What is an Ecommerce Tool?
Ecommerce is defined as a business model which implies using the internet as a platform for the buying and selling of goods or services, while covering other online business transactions like billing, auctions, and banking.
So, an Ecommerce tool is any piece of software that helps business owners improve the way they operate their online businesses. By combining the right and best Ecommerce tools, they can manage things like customer inquiries, track inventories, process payments, fulfill orders, collect visitor feedback, engage the audience through tailored and scheduled ads on the most popular social media, and improve the whole shopping experience. An Ecommerce platform will not only support, but will also facilitate expanding an online store. In sum, Ecommerce tools are key to the success of any online sales business.
Fast Forward to the 20s
The world of commerce, more than ever after 2020, has been shaped and driven by digital technologies. The coronavirus crisis has been a scenario where platforms like Ecommerce tools were able to show their full potential and grow exponentially.
The most renowned Ecommerce companies implement marketing automation to optimize conversion paths, in order to maximize conversion rates, expand their email lists and run loyal customers programs to keep contact with them and draw proper customer segmentations.
Ecommerce sales are expected to reach $6.54 trillion this very 2022 and, by 2040, a massive 95% of all shopping transactions are expected to take place over Ecommerce platforms.
Now, automation technologies have opened a whole new range of possibilities. Actions that used to require manual labor, like sending confirmations for purchase orders or keeping customers updated on shippings, now constitute an ever-growing ecosystem of automated platforms and tools which encompass the entire shopping experience.
But that’s just a starter. Automation technologies, analytics tools and Artificial Intelligence transcend the shopping experience to enhance and gain a better control of other business areas, like marketing, operations or finance, resulting in an overall improvement of the Ecommerce business logistics, internally and externally.
As an example, innovative analytics technology assists marketing teams on better understanding their customers, enabling them to deliver better tailored experiences. Artificial Intelligence technologies like chatbots have equally caused an improvement in customer support experiences by providing relevant and useful information. In areas not dealing with customers (inventory, order fulfilment, etc.), AI powered technologies have shown to be a great help at taking care of inventory numbers, by analyzing trends and staying ahead shopping peak seasons.
Ubiquity
We pretty much emphasized and described the relevance that Ecommerce business has gained in the last two decades. But one important thing to bear in mind –that we didn’t mention yet– is, the Ecommerce business model goes beyond the mere uploading of a website and setting up of social media. To make the best of your business operations it is today essential to implement Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms/tools.
SaaS is, by definition, a cloud-based service in which the software features are accessed using a web browser and an active internet connection, as opposed to the conventional local program installation/use. Ecommerce tools today, almost in their entirety, are SaaS, and the practical benefits derived from their use is one of the biggest reasons why business owners keep on choosing them.
Conclusion
It is no news that Ecommerce tools are here to stay, given the demonstrated success they’ve had in empowering businesses and business owners. Automation and cloud technologies, for that matter, have absolutely changed the game. The ways in which marketing can be tailored for specific customers or target audiences according to the analytics that these modern platforms perform are literally an unbeatable trait for competence in this ever-changing, chaotic and evolving market.