SOFTWARE NEEDED

Is that really a surprise? It shouldn't be. I've tested out the likes woocommerce, clickfunnels, magento, bigcommerce, and even some created by other marketers. Nothing compares to the speed and ease of use that Shopify brings to the table for ecom.

If I absolutely had to make a second choice it would be woocommerce, but maintaining a wordpress site is a nightmare and the woocommerce dashboard is still light years away from what shopify has. That being said, if you truly need something incredibly custom that shopify or it's marketplace can't offer, than that would be the go to.

Shopify is going to be hard to beat here as your #1 platform choice. Not to mention customer's are now used to the checkout flow of Shopify. Plus nothing is as sexy and annoying than chaching sounds when trying to have a conversation with a friend.

When I first saw this app in the Shopify app store my jaw dropped. How could this possibly be? Naturally I had to cure my curiosity by installing this app.

I began to calculate how many users they would need to maintain such a massive app. Quite a few. But this app does not disappoint whatsoever and replaces apps you probably are already using.

Thus saving you both money and time (literally). This app also is extremely speedy in comparison to having multiple separate app scripts loading. Anything that can help reduce load time and convert more visitors is something you'll want to look into.

Downside? Well nothing really except I don't think it does enough justice to replace the original Wheelio App. Plus I would feel guilty? The person behind that app has provided so much value in the past. Not to mention the original app has far more integrations and control.

Quickly summarized it properly attributes what FB and Google ads are missing especially with the latest iOS update that is wrecking advertisers worldwide! Thus you can make both FB and Google ads AI "smarter" by feeding them accurate attribution AND cut the real losers and scale the real winners without having to guess. For someone who is data driven, having this problem solved was heavenly.

If you spend any serious amount of money on ads each day you need this. No question about it. Especially if you've got a fair to heavy dose of organic and email traffic too!

If you're a serious marketer by now you've probably heard of one click upsells. The ability to put customers through a post purchase funnel without having to add their payment details again.

Also if you're a fan of clickfunnels and know of their philosophy, you know that these one click upsells are part of the game. You can increase your revenue substantially by simply selling more of the same product they initially purchased at a discount. No need to second guess there.

Also you can create intricate upsells and downsells for relevant products they may be interested in. But increasing revenue is not the only reason why I use Zipify OCU.

I use it to also bypass additional shopify processing fees. This is extremely beneficial for those that aren't using shopify payments and are using services such as stripe or authorize.net. In fact, I remember when I was using Shopify Plus and then discovered Zipify OCU shortly after. It pretty much made my purpose for getting Shopify Plus completely useless (to customize checkout and reduce fees). Basically I threw 24k down the drain when I was in that one year contract.

I must mention that I have tried other similar software too. Because well, I'm an addict. Carthook was fantastic too. However, over the years it has become significantly more expensive and I can no longer justify using it comparing to Zipify OCU.

Anyways, if you're looking to increase revenue and have a slightly customized checkout. Yeah... this is also a no brainer.

Sorry but not sorry. You gotta know your numbers day in and day out. Even the next listing has to do with accounting. But this one gets you a pretty accurate overview of your net profit each day.

Hopefully it's positive but this allows you to refresh in real time to see where you're sitting at. Pretty much a must have if you do any sort of manual bidding. Having that peace of mind of being able to check at anytime is godsend.

Ordermetrics easily allows you to input your costs of goods sold. Then follow up by adding your FB and google ad accounts to see what your expenses truly are. You can even add snapchat if you'd like!

I'll say this, before ordermetrics existed I was hopeless in trying to calculate my expenses. I did rough estimates and even then it drove me crazy. I could not imagine not having ordermetrics anymore for any e-com store. Plus they got their own app now for iphone and android!

Yeah not exactly sexy and not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of essentials for ecom. But seriously all you gotta do is spend about an hour to setup some rules and automations to automatically mark all your COGS and expenses.

To make it extremely easy, Quickbooks will most likely sync to your bank automagically if you use any well known bank. Thus making the dreaded task of doing taxes at the beginning of the year much easier when you grant access to a CPA.

Quickbooks effectively makes your tax nightmares disappear minus the thought of what you're going to owe. Please do it for your own good coming from someone who learned the hard way. (Imagine going through hundreds of thousands of transactions on PAPER statements)

Ever get the feeling that your competitors are clicking your ads on google nonstop on the daily? Ever get the feeling that you're getting robo traffic? Yeah, had those feelings too. Past tense.

That's where ClickCease comes into play. They monitor your google ad traffic to ensure you aren't paying extra for this nonsense traffic. This includes the ability to block specific IP addresses, ranges, and even unique devices.

The reality is, sometimes your competitors have nothing better to do than waste your adspend. This is the world we live in unfortunately. Now ClickCease can get refunds for you on your behalf and it's extremely easy to setup and get going.

Did you roll your eyes? Maybe you did if you know of Klaviyo but for those who don't, it's an email marketing software for e-com. The best one at that hands down.

Yes, I've used others like Mailchimp, CM Commerce (formerly conversio and formerly receiptful), Convertkit, Drip, Aweber, and more! They just can't play on the same level as Klaviyo does for E-commerce. Others are fine for none ecom and I'd argue the only one that is playing "catch up" right now is CM Commerce.

All I have to say is flows for days. Even if you use default flows and switch around the wording for your brand you're gonna see some pleasant results. Not to mention it plays nice with Zipify OCU's checkout too.

Klaviyo also now supports the ability to do SMS marketing. However, I have not tested this feature yet and have only done SMS marketing through another app. Word on the street is that the SMS rates are a bit on the pricey side.

Speaking of email. There's a new channel to get more emails sent to your favorite email CRM like Klaviyo. In short, they identify your anonymous traffic to get you emails that you don't have.

Better yet? They have a free forever plan for 500 emails/mo. Kind of hard to pass that up. What would an additional 500 emails do for your business?

Yeah, I thought so. I first heard of them through their paid advertising. I have to give props where props are due. They have had an extremely engaging and interesting series of ads. I personally check their ads and browse the comment section because it's been a hilarious ride.

Confused how it works? I was too. But you can learn more on their site. Heck they even have all the information available for your legal team should you be concerned about how email laws work. They're on top of their stuff.

Like the name suggests this software is absolutely gorgeous! Emphasis on saying it like yassss. It's hand's down my favorite customer service management platform. Think of it as zendesk meets live chat meets messenger. Yup synchronize all of your points of contact in a nice and easy to use ticket system.

That also includes responding to comments on FB, and IG as well from your ads. Not to mention, should you have multiple stores for different countries like I do you can connect all your stores to Gorgias.

Also, got a big team? Unlimited users come with all plans. Period. I know customer service isn't the most sexy topic but having good customer service boosts sales, repeat business, and reduces disputes. Which all means more money in your pocket. That's pretty sexy right?

This one is starting to become more known. While not as well known as the likes of transferwise it does offer much better rates and sometimes non existent rates depending on the type of transaction.

Got no idea what it is? It's a way to send money domestically or internationally without using your bank's crazy wire fees. It's become a favorite to use especially for when I deal with international suppliers. Many times Suppliers don't want to use Paypal because of the fees.

One of the best solutions is to offer to pay through VEEM to save both parties hefty fees that cut into profits. To date, I have never had trouble convincing a supplier to join. 

Not exactly a software but it's used by software and makes your site blazing fast without having to worry about compressing images. Not to mention the turbo theme looks professional and is highly customizable.

I've even gone as far as hiring a developer to make modifications to this theme for my own custom desires. If there's one theme that I will always recommend for people to use it's this one.

Heck, I even started this blog on Wordpress and then got extremely frustrated. The result? I moved it over to shopify using this very theme right now!

The nice part about the turbo theme is it doesn't give off that scammy vibe you often see with so many 3rd party shopify themes out there. Don't get me wrong, there are times when you want that type of appearance for single product deal type sites but if you ain't playing that game then Turbo theme it is! Plus I hope you're building a legitimate brand.

Yes I know, once again not exactly a software but it's something that needs to be brought to your attention. We live in a world where you can easily be sued by a customer for anything you sell.

This especially goes out to people who sell any products that deal with electronics, beauty, health, or product making claims. This also goes out to the people Dropshipping because 95% of what the gurus are preaching to sell are sketchAF. But the fact is, if the product can be touched your business is at risk.

The last thing you want in the mail is a Service Of Process (initial legal action) and not have insurance. You probably don't think it's going to happen to you until it does. All it takes is one crazy customer and best believe if you're selling thousands of products you are going to come across one of them. This is speaking from experience and thankfully I was able to report it to insurance and it was all handled from there. And no, you're not going to find retroactive insurance. So you better get on it now.

Should you not have insurance there could be a ton of things that could happen. Best case scenario? Nothing happens and the claim is dropped. Second best scenario? You pay them a large sum to go away. Worst case scenario? You end up owing hundreds of thousands or even millions and go into debt. You lose everything you worked for and if you sold a risky product you could end up in jail. On top of that a class action lawsuit could also be filed since you sold thousands of that product.

Stuff of nightmares. Even if you have a LLC which you should have one to protect you (hence limited liability...company) the corporate veil can be pierced putting all your personal assets at risk. If you don't have an LLC, get that formed first and then get e-commerce insurance aka general liability with product liability insurance immediately after. They will review and tailor to your business. Simply select the most relevant industry likely (appliance/electronics or clothing/apparel or other stores without food/drinks) and fill out the rest.

Be smart, get insurance. This isn't some optional insurance. Even if you're an Amazon seller, Amazon requires it if you hit $10,000 in sales/month. But you shouldn't wait.