At times it can feel like you’re almost drowning in technology. There are so many different apps and social media outlets and websites and overall technological advances that are supposed to help, but it can be overwhelming instead of productive; especially for e-commerce companies.
Fortunately however, there are also plenty of those technological advances that actually can help. It all comes down to weeding out as much of the noise as possible and understanding what works best for you and your company. E-commerce professionals often have similar issues keeping everything afloat, which is why so many have created apps that aim to help rather than confuse. It’s up to you to find them and choose the right app for you.
6 Apps to Help Keep E-Commerce Companies Organized
We’ve compiled six of the best apps that can help e-commerce companies stay organized, especially as the e-commerce industry has shifted into such a mobile-friendly world. There are many more options out there, which you can check out here, but below are some of the most popular and intuitive:
Slack
One of the most important things to keep in mind when running any company is keeping things organized and running smoothly with all of your employees. It’s working as a team with your colleagues toward the ultimate goal (whatever that may be for each company) that is so crucial to success.
Slack, which was estimated at $1.2 billion in value, allows you to collaborate and communicate as a team in a timely fashion. They advertise as a messaging app that supplies “all your communication in one place, integrating with the tools and services you use every day.”
Slack can help you track incoming sales, task lists, customer support requests, share files and other issues, placing them all in one spot for your team to stay connected every second of every day as more and more things are added to the task list. You can also search through your entire team’s archives for any document or file, helping you find what you need quickly and efficiently.
One of the best things about Slack is it’s free to use with an unlimited amount of people and it’s secure (Slack advertises their security testing regularly to identify and resolve any issues). In fact, because of this feature Slack is considered one of the best apps for franchise companies as well, which you can learn more about here if you’re interested in SEO tips and apps to help with franchise companies.
Shopify Mobile
Shopify organizes all of your customer relations in one area letting you reach every single one of your consumers via several forums: online, social media and even in-person. Shopify allows you to sync orders, products and customers along every avenue and channel you have at your disposal, making things efficient company-wide.
The app allows you to fill orders, acquire payment, track sales, monitor and change product inventory, and even create new products, all while on the go. It has a dashboard that allows you to do all this without being chained down to a desk, providing you the freedom to essentially run your entire ecommerce company right from your mobile phone.
Here are some of the other ways Shopify can help you according to the app iteself:
- Track your daily revenue, referrals and even web traffic (page views and visitors)
- Monitor trends in your business by comparing recent numbers and statistics
- View orders, authorizations and even low inventory items in real time
- Search for specific orders by customer name or order number
- Find and track open orders
- Acquire payment
- Cancel orders
- Search for a specific product
- Search for customers by name and view a customer’s information, including billing/shipping address
- Contact customers via phone or email
Here is a screenshot from Shopify that shows what it looks like in action:
Google Analytics
If you’re running an ecommerce company, you’re undoubtedly familiar with how understanding and tracking your site’s traffic can help you. From page views to click rates to referrals, understanding how many visitors are heading to your site and from where (and why) is essential to running your business at an optimal level.
Which is where Google Analytics come into play. In terms of tracking traffic, Google Analytics is the premier tool, thanks in large part to how user-friendly it is. The mobile app is just as simple as the web version, allowing you to help determine and employ a successful strategy for the future while recapping the history of your company’s site:
Yes, seriously. It may seem like a given, but Facebook is a great app for running an e-commerce company and keeping things organized. You want to hammer any social media outlet you can, but Facebook is probably the best for e-commerce companies, allowing you to boost your brand and advertise sales. The Facebook app also allows you to manage your community, from responding to questions/comments quickly to providing overall customer service in a timely fashion. And since every e-commerce company places a premium on customer service, Facebook allows you to enact and fulfill that from your mobile phone in an efficient and simple way.
If you’re interested in more detail about why and how Facebook is best for e-commerce companies, check out this article.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite allows you to manage all of your social media accounts across the board, from Facebook to Twitter to any other social network. Hootsuite boasts more than 10 million users and claims to be the world’s most widely used social relationship platform. It allows you the freedom to post and schedule across multiple social media channels as well as monitor notifications and conversations.
Basically, Hootsuite is your do-all social media app, optimizing all of your accounts in one place to effectively promote and manage your brand on social networks. Make sure to take advantage of Hootsuite’s ability to let you schedule Tweets and Facebook posts so you never again have to be tied down by social media posts at odd and inopportune times.
WordPress
With WordPress, you can now manage your site on the go. It doesn’t matter if you’re on the train, on vacation or standing in line at the grocery store. If something urgent pops up, WordPress allows you to manage your site across everything from posts to photos and more. WordPress’ app is user-friendly and easy to manage on your phone or mobile device.
Many site managers use WordPress to begin with, but you’re selling yourself short if you’re not taking advantage of WordPress’ mobile app. It makes life a lot easier. If your site is not powered by WordPress, you can easily find equivalent apps for Drupal, Joomla, or whatever you use to power your e-commerce site.
Again, there are plenty of apps that can help you manage your ecommerce company and help things run efficiently. These are only a select few, but they’re the basic essentials that should be your starting blocks in managing your company.
What other apps have you used and found to be beneficial for running an ecommerce company? Let us know in the comments section below.