitations, but I find it so easy to use it would take something really special to make me switch.
- Sumome: I love Sumome and it has so many great tools that will help you have a better understanding of your business. However, at times I have found it can affect your page load time.
Stock Photography, Graphics & Fonts, design, video:
- Creative Market –I’m no techie, in fact I run a mile when it comes to Photoshop. Creative Market lets you access a ton of great graphic assets without having to create them yourself. And they’re cheap too!
- iStockPhoto – Using images you didn’t take yourself is just a bad idea. I’ve been using Istock for years. They have a wide range of images you can select from, and yes, you pay a low rate for your images but at least they are not the same as everyone else.
- Free stock photography sites. Here are my top sites for accessing free quality images.
http://isorepublic.com/
http://negativespace.co/
https://picjumbo.com/
https://pixabay.com/
https://www.pexels.com/ - Canva.com: Hands down one of my favourite image creation and editing tools. I use the premium version as for the tiny $10/mth the benefits I get and time saved are priceless.
- Resizing images: Taking the time to reduce your images before you upload them to your website or your blog is just a great habit to get into. I use Tinypng. It’s quick, easy and free, job done.
- Canon Camera: I use my iPhone for taking some pictures, but let’s face it, sometimes you need to invest in the tools to do the job. This is the camera I recommend for all new store owners & bloggers. Great price and all the features you need without being overwhelming.
- Lighting set up: Again, staying in the cheap and cheerful lane, I find this two-point lighting rig and this single flood light suits my needs.
- Light box: Light, low cost and portable, investing in a light box is great for any product brand, especially if you can’t always shoot on a model.
- Tripod: Call me cheap, but I just need my tripod to work and not fall apart, and this one does the job just fine in my opinion.
- Rodes Mic: When it comes to using video for your business, even just Facebook live, viewers are for more tolerable of poor lighting than they are of poor sound quality. I love my Rodes pin lavalier mic. Light, low cost, and great sound quality all in one.
- Screenflow: For editing video I’m a fan of Screenflow, a bit of a learning curve but once you get the hang of it you can create videos that look great in just a few hours.
Outsourcing and hiring:
- Fiverr – Truth be told I’ve used Fiverr with different results. Some contractors have been great, others total crap. Shop around, try a few people, but don’t forget you get what you pay for.
- UpWork (Elance) – I’ve hired a ton of people on Upwork. Again, it’s a process of trial and error, but my suggestion is to start people on small tasks costing less than $100 to see how they perform, before assigning them big, costly, important tasks.
- Facebook groups: I’ve found Facebook groups to be a great place to find skilled experts who are happy to work with small businesses without charging the earth. Due diligence still applies though.
Business books, courses, and Podcasts:
- Miracle morning – Learn how to establish a morning routine that will transform your life and business
- Profit First – A business that makes no profit in a hobby. Learn how to put profit first
- 12-week year – A simple system to help you operate at your most productive and efficient level
- The power of habit – Successful entrepreneurs have successful habits, this book will teach you what they are and how to keep them
- Excuses be gone – I can’t count the times I’ve read this. You’ll never get it all at once but the parts you do will change your life.
- Words that sell – The only physical book I’ve traveled with consistently in the last 6 years. Never get stuck for what to say when you need to sell again. One of my most used ecommerce marketing tools!
You’ll notice we haven’t covered stuff like shipping and customer service etc, and quite truly it’s because I felt like this list of resources was already overwhelming in its size.
But here’s what I’m sure of, when it’s time to figure out shipping and how to improve your customer service, if you’re reading this you’ll already know how to find what you need.
Saying that, if you’ve found some gems in this list of ecommerce marketing tools which you plan to use, I’d love to hear which ones in the comments?