As marketers, we are always looking at top tools the pros use—or the ones folks with the little blue checkmarks next to their Twitter handles recommended to the masses. In my experience, while it is crucial to test new tools to help move the needle forward and find new solutions, choosing the right ones can present the biggest challenge. These are the top five tech tools that stand out to me after chatting with merchants, attending conferences, and working in the ecommerce space. Set Up Accurate Tracking Using Littledata (let's start with a shameless plug) Well, you knew this one was coming. Data is not in the WANT category of apps for your Shopify store. It is a NEED. I am all in on making decisions from experience and intuition as a marketer. But you become even more dangerous and equipped when you add accurate data to the mix. Having reliable metrics in your arsenal allows you to tear apart your funnel to see what works and doesn't. Tracking user behavior gives you an up-close look at your customer's needs. Accurate marketing attribution data gives you a predictable revenue forecast using LTV, AOV, and order volume. Before jumping into other apps, set up your tracking in Google Analytics for proper monitoring, reporting, and remarketing. Littledata makes this a breeze taking the average store about 10-mins to set up automatic tracking. [tip]Littledata also offers a 30-day free trial so you can see the difference before you spend a dime![/tip] Master Recurring Orders with Recharge You've probably heard the saying, "it's six times more expensive to qin a new customer than to retain an existing one". Many merchants would probably say it's much higher than that. This is where subscription tools like Recharge come into play in a big way. Making it wicked easy for a customer who loves your product to buy it on a recurring basis can help you achieve increased sales and maintain customer relationships. Recharge works with over 15,000 brands and helps them increase LTV and customer engagement while reducing churn—two things we all talk about in the ecommerce ecosystem. They even offer a fancy-free LTV Calculator so that merchants can get an idea of how they can grow their business using subscriptions. Another perk is that Littledata integrates with Recharge! Customer Success Engaging with your customers and providing first-class support is incredibly important for any business. When you are doing it virtually, though, things can be missed. That's why automating your support workflow the best place to start. We recommend our friends over at Gorgias who pride themselves on helping ecommerce brands with their app.     Recently, they worked with popular DTC fashion brand Princess Polly to improve their customer support. Gorgias reports in their recent customer success story that "Princess Polly increased their efficiency by 40%, increased their resolution time by 80%, increased first response time by 95%, and improved one-touch tickets by 15%. This allows the brand to quickly connect with customers on a personal level and strengthen customer loyalty." A foundation built on a great team of people combined with customer success tools can help protect and grow the brand you've worked diligently to create while providing a great customer experience. A solid SMS tool Engaging your prospects and customers using SMS is a must in my opinion. There are many stats on how open rates of SMS far exceed email, but as many marketers know, we use different channels for a range of outcomes and communications. A stat that recently caught my eye was from our friends over at Attentive. Recently they shared a case study reporting a 900% increase in year-over-year SMS-driven revenue for their new client, Thrive Market. The basis for this growth was implementing a few things you can easily try with your ecommerce business: Text to join or sign up Welcome Campaign Free gift with purchase Custom landing pages for direct SMS Check out their integrations page to see how you might be able to leverage their tool for your brand. Drive Reviews for Social Proof Getting reviews can be a huge pain in the neck and often is an afterthought for ecommerce brands. Outlining and creating a “review strategy” is a healthy place to start. Start by asking yourself questions like "What products do I want reviews on?" or "Should I frame the request to highlight a specific product or attribute about the brand?" These are among the most important things to consider when asking for a good review. Once outlined, pair that “review strategy” with Okendo, which is built to capture high-impact customer reviews and showcase them on your site to build trust and drive conversions. These reviews help create social proof, which often means an action taken in light of one seeing the action of another. In this case, a purchase from another would impact the likelihood of someone trusting but then also desiring to make a purchase themselves. Reviews are also an amazing way to secure user-generated content from your customers. Seeing your product in action in everyday life is heartwarming as a merchant, but can also impact those looking to buy—which can lead to better conversion rates. Conclusion The bottom line when it comes to tool selection? Don't stress too much. These are the top tools I've found merchants recommend (and ones I stand by myself), but in the end it's most important to make sure that your tools not only fit your overall product vision, but fit with each other as well. That last point can be a bit of a sticking spot if you aren't using the right connector to bring everything together. Littledata does this very well. In fact, we have a whole case study you can check out to see how apparel brand johnnie-O leveraged our analytics app to do just that.

When it’s time to think about data, our minds can often turn right to dull spreadsheets, dense reports, and stressful conversations around bottom lines. In reality, data and analytics have actually become far more approachable—and even exciting—in recent years, thanks in large part to the introduction of more intuitive reporting tools. From versatile apps like Google Analytics to specific tracking tools like Facebook’s Conversions API, being able to add precise tools to our tech stacks empowers the inner data geek in all of us. With the right setup, we’re able to learn far more about our buyers and their journeys—whether that be the channels that referred them or how many times they’ve come to our site. We can even track actions taken on our stores too and deep dive into what happens at the mighty check out. Ultimately, all this information helps us evaluate where we can improve the customer experience and understand what we need to do to amplify what’s working within our strategies. How data fuels your store’s growth Today, growth marketing takes many different forms, all with the goal to attract, engage, and delight customers. At its core, generating growth comes down to constantly monitoring and evaluating digital metrics—taking a pulse on the day-to-day so you know your business goals are being met and your customers are being heard. This is where Littledata swoops in to become your team’s ecommerce data platform and a single source of truth. It’s the central piece of your stack that brings everything together, letting you develop and implement sound growth strategies on Shopify and Big Commerce. Growth marketing can only work at its best with accurate and reliable data. An example from the real world Recently, I was chatting with a store owner for a Shopify DTC brand selling baby products. They were doing over $50,000 a month in sales on average in 2021—not a small brand by any means. When I asked about their tech stack and how the company monitors analytics, the owner told me, “(We have) Google Analytics, yes, but I have not learned how to analyze my business. Simple as that.” I shared how data is a journey for every store that helps store owners understand what customers are doing and where to spend to engage them. The store owner replied, “Totally, I was just in Google Analytics, and none of my AOVs match up with my channels. Good to know there are tools at least”. We see this every day from all-size brands—companies need to resolve these unhealthy errors in their reporting. How to fix your analytics Littledata got its start consulting for brands just like the one I spoke with. In doing so, we discovered a major problem with their reporting and analytics. Since then our mission has been to make it ridiculously easy to connect sales, marketing, and customer data. Top DTC brands around the world trust Littledata’s smart connections for accurate ecommerce analytics. Since launching our first Shopify app in 2017, we have empowered thousands of data-driven brands to make better decisions to accelerate growth. We do this not only through our new integrations, tools, and online resources for stores but also by partnering with notable agencies and tech providers around the globe. One area where data can be critical is the notorious checkout. Take, for example, a scenario where you notice many store visitors are reaching the checkout but seem to drop off during the actual completion or conversion point. Might it be helpful to know exactly where these folks are dropping off in the checkout flow? Let’s take a look at the user journey above. The checkout journey starts when a user clicks the checkout button and Littledata’s connector logs the events and labels them in your Google Analytics Destination. Being able to track these steps can be highly insightful into your customers’ behavior, why they drop off, or even for retargeting based on checkout with Adwords. In the end, all this works to help you make the right moves with your check-out flow for both one-off and recurring orders. Tip: Did you know 12 out of every 100 Shopify orders go missing in Shopify’s own analytics? See how to get them back. So what are some basics we can do to get started? How can we really grow our business with data? Do you start with AOV, LTV, CAC, or one of the many other ecommerce acronyms that keep us up at night? Littledata is here to serve you. Just as it did for the store owner I mentioned above, the solution starts with showing you if the data you’re using is valid or a dumpster fire. Here are a few resources to start evaluating and measuring if your data is accurate: Many of our customers start with reviewing their Shopify reporting against Google Analytics—here is an ebook to help you get started on that journey.Subscriptions are paving the way for the hyper-growth of DTC brands. If you’re using Recharge, Smartrr, Bold, or Segment in your stack and want to learn more about attribution to make data-driven decisions, you can learn more here.Bring in the right data from your existing tech stack—check out our integrations and connections.Look at our reviews on Shopify, Big Commerce, and G2. These are responses and insights from real DTC Stores. They might have a helpful perspective or have solved a problem using Littledata that you are facing now.Book a demo with our experts—we’re friendly, experienced, and have helped thousands of store owners just like you!Want to get started right this second? Easy. Jump in with a 30-Day Free Trial of Littledata. Your accurate data awaits you!