The Covid-19 crisis has changed the day-to-day life of billions of people around the world, and the effects of the pandemic have immensely transformed how consumers shop and how retailers sell. By some estimates, we have jumped ten years ahead in consumer and business digital penetration in less than three months. Many of these behaviours are expected to become more permanent in the post-crisis retail landscape.
The Covid-19 has acted as an accelerant for e-commerce across all product categories, which will also speed up the evolution of inventory, order, and supply chain management software and practices in general. These new trends will shape consumer behaviour in the new normal, and consequently, they will change the way businesses operate and how they approach and communicate with their customers.
In this article, we will take a close look at five of the most effective tools that will help your e-commerce brand to stay ahead of the competition, boost sales, and strengthen brand loyalty in the new normal.
Khaos Control
Khaos Control is a comprehensive UK-based ERP software solution that has been helping businesses of all sizes manage and streamline their core processes for the last twenty years. The system integrates your company's finances, sales order processing, warehouses, EPOS, stock control, marketing, and more.
The company offers three products: Khaos Control (KC), a Windows-based ERP application; Khaos Control Cloud (KCC), a browser-based ERP application which is fully mobile compliant; and Khaos Control Hybrid, which brings together KC, KCC, and powerful e-commerce into one seamless solution.
Khaos Control's flexible pricing plan offers low-cost business management software for businesses of all sizes. You can pay monthly for the number of people using Khaos Control Cloud in your business, and you can add or deactivate licenses at any time. Prices start at £12 per user per month for the Lite package and £40 per user per month for the Standard one.
Shift4Shop
Founded in 1997, Shift4Shop (ex 3dcart) is a complete and robust e-commerce platform designed to help online store owners thrive in a competitive market. With hundreds of features built directly into its software, business owners can effectively create, operate, and maintain a successful online store with ease and efficiency.
Shift4Shop is a feature-rich e-commerce platform serving businesses of all sizes in a wide range of industries. The platform provides your e-commerce company with everything you need to build a secure e-commerce website and start selling products or services online like an intuitive website builder, product and order management, customer marketing tools, and more.
You can choose from a significant number of professionally designed, industry-specific templates, all of which are mobile-friendly, SEO optimised, and highly customisable. The Shift4Shop platform encompasses hundreds of best-in-class features, including social media marketing, SEO, and an expansive marketplace ecosystem of third-party developers, experts, and affiliates. Prices start from $19 to $229 per month depending on the number of users.
Moz
Moz Pro is a marketing analytics software, and it is one of the best SEO tools around. You can get great insights into how your e-commerce website is performing but also how to improve it, powered by the industry's most reliable and robust search data. Get helpful tips on creating a comprehensive SEO strategy, recommendations for content based on target keywords, or top-priority site issues to fix, among others.
Moz hosts the web's most vibrant community of online marketers and provides excellent educational resources like the Moz Blog and the Moz Academy. One of the most distinctive features Moz has to offer is access to a community of Moz Associates and SEO experts from around the world through the Moz Q&A forum.
The company also provides a variety of free SEO tools like the MozBar toolbar that gives you instant metrics while viewing any page or SERP. Moz offers four subscription packages priced $99 to $599 per month and with every subscription you get a complimentary 30-minute onboarding session with a Moz expert.
Omnisend
Omnisend is the all-in-one e-commerce marketing automation platform that will help your brand sell more by converting your visitors and retaining your customers. Reach your customers with personalised messages using Omnisend's powerful automation workflows and boost your sales. The platform allows you to grow your subscriber list with a wide variety of signup forms and send converting newsletters created with the easy-to-use editor.
Omnisend works with all major e-commerce platforms including Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, WooCommerce and others. Omnisend's platform can handle your entire omnichannel marketing strategy by integrating email with your online store, social media, and a variety of sales channels to provide personalised messaging that drives sales. Pricewise there is a free subscription package, while their Standard package costs $16 per month and the Pro one $99 per month. The company also offers custom enterprise solutions.
Shiptheory
Shiptheory is a cloud-based shipping management platform that connects retailers with the world's best carriers like Royal Mail, USPS, FedEx, DPD, and more, to automate shipping labels, manifests, and tracking. Shiptheory imports orders automatically from all your sales channels like your Magento, Shopify, or Xero account, into a single, easy-to-use platform that offers multiple-user support, advanced reporting features, and an excellent customer support team.
Shiptheory's intelligent shipping rules engine allows you to automate every step of your shipping process based on a combination of shipping destination, order weight, value, product SKU's, and more. Additionally, Shiptheory's in-depth shipping reporting suite provides the vital decision-making data you need to identify the most popular delivery services and spot cost reduction and customer service improvement opportunities ahead of your competition. Finally, Shiptheory offers a handy commodity data checking tool that automatically identifies and highlights any issues or omissions in your product data and helps you reduce friction when shipping internationally.
If you ship less than 100 orders a month with just one carrier, Shiptheory is free. Otherwise, subscription packages range from £25 to £300 per month depending on the number of shipments and users. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to reach out to support. We are more than happy to give you a hand to get your account up and running. Otherwise, create a free Shiptheory account and start shipping smarter and faster today.
Conclusion
For your e-commerce brand to thrive in the post-Covid-19 landscape, updated business models and practices are crucial. To achieve that, you should equip yourself with the correct e-commerce tools that will help you streamline a wide range of tasks relating to your business. From e-commerce website designing to automating your fulfilment process, these tools will make a real difference to your bottom line and help you attract and connect with consumers in new ways that are in sync with their newly-formed shopping habits and decision-making journeys.
