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8 Best Ecommerce Marketing Tools in 2023 (Free & Paid)

Jun 12, 2023 - By Camilla Mackeviciute

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Ecommerce sales in the US for 2022 surpassed $1 trillion for the first time ever. 

While this ‘ecommerce revolution’ is a fact, what’s also true are real problems that ecommerce businesses, including the most successful ones, often struggle with.

Driving quality traffic, effective targeting for maximum conversions, poor metrics visibility, and a highly competitive marketplace are all factors that challenge ecommerce business operations daily.

In this guide, we unveil the top ecommerce marketing tools of 2023 that can help your ecommerce store or business leverage martech innovations to run their sales and online marketing processes better, leading to fewer missed opportunities, cost-effective customer acquisition, increased sales, and vastly improved ROI.

Why Are Ecommerce Marketing Tools Necessary?

Ecommerce marketing tools are a must for ecommerce businesses to stand out, market better, and sell more in this increasingly startup-eat-startup world.

The right ecommerce marketing tool can help your business with:

  • Reduced customer acquisition costs;
  • Improved scalability through automation;
  • Boosted conversion rates;
  • Faster product launches;
  • Increased sales;
  • Improved customer experience;
  • Saving time, money, and manual resources;
  • Better ROI while scaling;
  • Data-backed, dynamic decision-making.

What’s not to like about being able to solve your marketing bottlenecks faster and better? 

Especially given that even the most mediocre of ecommerce marketing tools can measurably change both the effectiveness and efficiency of your online advertising

Our Recommendations for the Top Ecommerce Marketing Tools — Quick Preview

Take a sneak peek at our juiciest recommendations from the table below:

Platform NameBrief DescriptionPricing
SenderEmail Marketing Automation ToolFree forever plan includes 2,500 subscribers & 15,000 emails/mo + Unlimited popups, forms & email automation;
Paid plans start from $8.33/mo for 2,500 contacts.
ShopifyEcommerce Website BuilderFree 3-day, fully-featured trial;
Paid plans start at $26/mo.
ClickUpEcommerce Marketing PlannerFree forever plan includes 100MB storage & unlimited tasks;
Paid plan starts at $5 per member/mo, Including unlimited storage and more.
HootsuiteSocial Media Scheduling SolutionNo free tier, only a 30-day trial;
Paid plan starts from $99/mo and includes 1 user, 10 social accounts, unlimited posts, 1 shared inbox, and more.
RefersionAffiliate and Influencers SoftwareNo free tier, only a 14-day trial;
Paid plan starts from $99/mo for a max of 50 monthly order conversions.
HubspotEcommerce Inbound Marketing PlatformFree plan allows 1 active automation, up to 5 active email lists & max of 2,000 emails/ mo;
Paid plans start from $45/mo for 1,000 contacts, 25 active email lists and a max of 5,000 emails/ mo. No HubSpot branding.
SEMrushContent Marketing Management SystemNo free tier, only 30-day trial;
Paid plans start from $99.95/mo. Includes 5 projects, 500 keywords tracking, 10,000 results per report, and more.
Eagle
Marketing Inspiration Collector

$29.95 for a lifetime license. With a 30-day free trial, no update fees forever.

Now let’s take a look at each of these marketing platforms and take note of the best they bring to the table.

8 Must-Have Marketing Tools for Your Business

Ecommerce marketing tools can help make marketing an ecommerce store easier. 

But having to choose one from hundreds, with each of them claiming superiority over the others, is anything but a cakewalk.

We have curated the following marketing platforms that we believe can make a huge difference to both the effectiveness and the efficiency of your ecom store.

Without further ado, let’s dive in.

1. Sender — Email Marketing Automation Tool

Sender is one of the leading all-in-one marketing automation tool designed to help ecommerce businesses create and send high-converting marketing campaigns with ease. It offers a rare blend of high performance, feature-richness, and affordability.

  • Premade design templates;
  • Drag-and-drop email builder;
  • Email and SMS automation.
sender_logo

Borrow from the library of premade templates or create your own branded HTML designs from scratch using the no-code email design tool. Design laser-targeted email campaigns with powerful segmentation capabilities while still maintaining a high degree of ecommerce personalization.

Plan fully automated email & SMS workflows that respond on auto-pilot to specific user behavior, events, or event-specific dates. 

Choose from pre-existing automation recipes such as welcome series, drip campaigns, and abandoned cart series, or build your own automation flows using Sender’s drag-and-drop automation builder in no time.

Sender’s Key Features

  • Drag-and-drop email editor;
  • No-code popup and form editor;
  • Easy-to-use automation builder;
  • Automation sequences such as welcome emails, abandoned cart, post-purchase, happy birthday, and more; 
  • Email & SMS broadcast capabilities;
  • High deliverability through strict anti-spam and anti-affiliate policies.

Sender Pros & Cons

ProsCons
Easy learning curveNo landing page builder (in progress)
Better deliverability due to anti-spam policies and high-quality infrastructureSender logo in the free forever plan
Unlimited email automation in the free forever plan

Sender Plans & Pricing

Free Forever planStandard plan (from $8/mo)Pro plan (from $29)
2,500 contacts2,500 contacts2,500 contacts
15,000 emails/mo30,000 emails/mo60,000 emails/mo
Unlimited popups & formsUnlimited popups & formsUnlimited popups & forms
Unlimited email automationUnlimited email automationUnlimited email & SMS automation
SMS marketingAnimated countdown timers
No ‘Sender’ brandingSurvey & feedback blocks, and more!

Sender is a versatile and cost-effective ecommerce marketing tool that supports businesses in every step of the customer journey. It enables businesses to efficiently attract, nurture, convert, and retain prospective customers. 

By streamlining the entire customer lifecycle, Sender helps businesses to build stronger relationships with their customers and drive more sales.


2. Shopify — Ecommerce Website Builder

When it comes to ecommerce marketing platforms, it’s hard to leave out one that powers close to 6.5 million online stores across 175 countries.

Yes, Shopify is among the more popular solutions that online product businesses rely on to design, host, and run their stores.

  • Drag-and-drop ecommerce site builder;
  • Rich POS (Point of Sale) compatibility;
  • 8,000+ themes, apps, and integrations.
Shopify_logo

Use Shopify’s easy-to-use, drag-and-drop WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) website builder to create fully functional, high-converting store sites in no time with zero coding knowledge. What’s more, high-performance, secure hosting is included in all Shopify plans.

Shopify offers complete ecommerce management features, letting you add, market, and sell products, manage stock & inventory, process incoming payments, and manage both transactional and marketing communications easily from one powerful interface.

Add an unlimited number of products to your online store, provide personalized recommendations, customer store themes, and more while easily integrating into existing or latest point of sale (POS) systems with easy.

Shopify’s Key Features

Shopify is more than just another ecommerce hosting site. It is a complete living and breathing ecosystem that brings your ecommerce venture to life.

Its major features include:

  • Drag-and-drop WYSIWYG website builder;
  • Add unlimited products to the storefront;
  • Wide range of free and paid store themes;
  • Centralized inventory tracking;
  • Integrated marketing features: Content marketing, SEO, Targeted ads, and Social media;
  • Free tools including Logo maker, Business name generator, Slogan maker, QR code generator, and more;
  • Comprehensive analytics & reporting.

Shopify’s Pros & Cons

ProsCons
User-friendly, no-code store builderLimited customizability & flexibility in design
Responsive, eye-catching templatesHigher transaction fees
Powerful apps ecosystemAdvanced features involve paid third-party apps

Shopify Plans & Pricing

You can try Shopify, fully-featured, free for up to 3 days. After this 3-day free trial expires, you can choose from paid plans starting at $26/mo.

In conclusion, Shopify is a high-performance, hosted, all-in-one ecommerce ecosystem that enables businesses of all sizes to develop an online store with minimal effort. 

Also read: 9 Best Ecommerce Hosting Sites in 2023


3. ClickUp — Ecommerce Marketing Planner

Not one of the typical ecommerce marketing tools, ClickUp is a versatile productivity management and planning platform that helps ecommerce stores streamline their marketing processes and campaigns through planning, scheduling, tracking, and collaborating better.

  • Goals tracking;
  • Time tracking;
  • Documentation management.
clickup_logo

Plan, schedule, and assign marketing campaign tasks while ensuring complete visibility across stakeholders, thereby ensuring on-time and with-quality deliverables every single time.

Create customizable, shareable dashboards to monitor the progress of your marketing campaigns while ensuring a steady eye on key performance metrics.

Save time and effort by deploying workflow automation to automate repetitive tasks and use task management to assign, prioritize and manage subtasks easily.

Use the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) feature to create custom views to track customer lifetime value, average deal sizes, and more. Lastly, integrate with other marketing tools for social media management, email marketing, and analytics, injecting data-driven insights into your marketing strategies. 

ClickUp’s Key Features

  • Workload, Milestones & Goals tracking and measurement;
  • Time tracking, estimates, and reporting;
  • Rich collaboration features, including screen recording;
  • 35+ ClickApps to customize task management;
  • Drag-and-drop form builder;
  • Nested subtasks & checklists;
  • Real-time reporting & dashboards.

ClickUp Pros & Cons

ProsCons
Customization capabilitiesCan be overwhelming to get started with
Prebuilt templates & automation Limited free plan
Deep visibility into projects, tasks, time, and workloadsOccasional bugs

ClickUp Plans & Pricing

Free Forever planPaid plans (start at $5)
100MB storageEverything from the Free Forever plan
Unlimited tasks and membersUnlimited storage, integrations and dashboards
Collaborative docs, whiteboards, and kanban boardsGuests with permissions
Sprint managementUnlimited Gantt charts, custom fields
Time trackingTeams, goals & portfolios, agile reporting
Calendar viewEmail in ClickUp, form view

To ensure profitability and sustainability, it is crucial to run your ecommerce venture with maximal efficiency. Using ecommerce marketing tools, such as ClickUp, is an excellent way to streamline your efforts by being able to track time, monitor tasks, and gain overall visibility into the productivity of your marketing campaigns.


4. Hootsuite — Social Media Scheduling Solution

Hootsuite is a social media management tool that helps ecommerce businesses to manage their social media presence more efficiently by scheduling and publishing content across multiple social media platforms, monitoring engagement, and tracking performance, all from one neat dashboard.

  • Shared inbox conversations;
  • Bulk social media scheduler;
  • AI hashtag generator.
Hootsuite_logo

Hootsuite not only suggests the best times to post on social media, but its bulk social media scheduler also lets you plan hundreds of posts ahead of time. 

Use unified inbox management to manage conversations across multiple social networks from one dashboard and respond quickly to followers. You can assign messages to team members or even set up automated message responses to answer the most common questions your prospects ask.

Use social listening to monitor social media conversations, keywords, and mentions related to your brand, competitors, or industry trends. 

Benefit from Canva templates, Grammarly spellcheck, content discovery streams, and more to create on-brand, high-quality content that sells more.

Hootsuite’s Key Features

  • Create and publish content across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn management from one dashboard;
  • Social listening streams for mentions of specific keywords, your own or competitor brand names;
  • Content ideas generator;
  • In-built Grammarly spellcheck;
  • Automated DM (Direct Message) replies;
  • Paid advertising campaigns management;
  • Reputation management.

Hootsuite Pros & Cons

ProsCons
Automated social media posting across multiple platformsCan be overwhelming to start
Faster replies using the unified inbox featureMore expensive than other social media platforms
Easy to learn and useLittle to no customer support for lower-tier plans

Hootsuite Plans & Pricing

Hootsuite offers a free 30-day trial of paid plans.

Professional plan ($99/mo)Team plan ($249/mo)Business plan ($739/mo)Enterprise plan (custom price)
1 user, 10 social accounts3 users, 20 social accounts5 users, 35 social accountsFrom 5 users and 50 social accounts
Unlimited postsEverything in Professional planEverything in Team planEverything in Business plan
Post schedulingRoles & permissionsApproval workflowsSocial ads management
Access to messages in one inboxAssign posts to team membersInbound/outbound taggingSocial ads analytics & reporting
Content & asset libraryEmployee advocacy
Customer supportTeam productivity reporting

5. Refersion — Affiliate and Influencers Software

Affiliate marketing and referrals are crucial for ecommerce businesses looking to expand their reach and drive sales. 

Refersion is an all-in-one affiliate and referral marketing platform that enables businesses to manage their influencer and affiliate programs across multiple channels, including Amazon Marketplace and DTC channels powered by Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce.

  • Integrates with Amazon Marketplace, Shopify, BigCommerce & WooCommerce;
  • Custom commission structures per product;
  • Free listing in Refersion’s marketplace.
refersion_logo

Easily design and manage affiliate programs, track sales and commissions, and gain performance insights into your affiliate marketing campaigns.

Manage multiple partnerships with publishers, including networks, editorial and media sites, newsletters, blogs, and all types of influencers, from one easy-to-access interface.

Use affiliate discovery tools to find top-performing affiliates and publishers and use custom commission structures, automated payouts, and multiple payment options to build trusting and transparent relationships with them.

Refersion is a great choice for businesses looking to easily onboard and manage unlimited affiliates and track their performance with built-in reporting for all campaigns across brand ambassadors, influencers, and affiliate programs.

Refersion’s Key Features

  • Enables affiliate, ambassador & influencer marketing partnerships;
  • Track sales with referral links, coupon codes, emails, and product SKUs;
  • Rich affiliate discovery network of over 3.6M premium publishers;
  • Unlimited affiliates, campaigns, clicks, and brand partnerships;
  • Tiered and incentive-based commission rates;
  • Advanced commission structures by product or SKU;
  • Offer tracking by unique coupon codes, emails, links & product SKU;
  • 30+ turnkey marketing app integrations.

Refersion Pros & Cons

ProsCons
Easy to set up and start usingLimited on-demand reporting
Powerful affiliate tracking and payout featuresOccasionally glitchy and error-prone
Integrates with all major ecommerce platformsNo support for cross-device tracking

Refersion Plans & Pricing

Refersion offers no free plans, only 14-day free trials of paid plans.

Pro plan ($99/mo)Business plan ($249/mo)Enterprise plan (custom price)
Up to 50 monthly order conversionsUp to 200 monthly order conversionsUnlimited monthly order conversions
Amazon integration, Affiliate discovery & more

Overall, Refersion is an excellent tool for ecommerce businesses looking to accelerate their affiliate and referral marketing efforts, reach new audiences, and drive sales. 


6. Hubspot — Ecommerce Inbound Marketing Platform

More than just a software platform, HubSpot is truly a multi-functional, all-in-one business operating system that helps companies fulfill their marketing, sales, service, and operations requirements from one powerful portal.

  • All-in-one platform including Emails, SMS, SEO, Socials, and more;
  • Powerful marketing automation capabilities;
  • No-code website builder.
HubSpot_logo

HubSpot’s online form builder allows businesses to generate leads using custom conversion-ready forms or newsletter popups that are easy to set up on your website.

The user-friendly, drag-and-drop email builder helps create professional-looking email campaigns quickly. Additionally, with access to a template library, creating and sending emails to your customers is a breeze, even if you’ve never done this before.

Lastly, the landing page builder feature allows you to create and test beautiful landing pages that generate leads and look great on any device. At the same time, social media management helps prioritize social interactions for your brand. 

HubSpot’s Key Features

  • User-friendly landing page builder; 
  • Comprehensive CRM management & reporting;
  • Paid ads management;
  • Organic social media marketing management;
  • SEO (Search Engine Optimization) management;
  • Content hosting & management;
  • Video hosting;
  • Email marketing;
  • ABM features.

HubSpot Pros & Cons

ProsCons
Feature-rich all-in-one portalCost-prohibitive unless you’re an enterprise business
Rich resource library for training and guidanceCustomization can be expensive, needs expert help
Good customer supportCan be overwhelming for those starting out

HubSpot Plans & Pricing

HubSpot’s Marketing hub module offers the following plans.

Free planStarter plan (starts at $45)Pro plan (starts at $800)
1 active automation1,000 contacts2,000 contacts
5 active email lists25 active email lists100 active email lists
Max 2,000 emails per monthEmail send limit: 5 times per listOnboarding fee of $3000 is a must
Hubspot brandingNo HubSpot brandingEmail send limit: 10 times per list
Other marketing features with specific limitationsNo HubSpot branding
Social media management

While HubSpot’s strength lies primarily in email marketing, it comes across as an all-around business software that ecommerce ventures could use to attract the right audience, convert visitors into customers, and run complete inbound marketing campaigns at scale.


7. Semrush — Content Marketing Management System

Semrush is a digital marketing platform focused on helping ecommerce businesses improve their online visibility and increase sales through Search Engine Optimization (SEO). 

  • Competitor SEO analysis;
  • Powerful keyword research;
  • Website rank tracking.
semrush_logo

Using the Keyword Magic tool, you can generate thousands of keyword combinations from a single seed keyword and access a keyword toolbox containing over 24 billion keywords.

The Organic Research capability helps identify your competition’s most profitable keywords, optimize your own organic keywords, and win SERPs (Search Engine Ranking Pages) relevant to your target audience.

Backlink Analysis allows businesses to create their own backlink profile and develop strategic link-building campaigns to improve their online visibility further and drive more traffic to their website.

Also, by linking your Google Analytics and Google Search Console accounts, you can analyze all of your website’s data centrally.

Semrush’s Key Features

  • PPC keyword research;
  • SERP tracking;
  • Backlinks analysis;
  • Backlink audit;
  • On-page SEO checker;
  • Local SEO position tracking;
  • Link building;
  • Organic Traffic Insights;
  • Competitor PR monitoring.

Semrush Pros & Cons

ProsCons
In-depth keyword and competitor analysisExpensive
Generous reporting limitsUI & UX is non-intuitive
One of the largest keyword databases (over 24 billion keywords)Data accuracy takes a hit sometimes

Semrush Plans & Pricing

Semrush doesn’t offer a free tier. The best you can get is a 30-day fully functional trial of any of the paid plans below:

Pro plan ($99.95/mo)Guru ($191/mo)Business ($375/mo)
5 projects15 projects40 projects
500 keywords to track1,500 keywords to track5,000 keywords to track
10,000 results per report30,000 results per report50,000 results per report
SEO, social, and PPC toolsAll Pro features plus: Content Marketing toolkit, historical data, multi-location and device tracking, Lookeder Studio integration, and more.All Guru features plus: Share of Voice, extended limits, API access, pLA analytics, free migration from third-party tools, and more.
Competitor analysis, keyword research, website audit, advertising and social media tools, and more.

As an ecommerce business, whether you’re looking to conduct keyword research, analyze competitor strategies, or track your own website’s performance, Semrush offers a comprehensive suite of ecommerce marketing tools to help you achieve your goals. 


8. Eagle — Marketing Inspiration Collector

Eagle is the ultimate resource collection tool for marketers and designers. With its sleek interface and powerful features, Eagle simplifies the process of gathering and organizing marketing and design resources.

  • Easy organization of marketing and design resources
  • Powerful search functionality for quick access to saved materials
  • Wide range of supported file types, including images, videos, and fonts
eagle_logo

Whether it’s images, videos, fonts, bookmarks, or inspiration, Eagle has got you covered. Its intuitive bookmarking system and robust search capabilities make finding and saving resources a breeze. Stay ahead of the competition and unleash your creativity with Eagle!

Eagle’s Key Features

  • Easy bookmarking and organization of marketing and design resources;
  • Powerful search functionality for quick access to saved materials;
  • Wide range of supported file types, including images, videos, and fonts;
  • Intuitive interface for effortless navigation and efficient workflow;
  • Customizable tags and folders for personalized resource management.

Eagle’s Pros & Cons

ProsCons
Sleek interfaceNo mobile app at this moment
Powerful search filterMay take up storage
One-time payment

Eagle Plans & Pricing

Enjoy working with Eagle for a 30-day free trial, fully-featured. Then, you can get a license for a lifetime at $29.95, with no subscriptions or hidden update fees. Don’t miss this opportunity to revolutionize your business with Eagle, the centralized hub for marketing and design materials.

Free to Paid: The Best Ecommerce Marketing Tools for Your Business

Choosing marketing tools for your business is difficult. Especially when they come in all shapes, colors, and sizes like the ones we just reviewed:

  1. Sender — Email Marketing Automation Tool;
  2. Shopify — Ecommerce website Builder;
  3. ClickUp — Ecommerce marketing Planner;
  4. Hootsuite — Social Media Scheduling Solution;
  5. Refersion — Affiliate and Influencers Software;
  6. HubSpot — Ecommerce inbound marketing platform;
  7. Semrush — Content marketing management system;
  8. Eagle — Marketing Inspiration Collector.

Most of these ecommerce marketing tools come with mutually exclusive features. For example, Semrush is hard-focused on SEO, while Sender stands out for its email and SMS campaigns

Therefore it is obvious that you will likely choose more than one platform depending on your ecommerce business’s growth challenges and marketing strategy mix. Here’s to more profitable and high-ROI marketing campaigns in 2023!

Also read: 


Author Bio

Santosh Balakrishnan is a full-time Copywriter and Growth Marketer who loves writing about all things digital marketing. Whether he’s crafting the perfect email campaign or deep in meditation visualizing world peace, you know he’s got his eye on the prize – and it’s always growth.

About author
Camilla is the content wizard who weaves creativity and strategy into every piece she works on. Her expertise lies in crafting impactful content that drives results.

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