When customers shop online, they provide e-commerce companies with a lot of information about their personal details and activities. For e-commerce business owners, this can be both an opportunity and a burden. On one hand, you have access to a large amount of information that you can use to improve your sales and marketing operations. On the other hand, organizing, storing, and analyzing large quantities of consumer information is a daunting task, and your data is of no use if it exceeds your capacity to process it.
What is an E-commerce CRM System?
An E-commerce Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a tool that helps online businesses collect, organize, and analyze customer information. CRM systems track customer progress through sales channels, manage sales and marketing campaigns, and serve as a repository for all the data collected about customers across multiple platforms and touchpoints such as your online store and your social media channels.
Customers provide their information, make purchases, and log into e-commerce accounts at different parts of the e-commerce platform. They may also provide an email address to receive a discount, create an account to make a payment, or shop directly from a social media page. A CRM system can help you link these disparate interactions to a single customer, making it easier for different departments in your business to analyze customer data more comprehensively and provide a cohesive customer experience for external users of your platforms.
Functions of E-commerce CRM Software
The primary function of a CRM tool is to assist businesses in collecting and storing customer data in a central location where you and your team members can easily access it. CRM tools can also help you analyze customer information, communicate with your team, and take sales or marketing actions based on insights about your customer base. Here’s an overview of the key functions of a CRM system:
- Contact Management: CRM tools can gather and store contact data for both current customers and potential leads. This includes basic contact information (such as name, job title, and email address), customer history, and customer engagement data. An e-commerce CRM system can also automatically track customer interactions and store information including service call history and marketing engagement data.
- Communication Management: CRM systems provide a central source of information, ensuring that sales teams, marketing teams, and customer support teams all work from the same data. Some CRM systems also include tools to help teams communicate about customer data, such as in-platform messaging, file sharing, and content.
- Lead Management: An e-commerce CRM can support your sales process by facilitating the monitoring of engagement data and using it to track customer progress through the sales funnel.
- Sales and Marketing Campaign Management: An e-commerce CRM can help you design and execute sales and marketing campaigns by targeting customers based on demographic criteria and specific activities.
- Automation: Sales automation, which allows the sales team to streamline tasks such as sales forecasting, making sales calls, and following up with leads, is an important feature provided by CRM systems. You can also use CRM systems to create automated workflows to handle various marketing operations, such as sending marketing emails, segmenting customers to reach targeted categories, and directing personalized and targeted efforts.
- Reporting and Analytics: CRM systems can generate reports on sales and marketing metrics and help you analyze consumer data. Analytical CRM systems can help you identify patterns in customer data, which you can use to enhance the customer experience and increase customer retention rates.
What
It should be searched for in the e-commerce CRM tool
Different CRM tools vary in features, pricing points, and intended functionality. Here are some categories to consider when choosing the best e-commerce CRM software tool for your business:
Ease of Use
Some CRM systems have a steeper learning curve than others. Choosing an e-commerce CRM system that features an intuitive user interface can help you recognize it more quickly – and also make the time you and your team members spend on the CRM platform more enjoyable. If your team is always on the go, you may also be looking for a platform that offers a mobile CRM option.
Features
Different CRM software offers different sets of tools and features, and the right tool for you depends on your specific business needs. Here are four main types of CRM features:
- Communication tools: These include in-app messaging, file sharing and storage, email and calendar syncing.
- Sales tools: Sales automation tools that can perform tasks such as sales forecasting, creating a sales pipeline, and qualifying leads.
- Marketing tools: Marketing tools include email marketing, customer segmentation, attribution modeling, social media integration, and marketing campaign and advertisement management.
- Reporting and analytics tools: Reporting dashboards, custom reports, sales and marketing analytics.
Integration and Channels
Look for a platform that integrates with your e-commerce site and with any other critical tools or systems, such as major social commerce channels and your inventory management software. If you are selling or marketing on multiple channels – for example, from your online store, through e-commerce marketplaces, and from a physical retail store – look for a CRM system that can collect and sync data across channels.
Pricing Structure
Find a CRM system that fits your budget, taking into account the total cost and pricing structure. Many CRM providers offer multiple tiers of products, reserving advanced features for higher-level plans or limiting the number of contacts or users in lower-cost options.
Customer Support
CRM tools can be complex. A platform that offers quality onboarding resources, a self-service customer support library, and high-quality customer support services can help you maximize the use of your CRM tool.
How to Choose an E-commerce CRM Tool
The right e-commerce CRM software tool for your business depends on your business size, budget, and specific goals. These steps can help you choose the best CRM software for your e-commerce company:
- Define your budget: The first step in choosing e-commerce CRM software is to define your budget. Most CRM systems are billed on a monthly basis, so take a look at your overall marketing budget and determine what you can afford in expenses. In fact, using a CRM system should lead to increased net profits, but that doesn’t mean you should stretch your budget too thin too soon. Many CRM systems offer tiered plans designed to help businesses start small and scale over time.
- Define your goals: Next, outline your main goals for using a CRM system. Your CRM goals can be short-term objectives or more detailed gradual goals that contribute to your overall business objectives. For example, if one of your business goals is to increase sales by 20% in the upcoming fiscal year, you might set sub-goals to reduce customer churn by 10% and increase traffic to your online store by 30%.
- Choose the type of CRM: Modern e-commerce CRM platforms can help you organize and process information, communicate across internal teams, support sales and marketing efforts, and generate data-driven insights about your customer base. This offers a wide range of capabilities, and many CRM systems are designed to specialize in one of these areas. CRM systems are often categorized as either collaborative, operational, or analytical based on the functions they emphasize. Here’s an overview of each type:
- Collaborative:
- Collaborative CRM systems emphasize internal communication based on customer data. Collaborative CRM systems can provide advanced communication tools within the platform to help customer support, marketing, and sales teams work from the same data.
- Operational: Operational CRM systems are designed to support business processes such as running email marketing campaigns or directing customer support requests to the appropriate department. Operational CRM functions also include workflow automation, lead management, and managing sales and marketing campaigns.
- Analytical: Analytical CRM systems focus on collecting and analyzing customer data. They can help you gather information about customer behavior and preferences and understand what the data means for your business.
- Prepare your wish list: Based on your goals and the type of CRM you want, create a list of CRM features and functionalities that you consider most important. Include essential features, access requirements, and critical system integration. If your list is long, you can prioritize items or categorize them as “essential” or “nice to have.” For example, it may be essential for your e-commerce CRM to include email personalization features, and nice if it offers a mobile app.
- Conduct research: Next, research different providers. You can request recommendations from other businesses online, read online reviews, or use a search engine to find tool recommendations. Once you have a list of options, take note of each system’s features and pricing and compare the results to your wish list and your budget criteria. It can be difficult to compare tools – CRM systems are complex, and each company presents information differently – but many vendors provide streamlined feature lists on their pricing tier pages.
- Identify options and request demos: Choose three or four options that meet your needs and request demos from sales representatives. Many CRM systems offer free trials, but there is usually a learning curve – and even if you are familiar with a specific CRM, you will need to upload company and customer information to take advantage of it. Demos can help you get a sense of how to use a specific CRM system without a significant time investment.
- Start the trial period: Once you have reviewed your options, choose the best CRM platform and prepare to start the free trial (if available). Ask your sales representative about the type of onboarding support you can expect and what happens if you decide to cancel during the trial. Take advantage of any provided executive support, and commit to using the CRM extensively during the trial period to ensure that you have made the right choice for your business.
Frequently Asked Questions about E-commerce CRM
What is a CRM system?
A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a tool that helps businesses collect, organize, and analyze customer information, track customer progress through sales channels, and manage sales and marketing campaigns.
Do I need a CRM system for my e-commerce business?
While it is not necessary to have a CRM solution to run your e-commerce business, using one can help increase efficiency, improve customer satisfaction, and boost sales.
What is the best CRM tool for e-commerce?
The right CRM software tool for your e-commerce business depends on your business size, budget, and specific goals. CRM systems come with a broad range of features and are often categorized as either collaborative, operational, or analytical based on the functions they emphasize.
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