If you are running an eCommerce business, then you have probably heard about the importance of having a good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.
CRM is considered as one of the most important tools in running a successful eCommerce business.
In this article we will talk about how to choose the best CRM for start-up eCommerce businesses so that you can get started quickly with your new business venture.
8 Ways to Choose the Best CRM for a Start-up Ecommerce Business
The importance of choosing the best CRM for a start-up ecommerce business can have a significant impact on the success of the business. Let’s explore the key takeaways.
1. Know Your Needs
The first step in choosing the best CRM for a start-up eCommerce business is knowing your needs. You need to know what you’re trying to achieve. The goals of your company and its products, who its customers are and how many there are, what competitors are doing that might affect sales (and therefore sales), what resources you have available (time, money, etc.), and so on.
The more time-consuming part of this process will be understanding how each tool fits into the rest of your business processes.
How people interact with each other within their own departments; whether they share data across multiple systems. If they use one or many different tools throughout their day-to-day activities.
2. Consider the Cost
Cost is a big consideration when choosing the best CRM system for your business.
- Cost of CRM system: This is the most obvious one, but it’s also one that can be difficult to determine. The good news is that there are many free and low-cost options available if you choose to go with one of these systems over an expensive paid solution. Unfortunately, those free options aren’t always going to be as feature-rich or reliable as their paid counterparts. This might not be ideal for businesses that need extensive support or training around their software (e.g., using both Google Docs/Sheets and Salesforce).
- Cost of support: Support costs may vary depending on what kind of service plan you choose (e-mailed responses vs phone calls) and how much support time each year would cost per user under each plan type (per hour vs per call). While some companies offer unlimited email responses at no charge. It requires only $20/hour per user per year with no additional setup fees. Its setup costs are involved; others will charge based on total number calls made during any given month/year period which can range anywhere from $100-$200+.
3. Look at the Features
Choosing the right CRM for your business is an important decision. When you choose a system, it’s important to consider how well it will meet your needs and what features it has that can make your life easier.
Keys to look at the features of CRM for eCommerce
- Customer data management
- Sales and marketing automation
- Order management and fulfillment
- Multi-channel support
- Integration with other tools/platforms
- Analytics and reporting
- Mobile accessibility
- Customer service and support
- Personalization and customization
- Security and data privacy.
4. Analyze the Competitors
You should also analyze the competitors. Look at their features, see what they offer and how much it costs them. You can compare this with your needs and requirements, which will help you find out if it’s worth investing in a CRM at all or not.
Tips to analyze the competitors CRM features:
- Study their website and product offerings
- Research customer reviews and feedback
- Look at the integrations and partnerships they have
- Analyze their pricing and pricing models
- Observe their sales and marketing strategies
- Check for case studies and success stories
- Check for any awards or recognition in the industry
- Monitor their social media and blog for updates and new features
- Attend industry events and webinars to stay updated
- Sign up for a trial or demo to experience their product firsthand.
5. All-in-one Solution or Custom Solutions
When you’re just getting started, it’s tempting to choose an all-in-one solution. You’ll save money by not having to purchase additional software and services for your CRM.
However, when you’re doing business with dozens or hundreds of customers and vendors, custom solutions may be more cost effective in the long run. They allow you to customize how each entity is handled from a technical standpoint.
For example, if one vendor has 100 different products available on their website but only 10% of those items have been ordered by anyone so far this year (and therefore have no sales history).
It makes sense that they would need a more extensive data management platform than if they had sold over 100 units already this year. If those orders came through directly through eCommerce platforms such as Amazon or Shopify.
However if these companies were selling through direct channels like eBay instead then there wouldn’t be nearly as many orders coming through at once. Which would make investing in an expensive CRM system unnecessary since fewer people will actually use it anyway!
6. Reporting and Analytics
When you’re starting a new business, it’s important to know how much money your customers are spending and what they’re doing with it. You can use reporting and analytics tools to help you understand how your business is performing. So that you can make informed decisions.
Reporting will give you insights into the performance of each part of your company–from marketing efforts to customer service activities. It allows for better long-term planning.
If there are areas where improvements could be made in terms of pricing or product offerings (or both), this data will provide an important tool for making those changes quickly.
Reporting also allows managers at all levels within an organization to see how things are going across departments and locations.
This lets them work together towards common goals without having everyone feel like they need permission from someone else before doing anything worthwhile!
7. Social Media Integration
It is an important part of your CRM because it helps you to stay in touch with your customers. If a customer interacts with you on social media, it will display in your system as well.
This makes it easier for them to find out what products or services they can buy from you and also encourages them to keep coming back to the website again and again.
There are several ways that social media integrations work:
- You can integrate with platforms like Facebook or Twitter so that users will see their message appear when they interact with another person’s comment or post on their page; this way no one has any trouble finding out how much other people like them!
- Some systems allow users who mention certain keywords within comments written by others (such as “I love this product”), which may help increase conversion rates due to increased exposure through these mentions/mentions which leads us back into our first point. Providing value within each interaction instead of just selling products directly at every opportunity we get.
8. Integrate With Other Systems
A CRM system should be able to integrate with other systems, such as accounting, sales and marketing. This will help the company to improve customer experience and business efficiency.
CRMs are also used in companies that have multiple teams working together on projects or tasks.
You may not want your CRM system to be the only place where everyone knows their details because if someone forgets his/her login details then there is no way they can access any information stored in that system.
How Can CRM Help You in eCommerce?
CRM can help you manage your customer relationships, sales, marketing and inventory. It will also help you in shipping and other operational tasks that are required for a successful business.
It helps businesses track their customers’ interactions with them. So, they can provide better service or respond to them. It also gives an overview of what actions have been taken by whom at any given point in time during their relationship with the company.
The data collected from this tool should be used for future planning purposes so that the business does not miss out on opportunities. It doesn’t know where its customers are located or what they do most often when visiting online shops like yours!
Ways CRM help you in eCommerce:
- Improved customer experience and satisfaction.
- Increased sales and conversion rates.
- Better customer retention and loyalty.
- Increased efficiency and productivity.
- Improved data management and analysis.
- Enhanced sales and marketing strategies.
- Better customer service and support.
- Personalized and targeted marketing.
- Improved multi-channel support.
- Streamlined order management and fulfillment.
Why is HubSpot an Ideal CRM for an Ecommerce Start-up?
HubSpot is a cloud-based CRM solution that has a free plan and trial, with an optional paid plan. You can use HubSpot to manage your entire marketing and sales operations. So, you don’t have to spend time on it.
With HubSpot, you can connect all of your social media accounts into one place and gain insight into which channels are working best for your business.
HubSpot also offers free analytics tools to help you keep track of how many visitors came through each channel and how long they spent on each page of the site before they clicked out again (or converted).
It also allows users who want more advanced reporting capabilities than what’s offered in the basic version (which includes basic segmentation) access via an upgrade offering additional features like user interaction tracking across multiple channels at once.
Something that would be helpful if someone else manages some aspect of their website but doesn’t know what kinds of things might need improving there yet!
Reasons to choose HubSpot an ideal CRM:
- All-in-one platform for sales, marketing, and customer service.
- Free and scalable plan options.
- User-friendly interface and easy integration.
- Strong analytical and reporting capabilities.
- Robust lead management and nurturing tools.
- Advanced personalization and segmentation features.
- Multi-channel support and integrations with other tools.
- Comprehensive knowledge base and customer support.
- Regular software updates and feature improvements.
- Large user community and strong reputation in the industry.
Conclusion
We hope this article has helped you understand all the possible ways to choose the best CRM system for your eCommerce business.
Hopefully, it will help you make a decision and start using a system that will be effective in the long term. If you want to get the best experience then HubSpot CRM can be an ideal choice to manage everything automatically.
Sign Up HubSpot and boost your eCommerce start-up business faster.
