Ecommerce tools to simplify operations and increase revenue

If you’re an ecommerce business owner, you know that running a successful business means more than simply running an online store. Behind the scenes, you’re dealing with complex tasks from managing and processing payments correctly, ensuring order fulfillment, inventory management, marketing, customers, finances, the list goes on. It’s essential to have the necessary tools in place to manage your business’s operations now and in the future.

Fortunately, there are a number of ecommerce tools out there to help business owners like you manage all the complexity of running an ecommerce store. From operational support to automating repetitive tasks, ecommerce tools can help ensure your business grows efficiently while maintaining control over your financial operations.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the most effective ecommerce business tools, broken down into categories from payment gateways and inventory management systems to analytics tools and customer service support. We’ll also highlight how Slash can help you, serving as an all-in-one financial platform purpose-built and expert-engineered around the unique needs of ecommerce businesses.

With expense tracking tools, accounting, and integrations with ecommerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce, Slash is a game-changing ecommerce tool for your business. Keep reading to learn more about ecommerce tools and how they can support your online store:

Ecommerce business tools: Importance and main areas

The ecommerce industry is defined by unique digital capabilities amassing a global reach, with quick, efficient, and international transactions being the norm. With such complexity, ecommerce businesses face the challenge of finding tools that enable efficient operations, order fulfillment, and, ultimately, a happy customer experience for a global customer base.

Ecommerce tools aren’t one-size-fits-all, but rather encompass myriad services, products, and software that can help ecommerce businesses automate operations, connect to international customers, manage inventory, and drive business returns. There are many possible benefits for integrating ecommerce tools into your workflow. Here’s a few highlights:

Benefits of ecommerce tools:

Some of the most helpful advantages of ecommerce tools:

Streamline tasks: Through automated tools in payment processing, inventory management, reporting, and more, you can minimize risks and time costs associated with manual labor and oversight.
Actionable insights: Analytics tools on platforms like Slash Analytics and Google Analytics can provide visibility into transaction trends, income and spending patterns, and time-stamped revenue fluctuations.
Operational support: Ecommerce tools can assist with ecommerce business operations, including inventory management and tracking, order fulfillment monitoring, and customer communications.
Reduce costs: With ecommerce automation, analytics, and management tools, you gain a transparent view of your cash flow, enabling you to identify and eliminate wasteful or unnecessary spending.
Support personalized experiences: CRM systems and marketing automation tools can help boost conversions through personalized customer experiences and relevant messaging.
Enable scalable growth: As your ecommerce store scales, tools can give you access to payment gateways and financial platforms like Slash that allow you to manage operations on a global scale.

Types of ecommerce businesses

Not all ecommerce businesses are the same, and, depending on the type of ecommerce business you operate, you may find different sets of tools better suited to your business needs. Here’s a breakdown of the four main types of ecommerce businesses:

Business-to-business (B2B): Platforms that help other businesses buy or sell products. Examples include Alibaba or Grainger.
Business-to-consumer (B2C): Brands that sell directly to online consumers. Examples include Nike or Amazon.
Consumer-to-consumer (C2C): Marketplaces that let individuals trade with one another. Examples include eBay or Facebook Marketplace.
Consumer-to-business (C2B): Services that connect individuals offering skills or products to businesses. Examples include Upwork or Fiverr.

Each business type requires tailored tools. For example, a B2C ecommerce store on Shopify may prioritize email marketing or inventory management tools, while a B2B platform may look for payment processing or order fulfillment services.

Key types of ecommerce business tools and essential applications

The right ecommerce tools depend on your business needs. Here are some of the most effective options to support and scale your business operations:

Expense management tools

Like any business, ecommerce business's operations can be supported by better financial oversight. Fortunately, there are many industry-built ecommerce tools available to support that.

Slash is an ecommerce management tool that, unlike traditional business platforms, combines accounting integrations, granular spend controls, and an extensive stack of expense management and tracking software. Some of the key features of expense management with Slash:

Streamlined workflows. Slash integrates with your bank account(s), your storefronts through sites like Shopify or Amazon with Plaid, and accounting tools like QuickBooks and Xero. With all-in-one features, you can operate between them seamlessly and stay more organized.
Flexible capital access. Ecommerce brands can unlock working capital to cover advertising costs, fulfillment, or inventory management.⁵
Global reach: Slash’s Global USD supports USD payments in over 100 countries, making it easier for international suppliers and distributors to manage their finances and business operations in the U.S. financial system.⁴
Multi-entity support: If you operate more than one ecommerce store or entity, Slash lets you manage them all in one place.
Expense tracking with analytics: Customizable expense tracking with Slash’s Analytics features lets you not only maintain clear oversight over your spend history, but also gives you the tools to pinpoint financial shortcomings and develop your business for future growth.

Ecommerce management tools can provide you with the framework to audit your financial workflows and make necessary adjustments to better develop and innovate your business. While some management tools may cover only one aspect of your complex operational stack, Slash unites everything, making it a great choice for ecommerce brands seeking robust and intuitive tools.

Ecommerce platforms

Behind any ecommerce business is the platform or technology used to create and manage its online store. Ecommerce platforms allow you to showcase your products to consumers or businesses, process payments, and integrate with other essential tools like email marketing, logistics, or analytics tools.

Some common and widely used ecommerce platforms include:

Shopify: Shopify offers a fully hosted ecommerce platform with native payment processing; a helpful site for brands looking to set up an online store, manage products, or sell across multiple online channels.
WooCommerce: A plugin for WordPress website design, WooCommerce enables businesses to customize their ecommerce store.
Wix: Wix lets businesses create ecommerce websites or online storefronts, offering design templates with added support for payments, orders, and shipping.
BigCommerce: BigCommerce is a SaaS platform that helps manage sales and cross-border fulfillments for scalable brands.
Adobe Commerce (Magento): Adobe Commerce is a cloud-based platform that supports storefronts with additional analytics and insight tooling.

When evaluating e-commerce platforms, consider factors such as cost, intuitive design or ease of use, integrations, and how well the model can scale with your business. You may want to tailor your search for specific business goals, such as finding platforms with SEO tools and keyword research features, specialized inventory management, or integrations that work with your established workflow.

Your platform is the hub for all other ecommerce tools, so investing in the right foundation ensures your shopping cart, inventory management, and payment gateways all work together seamlessly.

Payment gateways

Once you’ve chosen an ecommerce platform, your likely next step is to set up a payment processing system, ensuring that customers or partners can pay you. In order to do this, you’ll need a payment gateway.

A payment gateway is the rail between your online store and your customers' or merchants’ bank accounts, so it is a vital step in ensuring you receive payments. Some popular payment gateways include:

PayPal: A popular payment gateway, PayPal can be found in a number of checkouts. PayPal offers a number of features including crypto, APY, and credit capabilities.
Stripe: Includes API and real-time payment processing with customizable checkouts, helpful for businesses looking for subscription, foreign currency, and fraud protection support.
Square: Powering both physical and online stores, Square unifies payments initiated through its hardware and software gateways.

A payment gateway can be the difference between a good and bad checkout experience. Choosing the right payment gateway can lead to better returns and increased conversions.

Inventory management tools

For many ecommerce businesses, inventory management is both a necessity and a challenge. With the right inventory management tools and systems, you can significantly minimize operational drag and boost efficiency through ecommerce platform syncing, automated recording, integrations with fulfillment tools like Shipwire or Easyship, and provide analytics and expense tracking tools.

Here are popular inventory management tools:

Cin7: Provides inventory management software, including comprehensive tools for warehouses, marketplaces, and sales channels. Cin7 also integreates with platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce to prevent understocking and ensure inventory fulfillment.
Zoho Inventory: A cloud-based system with automated tools for managing orders and shipments. Additional integrations with payment gateways and shipping tools, such as ShipStation, are helpful for ecommerce businesses needing a comprehensive inventory tool.

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems

As the ecommerce industry expands and competition increases, ensuring that you not only build strong customer relationships but also properly market to new customers becomes essential. CRM systems can help you collect customer information across email, social media, websites, and more to personalize your tools and marketing efforts.

Here are some of the top CRM tools for ecommerce businesses:

Salesforce: Automation and predictive analytics for businesses.
HubSpot CRM: Marketing automation and sales tools for small to mid-size ecommerce brands.
Zoho CRM: Customizable workflows, integrations, and reporting.

A good CRM system can help your ecommerce business deliver personalized tools that can work alongside your other marketing tools, offering a wholistically designed approach for monitoring and maintaining customer relationships.

Analytics and reporting tools

Analytics tools provide you with visibility into your business spend and income:

Slash Analytics: Integrates with your banking and card spend to show payment and income analytics based on merchants, contacts, payment type, or by customizable card groups.
Google Analytics: lets you run keyword research and analyze user behavior.
Glew.io: Integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, or BigCommerce to provide revenue, profit margin, and customer information reporting.

With real-time reporting and analytics, you can see what’s working and what’s not, such as viewing what merchants or geographic areas are driving the highest profit through your Slash dashboard.

Live chat and customer support tools

Customer support is absolutely critical for any ecommerce business. Live chat and customer support tools are one area where your business can benefit with faster responses and resolutions, leading to happier customers and better CRM. Here are some helpful tools:

Zendesk: Integrating email, live chat, and more to help ecommerce businesses manage high volumes of support needs.
LiveChat: Enables real-time conversations directly from your online store.
Tidio: Live chats with AI chatbots to automate answers for common customer queries.

Shipping and logistics tools

Shipping is an essential part of product-based ecommerce businesses, and can be the difference between securing return customers and losing future business due to failed order fulfillment. Here are some common shipping and logistics tools:

ShipStation: Helps manage multiple carriers, print labels, and automate shipping workflows. Popular with Shopify and WooCommerce sellers.
Easyship: For international shipment fulfillment, Easyship provides real-time shipping rates, taxes, and customs clearance tools.
Shipwire: Global warehouse management and advanced automation for inventory and shipment order fulfillment.

AI tools for ecommerce

Aritificial Intelligence or AI is now often embedded in many ecommerce tools, with services like predictive analytics, automated marketing, subscriptions, and more. Here are some examples of services using AI tools:

Omnisend: Email marketing software leveraging AI automation and integrations with ecommerce sites like WordPress and Shopify to boost CRM and assist with repertivie tasks.
Hotjar: Offers AI powered heatmaps, replays, funnels and surveys to help ecommerce brands develop their online stores based on real customer insights and site interaction data.
Mailchimp: Intuit Mailchimp works with data and AI to enhance email marketing products and services, offering ecommerce brands solutions for more personalized and targeted marketing campaigns.
Hootsuite: Social media marketing site using AI to assist with strategy and customer insights.

AI tools can help ecommerce businesses beyond just speeding up workflows; AI can also help anticipate future trends and make real-time adjustments that impact overall business efficiency, customer experience, and revenue.

Optimize ecommerce finances with Slash

Ecommerce tools can be extremely helpful, and leveraging the right tools alongside financial software can help your ecommerce business keep up with fulfillments and customer needs. Between ecommerce tools, analytics, and automated software, Slash offers a financial management solution that offering solutions to ecommerce needs with the tools to grow and build your brand.

Slash stands out as an ecommerce tool by letting you:

Access working capital to cover ecommerce costs like ads, inventory, and fulfillment.
Manage USD payments in 100+ countries with Slash’s Global USD.
Receive payouts from major ecommerce platforms like Shopify and Stripe.
Handle stablecoins and wires through secure global accounts.
Integrate seamlessly with QuickBooks, Xero, and payment gateways
Mutli-entity support and analytics for ecommerce brands with separate divisions or multiple entities.

Slash provides robust, all-in-one solutions for ecommerce brands to streamline finances and operations, removing challenges of juggling multiple management tools.

Learn more about how Slash can help your ecommerce business at slash.com/industries/ecommerce.

Frequently asked questions

How do ecommerce payment tools differ from financial tools?

Ecommerce payment tools can function similarly to financial tools, but their purpose may be slightly different. Payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe are focused on enabling secure, digital checkouts and transaction for ecommerce stores. Financial tool like Slash, however, focus on a broader range of business management tools, covering expense management, accounting, capital access, and more.

Can ecommerce tools integrate?

Yes. Slash, a financial and ecommerc-business management tools, integrates with a number of ecommerce platforms like Shopfiy or WooCommerce, supporting integration with payment gateways, inventory management, analytics tools, and financial solutions. Slash also itnegrates with accounting software including QuickBooks and Xero. All-in-one, Slash offers a well-equipped tool for handling ecommerce workflows from checkout to accounting.

What are the typical costs associated with payment processing?

There are several potential and typical costs associated with payment processing. For example, Stripe and PayPal charge fees per transaction, with additional fees for international payments or other specific reimbursements or chargebacks. Other costs may include bank transfer fees, card network charges, international, or expedited shipping fees