The world of eCommerce is growing and expanding every day. With so much competition, eCommerce website owners are looking for ways to stand out and find different strategies for growing their businesses.

That is why so many eCommerce stores use tools to enhance a number of features, potentially bring in more website visitors and ultimately increase sales. It’s important to remember that not all tools are created equal and some tools are more useful for eCommerce than others.

However, there are some tools that aren’t used too often but can be very helpful for business owners who are looking to grow their eCommerce stores. Here is a list of those that can help you do that and perhaps even help you achieve better results than your competitors.

1. Google Tag Manager

So, what is Google Tag Manager?

Google Tag Manager is a tag management system that enables users to add small fragments of templates or custom codes to their website URLs. This feature allows you to get more detailed insights about the traffic on a specific website without altering its code.

For eCommerce store owners, the best thing you can do with Google Tag Manager is set up eCommerce tracking, or tracking sales. This is important for any eCommerce store owner so they will know how successful their tactics are and whether something needs to be changed.

There are three steps you need to follow if you want to set up eCommerce tracking with Google Tag Manager:

2. Enable eCommerce reports in Google Analytics

A Google Analytics account is required to use Google Tag Manager. For this first step, log into your Google Analytics account and click on the gear icon in the bottom left corner to reach the Admin section. Next, you need to click on “Ecommerce settings” and enable eCommerce features.

3. Transaction data in the data layer

A data layer is a component of Google Tag Manager that collects useful information that can later be used for eCommerce reports. Before that can happen, you need to add transaction data into the data layer, which is done by implementing the GA Ecommerce dataLayer.push code.

If you’re not an expert in coding, you will need to ask for help from a developer or find a plugin that can add the transaction data for you.

Configure Google Tag Manager to send the eCommerce data to Google Analytics

There are two things you need to do in this final step:

Create a Google Analytics Transaction tag. This tag will forward the purchase data from your website to Google’s servers. Go to Google Tag Manager Container, choose Tags > New and select the Universal Analytics tag template. For the track type, choose “Transaction.”

Create a trigger for the Transaction tag. The trigger is activated based on where you add your dataLayer.push code, above or below the GTM container on a “Thank you page.” The third option is to activate the code on a page that isn’t related, which appears after a customer has made a purchase.

4. Marketplace software

If you’re ready to take your eCommerce business to the next level, you need to venture into the world of marketplace software. This tool will allow you to create and manage eCommerce stores that sell products from multiple vendors.

To become a vendor yourself, you must choose great marketplace software. While there are many great options for you to pick from, you first need to decide what kind of features you want from your software. 

Looking from a vendor’s perspective, here are some features you need to look out for:

• Easy registration. When choosing your platform, check how easy it will be for third-party vendors to register to your marketplace. If potential vendors encounter difficulties while trying to list their products, they will go to a different marketplace, and you will lose business.
• Separate mini-stores. Each of your vendors needs to have a mini-store inside your marketplace that is very distinguishable. Every store needs to have the vendor’s logo, company description, and all of the products they have in stock.
• Language translations. If you offer worldwide shipping, you also need to offer language translations on your marketplace so customers worldwide can understand your website.
• Loyalty program. Loyal customers are invaluable to any company, as 65% of a company’s business comes from existing customers. With a loyalty program, you can be sure that customers will keep coming back if you offer them a good incentive.
• Advanced cart options. Don’t make shopping difficult and complicated for your customers. Allow them to place products from different vendors in one cart and count that as a single order. The customer will purchase it all at once, while the vendors will be paid separately and accordingly.

5. LMS plugin

Image by StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay 

If you aren’t familiar with the term LMS, it stands for Learning Management System, and it represents a tool for creating online training programs and courses. After all, the world of eCommerce isn’t limited only to products; you can make a lot of money by selling courses.

If you want to branch out into this part of the eCommerce world, you need to think about three components: 

• website
• payment gateway
• LMS plugin

a. Website

While it is important to develop great courses, you also need to think about your website. It needs to be well-built with many impressive features, as your website needs to be just as impressive as your courses. It also needs to be easy to navigate and fast-loading, so your visitors don’t get frustrated.

Finally, one of the most important factors of your website is good local SEO so potential customers can find your website through organic search results.

b. Payment gateways

A very important thing you need to think about when you’re setting up your store is your payment gateway. More specifically, this is the way your customers will be able to purchase your courses. Make sure to accept multiple ways of payment so your customers will have options to choose from.

This means you should include credit and debit cards but also alternative ways of payment such as PayPal.

c. LMS plugin

The previous two components won’t mean anything unless you choose the perfect LMS plugin. The best option would be to choose one of the top WordPress LMS plugins, as it will help you create fascinating courses with many entertaining and educative content.

There are a lot of benefits you will enjoy if you use an LMS plugin,
such as:

• You can create various types of multimedia content for courses effortlessly, as all LMS plugins come with a course builder.
• It is possible to sell individual courses, but you can bundle them up for a larger profit or sell subscriptions and memberships.
• Thanks to the built-in analytics and reports, you can track your students’ progress and even give them certificates at the end of courses.

6. LinkedIn tool

Image by BedexpStock from Pixabay 

If you have already ventured into the world of business in any way, you probably also have a LinkedIn account. This is the most popular social media platform for companies, businesses, and B2B individuals, and it has 675 million monthly users. If you don’t have an account, you need to create one.

LinkedIn is a great platform because it can help you generate leads and advertise your eCommerce store among a wide audience. If you create a good profile and use LinkedIn marketing tools, it will make you seem trustworthy and approachable. In other words, it will make leads want to talk to you.

On LinkedIn, you can contact prospects directly and have one-on-one conversations with them until you form a bond. As you find more and more prospects and leads, it will become harder to keep up with these communications.

Something that will help you stay in touch with thousands of contacts and grow your business is LinkedIn bulk messaging. Here are some things you can do with this LinkedIn tool:

• Build a targeted mailing list.
• Invite first contacts to join your LinkedIn group.
• Send personal invitations to second and third contacts interested in your business.
• Automatically follow and unfollow your connections.
• Automatically withdraw pending Invitations that have already been sent out.

Final thoughts

Without tools, it would be incredibly hard to run a successful business. There are too many things to keep track of and monitor, and most of those tasks are impossible without tools.

Luckily, many tools are easily accessible to all eCommerce store owners and are there to help you run your business. And while there are a lot of well-known and useful tools, don’t forget about these lesser-known ones you have just learned about.

They might even do more for your online store than any other tool on the market.

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