Learn more about what this tool is, how it can help small business owners, and how you can use it to optimize your marketing campaigns by catching up on how Ubersuggest has evolved over the years.
What Is Ubersuggest?
Ubersuggest is an easy-to-use SEO tool that can help you gain more insight into trends and strategies that are working in your market—so you can adopt them, improve on them, and use them to gain a competitive edge.
Ubersuggest gives you a lot of value with its free plan compared to other SEO tools. To get even more valuable insights you can leverage for your website, upgrading to one of the affordable paid plans can be done at any time.
Who Is Ubersuggest Best Suited For?
Ubersuggest is an all-around SEO tool that’s useful for a wide variety of users. It’s especially helpful for solopreneurs, small business owners, and small agencies managing SEO for multiple clients.
SEO is one of the best ways to increase website traffic and position your business for long-term success. A tool like Ubersuggest can help you take advantage of the many tactics and strategies websites use everyday to grow their online presence.
What Problems Does Ubersuggest Solve?
Ubersuggest helps small business owners understand and implement strategies to grow their business online.
The tool offers various features which help new—and seasoned—marketers understand what the competition is doing and, more importantly, how they can do it better.
After all, the average CTR drops from 34 percent to 17 percent when you go from the top to just the second spot in Google—so it’s important have a proper handle on your SEO so you can snag the top spot high-intent search terms in your industry.
If you’re a business owner who is not very marketing or SEO-savvy, tools like Ubersuggest will help simplify and automate your marketing and SEO-related tasks.
If you’re just getting started with SEO, knowing where you should focus can feel like a daunting task. However, once you have learned the basics, you will see the powerful results a comprehensive SEO strategy can have on your revenue and business growth.
What Outcomes Are Ubersuggest Users Looking For?
When using Ubersuggest, customers are typically looking for the following outcomes:
They want more (profitable) traffic to their website.
They want to rank higher on Google.
They need to find the right keywords to write content about.
There are many key metrics that can drive business growth which you should be looking at. SEO tools are a great way to get more insight into them.
How to Use Ubersuggest
There are many ways you can Ubersuggest to improve your strategy and its versatility is only limited by your imagination.
In case you’re still new to the world of SEO and need some help getting started, we have you covered! Here are some ways you can take advantage of Ubersuggest:
Run SEO site audits for technical SEO feedback: An Semrush study found 42.5 percent of websites have broken links. Regular SEO audits can identify mistakes like this. Improving your SEO strategy includes performing regular SEO audits to see if everything is in order. That way, you can fix the SEO problems before it starts having an impact on your traffic and customers.
Find profitable keywords for your business: A huge part of any SEO strategy includes finding relevant keywords that connect with your audience. For example, 98.1 percent of Google searches are long-tail keywords; how can you identify these without a good SEO tool for keyword research? Ubersuggest helps you find the best keywords and come up with ways to effectively use them to improve content rankings and grow your organic traffic.
Find content ideas that have a track record of user interest: Finding the best keywords alone isn’t enough for long-term business success, and overusing them can be viewed as spam. To capture the attention of your target audience, you need to write interesting content that appeals to them.
Discover backlink opportunities based on who’s linking to your competitor’s websites and not yours: Posts that are ranked #1 on Google have an average of 3.8 times more backlinks than the posts in positions two through ten. Doing some competitor analysis can unlock a lot of backlink opportunities that can lead to more website traffic and better connecting with your target audience.
Seeing how your competitors approach their SEO is a great way to find areas of improvement for your own site which Ubersuggest can help you with.
How Ubersuggest Has Evolved Over Time
Ubersuggest has undergone a lot of changes over the years. From adding SEO research tools to improving functionality, let’s explore the range of Ubersuggest updates that’ll help you boost your business online.
Here’s a list of all the Ubersuggest updates over the last few years.
Ubersuggest Update 2.0
This Ubersuggest update was heavily focused on keyword research, providing an overview, keyword ideas, and SERP analysis.
The graph in the first section shows how the search volume changes over time.
Here’s an example:
This graph will show you whether the keyword is rising or falling in popularity or if it has seasonality.
The tool also breaks down the cost-per-click, the SEO difficulty, and the paid difficulty.
The difficulty scores range from 1 to 100. The higher the score, the more difficult it will be to compete for the keyword. On the other hand, the lower your score, the easier it is to rank for that keyword.
There are three sections in the new traffic analyzer: overview, top pages, and keywords. The first section gives some basic stats and a graph showing the traffic to the domain.
There is information about how many keywords a domain ranks for, how much search traffic comes from that region, how many paid keywords a site bids on, and how much they spend on Google Ads.
Another part of the traffic analyzer displays the most popular pages within a domain.
You will see the title and URL of each page, the number of visits that page receives from Google on a monthly basis, and how many times the URL has been shared on social media.
Last but not least, this Ubersuggest update introduced a top keywords section. You can find all of the organic and paid keywords a site is targeting, whether you put in your own domain or a competitors.
If you click “content ideas” in the navigational menu or click “view all content ideas”, you will be directed to a page that lists all blog posts written with your target keyword or phrase in mind.
Posts with the most social shares are shown at the top of the list.
Moreover, the Ubersuggest update created a filtering system that makes it easy to fine-tune your search by including certain keywords or excluding others and even putting minimum and maximum thresholds on social shares.
The update added a “related” tab on Ubersuggest for finding additional relevant keywords. It also enabled you to export all of the keywords via CSV.
Another important addition was local keyword research. The new tool lets users search for keyword ideas and stats by city, county, region, or country.
In addition, if you use the “keyword ideas” report, you’ll also notice that the SERP results, which display all sites that rank for that term, have been changed to include rankings for sites within that region.
Here’s what it looks like in action:
Ubersuggest Update 6.0
Ubersuggest update 6.0 added a handy, easy-to-use dashboard feature so even users with little to no knowledge of SEO can work with the tool effectively.
You can see your SEO errors that need to be fixed, link growth (or decline), monthly search traffic, and overall search rankings in the dashboard.
To make things easier, you don’t have to worry about staying up-to-date with Google’s algorithm changes—since it crawls your website for you every week.
Furthermore, the search rankings feature allows you to monitor any changes in your rankings on a daily basis.
The coolest part is you can track your ranking in any country, city, or region. That way, you can see rankings of both local and international SEO campaigns.
Finally, Ubersuggest has a date selector, so you can see a nice chart of your rankings over time once you’ve used the tool for a while.
So far so good? It gets better!
Ubersuggest Update 7.0
Ubersuggest update 7.0 brought about a lot of changes, particularly around link data and traffic estimations.
The biggest change is now you can what percentage of searches take place on desktop versus mobile devices for any given keyword.
The term “marketing” for example reveals that desktop devices are dominating the searches (see below).
This Ubersuggest update also improved the backlink data. The backlinks and referring domains of a site can now be tracked over time to see if they are growing or declining.
Additionally, the tool also lists the number of new and lost links for a given site on a daily basis.
Ubersuggest Update 8.0
Ubersuggest update 8.0 truly leveled up with competitor analysis. Now users can see a table with detailed competitor data.
This tool displays the competitor domain, the number of keywords you both rank for, their estimated traffic, the number of backlinks your website has, and keyword gaps (the keywords they rank for but you don’t—this is your chance to step up the game).
This update is extremely useful for business owners who want to know their competition better and improve their strategy to match or even surpass other players in the field.
Frequently Asked Questions About Ubersuggest Updates
How can Ubersuggest help me?
Ubersuggest offers many free and paid features to help small businesses and solopreneurs beat their competition at SEO and content marketing. The site offers tools to improve your website’s searchability and presence in search results by helping you tackle the 4 key pillars of SEO:
Having a healthy website from a technical and UX perspective.
Focusing on the right keywords to drive traffic and conversions on your site.
Creating content for those keywords that will be shareable and valuable to readers.
Driving backlinks to your site to increase domain authority and drive more organic traffic.
How much does Ubersuggest cost?
Ubersuggest is partly free, but paid plans start at $12/month for individuals, $20/month for small and medium-sized businesses, and $40/month for large businesses and agencies.
Do I have to sign a long-term contract?
No. Ubersuggest customers pay month-to-month with no contracts. You can cancel at any time. Plus, everyone gets a 7-day free trial to test the platform.
How is it better than the other SEO tools out there?
There are many free and paid SEO tools out there. Ubersuggest is one of the best because it’s easy to use, offers less expensive paid features, and is geared toward small businesses who may or may not have marketing experience.
Conclusion: Why You Should Use Ubersuggest
You can’t do everything in digital marketing on your own. If you want better, faster results, you need dependable, effective tools to step up your marketing game.
Ubersuggest has evolved a lot over time to improve how you plan your keyword research, analyze the competition, get relevant content ideas, view historical backlink data, study traffic trends, and improve your digital marketing strategy.
The change doesn’t stop here.
Ubersuggest will continue to make updates to make the platform better and improve how businesses approach their SEO strategy.
What is your favorite Ubersuggest feature so far?
from Neil Patel's Digital Marketing Blog https://ift.tt/iA7en3v
via IFTTT
Learn more about what this tool is, how it can help small business owners, and how you can use it to optimize your marketing campaigns by catching up on how Ubersuggest has evolved over the years.
What Is Ubersuggest?
Ubersuggest is an easy-to-use SEO tool that can help you gain more insight into trends and strategies that are working in your market—so you can adopt them, improve on them, and use them to gain a competitive edge.
Ubersuggest gives you a lot of value with its free plan compared to other SEO tools. To get even more valuable insights you can leverage for your website, upgrading to one of the affordable paid plans can be done at any time.
Who Is Ubersuggest Best Suited For?
Ubersuggest is an all-around SEO tool that’s useful for a wide variety of users. It’s especially helpful for solopreneurs, small business owners, and small agencies managing SEO for multiple clients.
SEO is one of the best ways to increase website traffic and position your business for long-term success. A tool like Ubersuggest can help you take advantage of the many tactics and strategies websites use everyday to grow their online presence.
What Problems Does Ubersuggest Solve?
Ubersuggest helps small business owners understand and implement strategies to grow their business online.
The tool offers various features which help new—and seasoned—marketers understand what the competition is doing and, more importantly, how they can do it better.
After all, the average CTR drops from 34 percent to 17 percent when you go from the top to just the second spot in Google—so it’s important have a proper handle on your SEO so you can snag the top spot high-intent search terms in your industry.
If you’re a business owner who is not very marketing or SEO-savvy, tools like Ubersuggest will help simplify and automate your marketing and SEO-related tasks.
If you’re just getting started with SEO, knowing where you should focus can feel like a daunting task. However, once you have learned the basics, you will see the powerful results a comprehensive SEO strategy can have on your revenue and business growth.
What Outcomes Are Ubersuggest Users Looking For?
When using Ubersuggest, customers are typically looking for the following outcomes:
They want more (profitable) traffic to their website.
They want to rank higher on Google.
They need to find the right keywords to write content about.
There are many key metrics that can drive business growth which you should be looking at. SEO tools are a great way to get more insight into them.
How to Use Ubersuggest
There are many ways you can Ubersuggest to improve your strategy and its versatility is only limited by your imagination.
In case you’re still new to the world of SEO and need some help getting started, we have you covered! Here are some ways you can take advantage of Ubersuggest:
Run SEO site audits for technical SEO feedback: An Semrush study found 42.5 percent of websites have broken links. Regular SEO audits can identify mistakes like this. Improving your SEO strategy includes performing regular SEO audits to see if everything is in order. That way, you can fix the SEO problems before it starts having an impact on your traffic and customers.
Find profitable keywords for your business: A huge part of any SEO strategy includes finding relevant keywords that connect with your audience. For example, 98.1 percent of Google searches are long-tail keywords; how can you identify these without a good SEO tool for keyword research? Ubersuggest helps you find the best keywords and come up with ways to effectively use them to improve content rankings and grow your organic traffic.
Find content ideas that have a track record of user interest: Finding the best keywords alone isn’t enough for long-term business success, and overusing them can be viewed as spam. To capture the attention of your target audience, you need to write interesting content that appeals to them.
Discover backlink opportunities based on who’s linking to your competitor’s websites and not yours: Posts that are ranked #1 on Google have an average of 3.8 times more backlinks than the posts in positions two through ten. Doing some competitor analysis can unlock a lot of backlink opportunities that can lead to more website traffic and better connecting with your target audience.
Seeing how your competitors approach their SEO is a great way to find areas of improvement for your own site which Ubersuggest can help you with.
How Ubersuggest Has Evolved Over Time
Ubersuggest has undergone a lot of changes over the years. From adding SEO research tools to improving functionality, let’s explore the range of Ubersuggest updates that’ll help you boost your business online.
Here’s a list of all the Ubersuggest updates over the last few years.
Ubersuggest Update 2.0
This Ubersuggest update was heavily focused on keyword research, providing an overview, keyword ideas, and SERP analysis.
The graph in the first section shows how the search volume changes over time.
Here’s an example:
This graph will show you whether the keyword is rising or falling in popularity or if it has seasonality.
The tool also breaks down the cost-per-click, the SEO difficulty, and the paid difficulty.
The difficulty scores range from 1 to 100. The higher the score, the more difficult it will be to compete for the keyword. On the other hand, the lower your score, the easier it is to rank for that keyword.
There are three sections in the new traffic analyzer: overview, top pages, and keywords. The first section gives some basic stats and a graph showing the traffic to the domain.
There is information about how many keywords a domain ranks for, how much search traffic comes from that region, how many paid keywords a site bids on, and how much they spend on Google Ads.
Another part of the traffic analyzer displays the most popular pages within a domain.
You will see the title and URL of each page, the number of visits that page receives from Google on a monthly basis, and how many times the URL has been shared on social media.
Last but not least, this Ubersuggest update introduced a top keywords section. You can find all of the organic and paid keywords a site is targeting, whether you put in your own domain or a competitors.
If you click “content ideas” in the navigational menu or click “view all content ideas”, you will be directed to a page that lists all blog posts written with your target keyword or phrase in mind.
Posts with the most social shares are shown at the top of the list.
Moreover, the Ubersuggest update created a filtering system that makes it easy to fine-tune your search by including certain keywords or excluding others and even putting minimum and maximum thresholds on social shares.
The update added a “related” tab on Ubersuggest for finding additional relevant keywords. It also enabled you to export all of the keywords via CSV.
Another important addition was local keyword research. The new tool lets users search for keyword ideas and stats by city, county, region, or country.
In addition, if you use the “keyword ideas” report, you’ll also notice that the SERP results, which display all sites that rank for that term, have been changed to include rankings for sites within that region.
Here’s what it looks like in action:
Ubersuggest Update 6.0
Ubersuggest update 6.0 added a handy, easy-to-use dashboard feature so even users with little to no knowledge of SEO can work with the tool effectively.
You can see your SEO errors that need to be fixed, link growth (or decline), monthly search traffic, and overall search rankings in the dashboard.
To make things easier, you don’t have to worry about staying up-to-date with Google’s algorithm changes—since it crawls your website for you every week.
Furthermore, the search rankings feature allows you to monitor any changes in your rankings on a daily basis.
The coolest part is you can track your ranking in any country, city, or region. That way, you can see rankings of both local and international SEO campaigns.
Finally, Ubersuggest has a date selector, so you can see a nice chart of your rankings over time once you’ve used the tool for a while.
So far so good? It gets better!
Ubersuggest Update 7.0
Ubersuggest update 7.0 brought about a lot of changes, particularly around link data and traffic estimations.
The biggest change is now you can what percentage of searches take place on desktop versus mobile devices for any given keyword.
The term “marketing” for example reveals that desktop devices are dominating the searches (see below).
This Ubersuggest update also improved the backlink data. The backlinks and referring domains of a site can now be tracked over time to see if they are growing or declining.
Additionally, the tool also lists the number of new and lost links for a given site on a daily basis.
Ubersuggest Update 8.0
Ubersuggest update 8.0 truly leveled up with competitor analysis. Now users can see a table with detailed competitor data.
This tool displays the competitor domain, the number of keywords you both rank for, their estimated traffic, the number of backlinks your website has, and keyword gaps (the keywords they rank for but you don’t—this is your chance to step up the game).
This update is extremely useful for business owners who want to know their competition better and improve their strategy to match or even surpass other players in the field.
Frequently Asked Questions About Ubersuggest Updates
How can Ubersuggest help me?
Ubersuggest offers many free and paid features to help small businesses and solopreneurs beat their competition at SEO and content marketing. The site offers tools to improve your website’s searchability and presence in search results by helping you tackle the 4 key pillars of SEO:
Having a healthy website from a technical and UX perspective.
Focusing on the right keywords to drive traffic and conversions on your site.
Creating content for those keywords that will be shareable and valuable to readers.
Driving backlinks to your site to increase domain authority and drive more organic traffic.
How much does Ubersuggest cost?
Ubersuggest is partly free, but paid plans start at $12/month for individuals, $20/month for small and medium-sized businesses, and $40/month for large businesses and agencies.
Do I have to sign a long-term contract?
No. Ubersuggest customers pay month-to-month with no contracts. You can cancel at any time. Plus, everyone gets a 7-day free trial to test the platform.
How is it better than the other SEO tools out there?
There are many free and paid SEO tools out there. Ubersuggest is one of the best because it’s easy to use, offers less expensive paid features, and is geared toward small businesses who may or may not have marketing experience.
Conclusion: Why You Should Use Ubersuggest
You can’t do everything in digital marketing on your own. If you want better, faster results, you need dependable, effective tools to step up your marketing game.
Ubersuggest has evolved a lot over time to improve how you plan your keyword research, analyze the competition, get relevant content ideas, view historical backlink data, study traffic trends, and improve your digital marketing strategy.
The change doesn’t stop here.
Ubersuggest will continue to make updates to make the platform better and improve how businesses approach their SEO strategy.
What is your favorite Ubersuggest feature so far?
from Neil Patel's Digital Marketing Blog https://ift.tt/C6wmO5a
via IFTTT
Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.
Do you want more customers—and want your current customers to be happier with your service?
Customer relationship management (CRM) software is designed to help with that exact goal. So why aren’t more small businesses using it?
My guess is it’s because CRM software’s have a reputation for being massive, expensive, and really challenging to use.
That was true, but not anymore.
In fact, there are dozens of CRM software solutions that small businesses can start using this afternoon. They’re affordable, sleek, and ready to help teams connect with customers on their own terms.
Here’s my list of the best CRM software to take your small business to the next level.
If you want to sell more, Pipedrive is the CRM you’ve been looking for. According to their site, they help teams sell an average 28 percent more. The entire platform is focused on increasing sales and Pipedrive integrates with a ton of other tools. It’s a great way to take your automation process up to the next level.
It’s also one of the more affordable options on this list, starting at just $12.50 per month per user for their Essential plan. Even at the Enterprise level, it’s still pretty affordable at just $99 per user per month. They also offer a free trial, so you can try it out before purchasing a subscription.
So, how does it work? Pipedrive uses a pipeline-focused setup (hence the name!), so it’s really easy to visually see where leads are in the process. It’s also customizable, so you can drag and drop features and even add custom fields to build a tool that works with your current processes.
Here’s a look at what your main dashboard could look like (Keep in mind, you can customize it):
Click on any lead in your pipeline, and you can see the last actions taken on that account, review emails, use live chat, and even listen to the last call made to that account, depending on what other systems you have connected.
For each deal, you can add information like their value, notes, the probability of closing, and the expected close date. Color-coded tabs help you see deals that are in a specific stage of your funnel or those that might be going cold.
Another area where Pipedrive stands out is its reporting capabilities. If you like data, this is the CRM for you. The platform offers access to visual reports—not just dashboards—as well as customized reports, pipeline metrics, and the ability to set individual, team, and company-wide goals.
Looking to automate your business? Pipedrive also offers dozens of integrations that make automation incredibly easy. You don’t need to set up a bunch of rules—or learn to code.
Simply connect the platform with other tools you use, including Zapier, Slack, Outfunnel, and more to set up triggers. You can also leverage their sales automation processes that let you set up workflows to create activities, add additional information as needed, send emails, move deals through your funnel, and more. There are plenty of automation processes you can take advantage of!
The core goal of a CRM software is to have all your data in one place, right? With Pipedrive, you can connect your email and communication platforms (including live chat, billing, and task management systems) so you can easily see when links were clicked, if a lead reached out to support, and even reply to emails.
Pipedrive is incredibly intuitive to use and ideal for sales-focused teams, but it’s also pretty popular for marketing teams. If you’re looking for a way to stay organized, track communications, and want a quick setup, Pipedrive is an excellent choice.
CRM #2. HubSpot Review: The Best for Scaling Quickly
HubSpot CRM is a great option for small businesses that are on the fence about whether or not they need a dedicated CRM software.
First of all, their freemium plan is bananas in terms of how much they give you. You get chatbots, sales pipelines, and literally dozens of other features you would normally have to pay for.
On top of that, you get unlimited users and it’s free forever, so you don’t have to worry about how many contacts you make while you’re trying to grow.
When you are ready, you can upgrade individual “Hubs” to get advanced tools for sales, marketing, customer service, and content management. Only pay for what you need.
Okay, so let’s take a look at how the free HubSpot CRM can make an impact on day one.
Inside a HubSpot-enabled inbox, for example, users can see every contact’s history in a sidebar. This includes past interactions (across any channel), but also recent activities from the contact’s social channels.
It provides every HubSpot user with up-to-date customer insight no matter where they work. Whether they are chatting with a confused customer or crafting a proposal, agents and reps can deliver personalized, relevant information with ease.
HubSpot can do this because everything is centralized within a client record in the CRM. Every ticket, conversation, and email is captured and organized without any legwork.
Cutting down on data entry frees people up, giving them more time to dedicate to each client.
In addition to phenomenal contact management, there is a ton more functionality in their free plan, which includes:
ticketing
live chat and conversational bots
reporting dashboards
Gmail and Outlook integration
email tracking and notification
VoIP calling
There’s even more on top of that, believe me.
It will take a little time for users to get fully acquainted with everything that’s included. One, because there is so much, and two, because HubSpot has its own jargon and way of doing things known as inbound marketing.
This isn’t a downside at all, considering how many companies have used inbound marketing to explode their customer base.
If you are already all about inbound marketing, HubSpot is an obvious choice for CRM software. And even if you aren’t, the platform is flexible enough to work for any strategy, and easy enough to get people on board.
With the premium “Hubs”, you’ll be able to automate processes by building out workflows for customer service, sales automation, marketing automation, email automation, and more.
Looking at pricing for the paid plans, the Starter Growth Suite is a great option for small businesses that will benefit from Hubspot’s premium features. It starts at $50/month, and comes with additional features for sales, marketing, and customer service.
For companies that are already using HubSpot’s marketing and sales tools, the addition of their CRM software is a no-brainer.
For teams new to CRM, HubSpot’s freemium plan is really generous. A small business will be able to get a good sense of whether or not they like the HubSpot way of doing things.
CRM #3. Salesflare Review: The Best Automated Customer Information Collection
I am a fan of software providers who know exactly how their bread is buttered. Salesflare is a great example—they make a CRM tailor-made for smaller B2B sales teams that is laser-focused on lead management tools.
You’ll hear “simple but powerful” thrown around a lot with many software solutions, but it really does fit Salesflare.
Anyone at your company is going to figure out how to use this right away. It uses a straightforward dashboard with four major components:
An Accounts section for collecting pertinent information on leads, prospects, and customers. This also contains details on lead and prospect actions like email opens and website visits.
A Contacts section that serves as a universal rolodex for your whole team.
An Opportunities section that presents everything from leads to wins and losses in an easy-to-grasp, Kanban-style board. Here you can also configure and customize your sales pipelines.
An Insights dashboard for tracking internal metrics, which can be segmented out by sales team member, account, date range, and more.
The real meat is in the Account section, which itself would be a potent CRM without the rest.
Here, Salesflare’s automation really shines. The software will gather customer details from their social profiles, email signatures, and the web at large. Plus, it will automatically suggest contacts it recognizes as associated with a person or organization you add to your accounts.
From there, you can start to maximize the benefit of seeing lead and prospect actions within their account timeline in Salesflare. When they open an email, follow a link, head to your landing page, or the like, Salesflare logs it in the account dashboard and will even send you real-time push notifications.
It also logs all communication and touchpoints with accounts. So, when a rep sends an email to warm up a lead or another jumps on a call to encourage them further down the sales pipeline, you can see it all in chronological order.
This really helps B2B sales teams that utilize hand-offs at some point in the buyer’s journey.
Plus, integrating and syncing Salesflare with your Gmail, Outlook, or iCloud is a cinch. Not only does that come in handy for logging emails and quickly sending follow-ups from Salesflare, but it feeds into another one of this CRM’s clutch features—email workflows.
This means your team can capitalize on the time saved through Salesflare’s automated info gathering and the depth of activity detail to really target your email campaigns.
Simply set trigger events based on customer, lead, or prospect behavior and draft email copy for each segment into which you want to split your campaigns. The amount of data Salesflare helps you collect from accounts and share with your team goes a long way to defining better audience segments, leading to more effective email personalization.
Salesflare comes in three pricing tiers:
Growth: $29/user per month
Pro: $49/user per month, which adds the ability to set user permissions and more robust workflows to what’s offered in the Growth plan
Enterprise: $99/user per month. This plan focuses on white-glove level service, including a dedicated account rep from Salesflare and custom training for your team
There’s no free forever version of Salesflare, sadly, but that won’t stop you from being able to give it a try. They offer a free trial for up to 30 days or you can contact them for a demo, as well.
Regardless, this is a potent tool that fits both the needs and budget for most small B2B sales operations.
If you’re looking to improve the collection and organization of data on your leads and prospects, try Salesflare out today.
CRM #4. Less Annoying CRM Review: The Most Affordable Solution for Sales and Marketing
It’s a simple platform with transparent, affordable pricing. They know that small businesses need a CRM solution but can’t spend all of their money or time on software.
Enter Less Annoying CRM, or LACRM for short.
This is a low-cost, high-performance tool for managing and organizing all of a company’s contacts in a single platform. Users sign into their LACRM workspace and are instantly brought up to speed about all their most important customer relationships.
There is an agenda of their events for the day, a prioritized task list, a pipeline report, and an activity report. Individuals can see the status of all their activities and leaders will also be able to see the activity status of anyone they manage.
Say goodbye to post-it notes and forgotten conversations.
Every task, appointment, and document can be linked to an individual contact or company. Because every member has all the information they need in front of them, there’s no more emailing back and forth to figure out a course of action.
I really recommend LACRM for companies that want to make the lives of their sales and marketing teams more manageable, but don’t want to pay through the nose. It’s not the most visually appealing platform on the market, and the email integration can be finicky at times.
There’s also no customer service module. This is something to keep in mind if you plan on having a unified CRM in the future, as LACRM does not have pre-built integrations for other CRM or help desk software.
Still, for sales and marketing, LACRM is stocked with features to increase outreach and drive sales, including:
built-in calendar
customizable pipelines
role-based access control
customizable fields for contacts
email integration
integration with MailChimp
LACRM is definitely a pipeline-focused product, which is great for sales. But it’s really flexible. Teams can use the platform to develop referral programs, loyalty programs, as well as track customer feedback and marketing expenses.
The price of LACRM is $15/month per user. End of story. There are no contracts, pricing tiers, usage limits, or upsells.
It’s not going to work as well for larger companies with complex reporting and automation requirements. For smaller businesses and teams, though, LACRM is winning over users every day.
It’s just the tool they are looking for, at a price that makes sense.
Their focus on being less annoying extends to their customer service. When you sign up, they take pains to make the process as easy as possible, reaching out and assisting wherever you need help.
Updates are seamless and free. Your data is always backed up on multiple Amazon Web Services servers.
If Less Annoying sounds good, you can try their platform free for 30-days without giving your credit card information. After that, it’s a predictable monthly payment with absolutely no surprise charges.
CRM#5. Nutshell Review: The Best for B2B Sales Teams
Nutshell offers a nice balance of user-friendliness and sophistication that works extremely well for B2B sales teams.
Reps get the information, support, and collaborative tools they need to start selling smarter, even over a long sales cycle.
B2B deals take time and engagement with various stakeholders throughout the process. Keeping track of everything that’s involved across multiple deals is hard.
Nutshell keeps important people and conversations from falling through the cracks. Their CRM interface is really welcoming (your reps will actually want to use it) and their mobile app is just as good.
Edit contacts, log meeting notes, receive alerts, and scan business cards to create new leads, all directly within the iOS or Android app.
Lots of CRM software options come with mobile apps, but not all of them have a great reputation. HubSpot, for example, has a lot of work to do in this area, whereas Nutshell provides a best-in-breed service.
Sales reps need the ability to provide a quote without having to call back to the office. With the Nutshell mobile app, they can access client information, product catalogs, and generate a quote on the spot.
The iron doesn’t stay hot forever, especially in a crowded space full of competitors that are reaching out to your customers on every channel.
Nutshell is also loaded with tools that help B2B sales teams coordinate. Never miss another lead, double-book an appointment, or forget to touch base with features including:
customizable sales pipelines
leaderboards
communication histories
activity reminders
team @mentions and alerts
click-to-call and phone recordings
The reporting and performance tracking features make sales management more efficient and productive over the long term.
Sales leaders get both real-time insights from customizable dashboards and the ability to pull reports about new leads, losses, win-rate, pipeline growth, sales cycle size, and more.
Pricing for Nutshell is really straightforward:
Starter: $20/month per user
Pro: $42/month per user
With Starter, you get a sleek, no-frills CRM software solution that will work wonders for your sales team. With Pro, you get many more tools for sales automation, including:
Guided sales process builder
Automated lead assignment, advancement, and pipeline distribution
Post-sale lead management
Nutshell syncs with G Suite, Microsoft 365, Outlook, and Exchange. They also offer one-click integrations with the best email marketing services, like MailChimp and Constant Contact, as well as other important business tools like Slack and Quickbooks.
Out-of-the-box, no other small business CRM software is as well designed for the challenges that face smaller B2B sales teams. It comes down to the fully-functional mobile app, the collaborative tools, and the rich sales reporting.
Nutshell is like getting the best parts of Salesforce at a fraction of the price. It won’t work across the entire organization as well, but for a B2B-focused sales team, everything is right there. The only difference is that Nutshell is much easier to use and doesn’t require a developer to set it up.
Nutshell’s customer support is always available by phone, email, or chat, and there is a comprehensive self-service knowledge base online. They also offer free data importing assistance when you sign up, making the transition as smooth as possible.
Empower your sales team and start your 14-day free trial of Nutshell today.
CRM #6. Nimble Review: The Best for Teams Using Microsoft 365
Nimble is a great CRM for small businesses that don’t want to change the way they do business. It has integrations with more than 160 business apps that will pull all of your contacts, conversations, appointments, inboxes, and social media connections into a single interface.
For teams that are using the Microsoft 365 productivity suite (formerly Office 365), Nimble is simply the best CRM.
Tools like Microsoft Outlook are set up to handle basic contact management needs, but users constantly find that they have to Google information or keep multiple tabs open to track everything they need.
With Nimble enabled, Outlook is smarter. The Nimble sidebar contains rich information about each contact, as well as any linked appointments, deals, events, and so on.
Instead of the basic info, Nimble provides a full digital dossier of the contact, which is always up to date across your Microsoft environment. Whether you are working in Teams, SharePoint, or Dynamics, all of the information you need is within the interface.
Think of it as the missing CRM piece for Microsoft 365. Your teams can still work the way they always have, but now they get features like:
sales pipelines
intelligent email tracking
activity reminders, alerts, and notifications
list segmentation features
sales and customer dashboard
sales forecasting and analytics
group email marketing
Nimble doesn’t have a dedicated customer service module, so I really recommend it on its sales and marketing merits. If you really need customer service, HubSpot has you covered and provides a similar feel, though the Microsoft 365 integration is not as tight.
The pricing for Nimble Business starts at $19/month per user with an annual subscription. You can also pay monthly at $25 per user to avoid the commitment.
One thing to note is that each user gets 2GB of storage, after which it is $10/month per 10 GB of additional storage.
Nimble works with G Suite, as well, but the Microsoft 365 integration is more complete, making it a better choice for companies that have already invested time and energy in the Microsoft ecosystem.
Try Nimble free for 14 days to see if your teams reap the benefits of a more streamlined experience.
Microsoft may release CRM software one of these days, though it will probably cost a lot more than Nimble and come with features no small business is asking for.
What I Looked at to Find the Best CRM Software for Small Business
A small business owner could spend a full year trying out every CRM software option, and they might make it through a quarter of the products available right now.
To find a product that’s going to work—without spending a lifetime doing it—you’ll need to focus on what’s really going to really add value, save time, and provide useful insight for your company.
Right out of the gate, you are going to be able to eliminate some otherwise decent options by looking at how the nuts and bolts line up with your specific situation.
I’ve called these the essential considerations. With CRM software for small businesses, these points are even more important. Here’s why:
Ease-of-use: Everyone using the CRMs needs to make sure the information inserted is accurate or the platform will be useless. Avoid an elaborate onboarding process for every hire by finding something that’s easy enough for non-techies to use and troubleshoot issues on their own.
Integrations: A CRM has to tie into the tools you are already using. Direct integrations are great because DIY and API integrations can easily break at scale. Centralizing the tools a small business uses is better than adding to the stack.
Channels: A CRM has to collect customer information no matter where it’s coming from—talk, text, chat, social, and so on. If it can only connect with a limited number of the channels you use, information will be incomplete, and customer experience fragmented.
Price: If growth is the goal, the platform you choose should fit your budget moving forward. Cost may vary based on numbers of users, contacts, emails, etc. Budget this out to avoid hitting annoying limits or having to switch CRMs. No small business wants to spend resources migrating their customer data while they’re trying to grow.
There may be a CRM that strikes you as very appealing until you discover that the must-have integrations and channels are not available. It’s better to double-check the essential considerations before getting into the nitty-gritty.
Once you find a shortlist of products that satisfy these, then it’s time to look at how each product manages the three core responsibilities of CRM software as they relate to your business: contact management, process automation, and reporting & business intelligence.
Organizing and Tracking Contacts
The chief responsibility of CRM software is to help companies organize and track every contact in their database. How they accomplish this goal is a little different from one platform to another.
Small business owners need to ask the following questions about each option:
Will it help teams grow their contact list? Look for sites, landing pages, forms, and other touchpoints where interested customers can find the business and establish a connection.
Will it help teamsrefine their contact list? Look for products with robust segmentation features.
Will it help teams manage their contact list? Look for tools that allow users to make notes, set appointments, and schedule calls directly within the interface.
Will it provide teams withreal-time customer insights? Look for tools that make entire customer histories available no matter where users are working (inbox, chat, phone, etc.)
Will it help teams meet their goals? Look for options that provide frameworks for reaching objectives like closing deals, resolving customer problems, and nurturing long-term relationships.
When it comes to CRM software, small businesses need a tool that’s going to help them reach all those bolded objectives.
For some, this is going to entail a sales pipeline and marketing automation features. Others may be more focused on outfitting an ultra-responsive help desk. Some may need all of it.
Some will also come with outreach tools you can use on social media, turning passersbys on Twitter and Facebook into your next customer.
Start with your customer-focused goals, and work backward from there to figure out which CRM software is going to really help your teams stay on top of every relationship.
Process Automation
Generally speaking, there are two different levels of marketing automation that come with CRM software. Both can make a big difference to small businesses.
The first is automating routine tasks like data entry.
These platforms create contacts automatically whenever a rep or agent starts a conversation with a customer who is not in the database. Instead of having to go in and create a customer, the CRM software auto-generates a new profile or gives a user the option to create it in a single click.
Some CRMs look at the domain on the email, scour public databases, and fill in as much information as possible on their own. Some will automate list segmentation, which essentially groups customers based on criteria you set, such as age, gender, buying habits, or location.
A marketing team that wants to get thousands of emails out to interested customers can query the CRM based on relevant criteria (for example, customers who subscribed in the last 90 days) and their list is ready to go.
Each minute saved is more time to generate leads, close deals, and resolve issues. Plus, all the customer data is right there, all the time, with no extra time spent hunting it down. This is just one example, but good CRM software is constantly working behind the scenes to eliminate many of the routine tasks, saving minutes during every interaction.
It also makes automating workflows a very powerful capability. The marketing team that just generated a list of thousands of recent subscribers can begin an automated email campaign instantly.
As contacts enter the sales pipeline, tasks can automatically be assigned to the right rep. When a customer has a problem, they can automatically be routed to the right agent.
From streamlining customer onboarding processes to close more deals quickly, CRM software can help small businesses do more with less.
Reporting and Business Intelligence
CRM software gets loaded with information that can help small businesses make decisions about where to focus their energy and resources.
This goes way beyond simple metrics like conversion rates. Say you want to increase the number of customer service interactions that are resolved on the first call. CRM software can provide the information necessary for teams to see what tactics are working and pivot accordingly.
With segmentation features and a rich picture of each relationship, you can really drill down into why some leads are converting and others are not.
Some of the more robust CRM platforms come with rich analytics features that convert overwhelming amounts of customer data into clear visualizations. Many let you customize dashboards to track key metrics, turning your database into actionable insights.
Conclusion: Best CRM For Small Businesses
I started blogging more than 10 years ago. Just me and a screen.
My business has a lot of moving parts now. We communicate with thousands of customers every hour through our content, emails, newsletters, and podcasts.
Small teams need powerful tools when it comes to managing customer relationships. All of these CRM options provide the features necessary for teams to stay organized as they grow:
Pipedrive: The easiest CRM to use (+automation)
HubSpot: Best for scaling quickly
Salesflare: Best automated customer info collection
Less Annoying CRM: Most affordable solution for sales and marketing
Nutshell: Best for B2B sales teams
Nimble: Best for teams using Microsoft 365
Sales and marketing teams, especially those in B2B, will be thrilled with Pipedrive. It has a ton of functionality, it’s easy to use, and it connects all those touchpoints into one place.
For teams looking to expand their outreach, Less Annoying CRM is going to get the job done at a really competitive price. As they benefit from being able to connect with more customers, they can bring on new team members at the same low rate.
Teams that are working in a Microsoft environment should shortlist Nimble. It’s been engineered to work across the Microsoft environment, meaning teams aren’t going to have to change their processes to get onboard.
For B2B sales teams, Nutshell is purpose-built to handle the long, unpredictable sales cycle. The collaborative tools and powerful mobile app enable every rep to be ready to strike when the iron is hot.
If you are looking for a full-stack CRM solution, HubSpot is the choice for small businesses. The freemium plan is second to none, in terms of depth, and it’s the only option on this list that has a dedicated customer service module.
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E-commerce is booming.
Not only did the global pandemic cause a surge in online shopping, but e-commerce has been steadily growing for years as more and more consumers shift their spending to digital channels.
This is not a trend that’s going away anytime soon, so if you’re looking to start a business in the near future, an e-commerce store is a great option.
In this post, we’ll explore the benefits of running an e-commerce store, different types of e-commerce stores and platforms, how to set up a Shopify store, and other relevant information on the state of e-commerce in 2022.
Whether you’re just starting out or are looking to expand your business, read on for everything you need to know about creating a successful e-commerce store!
What Is an E-commerce Store?
An e-commerce store is a business that sells products and services on the internet.
This can include anything from physical goods to digital downloads, and there are a number of platforms you can use to set up your store.
E-commerce stores can exist in several different formats, such as in online marketplaces like Amazon or eBay, or as standalone websites.
In the past, many businesses either sold products online or in person.
As the online world has become increasingly user-friendly, more and more brands are creating e-commerce stores alongside their brick-and-mortar stores to broaden their customer base and increase their profits. In 2020 alone, over two billion people purchased goods or services online.
Benefits of Having an E-commerce Store
E-commerce stores are a great way to diversify your customer channels and reach more people.
E-commerce stores are also a great way to increase profits, as you can reach a larger audience than through traditional retail methods.
In addition to reaching more people, e-commerce businesses also offer many other benefits, including:
24/7/365 availability: Customers can look at goods at any time, no matter their time zone.
No geographical limitations: Customers can shop from anywhere in the world.
Variety of products: E-commerce stores often offer a much larger selection of products than traditional retail stores.
Customized shopping experience: Customers can shop according to their own needs and preferences.
Direct to consumer sales channels: With e-commerce, you don’t need to go through any middlemen, reducing prices for you and your customers.
Faster response to market demands: Since e-commerce storefronts are digital, they can be updated and changed much more quickly in response to customer needs and demands.
What does this all mean for you? If you’re thinking of starting your e-commerce store, you’re in luck! There are several different e-commerce platforms to choose from, each with its benefits and limitations.
Let’s dive into those below.
E-commerce Store Platforms
The first step in creating an e-commerce store is choosing a platform.
Hosted platforms: Hosted platforms are the most popular type of platform. They’re owned by a company, and you have access to their tools and templates to create your store. These stores are usually easy to set up and come with built-in features like payment processing and shipping. The downside is you’re limited to the features offered by the platform, and you can’t customize your store as much as you’d like. Popular hosted platforms include Shopify and BigCommerce.
Self-hosted platforms: Self-hosted platforms are platforms you host on your server. This gives you more flexibility to customize your store, but it can be more complicated to set up and requires more technical knowledge. Popular self-hosted platforms include WooCommerce (for WordPress) and Adobe Commerce (Powered by Magento).
Hybrid platforms: Hybrid platforms are a mix of hosted and self-hosted platforms. They give you some of the flexibility of self-hosted platforms, but with the ease of use of hosted platforms. Shopify Plus is an example of a hybrid platform.
Which platform should you choose? The answer to this question depends on your needs and technical knowledge.
If you want a lot of flexibility to customize your store, then a self-hosted platform is a good choice.
If you don’t have a lot of technical knowledge or don’t want to deal with the hassle of setting up and maintaining a store, then a hosted platform is a better choice.
Types of E-commerce Stores
Once you’ve determined which hosting option suits your needs best, it’s time to figure out which type of e-commerce store you want to create.
An individual brand e-commerce store is a great option if you want to create a unique shopping experience for your customers.
This type of store allows you to control the look, feel, and functionality of your shop, which gives you more flexibility to create the exact customer experience you want.
You also have complete ownership of all the data collected on your site, including customer information, which can give you a competitive advantage over larger e-commerce stores.
However, setting up and managing an individual brand e-commerce store can be more difficult than using a hosted platform like Shopify. You’ll need to develop or purchase your shopping cart software, set up payment processing, and manage your hosting and security.
Individual brand e-commerce stores are a good option if you want to maintain your brand’s unique identity and have more flexibility to create the exact customer experience you want.
If you’re just looking to get started quickly and don’t want to deal with the technical aspects of setting up an e-commerce store, you may want to consider a marketplace or online retail option.
2. Online Retailers
Online retailers are websites that sell products directly to consumers. The most well-known online retailer is Amazon, which sells a wide variety of items. In 2020 alone, 1.3 million sellers joined Amazon.
Online retailers allow you to sell your products in their existing stores, and in return, they take a commission on each sale.
This type of e-commerce platform is good for businesses that want to start selling products quickly and easily without having to set up their store.
It can also be a great option if you want to reach a large audience and don’t have the time or resources to create your e-commerce store.
However, you’ll often need to negotiate wholesale pricing and commit to the ongoing production of your products.
If your business isn’t ready to scale up, this might not be the best option for you.
3. Marketplaces
If you want to start selling products but don’t want to set up your store, then consider using a third-party marketplace.
These platforms allow you to sell products without having to worry about setting up and maintaining your shop.
There are 3.2 million businesses that sell via Amazon.
The downside of online marketplaces is you won’t have a direct relationship with your customers, which means you won’t be able to control the customer experience or offer special promotions.
Additionally, any customer data collected will be owned by the marketplace, not you. This can lead to lost opportunities for building repeat business or using data to drive advertising campaigns.
That said, marketplaces can be used as a supplement to an existing e-commerce store. For example, you may want to sell your product through your website but also offer it on Amazon or eBay.
Using multiple sales channels can help you reach more customers and increase your overall sales.
How to Set Up an E-commerce Store: Your 5-Minute Cheat Sheet
Here’s how you can create an e-commerce website using Shopify.
Shopify is king in the e-commerce space, which is also why it ranks so high on our list of the best e-commerce website builders. Thousands of people have used it for all kinds of stores—it’s been streamlined and fine-tuned to the point where anyone can learn to use it very quickly.
Whether you plan on launching a new e-commerce business from scratch or scaling it, Shopify has everything you could need. Plus, it gives you the option to do a 14-day free trial!
Users can take advantage of industry-specific templates, custom domains, drag-and-drop store builder, unlimited products, built-in payment processing, and 24/7 support. These features all show why it’s one of the best.
After signing up, you have to set up your online store. You can customize it by choosing a theme or layout that works best for you.
Next, start listing products on your website. This is also where you should pay attention to the product copy (hello SEO!).
Upload HD-quality photos with your products on a white background. Make sure your images have the same dimensions—it just makes everything look neater.
Choose your payment gateway, which is a feature that allows your customers to pay via your website. You have to consider the transaction fees, card types, and offsite checkout to know the amount of money you’ll get after subtracting all applicable charges.
Get your online shop live by filling out information related to tax and shipping. Give your order system a test drive to ensure everything is on track.
Lastly, you need a domain name. You can either buy one from Shopify itself or opt for a third party—the choice is yours.
That’s it! Your new Shopify store is now ready to rake in the moolah.
Steps to Set up a Shopify E-commerce Store
Without further ado, let’s start with the detailed tutorial! Feel free to jump ahead if you’ve already taken care of the early steps:
Create Your Shopify Account
Set up Your Shopify Online Store
Choose a Theme or a Layout For Your Store
Customize Your Store Settings
List Products on Your E-commerce Website
Make Your Shopify Store Live
Get a Domain Name
Step 1: Create Your Shopify Account
Head over to Shopify.com, and use the sign-up form to create your account. You can start your 14-day free trial after filling in all the necessary details.
You should try to choose a unique store name. However, this shouldn’t be at the cost of simplicity or relevance. In case you enter an already chosen store name, Shopify will ask you to put something else.
Once you get the website name sorted, you’ll have to fill in a few other details, such as your name, address, country, and contact number.
After this initial screening, you have to answer whether you own products, and if you do, what you aim to sell.
In case you’re just trying out Shopify, you can select options like I’m just playing around in the Do you have products? dropdown menu, or I’m still brainstorming ideas in the What will you sell? section.
Once you’re finished, click I’m done.
Step 2: Set up Your Shopify Online Store
Once you’ve made your account on Shopify, you‘ll be directed automatically to your store admin screen or dashboard. Your home admin screen will tell you everything you should know to get your site up and running.
At this point, you can start customizing your store, uploading products, and setting up payments and shipping.
You’ll also find several other options on the side menu bar, but for now, it’s best to stick to the basics.
Step 3: Choose a Theme or a Layout For Your Store
Shopify gives you direct access to a plethora of themes thanks to its official theme store.
Each one is guaranteed to have full support from the designers, so you can rest easy knowing your store is in good hands.
The idea behind choosing a theme is to create a more on-brand website. This will keep your visitors on your website longer and encourage them to explore your products.
Each of these has a comprehensive list of modifications. You don’t need any prior coding knowledge.
If the free themes don’t appeal to you, you can always choose the premium versions that come with more features and customization options. Honestly, this also looks much better when compared to a free one—provided you choose the right option.
Another reason why I like Shopify so much is that it’s incredibly user-friendly. Even if you decide to make notable changes to a theme, the limitations are few.
You don’t have to worry about not having any coding experience. Shopify has an international team of design agencies—called Shopify Experts—that can fully customize your e-commerce website. Keep in mind you’ll have to pay for this expert service.
Here are a few quick tips to help you find the right Shopify theme:
#1 Go Through the Whole Theme Store
Once you visit the URL, be prepared to be shocked.
You get over 70 theme variations—out of which there are quite a few amazing free ones, too—that you can use for your Shopify store. Other than this, you can also find Shopify themes on other marketplaces like TemplateMonster.
Try to choose a theme that matches your brand and, of course, meets your personal preference.
You also have the option to filter the themes by paid or free, features, and industry. If you want to be even more selective, you can add filters for price, popularity, and most recent.
#2 Check Out the Theme’s Reviews
After you settle on a theme you like, go to its sample image. You’ll find more information about the theme, like whether it’s mobile-friendly or responsive, among other features.
Scroll down to read reviews written by people who previously used the theme to find out more about their experiences.
#3 Preview the Theme
Shopify gives you the option to see your selected theme live. Click View Demo located below the green Preview Theme in your Store button.
The preview feature is a great option for themes that have a range of styles. In its absence, you would find yourself repeating the whole selection process again and again until you’d find the right match. Yikes.
#4 Get the Shopify Theme
If you like the demo version of a specific theme, all that’s left for you to do is click the green button to get it.
When Shopify asks you to give your confirmation about installing the theme, click Publish as my Shop’s Theme. If you’re uncertain about your chosen theme, you can always change it later.
Shopify will alert you once your theme finishes installing and then give you the option to go to your Theme Manager.
This manager contains all your published themes (the one you’ve installed or activated most recently), along with unpublished themes (previously installed themes).
Step 4: Customize Your Store Settings
Shopify themes are like your personal fairy godmother. They completely transform the way your e-commerce website looks, giving it a unique appearance even when thousands of other users download the very same theme.
How is this possible? You can make simple changes by editing your settings.
Select Themes from the left navigation menu. You’ll see your live theme in a box at the very top.
This box will contain two buttons located in the top right corner of the box. The first one with three dots allows you to make basic settings changes.
One of them will allow you to duplicate your theme. I advise you to do this as a backup. If you don’t like the changes you make, you can always delete them and start working again from the duplicate.
The second button is Customize Theme. Clicking it will direct you to a page that controls all the basic functionality of your store. This is where you can make big changes and test out all features to understand what your website is truly capable of.
Other options let you reposition elements on pages, including showing product images on the left, right, or center of the page. You can also choose whether you’d like to display social media icons, such as like, tweet, pin, or +1.
Step 5: List Products on Your E-commerce Website
Click Products on the left side menu on your admin screen.
You’ll see a blue Add Product button in the middle of the page. Click it, and this will allow you to add as much detail as you want about your products.
Pay attention to products that could do with some SEO optimization, including their name, description, and URL. Try to add as many details as you can to give your customer a clear idea about your products.
This is also the screen where you upload HD-quality photos of your products—preferably on a white background. Once your images are uploaded, you can rearrange them however you like, so there’s no hassle of having to upload them in a specific order.
Product images are instrumental in making a sale. This is why you should make a point to add only the best pictures that highlight special or unique features in the close-up photos of the items.
Another tip would be to ensure all images have the same dimensions, which will give your website a tidy appearance. However, if you want to make your pages look similar to a Pinterest board, you can do that too.
Finally, click Save Product located at the top and bottom right corners to save all your changes.
That’s not all, though. When adding photos, you should build collections to entice your visitor by giving several similar options on the same page, boosting your chances of making a sale.
Option A: Set Up Collections of Groups of Products
A collection of a group of products includes items that have a few features in common. Here are a few collection ideas you can consider:
items on sale
items in specific colors and sizes
items differentiated based on gender and age, like men, women, or children
items belonging to the same product category, like fans, chargers, jewelry, and so on
The interesting thing here is that a single item can appear in any number of collections.
For example, a size medium white shirt will be listed under at least three collections: White Color, Women/Men, and Size Medium. You can list your collection names on the homepage in the navigation bar.
Your customers will thank you as they won’t have to go through your whole catalog just to find a specific item.
Option B: Manual and Automatic Collections
When you add a new collection, you can choose how to add the products. Currently, there are two ways of doing this:
Manually: You individually add and remove products to the collection.
Automatically: You set up specific selection conditions that will automatically add products that meet the criteria.
While you’re at it, choose a payment gateway, too. This is a feature that enables your customers to pay for products directly through your website.
Not all payment gateways are created equal, though. Make sure you go through the transaction fees, card types, and offsite checkout to select an option that you find most appropriate.
Step 6: Make Your Shopify Store Live
Before your site goes live, you need to add a few more details about your company and how you will deliver the items and pay taxes.
Select the checkboxes against Charge taxes and Requires shipping wherever applicable. You’ll find these options under the Variants section of the Products page after you click the name of a given product.
Go to Settings to fill out this information. I’d recommend using the Google Analytics feature to keep track of your store visitors, too.
Do a Test Transaction
This is the ultimate test to see whether your store is on track and get an idea of what your customers will experience when they place an order from your Shopify store.
You can use Shopify’s Bogus Gateway for this.
Select Settings from your store Admin, followed by Payments.
If you have the credit card payment gateway enabled, deactivate it. Click Edit, and then confirm your deactivation after selecting Deactivate.
Under the Accept credit cards section, choose to Select a Credit Card Gateway. This will open a dropdown menu.
Scroll down to Other, then select Bogus Gateway.
Choose Activate—or Reactivate if you’ve used Bogus Gateway before.
Return to your store, and place an order as a customer typically would. At checkout, enter the bogus credit card details instead of genuine numbers.
If you prefer placing a genuine transaction, you can do that, too. Just remember to cancel the order immediately to refund yourself and avoid paying transaction fees.
First, you can buy a domain from Shopify, which will be added to your store automatically. This is time-saving and great for people who don’t know much about web hosts. This costs between $9 and $15 every year.
Second, you can buy a domain from a third party like GoDaddy. These domains start from $10 per year. Remember, you’ll have to redirect the DNS records yourself in this case. If you don’t want to do that, it’s better to buy a domain from Shopify itself.
If you do want to put your Shopify store live on a third-party domain, follow the below steps:
#1 Add the new domain to Shopify.
On the left navigation menu in the Admin page, go to Settings and then Domains. Add your domain name after clicking the Add an existing domain button.
#2 Update your DNS records.
Log into your domain registrar (example: GoDaddy) to make the following changes:
Replace the @ or main A record with the following IP address: 23.227.38.32
Add or replace the www CNAME with yourstorename.myshopify.com.
#3 Remove any storefront passwords.
#4 Set your Shopify store as the primary.
Go to your online store, and click Domains. Choose your main domain by using the dropdown button. Also, check the Redirect all traffic to this domain. This will direct all your traffic from other domains to your primary domain.
#5 Add other domains.
Repeat the first two steps with any other domain you use. All traffic from these domains will be redirected to the primary domain, which you set in step four.
Step 8: Start selling!
Congratulations! Your new Shopify e-commerce store is now up and running. You’re now completely ready to get a taste of being an e-commerce seller.
The good thing about Shopify is you can customize your store to your liking as many times as needed to keep everything convenient and functional for you.
Keep experimenting as you go in order to finetune your site.
E-commerce Store Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best e-commerce store platform?
There are many great e-commerce store platforms to choose from, but Shopify is the most popular right now. It’s easy to use, has a wide range of features, and integrates with other applications you may need for your business.
Do e-commerce stores make money?
Yes, e-commerce stores can be very profitable if executed properly. Be sure to pair your e-commerce strategy with a solid marketing plan to maximize your results.
What are examples of e-commerce stores?
There are many types of e-commerce stores, but some of the most popular include clothing, jewelry, and electronics stores.
Can beginners start an e-commerce store?
Yes, anyone can start an e-commerce store, especially with the simple platforms available today!
Conclusion: How To Create an E-commerce Store
E-commerce is one of the most popular ways to shop, and it’s no surprise why.
With the ease of online shopping and the variety of products available, it’s a great option for shoppers looking for convenience and selection.
