15+ Amazing eCommerce Tools and Technologies to Explore
There are tons of great eCommerce technologies that people often dismiss. Maybe they’re simply used to the products and ideas that already work. Sometimes they’re simply unaware that a particular technology exists or is even available. There are tons of great software products out there that can greatly improve the performance of your store and its conversion rates, as well as its lead generation potential.
Some of these are on the rise, others are already well established. We’ve gathered a list of products, which store owners and eCommerce professionals can adopt for their business. These products represent the up and coming eCommerce tech trends that your business needs to test drive. This list also points to some of the under-appreciated technologies and tools. It’s worth trying them out to learn whether they really work for your particular business in 2016.
Site Optimization with Lazy Loading
This particular technology allows elements on a page to be loaded when they’re needed during scrolling. Basically, only the elements that the user actually sees get to be loaded. With this approach the whole page isn’t loaded at once and hence your visitors experience better page performance. If you combine this with, for example, Cloudinary image optimization, your pages will load even faster. This tech is great for sites that employ long pages with tons of blocks that the user needs to scroll through. Here are some solutions that work specifically with Magento:
If you’re a techy - you might want to take a look at jQuery Unveil or Lazy Load Plugin for jQuery. If you’re using any other eCommerce platform just google ‘lazy loading X’, where ‘X’ is the name of your platform. There should be solutions that will work for you, especially if your store is hosted on a popular platform, like Wordpress.
Embrace Mobile Marketing
As you know, mobile marketing is on the rise for many reasons. The younger generations that are now becoming the driving force of consumption are all used to doing things with a mobile device. It’s no longer just communication. It’s shopping, more than anything.
Even if you’re selling to a more mature audience, it’s time to think about the actual penetration of mobile tech through your target audience. Of course, responsive design is a must in today’s world. But it’s not everything you can do to cater to a mobile audience. Apps can be a great tool, especially with properly utilized push notifications.
You can create a custom app for your store or product. But, depending on your requirements, it can be quite pricey. That’s why there are tons of great solutions that help you create apps for your marketing needs for just a fraction of the cost. Here’re some tools that work great with Magento:
These, of course, work with other platform and there are many platform specific tools that can work for your specific online store.
Social Media Ad Buys and Integration
No, we’re not talking about the usual Facebook Ads that aren’t that effective for lots of businesses, especially if you compare to Adwords or other search engine platforms.
We’re talking about other platforms that you haven’t considered before. Tools that aren’t that popular or haven’t yet entered the mainstream of social media marketing. But first you need to make sure that your store is connected to social networks. Social Suite offers integration with the most popular social media platforms. There are alternatives, which you can check out that are free or less expensive.
Here’re two advertising platforms that you might have missed before:
Pinterest Ads - an alternative to Instagram advertising, which could work better for you.
Reddit Advertisement - thousands of communities that cover practically any niche of human interest, from quantum physics to bronies. Great place to find people interested in your product.
Exit-Intent Technologies
These solutions allow you to register visitor’s activity on the page and predict whether they’re going to abandon your website. Usually this is done by tracking their mouse movements on the screen or other signals. Based on their activity you can then offer them something: a discount, a sample product or an opportunity to sign up for your newsletter, etc.
There are tons of solutions and they use different algorithms to predict these events. But, usually, they’re very effective at giving you a second chance to convert a visitor, who might have been lost at that point.
The following solutions work great with Magento, as well as other eCommerce platforms:
Why are these any better than regular popups that you could do yourself? These tools offer better analytics, design/ modification options and usually come pre-packaged with best practices for these types of marketing tactics.
Real-time Analytics
You’ve probably seen one or another form of real-time analysis. For example, Google Analytics offers real-time reporting. Over the past couple of years, a lot more tools have developed, which allow you to gather analytical data from your website in real time. So what are the applications of this technology? Think of it as weather reporting. Imagine, if meteorologists weren’t able to predict upcoming storms or hurricanes? That would cause a lot more damage than it normally does. Meteorologists do exactly this - take a look at large sets of data (winds, cyclone patterns) and predict their further development and vectors.
This approach could be crucial for your day-to-day business practices. For example, real-time analytical tools work great for retailers that bank on holiday sales or specific events, like Black Friday. This data allows you to better manage your stock and, in general, make more accurate management decisions on the spot.
This is also true for new promotions that you may be launching, because it allows you to determine right away, if specific tactics are valuable and lead to conversions/ sales. Some of these tools also allow you to record customer activities and visualize their behavior on your pages.
Some great real-time analytical tools, which you should check out:
You still have plenty of time until the next high-sales period (winter holidays, summer holidays) to make the necessary adjustments and test these tools properly.
Beacons
This technology is a mix of brick-and-mortar sales with mCommerce. You’ve probably heard or iBeacon by Apple. The terms ‘beacon’ and ibeacon’ are practically interchangeable. Here’s a short and sweet article that explains this technology. If you’re selling offline than this tech is definitely worth trying out. It allows you to interact with your customers on a whole new level by offering them highly targeted ads and promos that should greatly improve your offline conversions.
Some tools that are worth checking out, if you want to try out this technology:
Some of these make their own beacons - the hardware necessary to run this technology. But you can easily find manufacturers online - the link above to Google Beacons contains a handy list of manufacturers. If you want to stay updated on the latest news about beacons - we definitely recommend iBeacon.com.
What other kinds of technologies do you think are worth checking out in 2016? Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below!
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