Top 5 Resources & Solutions Every Shopify Merchant Needs to Grow in 2021
Thursday, March 11, 2021Eric Zegarski
Top 5 Resources & Solutions Every Successful Shopify Merchant Needs in 2021
Peeking behind the curtain of the most successful Shopify powered brands will give you a glimpse at what drives their success. The “secret” behind-the-scenes magic becomes clearer as we examine them on a granular level. Every successful Shopify merchant has these 5 resources. These resources offer system of checks and balances that in some instances allow for autonomous operations without and human involvement as well as simplifying data flow.
1. A Reputable Shopify Agency
The right agency can be a game changer. Especially when the agency has been there and done that for dozens or hundreds of eCommerce merchants before. Agencies pride themselves on keeping up to date with the latest trends and best practices with not only Shopify but eCommerce in general. An agency that’s a certified Shopify Expert has been vetted by Shopify. This ensures the agency adheres to Shopify’s best practices and familiar with their product knowledgebase. Agencies can help with the following:
- Launching a store, from start to finish.
- Brand and collateral design and production.
- Paid promotions execution and management.
- Custom store theme development.
- Marketing mix planning and execution.
- Multi-media design and production.
Looking for the right agency to help you? Check out our list of
eCommerce agency partners.
2. The Right Stack of Marketing Applications
Having the right marketing applications is like having a virtual employee that doesn’t sleep. eCommerce is a 24/7, 365-day hustle. Marketing apps ensure that your website visitors are being engaged with and that your store is driving conversions. These applications streamline marketing for your Shopify store during your peak season. Marketing apps can help your Shopify store with the following:
- Customer retention
- Email marketing
- SEO
- Product features
- Ads and retargeting
- Marketing analytics
5 Essential Marketing Apps Every Shopify Store Needs
These apps will help you automate and streamline your marketing operations for your Shopify store and enable most of the functionalities above:
- Smile: Rewards and Loyalty - Points & referrals. Attract & keep your most loyal customers.
- Klaviyo: Email, SMS & Forms - email and SMS marketing functionality.
- Shoelace: Facebook Ads & Retargeting - Grow your sales with Facebook & Instagram Ads.
- Pagefly: Landing Page Builder - Custom SEO-friendly landing pages, product pages like a pro.
- Privy: Pop Ups, Email, & SMS - Exit popup, email marketing, popup bars, upsell, abandoned cart features.
3. Streamlined Shipping and Fulfillment Process
When it comes to fulfillment, Amazon has set the gold standard in terms of speed. Face it, you’ll never be able to compete with Amazon on speed, but you can make the process as simple as possible for your customers and your fulfillment division. Several solutions can help you have:
- The best shipping rates.
- Simplify your picking and packaging process.
- Ensure your packaging and labels are on brand and meet the specifications of various marketplaces.
- Diversify your warehousing with 3PLs to have your products in hubs closer to your customers.
- Offer great post purchase customer service by simplifying the return process.
Below are a few solutions that will allow you to offer a world-class shipping experience.
ShipStation -
ShipStation leads the e-commerce world with our web-based software designed to make e-commerce retailers exceptionally efficient at processing, fulfilling, and shipping their orders from all the most popular marketplaces and shopping carts using all the top carriers. We combine order processing, production of shipping labels, and customer communication in an easy to use, web-based interface that integrates directly with major carriers and online platforms. By taking care of the small stuff, we allow you to focus on what you do best.
ShipperHQ -
ShipperHQ allows you to have full control over the shipping options and rates you show in your customer's cart. With the most sophisticated rate calculation engine in the world, you can easily discount, or surcharge live or custom rates and run promotional pricing. Set rules to show customized rates for specific geographic zones, shipping groups, or a range of dates and display special shipping options based on conditions you choose.
Easyship - When it comes to moving goods, your logistics partners are just as important as the speed of your software. Using
Easyship, you gain instant access to our discounted shipping rates, global warehouse network and customs clearance partners.
ShipBob -
ShipBob is a tech-enabled 3PL that fulfills eCommerce orders for direct-to-consumer brands. Our mission is to make you more successful online by providing best-in-class logistics, so your customers don’t go elsewhere. With reliable fulfillment services, warehouses near your customers, and connected technology that powers our fulfillment network, we help improve transit times, shipping costs, and the delivery experience for your customers.
Loop - When a customer wants to return something it doesn’t always mean they want their money back. They may just want a different size or new product. Depending on what the customer wants, offer them the best return possible.
Loop is the only solution that lets customers shop for something new before they return. Let your customers exchange what they have now for any product they want, not just a different size.
4. World Class Customer Service
Your customer experience is more than just a simple checkout process. Let me repeat that for the people in the back, your customer experience is more than just making it easy to purchase a product!
Effectively managing your experience pre and post purchase will help you earn trust with your potential and current customers. Here are a few ways you can boost your customer experience:
Make it easy to get in contact with you. This can be done through a dedicated support line. If your business can afford it, look at having a 24/7 support line. This ensures that when people have questions, you’ll have the right answer for them. If you can’t just have an automatic follow-up email that their request has been received and will be dealt with as soon as humanly possible.
White glove service can go a long way in establishing trust with a brand. Just ask yourself, what frustrates you when it comes to other brands’ customer service? We’re all consumers, if you hate poor customer service, why have that experience for your customers?
Great post purchase customer service is also essential. Post purchase customer service has 3 pillars that include:
- Offering timely updates when orders are shipped. Consider how many times a day you check the status of your packages.
- Making the return process EASY for customers. Having a bad return process will deter them from buying again. Many customers are faced with strict rules or expensive fees when it comes to returning products. A simple return process will give you a leg up on your competition.
- Ask for feedback AFTER the customer has received their order. Ensure any follow-up emails that are sent asking for feedback or reviews are sent after the customer has received their order. This will allow them to have time to use the product. You should ask feedback about the product as well as the shopping experience.
5. Integrating Shopify With Your ERP or Accounting Package
Integration brings your commerce network together. It allows for bi-directional communication between
Shopify and your commerce network. Using an iPaaS like eBridge you can connect your Shopify store and other online sales channels like
Amazon and
Walmart Marketplace to your ERP. eBridge also offers integration for shipping solutions like ShipStation and connectivity with over
800 different EDI trading partners. Your eCommerce operations that are powered by Shopify can benefit from integration the following ways:
- Eliminate manual and duplicate entry: Integration of eCommerce platforms like Shopify, with ERP systems.
- Improve speed of data exchange: By eliminating the time-consuming manual data entry process, the eBridge Connections integration platform greatly increases the speed of information exchange, resulting in improved customer service efficiency and customer satisfaction.
- Improve data accuracy: Each time data is manually entered into a system, there is the chance of errors being introduced. Data passes through a validation layer, resulting in a decrease in costly errors and chargebacks.
- Streamline business processes: eCommerce integration will help to create an efficient workflow between departments and functionalities in your organization. An integrated flow of data will provide you with the insight you need to make strong decisions that align with your business strategy and objectives.
- Liberate valuable resources: Focus your resources on other high priority work, instead of tedious manual data entry to and from your ERP system. An eCommerce integration solution will automatically schedule and process data without human intervention.
eBridge has a pre-built connector for
Shopify. We also have pre-built connectors for popular multi-channel points of sale like
Amazon and
Walmart Marketplace. eBridge can integrate your Shopify store with leading
ERP and accounting packages with our pre-built connectors as well.
eBridge Provides Shopify Integration Services For Sun Bum
Sun Bum started business in 2010. With growing sales, processing orders manually was out of the question for their small but crafty team. They became and eBridge customer in 2013 and haven't looked back since.
Sun Bum uses Microsoft Dynamics GP (Great Plains) as their back-office ERP system. It helps them keep track of inventory, store product catalogs, count their ‘beans’ and generally make the entire machine run. Connecting GP with their Shopify store ensures that data in one system makes its way into the other, and vice versa.
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