90+ Impressive eCommerce Statistics You Won’t Believe (2024)

Are you ready to see some eCommerce statistics that will help you take your online business to the next level? 

It’s safe to say that in the last 20 years, eCommerce has grown beyond our wildest expectations. And it’s still evolving faster than ever. If you want to keep your customers happy and build a relationship with new prospects, you need to stay current on the latest stats and insights.

In this post, we will share some of the best and most relevant eCommerce statistics of 2024. Our goal is to help you stay informed and make meaningful, data-driven decisions the next time you work on your website or marketing strategy. 

eCommerce statistics

Ultimate List of eCommerce Statistics

Before we get started, here’s a list of all the topics we will be discussing today. Feel free to jump to the part that catches your attention or read the whole thing from top to bottom!

General eCommerce Statistics

First, let’s start with some statistics about the general state of eCommerce and online stores.

1. Globally, there are over 12 million eCommerce websites.

Over 12 million eCommerce websites might sound like a saturated market at first glance. But you will be happy to know the answer is a little more complex than that. 

While competition is fierce for online stores, this statistic also shows that this is a growing market and there’s room for new business owners across all industries. The keys to success are to choose your target audience, cater to their goals, needs, and pain points, and create a website that separates you from everyone else. 

By catering to a specific audience and offering a unique, memorable customer experience, you can carve out your own spot in the eCommerce world. Remember, even giants like Amazon started small, so there’s room for you to succeed, too.

2. More than 80% of US shoppers say they occasionally buy from eCommerce stores.

More than 80% of US shoppers say they occasionally buy from eCommerce stores.

If your goal is to get more customers, then this statistic is very exciting. Business owners across all industries can be sure that their audience is out there and interested in their products and services. All they have to do is reach them. 

If you’re in this position, make sure you start an online store with a blog and write plenty of great content so people have a reason to stay once they discover your site. 

Think about it this way: four out of every five in a population of 331.1 million is about 265 million people! And that’s just in the United States.

3. It’s estimated that the eCommerce market will be worth $6.8 trillion by the end of this year, an almost 10% increase year over year.

The eCommerce market share is currently projected to hit a whopping $6.8 trillion by year’s end – that’s a 10% leap from last year! 

This huge growth is fantastic news for both established businesses and those just starting out. 

For veterans, it means a bigger customer pool to tap into. With more consumers shopping online, there’s a chance to expand your reach and grow your brand in new and exciting ways. 

New businesses can also benefit from this boom. As more people shop online, they are more open to discovering new brands. This presents a golden opportunity to get your foot in the door and establish yourself in the market.

4. Amazon made close to $575 billion in net sales revenue in 2023, making it the biggest eCommerce seller in the world.

There’s no question that Amazon’s success shows the potential of online sales. We were shocked to find that 44% of shoppers check Amazon for products before they turn to Google. 

But here’s the thing – they aren’t the only ones profiting. The entire eCommerce market is thriving and ready for smart, dedicated people who want to build customer-centric products and services. This means there’s space for you to win, too.

5. When it comes to eCommerce platforms, WooCommerce leads the pack, with over 6.6 million active users.

When it comes to eCommerce platforms, WooCommerce leads the pack, with over 6.6 million active users.

WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce platform, with an eCommerce market share of 37.7% and 6.6 million users.

For context, Squarespace Online Stores takes second at 14.67%, and WooThemes takes third at 14.95%. The runner-ups are popular enough, but they don’t compare to WooCommerce. 

People prefer to use WooCommerce to start a store because it’s user-friendly, flexible, and comes with tons of great features and integrations. Plus, it’s customizable so you can use it to create an online store that matches your vision.

More General eCommerce Statistics

  • Across all industries, the average conversion rate on an eCommerce website is 2.86%. 
  • The top four drivers of online purchases are free shipping (49.4%), discounts (37.9%), customer reviews (31.6%), and an easy return policy (30.4%)
  • The largest group of online shoppers are people between the ages of 25 and 34. 
  • Nearly 55% of people prefer shopping online over traditional brick-and-mortar stores. 
  • China contributes the most to the eCommerce market share, as it is responsible for 52.1% of all eCommerce sales. 
  • But India is the fastest growing market, with a projected growth of 14.11% between 2023 and 2027. 
  • There are 604 eCommerce platforms to choose from.

eCommerce Marketing Statistics

Marketing is key to an online store’s success. Let’s now take a look at some eCommerce marketing statistics.

6. eCommerce businesses with three or more marketing channels see 251% more engagement than those that stick to a single marketing channel. 

eCommerce businesses with three or more marketing channels see 251% more engagement than those that stick to a single marketing channel.

Standing out online requires reaching your target audience, and this stat makes it clear: using just one marketing channel limits your reach. And if you can’t connect with your audience, then it’s hard to grow your eCommerce business.   

The solution is actually quite simple – add more ways to get your message out, and you’ll unlock more opportunities to reach potential customers. 

We suggest investing heavily in email marketing, social media outreach, and search engine optimization (SEO) since these are three of the best ways to generate traffic and conversions.

7. Content marketing helps brands generate 3x more leads than their non-blogging counterparts.

Imagine getting 3x more leads just by writing informative blog posts! That’s the advantage that content marketing offers.

Businesses that blog regularly see a huge jump in leads. Here’s why it works: blogs attract potential customers looking for answers.

By consistently creating helpful content related to users’ goals and interests, you can build trust and become an expert in their eyes. This makes them more likely to choose you when they are ready to buy. It’s like giving away valuable advice to build relationships—and ultimately, sales.

Our advice is to spend plenty of time doing keyword research so that you know what matters to your target audience. It’s much easier to create eye-catching content if you know what matters to your audience. 

8. 71% of shoppers expect businesses to use personalization in their marketing and 76% get frustrated when that doesn’t happen.

71% of shoppers expect businesses to use personalization in their marketing and 76% get frustrated when that doesn’t happen.

Forget one-size-fits-all marketing. Today’s shoppers crave personalization, and the numbers back this up. A vast majority of shoppers want businesses to use macro and micro-personalization in their marketing, and people get annoyed when that doesn’t happen. 

Including things like an email subscriber’s first name or referencing a product they purchased in the past shows that you are paying attention and want to build rapport to help them reach their goals.

If you don’t personalize at least a few parts of your marketing campaigns, then you may struggle to generate leads and connect with your prospects.

Similarly, if someone buys from your site and doesn’t see personalized messages or offers based on their interaction, they may choose another business that offers these experiences the next time they need to make a purchase. 

The best way to personalize your audience’s experience is to use tools like OptinMonster or FunnelKit. Both of these plugins allow you to show personalized content to each visitor.

For example, if someone is looking at a specific product page, you can use OptinMonster to create a popup that only shows up on that page with a unique offer. This is a great way to drive sales and grow your email list. 

9. SEO marketing matters, because search engines are the number one way people discover new products (30.6%).

SEO is more important now than ever before. Most people discover products through search engines, with TV and word-of-mouth coming in second and third place respectively.

If your site does not appear on search engine results pages (SERPs), you are missing out on a massive chunk of potential customers. The good news is that there are plenty of ways to optimize your site for search engines

All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is the best WordPress plugin you can use for the job. Currently, over 3 million people use it to check their on-page SEO, optimize their websites, and so much more. It’s a great tool for beginners and experts alike because it manages to be both user-friendly and has plenty of advanced features.

If you want to know more, just check out our Ultimate WordPress SEO Guide for more information.

More eCommerce Marketing Statistics

  • Video is a powerful marketing tool, with 73% of people saying they’d be more likely to buy a product if they could watch a video about it first. 
  • 75% of shoppers say they need to see photos of a product before they buy it. 
  • eCommerce advertising influences over 56% of in-store purchases.
  • Ad spending for eCommerce is worth $38.4 billion, which is 3x what it was in 2019. 
  • 75% of shoppers say they’ve used a paid search ad on Google to find a new product. 
  • Nearly three-fourths (73%) of people shop across multiple marketing channels.

Mobile eCommerce Statistics

Mobile browsing is more popular than ever, and the same goes for mobile shopping. Here are some key eCommerce statistics for mobile shoppers.

10. 71% of U.S. shoppers say they’ve made a purchase from their mobile phone.

71% of U.S. shoppers say they’ve made a purchase from their mobile phone.

This stat is a wake-up call for all eCommerce business owners: having a mobile-friendly website is no longer optional. It’s necessary.  

If your website isn’t easy to navigate and use on a smartphone, then you are missing out on a ton of traffic and potentially losing a huge chunk of sales.  

Mobile optimization includes things like a smooth user experience, clickable calls-to-action, fast loading times, and a layout that adapts to different screen sizes.  By prioritizing mobile users, you will be meeting your customers where they are and making the buying process as convenient as possible.

For more details, you can see our guide on how to create a mobile-friendly WordPress website.

11. During Q3 of 2023, 74% of all eCommerce visits happened via mobile.

Based on this statistic, it’s clear how people prefer to browse websites and shop online. This means you need to go beyond a responsive design and instead focus on creating a mobile-first experience.

Imagine what would happen if 3 out of 4 people who visited your site had trouble browsing your product landing page, contacting your customer support, or reading your blog. Odds are, you’d see a significant dip in engagement. 

If you follow mobile-first practices, then you’ll be in a much better position to capture your audience’s attention and turn them into customers.

12. 40% of shoppers say they are likely to leave an online store if it isn’t optimized for their device.

40% of shoppers say they are likely to leave an online store if it isn’t optimized for their device.

At a glance, it’s concerning to see that almost half of shoppers say they’ll leave a site if it’s not optimized for mobile. This could lead to a significant portion of potential customers bouncing off your website, simply because it isn’t user-friendly.

The good news is there’s a solution: SeedProd. It is one of the best page builders on the market and features a responsive option that allows you to fine-tune how your website displays on desktops, tablets, and mobiles. This ensures a smooth user experience for all visitors, regardless of their device.

Expert Tip: If you are looking for a different option for building a mobile-friendly website, Thrive Architect is another great choice!

More Mobile eCommerce Statistics

  • The average mobile order is between $90 and $110, which is less than the average desktop purchase. 
  • However, mobile eCommerce is growing faster at 29%, which is better than the 22% growth rate of desktop eCommerce. 
  • In the United States, there are 187 million active smartphone shoppers. 
  • Mobile apps convert 3x more customers than mobile websites.
  • 49% of smartphone shoppers use their devices to compare prices of different products when shopping online.
  • 38% of shoppers say they’ve never used a mobile device to shop, while 7% report never using desktop computers to make a purchase. 

eCommerce Payment Statistics

Next, let’s see some impressive eCommerce statistics for online payments.

When it comes to paying for online orders, credit cards are still the most popular payment method at 53%.

Credit cards might reign supreme for now, but the future of eCommerce payments is digital. While a solid 53% of customers still prefer credit cards, this statistic shouldn’t overshadow the rise of digital wallets and debit cards, which follow closely behind at 43% and 38%.

There’s no question that digital payment methods, like Apple Pay and PayPal, offer a faster, more convenient experience for shoppers, so integrating them into your website can dramatically boost conversions. 

The bottom line is every step a customer has to take to complete a purchase adds friction to the process. Digital wallets eliminate the need to manually enter card details, which will streamline your checkout process and result in more happy customers.

14. In one survey, half of eCommerce business owners say they lose about 10% of their international revenue because their payment vendors do not have flexible payment options.

Not having the right payment gateway on your site will result in people leaving without taking action. You don’t want to put your visitors in this position because not only are you leaving money on the table, but there’s a good chance they will not come back even if you add their preferred payment method later. 

The solution is to offer a wide range of payment methods as soon as possible. When customers have options they trust and use regularly, they are more likely to complete their purchases. 

Here’s where a plugin like WP Simple Pay can be a game-changer. This Stripe payment plugin allows you to easily integrate over 10 different payment methods into your website. This ensures a smooth checkout experience for customers, regardless of how they want to pay. 

For more details, see our guide on how to offer multiple payment methods in WordPress forms.

15. Optimizing your checkout page can improve conversions by 35%.

Optimizing your checkout process will have a noticeable impact on sales. When customers can quickly place an order with little to no friction, they’ll take action. 

You’ll be happy to know that getting your checkout page in good shape is easier than you might think. The key is to simplify as much as possible by offering a guest checkout option, limiting forms, and providing a progress bar so that customers can see how close they are to the end of the process. 

Be transparent, too. Don’t surprise customers with hidden fees. Clearly show taxes, shipping costs, and anything else upfront so they don’t get frustrated and leave. Building trust leads to happy customers, and happy customers mean more sales!

For more information, read our guide on how to customize your WooCommerce checkout page.

More eCommerce Payment Statistics

  • Over 65% of shoppers look up price comparisons in physical stores before they pay.
  • Venmo is growing at an impressive pace, with a 9% year-on-year increase, bringing its revenue to $6.7 million. 
  • However, their totals don’t come close to touching PayPal, which handles countless eCommerce transactions every day. They made $7.4 billion in revenue in 2023. 
  • Experts predict that the total number of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) customers will increase by 400% between 2021 and 2026. 

Social Media eCommerce Statistics

Social media is one of the best ways to reach new customers and promote your online store. Here are some important social media eCommerce statistics you need to know.

16. Businesses that use social media generate an average of 32% more revenue than ones without it.

Businesses that use social media generate an average of 32% more revenue than ones without it.

Social media platforms aren’t just for entertainment anymore – they are a direct line to your target audience. So, don’t underestimate the value of social media marketing. We are confident that all eCommerce business owners would love to see a 32% boost in revenue! 

Beyond direct sales, you also get plenty of opportunities to engage with your audience. Think about it: you can showcase your products, highlight special offers, and build brand awareness – all without spending a dime on traditional advertising.

You can use a plugin like Smash Balloon to share your social media on your website. This can have a dramatic impact on engagement and help you get more followers. Plus, adding a social feed to your site is fast and easy.

17. 74% of shoppers turn to social media when they are thinking about buying a product.

It turns out that social media is also one of the most widely used research tools for online shoppers. This statistic highlights that about 3/4s of people turn to their favorite social sites when they want to learn more about a product or discover something new. 

For you, this means social sites are the perfect place to introduce yourself to prospects, show off your products, and get to know your existing customers. 

It’s a good idea to spend some time on social media every day so you can connect with your audience and build a community. Then, once your page gets to a certain point, the algorithm will begin recommending your channel or profile to people who don’t follow you. This is an easy way to build your social audience and customer base. 

18. 67% of affiliates and virtually all influencers use social media sites to boost their sales.

There’s no question that affiliates and influencers have a strong relationship with eCommerce business owners. 

This shouldn’t come as a surprise when you consider these groups often partner together on social media because it’s a win-win-win situation. The brand sells more products, the affiliate makes a commission on their sales, and the customers get great products. 

The increase in profits and ease of access is probably why 68% of marketers say they plan on investing in an affiliate program this year. 

We suggest using AffiliateWP to create and manage your affiliate program. This easy-to-use WordPress plugin allows you to set commissions, issue one-click payouts, and collaborate with your affiliates in new and exciting ways.

Just see our tutorial on how to add an affiliate program in WooCommerce for more information.

19. 80% of marketers who sell products on social media say consumers have made a purchase through these platforms.

Some business leaders think that social media is just for window shopping. However, many people are turning to social media to make purchases, and that isn’t going to change anytime soon. 

This can seem intimidating if you are currently not using social sites like Facebook and Instagram to sell your products. But there’s still plenty of time for you to get involved. 

By integrating social commerce features, you can streamline the buying journey for customers. They can discover your products, learn about them, and complete their purchase – all within the familiar social media interface.

More Social Media eCommerce Statistics

  • There are over 4.74 billion active social media users
  • 34% of marketers say Facebook generates the most sales, which makes sense when you consider that over 53.5 million people have bought something from the site. 
  • 16% of social media managers use automation to communicate with prospects. 
  • When it comes to Gen-Z and millennial shoppers, 28% have bought something directly from social media in the last 3 months.
  • The top categories for social media shopping in order are apparel, beauty, and home products. 
  • 70% of people say they are far more likely to buy a product from a brand if they have a positive experience with them on social media. 
  • Almost one-third of shoppers say they turn to social media to learn about new brands or products. 

Email eCommerce Statistics

Email is an important tool for any online business. Here are some of the most important email eCommerce statistics.

20. A vast majority (86%) of eCommerce marketers use email to build rapport with their audience and improve brand awareness.

There’s a reason why email marketing remains a favorite among eCommerce marketers: it’s a direct line of communication to prospects and existing customers. When you can have a one-on-one conversation with people, there’s a better chance you can learn about their goals and pain points while overcoming their objections. 

With what you learn from these encounters, you can share relevant content, advertise exclusive promotions, showcase new products, and ask for feedback, among other things.

If you are looking for a good email marketing service, then Constant Contact is our number one choice. It’s extremely easy to use and allows you to do everything you’d expect, like create templates, design a calendar, and more.

21. 52% of people say they’ve made a purchase as the result of a marketing email.

52% of people say they’ve made a purchase as the result of a marketing email.

This statistic highlights the value of email marketing for eCommerce businesses. There’s no doubt that it’s a cost-effective, powerful way to reach your audience and directly influence their buying decisions.

If you want to create emails that capture the attention of your subscribers and boost sales, then make sure you focus on personalization. About 80% of people say they are more likely to engage with a business if it personalizes content and offers to match their needs. 

For instance, we suggest using information subscribers have sent you, as well as their purchase history, to curate an email campaign that aligns with their interests.

22. 14% of marketing emails never reach their destination.

It’s shocking to think that so many emails never reach their destination. For business owners who use email marketing to engage with their customers, these deliverability issues could result in missed opportunities to build rapport and lost sales. 

Luckily, tools like WP Mail SMTP can help with this problem. This powerful WordPress plugin tackles deliverability issues head-on and makes sure that your emails will end up in your users’ inboxes.

For more information, just see our tutorial on how to fix the WordPress not sending emails issue.

More Email eCommerce Statistics

  • 72% of email marketers struggle with low open rates.
  • Personalized subject lines can get between 10-14% more people to read your email.  
  • Emails letting customers on a waitlist know a product is back in stock convert a staggering 8695% better than a traditional, generic email.
  • 78% of people say they don’t mind getting emails once a week from brands they love. 
  • 57% of marketers have between 1,000 and 10,000 email subscribers. 
  • Mobile-responsive emails are essential because 70% of people will delete an email if it looks bad on their phone.

eCommerce Shopping Cart Statistics

Next, let’s take a look at some eCommerce shopping cart statistics.

23. Across all industries, the average shopping cart abandonment rate is 70.19%.

23. Across all industries, the average shopping cart abandonment rate is 70.19%.

Shopping cart abandonment occurs when someone adds an item to their cart but leaves your website before checking out. And it’s way more common than you might think. 

It doesn’t matter what industry you are in. You will see this happen more often than you’d like. Instead of letting it bother you, you can find ways to reduce abandonment, such as by creating a cart recovery email series. 

Sending 3 emails to people who joined your list after they abandoned your cart can help you recover around 60% of lost sales. Generally, it’s a good idea to send one email after they leave, another 24 hours later, and the last one about a week after they leave with items still in their cart. 

For more details, see our guide on how to set up abandoned cart emails.

24. The number one reason shoppers abandon their shopping carts is unexpected costs.

Most people have decided to abandon a shopping cart without taking action because of unexpected costs. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t. 

That’s because shoppers expect the price at the end to be close to what they were shown when they added the items to their cart. Imagine thinking a new shirt will cost $25, only to see $60 after shipping and taxes.

You can reduce this type of abandonment by embracing an “always-on” shopping cart that shows visitors their total regardless of where they are on your site. Then, you can offer free shipping on orders over a specific amount.

25. 26% of people who leave items in their cart will go on to buy a similar item from a different store. 

You may be shocked to learn that people will buy the same type of product from a different eCommerce website after they first view it on another site. This means you need to do everything you can to capture visitors’ attention so you don’t lose sales and opportunities to engage with your customers. 

To win people over, there are two key areas you need to focus on: product information and enticing offers. 

You can overcome hesitation by creating informative product landing pages that showcase features, benefits, and high-quality images.

Additionally, strategic discounts are a game-changer.  Consider offering targeted promotions or deals specifically for recovering abandoned carts. This sweetens the deal and incentivizes customers to complete their purchase at your store instead of heading to a competitor.

26. Exit-intent popups can help you connect with 53% of visitors before they leave.

Exit-intent popups can help you connect with 53% of visitors before they leave.

This is why you shouldn’t underestimate the power of a well-timed popup. This statistic reveals that exit-intent popups, which appear when a visitor shows signs of leaving your site, can help you reconnect with a whopping 53% of departing customers.

With a tool like OptinMonster, you can streamline this process and turn more visitors into subscribers, which can later be converted into customers. 

With its drag-and-drop builder, you can design beautiful, high-converting popups – even if you don’t know how to code. OptinMonster offers customizable campaigns, from exit-intent popups to lightbox forms, which lets you reach visitors at various touchpoints in their journey.

Need more proof? We used OptinMonster and managed to grow our email list by 600%

More Shopping Cart Statistics

  • 92% of visitors don’t intend to buy something the first time they land on your site. 
  • 54% of shoppers say they are more likely to revisit a website and complete their order if they are offered a discount. 
  • Despite this, only 38% of marketers say they use email to reduce abandonment. 
  • Organic search traffic is less likely to abandon their cart (76%) than visitors who find your site through social media (91%).
  • A little less than half (46%) of shoppers have left items in their cart because a discount code they received didn’t work. 
  • Using predictive AI to personalize product and content recommendations can reduce abandonment by up to 18%. 
  • While it’s hard to pin down an exact number, experts estimate over $4 trillion worth of products are left in abandoned shopping carts each year. 

Customer Experience and eCommerce Statistics

Providing a good customer experience is important if you want your eCommerce business to succeed. Here are some statistics to keep in mind.

27. 76% of people say they are more likely to buy from an online store if they personalize their shopping experience.

This stat highlights a crucial factor for eCommerce business owners: creating unique shopping journeys that resonate with each customer. 

Think about it: People who see generic offers that don’t resonate with their needs will likely ignore them in favor of ultra-personalized, relevant promotions. Personalized content and product suggestions will make customers feel like you are there with them, understand their needs, and are committed to their success. 

Interestingly, 85% of leaders believe they are already doing a good job personalizing content and offers, but only 60% of shoppers agree. In other words, there’s a gap that you need to be mindful of when designing your personalization strategy.

28. 95% of shoppers look for reviews and other forms of social proof before making a purchase.

95% of shoppers look for reviews and other forms of social proof before making a purchase.

It’s impossible to deny the power of social proof in eCommerce. We bet that you look at reviews every time you buy something new online – after all, most people do.

When potential customers see positive reviews, testimonials, or user-generated content, it builds trust and validates your brand’s credibility.  Imagine walking into a store and seeing it packed with happy customers – that feeling of social validation translates to the online world as well.

It’s a good idea to display reviews and testimonials on key parts of your website. The social wall plugin Smash Balloon can help with this because it lets you embed a reviews feed and show website visitors what people are saying about you on social media and other websites.

Plus consider using the social proof plugin TrustPulse to add engaging real-time live sales notifications to your site. 

For more information, see our guide to the best social proof plugins for WordPress.

29. If your customer service team is unresponsive and a user has a question, 79% will leave and may never return.

You probably know that customer support is essential to your business, but did you know that 4 out of 5 people who don’t get their questions answered will leave for good? This startling statistic highlights why it’s so important to have a well-rounded customer support plan in place. 

The consequences of having an unresponsive customer service team are quite severe. You’ll miss opportunities to connect with potential customers, people will think poorly of your brand, and existing customers may churn in favor of a company that offers 24/7 support.

Our advice is to use a mix of live support agents and chatbots to help your customers quickly and easily find what they are looking for.

Groove is a great help desk option that can make life easier for your support team. It allows you to quickly and easily respond to customers, track user history, create tasks, monitor feedback, and much more.

More Customer Experience Statistics

  • 78% of people are more likely to place an order if there’s a fast and affordable shipping option. 
  • Around 35% of shoppers say they would shop online more if they could virtually try a product before they buy it. 
  • 48% of internet users say if a site has a bad web design, it instantly loses credibility. 
  • Less than 20% of people say customer service interactions with retailers exceeded their expectations. 
  • Solving a customer’s problem could result in them telling 4 to 6 other people about their experience. 
  • Globally, poor customer experiences cost businesses $75 million a year. 
  • 82% of people claim they are willing to spend more money on a product if they consistently receive excellent service.

The Future of eCommerce

We already know that online shopping has been growing over the years. So, let’s take a look at the future of eCommerce.

30. By the end of 2024, global eCommerce sales are projected to grow by 10% from the same time last year. Meanwhile, in-store sales are expected to see a 2% boost.  

The future is bright for eCommerce businesses! This statistic paints a clear picture: online shopping is on a steady upward trajectory, while traditional brick-and-mortar stores see a more modest increase.

Plus, we expect this trend to continue in the years to come. 

31. Experts predict the eCommerce market share to be worth over $8.1 trillion by 2026.

Experts predict the eCommerce market share to be worth over $8.1 trillion by 2026.

This is a very exciting prediction for eCommerce business owners across all industries. This means there’s a booming marketplace on the horizon, which translates to a wider audience for your products and more sales. 

If you want to take advantage of this surge of new eCommerce traffic, make sure you are doing everything you can to align with your customers’ needs. This will give you the knowledge and experience you need to scale your business.

We recommend using a plugin like MonsterInsights to learn more about your eCommerce visitors. You can see at a glance who is visiting your site, how they found you, and more. Combine all of this data and you can learn so much about your target audience, like their needs, interests, and goals.

For more details, see our tutorial on how to set up eCommerce tracking in WordPress.

32. About 20% of all retail sales occur online. It’s estimated that this number will reach 25% by the end of 2025.

This statistic aligns with the others we have already listed – eCommerce is on the rise.

Over the course of the next year, we will see retail sales jump to 25%. This is partially due to new businesses opening up, and existing brands building a website and taking their products online. 

More eCommerce Predictions

  • By the end of 2025, it’s estimated that PayPal, Venmo, and other digital wallets will make up over 52% of payments.
  • Most professional marketers agree that mobile eCommerce sales will reach $710 billion by 2025.
  • Mobile eCommerce sales are expected to bring in $729 billion in revenue by the start of 2026. 
  • By the same time, subscription eCommerce will be worth an estimated $904.2 billion.
  • In 2027, eCommerce revenue in the United States alone is estimated to hit $6.43 billion.

Sources:

OptinMonster, IsItWP, WPForms, AffiliateWP, TrustPulse, Shopify, Forbes, HubSpot, Constant Contact, Instapage, WebFX, Statista, eDesk, The Future of Commerce, Exploding Topics, Hostinger, Bluehost, Video Wise, Sprout Social, Backlinko, Dash, Artios, Tidio

There you have it! We hope this extensive list of eCommerce statistics helps you on your journey. If you are looking for more interesting statistics, check out some of our other posts below!

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The post 90+ Impressive eCommerce Statistics You Won’t Believe (2024) first appeared on WPBeginner.

13 Best HubSpot Alternatives for 2024 (Free + Paid)

Are you looking for alternatives to HubSpot?

HubSpot is a popular customer relationship management (CRM) software that offers popular solutions for all your marketing and sales needs. However, it can be very expensive to use as your business grows.

In this article, we will share some of the best HubSpot alternatives for your website.

Best HubSpot alternatives

Why Do You Need a HubSpot Alternative?

HubSpot is a comprehensive CRM software that offers powerful tools for your marketing, sales, customer service, and content management needs.

However, one of the biggest drawbacks of using HubSpot is its price. The premium plans can get very expensive very fast.

Plus, there are multiple packages, which can be overwhelming and confusing for many users. For instance, there are separate prices for their marketing and sales tools, content management system (CMS), operations features, and others.

HubSpot pricing plans

While HubSpot offers free versions of its tools and the Starter plan for individuals and small teams starts from $20 per month, most of its powerful features are locked away in the higher-priced plans.

For example, you’ll need at least a Professional plan if you want to use omnichannel marketing automation, custom reporting, A/B testing, dynamic personalization, and blog creation.

This will set you back $890 per month (billed annually). Not to mention, there is also a one-time Professional Onboarding fee of $3,000 that you’ll have to pay if you subscribe to the Professional plan.

HubSpot is great for large organizations, but higher pricing rules out smaller businesses. That said, let’s look at some of the best HubSpot alternatives that are cheaper and more reliable.

1. Constant Contact (Email Marketing + CRM)

Constant Contact

Constant Contact is one of the best all-in-one digital and email marketing services. It is a perfect HubSpot alternative because it offers a wide range of tools at lower prices.

For instance, Constant Contact offers a drag-and-drop email builder, marketing CRM, social media marketing tool, marketing automation, landing page builder, A/B testing, SMS marketing, and more.

Pros:

  • Use drag-and-drop email campaign builder
  • Choose from hundreds of email templates
  • Set up marketing automation
  • Conduct A/B testing
  • Get detailed analytics and reports
  • Seamless integration with 300+ apps

Cons:

  • There is no free version

Why We Choose Constant Contact: It is ideal for startups, small businesses, and individual marketers who want all the features of HubSpot but at affordable prices.

Pricing: Constant Contact prices start from $12 per month, and you get a 14-day free trial.

2. Brevo (CRM Suite)

Is Brevo the right email marketing platform for you?

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is the next HubSpot alternative on our list. It is a CRM suite that offers basic features that you’ll also find in HubSpot. You get a marketing platform that helps set up email marketing, SMS and WhatsApp campaigns, marketing automation, and more.

Besides that, Brevo comes with a sales platform that comes with automated deal tracking, call recordings, pipeline management, and sales reporting. With Brevo, you can also improve custom support. It lets you add live chat, chatbot, phone calls, and more using its platform.

Pros:

  • Beginner-friendly CRM and marketing platform
  • Set up email marketing and marketing automation
  • Create SMS and WhatsApp campaigns
  • Add live chat, phone calls, and chatbots
  • Create landing pages and run Facebook ads

Cons:

  • The marketing automation feature is not as powerful as HubSpot
  • Lacks a CMS solution that’s available in HubSpot

Why We Choose Brevo: If you’re looking for a HubSpot alternative that’s easy to use, offers basic CRM and marketing automation features, and isn’t expensive, then Brevo is for you.

Pricing: Brevo offers a free version that lets you send 300 emails per day. Its premium plans start from $25 per month.

3. Omnisend (Email Marketing for eCommerce)

Omnisend

Omnisend is a great HubSpot alternative for eCommerce store owners. It lets you create engaging newsletters, automate emails, create landing pages and popups, set up SMS marketing, segment your customers, and more.

What sets Omnisend apart from HubSpot is the email marketing features it offers. With solutions built with eCommerce businesses in mind, it makes it very easy to promote your products.

Pros:

  • User-friendly omnichannel marketing platform
  • Use drag and drop email editor and landing page builder
  • Set up marketing automation
  • Sort customers with advanced segmentation
  • Send push notifications, SMS, and personalized messages
  • View campaign and automation reports

Cons:

  • Limited social media marketing features compared to HubSpot
  • HubSpot offers more CRM capabilities

Why We Choose Omnisend: In our experience, there are not many beginner-friendly email marketing services focused on eCommerce users. Omnisend is the best HubSpot alternative if you have an online store and send transactional messages.

Pricing: Omnisend offers a free plan that lets you send 500 emails per month and store 250 contacts. However, if you want more features and higher email and contact limits, then there are premium plans that start from $16 per month.

4. OptinMonster (Lead Generation)

OptinMonster – The best WordPress popup plugin

OptinMonster is the best lead generation and conversion optimization software in the world. It helps you grow your email list, get more leads, and boost sales.

You can use OptinMonster as a HubSpot alternative for creating personalized messages and targeting the right audience. OptinMonster comes with a drag-and-drop builder for creating stunning optin forms. Plus, it offers powerful display rules that display your campaigns based on user behavior.

Pros:

  • Drag and drop campaign builder
  • Choose from pre-built templates and campaign types
  • Powerful display rules
  • Seamless integration with email marketing tools and plugins
  • Get detailed analytics
  • A/B test your optin forms

Cons:

  • Focuses on creating popups and optin forms

Why We Choose OptinMonster: We highly recommend OptinMonster to anyone looking to create personalized campaigns for their audience. It is super easy to use and helps increase conversions.

Pricing: OptinMonster pricing plans start from $9 per month (billed annually). There is also a free version of OptinMonster that you can use to get started.

5. Zoho (Complete CRM Tool)

Zoho

Zoho is a powerful marketing platform, just like HubSpot. It offers all the popular features for marketing, sales, customer service, emails, and project management.

Zoho goes a step further than HubSpot and even offers tools for finance and accounting, human resource, legal, security and IT management, and more. With all these features, what makes Zoho a great alternative to HubSpot is its price.

Pros:

  • Complete marketing platform
  • Easily integrates with third-party apps, plugins, and tools
  • More affordable pricing plans compared to HubSpot
  • Powerful filters to segment users, tasks, and other activities
  • Generate different reports and custom dashboards

Cons:

  • Limited customer support options (no live chat support)

Why We Choose Zoho: If you’re looking for a like-for-like replacement or HubSpot alternative, then Zoho is the closest option in the market. It offers a complete CRM and lots of features for every department at affordable prices.

Pricing: Zoho prices each tool differently. For instance, its CRM prices start from $14 per user per month. Plus, there is also a free trial you can use to try the software.

6. ActiveCampaign (Email Marketing + CRM)

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is another HubSpot alternative that offers powerful features. Just like HubSpot, you get marketing automation, email marketing, eCommerce marketing, and CRM tools. Plus, it easily integrates with over 900 apps, WordPress plugins, and other platforms.

Pros:

  • Easily automate email and marketing tasks
  • Create forms, landing pages, popups, and more
  • AI-powered predictive sending feature
  • Set up split automation
  • Conduct A/B testing
  • 24/7 chat and email support
  • Custom reporting option

Cons:

  • There is no free version
  • It can be difficult for beginners to navigate and use ActiveCampaign

Why We Choose ActiveCampaign: What makes ActiveCampaign different from others is its AI-power predictive sending feature and superior reporting features. It uses AI to send emails when users are most likely to engage. Besides that, most of the features it offers are cheaper than HubSpot.

Pricing: ActiveCampaign premium plans start from $29 per month (billed annually). If you want the Predictive Sending feature and advanced reporting options, then you can upgrade to higher pricing plans.

7. Drip (Email Marketing + Automation)

Drip

Drip is a popular email marketing platform that allows you to create automated email sequences and release them based on users’ actions. It offers pre-built templates and a visual builder. Plus, it integrates with over 200 tools. Plus, you can create different segments in your contact list.

Pros:

  • Easy-to-use email automation tool
  • Use pre-built templates and visual builder to customize emails
  • Set up automated email campaigns
  • A/B test your emails
  • Easily segment audience
  • Get detailed analytics and reports of your email performance

Cons:

  • It doesn’t offer a free version
  • Lacks other features offered by HubSpot like a CRM, marketing and sales platform, and more

Why We Choose Drip: If you’re looking for a HubSpot alternative that’s great for email marketing automation, then Drip is the best option. It’s very easy to use, and you can create automated workflows with ease. Plus, there are different email templates and customization options to choose from.

Pricing: Drip will cost you $39 per month, and you get a 14-day free trial.

8. GrooveHQ (Customer Support Solution)

Groove review: Is it the right help desk for your WordPress website?

GrooveHQ is the best help desk plugin for WordPress and small businesses. It is a great HubSpot alternative for customer service and offers features like shared inboxes, live chat, knowledge base, and more. GrooveHQ also integrates with popular CRMs, apps, and payment platforms.

Pros:

  • Complete customer support solution
  • Add live chat and email support to your site
  • Receive support requests in shared inboxes
  • Manage your customers from a beginner-friendly dashboard

Cons:

  • Lacks other CRM and marketing automation features
  • There is no free version

Why We Choose GrooveHQ: If you’re looking for a HubSpot alternative just for your customer support tasks, then GrooveHQ is for you. It streamlines your support workflow and offers robust features at affordable prices.

Pricing: GrooveHQ pricing plans start from $4.80 per user per month.

9. Freshsales CRM (Sales-Focused CRM)

Freshsales CRM

Freshsales by Freshworks is a sales-focused CRM that is another HubSpot alternative you can consider. It is beginner-friendly to use and offers features like live chat, email, phone, social media management, marketing and email automation, custom reports, and multiple AI-powered tools.

Pros:

  • Easily manage and organize contacts
  • Send personalized messages across multiple channels
  • Use built-in chat, email, and phone to connect with customers
  • Create custom reports and dashboards
  • AI-powered contact scoring
  • Get insights and the next best action through AI
  • AI-powered forecasting

Cons:

  • The free version doesn’t offer reporting features
  • You get more features with HubSpot’s CRM, even in the free plan

Why We Choose Freshsales CRM: After going through multiple HubSpot alternatives, Freshsales is great for sales teams. It offers affordable pricing plans and basic features.

Pricing: Freshsales CRM is available for free. There are premium plans starting from $15 per user per month that offer more features.

10. FunnelKit Automations (Marketing Automation for WooCommerce)

Is FunnelKit Automations the right marketing automation plugin for you?

FunnelKit Automations is one of the best marketing automation plugins for WooCommerce stores. It helps you create automated workflows, launch email and SMS campaigns, create drip sequences, and more. You can use it to reduce abandoned carts, nurture leads, send automated coupons, and more.

Pros:

  • Use drag and drop builder to create campaigns
  • Set up automated email workflows
  • Send personalized emails and SMS messages to your audience
  • Segment customers into different lists or categories
  • Conduct A/B tests with different variants
  • View detailed analytics and improve campaign performance

Cons:

  • Limited customer support options
  • The free plugin offers basic features compared to HubSpot
  • Premium plans can be expensive for small businesses

Why We Choose FunnelKit Automations: It is the best marketing and email automation solution for WooCommerce store owners. All its features are designed specifically for WooCommerce, which makes it easy to increase retention and boost sales.

Pricing: FunnelKit prices start from $99.50 per year. There is also a free FunnelKit WordPress plugin you can use to get started.

11. Pipedrive CRM (Affordable CRM for Sales Team)

Pipedrive CRM

Pipedrive CRM is the next HubSpot alternative on our list, and one of the most affordable. It is a sales-driven CRM solution that helps manage your sales pipeline, set up sales reporting, track activity, sales forecasting, and more. Pipedrive also easily integrates with email marketing services and other WordPress plugins.

Pros:

  • Simple and easy-to-use interface
  • Easily monitor your sales activities and communications
  • Set up marketing automation
  • Get metrics customized for your business
  • 400+ integrations with tools, plugins, and apps
  • Affordable pricing plans

Cons:

  • There is no free version
  • Lacks advanced reporting and automation features

Why We Choose Pipedrive CRM: If you’re looking for an affordable CRM for your sales needs, then Pipedrive CRM is the best HubSpot alternative.

Pricing: Pipedrive offers 5 different pricing plans that start from $9 per user per month.

12. FluentCRM (Email Automation for WordPress)

FluentCRM

FluentCRM is a self-hosted CRM and email automation plugin for WordPress. What makes it different from HubSpot is that all the data is stored in your WordPress database instead of a cloud service. Plus, it offers features like email campaign management, email sequencing, and more.

Pros:

  • Beginner friendly interface
  • Store your data in the WordPress database
  • Set up email automation
  • Create email drip campaigns
  • Get in-depth reports
  • Easily integrates with eCommerce WordPress plugins

Cons:

  • The free plugin offers limited features compared to HubSpot
  • Lacks social media and CMS features

Why We Choose FluentCRM: It is a great HubSpot alternative if you have a WordPress site and want to manage customers, email campaigns, and automated workflows from your WordPress dashboard. Plus, it keeps your data secure and doesn’t rely on a third-party cloud service.

Pricing: FluentCRM pricing plans start from $90 per year. There is also a FluentCRM free WordPress plugin.

13. EngageBay (All-in-One Marketing Platform)

EngageBay

EngageBay is a powerful all-in-one platform for your marketing, sales, and customer support needs. It is a great replacement for HubSpot, as you get almost similar features even in the free version. For instance, you can create email broadcasts, access CRM, helpdesk, live chat, and more.

Pros:

  • Store and manage contacts in CRM
  • Set up marketing automation
  • Use email builder and choose pre-built email templates
  • Manage support tickets with the help desk
  • Add live chat to your site

Cons:

  • Free version only allows 250 contacts
  • Limited integration options compared to HubSpot

Why We Choose EngageBay: EngageBay is a like-for-like alternative to HubSpot. The free version offers similar features, and even its paid plans are more affordable than HubSpot.

Pricing: You can get started with EngageBay for free. Its paid pricing plans start from $12.74 per user per month.

Which HubSpot Alternative Should You Use?

After testing multiple software and plugins, we believe that Constant Contact is the best HubSpot alternative.

It is a complete marketing and email automation solution that offers powerful features at affordable prices compared to HubSpot. You can easily create email campaigns, conduct A/B tests, get a marketing CRM, manage social media, set up SMS marketing, build landing pages, and more.

On the other hand, you may also want to check out Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) and Omnisend. Both of them offer similar features as HubSpot, but in lower prices.

We hope this article helped you learn about the best HubSpot alternatives. You may also want to see our ultimate guide to WordPress SEO and the best WooCommerce plugins.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 13 Best HubSpot Alternatives for 2024 (Free + Paid) first appeared on WPBeginner.

Top 10+ Must Have iPhone Apps for Bloggers

Are you looking for the best iPhone apps for bloggers that you should install?

Gone are the days of only sitting in front of your computer to manage your blog. Now, you have the power to write and edit blog posts, design graphics, publish on WordPress, and measure progress all from your mobile device.

In this article, we have shared our hand-picked must-have iPhone apps for bloggers, WordPress users, and online marketers.

must-have-iPhone-apps-for-bloggers-OG

Why Use iPhone Apps for Your Blog?

Many of us store our entire lives on our phones, whether it’s personal or business. With such power at our fingertips, why wouldn’t we want to make sure that we can access our WordPress blog at any time?

Picture this. You are traveling out on the road listening to podcasts. Suddenly, inspiration hits you, and you must write down your thoughts and start drafting a blog post.

Or maybe you are simply away from your computer, but you still want to check how your latest blog post is performing. Analytics apps on your Apple device allow you to peek at your all-important metrics like website traffic, user engagement, and more.

Nowadays, there is an iPhone app for almost any WordPress-related task. That allows you to maintain your blog with only your smartphone and a stable internet connection.

All that being said, there are some limitations to using your iPhone. For example, it’s hard to design your blog or add a contact form without a computer.

Now, let’s take a look at the best blogging apps for iPhone users.

1. WordPress App

WordPress app

WordPress.com offers a WordPress mobile app to manage your WordPress.com website as well as self-hosted WordPress.org sites.

The app is available for iOS and Android, as well as desktop computers. It allows you to write and edit posts on the go, share photos, get push notifications, and manage comments. You even have the power to publish blog posts directly from your iPhone or iPad.

The WordPress app is the best one-stop solution for WordPress bloggers who want to manage their articles on the go.

One downside of using the app is that it requires you to create a WordPress.com account and install Jetpack on your site.

WordPress mobile is completely free to use. If you want extra perks like a free domain for a year, an ad-free experience, and support via email, then their paid plans start at only $4 per month, billed annually.

For more details on using the WordPress app, you can see our guide on how to use the WordPress app on your iPhone, iPad, and Android.

Pros:

  • You can easily draft new blog posts or edit old ones.
  • Directly upload media from your phone to WordPress.
  • Approve, respond, or deny comments left on your articles.
  • It comes with a built-in block editor for ease of use.

Cons:

  • There are very limited plugins you can install or use.
  • You can’t access custom post types, see SEO options, use cover images, and more.

Why we recommend using the WordPress app: We recommend the WordPress app for all bloggers who run a WordPress website. It gives you all the basic functionality that you’d find on the desktop version, such as drafting and writing blog posts, adding media, creating pages, or replying to comments.

2. Grammarly Keyboard

Grammarly keyboard

Grammarly Keyboard is a real-time spelling and grammar checker designed to improve your writing on mobile. No matter how good of a writer you are, you should still use a grammar checker to ensure your writing is error-free.

Unlike the Grammarly web application, the mobile version integrates directly into your keyboard. It auto-corrects any misspellings without needing to press any buttons.

Best of all, Grammarly gives you all of the typical suggestions you would normally get on the web app, including suggestions for clarity, engagement, and delivery.

When Grammarly Keyboard is turned on, you will see auto-suggestions, giving you ways to make your sentences clearer or provide synonyms to boost engagement.

Grammarly Keyboard is free for anyone to use. However, if you are using an iPad, then you can get its full premium features. The paid plan starts at $12 per month, billed annually, where you also get access to a plagiarism checker, and you can generate up to 1,000 AI prompts inside.

Pros:

  • It will automatically offer grammar suggestions.
  • It shows grammar mistakes and opportunities to make your language more concise and clear.
  • The app allows you to check your work even while on the go.

Cons:

  • You may prefer to just paste your text into the Grammarly mobile browser version.

Why we recommend using Grammarly Keyboard: We recommend Grammarly Keyboard because it is the best grammar checker app in the app store. It also works no matter whether you are working in Google Docs, WordPress, text message, or email.

3. Canva

Canva

Canva is a beginner-friendly design tool that allows you to create beautiful graphics without extensive design skills. It also has a handy iPhone app that can help you design on the go.

As a blogger, visual content will help your blog stand out by better engaging your readers and reducing bounce rates.

You can use Canva to create all types of graphics, such as your featured images and post thumbnails, infographics, and social media posts.

Unlike Adobe Photoshop, Canva is much easier to use and features an intuitive interface. You will first choose a template that fits your needs. Canva has over 1 million templates, covering over 100 design types and a library of over a million stock photos, so you have everything you need to build eye-popping graphics.

Then, you will be taken to the in-app editor, where you can create your designs. Just click on the element you want to edit, and all of the available customization options will appear at the bottom of your mobile screen. Once you are done, you can save the design to your phone and upload it to your blog post.

Canva has a free version that comes with everything you need to get started. If you want access to premium templates and graphics, AI features, or to remove backgrounds, then the paid version starts at $14.99 per user per month.

Pros:

  • It comes with a long list of categories for templates to choose from.
  • Canva features a drag-and-drop editor. Just touch the element you want to move or make changes to.
  • You can automatically resize your graphic to any size. For example, let’s say you share your newly created blog image on social media. You can instantly resize it to fit the dimensions of any social media platform.
  • All projects are stored in one place, and you can share or collaborate on them, too.

Cons:

  • Editing elements on your mobile device can be difficult sometimes, especially if you have to zoom in to make sure you are customizing the right part of the image.

Why we recommend using Canva: We recommend Canva because it is the easiest graphic design tool to use on an iPhone. While there are other photo-editing apps, Canva has the most template options, so you can design graphics and use them practically for your blog.

4. Hootsuite

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media platform that helps you plan and schedule social media posts across many networks from one place.

The Hootsuite iPhone app allows you to automatically schedule posts to all your social channels and view reports about how they performed. This will allow you to promote each of your blog posts to your audience so that they can be seen and shared by people in your network.

It is one of the best social media monitoring tools, so you can view which articles are getting the most clicks and user engagement. This can help you plan your content and write more articles that people enjoy reading from you.

Hootsuite starts at $99 per month, billed annually, which gives you access to 10 social accounts and one user. That said, all of their plans come with a free 30-day trial. If you want a more affordable solution, then Buffer is a great tool for just content scheduling.

Pros:

  • Hootsuite lets you easily manage your social media posts right from your smartphone. That means scheduling posts in advance or editing them after being published.
  • You can manage multiple social media accounts at once.
  • It provides report analytics based on how your social posts are performing.
  • The app comes with a 30-day free trial.
  • You can curate the app to monitor trends.

Cons:

  • Paying for the premium plan could be overkill if you only want to schedule posts and don’t need the other features.

Why we recommend using Hootsuite: Hootsuite is an all-encompassing social media tool that helps you manage multiple social media accounts. As a blogger, you want to build your authority and backlinks. Growing your social presence is a great way to get engagement on your blogs and also get others to start sharing your content for you.

Note: You may want to use a backlink checker to view your existing backlinks for your site and your competitors first. From there, you can come up with a better link-building strategy.

5. Notion

Notion

Notion is the most popular note-taking app and has become wildly popular over the past few years. But it’s not only a note-taking app. It is flexible enough that you can customize it to be anything you want.

You can use it for task management, note-taking, documentation, blog writing, and even as a CRM app.

For example, Notion offers templates for just about everything, so you could create a content calendar to manage all of your content ideas. On top of that, you can have a task board to track all of your blogs and the stages they are in.

The platform even allows for collaboration, meaning you can assign collaborators and owners to any page or block of information.

You can write and edit all of your articles, manage your to-do lists, track progress, collaborate with team members, and do just about anything on this app. This makes it arguably one of the best mobile apps for bloggers.

However, if you want a solution that is easier to get started right out of the box, then you may want to use Evernote instead. But Evernote is strictly a note-taking app and doesn’t have the customization features that Notion has.

Notion is free to get started. Their paid plan starts at $8 per user per month, where you get unlimited blocks and unlimited file uploads.

Pros:

  • Notion has over 50+ block types, where you can add just about anything like headings, images, paragraphs, table of contents, and so on.
  • It connects with plenty of apps like Asana, Google Drive, Zendesk, and Jira, just to name a few.
  • You can share documents, project boards, tasks, spreadsheets, or anything else with your team.
  • It is one of the most versatile apps out there. You can keep your task management, documentation, content creation, and even blog writing in one place if you choose to.

Cons:

  • Notion feels hard to use at first since you need to set up your workflows. But there are templates to help you out.

Why we recommend using Notion: Notion is a highly customizable and powerful platform if you are willing to put in the time to learn and set it up to match your workflows. It can be used for practically anything, like onboarding and training new team members, recording notes, managing projects or tasks, and tracking leads.

6. Constant Contact

Constant Contact

Constant Contact is one of the best and most simple email marketing services available.

As a blogger, there’s a good chance you already have an email list where you are sending recurring newsletters to your subscribers. Whether you want to notify them about your new blog posts or sell other products or services, an email newsletter is important for anyone who owns a WordPress site.

With the mobile app, you can do just about everything you can from the web version. You get access to a ton of pre-designed templates, and then all you have to do is edit the text, themes, and images.

After that, you’ll see all types of performance metrics, such as open rates, clicks, and bounce rates. On top of that, you can create email sequences, list segmentations, and more.

That being said, if you have existing accounts elsewhere, there are other options available on the iOS app store. These include MailerLite, HubSpot, and others.

Constant Contact starts at $12 per month for one user, and you can access all the essential features, such as sending email blasts. Higher-tier plans provide pre-built automation, contact segmentations, and more.

Pros:

  • Constant Contact lets you build beautiful email campaigns from their pre-made templates.
  • The platform connects with a lot of third-party services.
  • Higher plans give you access to A/B split tests and more analytics so you can improve conversion rates.

Cons:

  • Plans can get pricy for people with large contact lists.

Why we recommend using Constant Contact: Constant Contact is a quality email marketing service that offers a great mobile app. Most email services don’t have an app for Apple users, so Constant Contact is more than enough to get the job done. It offers hundreds of templates and layouts, so you can pick one that suits your brand.

7. IFTTT

IFTTT

IFTTT (If Then Then That) is an automation tool that lets you create automated workflows called applets. Basically, the IFTTT app connects multiple apps together to streamline actions.

You just set conditions for different apps, and when those conditions are matched, IFTTT performs the actions you have defined.

For example, it can tweet your new articles, share them on Facebook, retweet articles, and lots more.

See our guide on how to automate WordPress and social media with IFTTT for more details.

IFTTT offers a free plan but only offers two applets, meaning that you can create only two automated workflows. With the Pro+ plan starting at $5 per month, you get unlimited applets.

That said, when you are back to working on your desktop, we recommend Uncanny Automator. It is the best WordPress automation plugin, allowing you to create automated workflows like IFTT but specifically geared toward helping WordPress site owners. With 150+ integrations along with hundreds of triggers and actions available, you can automate many common tasks, saving you a lot of time.

Pros:

  • You can automate the most common tasks between apps, such as social media posting, creating reminders, or collecting content from RSS feeds to draw inspiration from.
  • It is relatively easy to use.
  • The app supports voice, so you can tell IFTTT to create an automation on the go.

Cons:

  • Only paid users can create multi-step applets.

Why we recommend using IFTTT: IFTTT is one of those hidden gems that very few people talk about. Sure, you could hire virtual assistants or pay for tons of apps. But with an automated app like IFTTT, you can create automated triggers and actions, saving you a ton of time in the process.

8. 1Password

1Password

1Password is the best password manager on the market. It is a platform that we have been using at WPBeginner for a while to keep our passwords secure and improve WordPress security.

The 1Password iPhone app allows you to automatically save and enter passwords. You can also safely share your passwords with co-workers without them being able to look at the password.

1Password allows you to manage passwords so you don’t have to store them in insecure places such as your phone notes app. And it’s really easy to use because it allows you to log into any site or service with a single tap.

They offer a free 14-day trial to any of their plans. With the Individual plan starting at $2.99 per month, billed annually, you get access to the features across all devices and can save an unlimited number of passwords in their vault.

Pros:

  • 1Password lets you save unlimited passwords and offers up to 1GB in storage for their paid plan.
  • It is easy to use.
  • Higher plans are great for adding team members.

Cons:

  • 1Password doesn’t have a free plan.

Why we recommend using 1Password: 1Password is one of the most reliable password managers, and they offer password sharing so you can securely share passwords with team members on your multi-author blog.

9. Google Docs

Google docs

Google Docs is a free word processing software with easy sharing and collaboration features.

If you have access to the internet, then there’s a good chance you already have been using Google Docs for quite some time.

The cool thing about Google Docs is that you can track changes so that you can see previous versions of the document. In case you make a big mistake, you can always restore the document to an earlier version.

On top of that, you can make comments, making it easy to give and receive feedback on your articles.

And if you have Google Workspace, you’ll have much more storage, allowing you to keep more files, images, and videos for your blogs. You even will get a free business email address, which is especially important for being professional. This can go a long way when doing business with others.

Pros:

  • Google Docs has an offline feature.
  • It is free to use.
  • You can collaborate with others on Google Docs.
  • It connects with the entire G-Suite, like your Gmail, Google Calendar, and so on.

Cons:

  • As a blogger, you may prefer drafting your blog post directly on WordPress so you don’t have to deal with formatting issues later.

Why we recommend using Google Docs: Google Docs is standard for most bloggers and just an easy way to draft blog posts or write down your ideas. It’s not fancy by any means, but it gets the job done. There’s even a voice typing feature, so you can use your voice to write an article.

10. Feedly

Feedly

Feedly is a platform that lets you organize all of your favorite websites, blogs, and online publications in one place.

That way, you can follow your favorite sources and manage your content consumption on the go. There is no need to open up different apps just to get the inspiration you need.

On top of that, you won’t need to use lots of social media apps, which could be a huge distraction. With Feedly, you can mindfully consume helpful content that will help inspire your next blog posts.

And Feedly will suggest new sources based on your current interests and subscriptions. This will help you to discover new blogs and stay up to date with industry trends.

It is one of the best RSS feed readers on the market. That’s because it offers an intuitive reading experience, intelligent tracking of what you have read, and tools to organize your subscriptions.

Feedly starts at $6 per month, giving you access to 1,000 RSS feeds. Also, you have the ability to write notes and highlights and save them to other platforms like Evernote.

Pros:

  • Feedly has an AI feature that helps filter out distractions and only provides the content you are looking for.
  • It is easy to use.
  • You can organize the content into categories and folders.

Cons:

  • The free version has ads.
  • There is no built-in commenting.

Why we recommend using Feedly: Feedly is an app you can use to help ‘feed’ your ideas. As a writer, you will always need to be keeping up with trends and understand what people are talking about. Rather than having to check multiple news sources and social media channels, you can send it all to Feedly.

Bonus: Snapseed

Snapseed iphone app

Snapseed is a great app for photo editing since it offers plenty of advanced features that can transform your images.

Your iPhone comes with a great camera, and sometimes, you may need to edit photos on the go. Unfortunately, out of the box, an iPhone doesn’t come with an advanced image editing tool that can do all the things you want to do. This is where Snapseed comes in.

Created by Google, Snapseed is an advanced photo editing app for mobile devices. It is available for both Android and iPhone and has some really amazing features like a healing brush, edit history, filters, color and light balance, and more.

You may be surprised how easy Snapseed makes it to use taps and gestures for advanced editing features. It is a must-have app for your iPhone if you regularly share photos from your device.

It is also great for bloggers who share their personal experiences, such as recipes, fitness transformations, traveling photos, food reviews, crafting projects, and more.

Pros:

  • Snapseed has lots of professional-grade photo editing tools, such as healing brush tools to remove imperfections.
  • The app has a user-friendly interface.
  • There are plenty of filter presets to make your photos pop.

Cons:

  • You’ll need to play around with the app to learn how to use all of its features, which may take some time, especially if you’ve never used a photo editing app.

Why we recommend using Snapseed: We recommend Snapseed because it beats a lot of the general photo-editing apps in terms of professional quality. It is the closest thing to using Photoshop for iPhones.

Bonus: Google Authenticator

Google authenticator mobile app

Google Authenticator offers two-factor authentication (2FA) for your online accounts and services, including access to your WordPress site. It adds an extra layer of security beyond just a password to prevent malicious hackers from taking over your blog.

The tool generates time-sensitive passwords that you will need to enter along with your WordPress password. Since these passwords are generated on your mobile device and only for a short time, hackers will not be able to easily break into your website.

And if you forget your password, Google Authenticator helps you recover your account by generating backup codes.

For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to add Google Authenticator 2-step verification in WordPress.

Pros:

  • It’s easy to set up.
  • Google Authenticator supports multiple accounts.
  • You can use just about any online service or platform to keep your accounts secure.

Cons:

  • There’s no built-in backup feature. That means if you lose your device, you could lose access to your accounts.

Why we recommend using Google Authenticator: Google Authenticator requires two-factor authentication to log into your accounts, making it nearly impossible for hackers to get access. This can improve your WordPress security and your peace of mind.

We hope this article helped you find some must-have iPhone apps for bloggers. You may also want to see our list of the free Google tools every WordPress blogger should use, or check out our guide on the proven ways to make money online blogging with WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post Top 10+ Must Have iPhone Apps for Bloggers first appeared on WPBeginner.

8 Best Zapier Alternatives to Automate Your Website

Are you looking for a Zapier alternative to automate your website?

Zapier is a popular web service that allows you to connect different apps and services to automate workflows. However, you may be looking for an alternative due to pricing, advanced features, ease of use, or more.

In this article, we will share the best Zapier alternatives that can be used to automate your WordPress site.

Best Zapier alternatives for your website

What Is Zapier and Why Use a Zapier Alternative on Your Website?

Zapier is a cloud-based automation tool that lets you connect different apps and services with your WordPress website. It enables users to create ‘Zaps’, which are workflows that trigger one event in one app when another event happens in another app.

For example, you could create a Zap that will automatically add new customer information to your CRM every time someone fills out a form on your website.

Zapeir can connect with many applications, including HubSpot, WooCommerce, PayPal, Facebook, Twitter, and more.

However, you may be looking for an alternative because Zapier’s free version offers limited Zaps, only supports the English language, does not offer some of the native apps, and is not as affordable as other solutions.

If you have a small business website and need to automate a lot of workflows, then you can use a Zapier alternative that offers affordable pricing and more workflow customization options.

Having said that, here is our list of the best Zapier alternatives that you can use to automate workflows on your website.

1. Uncanny Automator

Uncanny Automator website

Uncanny Automator is the best WordPress automation plugin on the market that makes it super easy to create workflows without using any code.

It can integrate with 140+ WordPress plugins and third-party tools like Twilio, Instagram, Google Sheets, and Zoom, making it the best Zapier alternative for your website.

With Uncanny Automator, you can easily set triggers and actions to create a recipe and also use conditional logic to control when and how your automation runs.

To create an Uncanny Automator recipe for your website, just head over to the Automator » Add new page from the WordPress admin dashboard and click the ‘Everyone’ option as the recipe type. After that, click the ‘Confirm’ button.

The Everyone recipes can be triggered by any user, while logged-in recipes can only be activated by users logged in to your website.

Choose everyone as recipe type

Next, type a name for your recipe and choose an integration for the trigger. Keep in mind that the trigger is the event that will start the recipe, and the action is the task that runs after the trigger takes place.

For example, if you want to post a tweet every time a new post is published on your website, then you will have to select ‘WordPress’ as the trigger integration.

Choose WordPress as trigger integration

This will open a list of WordPress triggers on the screen from where you have to select the ‘A post in a taxonomy is published’ option.

Next, open the ‘Post type’ dropdown and choose the content you want to share on Twitter.

Choose a WordPress trigger

After that, you will have to choose an integration that will perform the action of the recipe. Here, you can choose Twitter as the platform and then connect it to Uncanny Automator by providing your credentials.

Once you’ve done that, choose the ‘Post a status to Twitter’ option from the list of Twitter actions.

Choose your action for Twitter

For more detailed instructions, please see our tutorial on how to create automated workflows in WordPress using Uncanny Automator.

Pros

  • It is super easy to use and provides unlimited recipes and actions.
  • Uncanny Automator has a free version.
  • It has advanced features, such as delays, scheduling, and user creation.
  • If you have multiple WordPress sites, then you can also connect them using Uncanny Automator.
  • It can integrate with popular plugins like WooCommerce, WPForms, and MemberPress.

Cons

  • The free version allows you to create only a limited number of automations with a limited number of app integrations.

Why we recommend using Uncanny Automator: It is the most powerful Zapier alternative that allows you to create detailed workflows in just a few clicks, is easy to use, and is super cost-effective. We recommend using Uncanny Automator if you have a small business website and need to create a lot of automated workflows.

2. Thrive Automator

Thrive Automator website

Thrive Automator is a powerful and free WordPress automation plugin that allows you to connect your website with 40+ apps. These include Constant Contact, HubSpot, and WooCommerce.

With this plugin, you can create complex workflows to add a customer to your mailing list upon a purchase, create a user account, tag your email subscribers when they post a comment, and so much more.

Thrive Automator also has an easy-to-use interface, amazing customer support, and a list of premade actions and triggers, making it a great alternative to Zapier.

Pros

  • Thrive Automator is a completely free WordPress plugin.
  • It allows you to add filters to your automation workflows.
  • It comes with the conditional logic feature to help create complex automations. This means that the tool checks for certain conditions before performing an action.
  • Thrive Automator is a part of the Thrive Themes Suite, which is a set of plugins that can improve lead generation and boost conversions on your site. It includes popular plugins like Thrive Architect, Thrive Leads, Thrive Quizzes, Thrive Optimize, and more.

Cons

  • All of the other plugins in the Thrive Themes Suite are paid plugins, meaning that if you want to unlock other features, you will have to buy them.

Why we recommend using Thrive Automator: We recommend picking Thrive Automator if you are on a budget. This tool is super powerful, allows you to create unlimited workflows, integrates with numerous apps, and is completely free.

3. HubSpot Automation

HubSpot Automation

HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing software that also comes with an automation tool that connects with 47+ apps and platforms.

It is an amazing Zapier alternative that lets you automate repetitive tasks and workflows across your marketing, sales, and service teams.

With HubSpot Automation, you can send automated emails, publish social media posts, update landing pages, assign leads to sales reps, create deals, and send follow-up emails.

Additionally, you can also use HubSpot to create an automated chatbot that can open support tickets, notify customers of updates, and send surveys.

Pros

  • HubSpot offers a free plugin that you can use to create automated workflows.
  • It lets you create and manage automation with a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface.
  • HubSpot has its own built-in CRM, help desk software, a self-service customer portal, form builder, and other powerful marketing tools.

Cons

  • HubSpot does not integrate with all third-party systems.
  • Its premium plan can be a bit expensive for some users.

Why we recommend using HubSpot Automation: It has a free version, a drag-and-drop interface, and allows you to integrate with numerous tools, making it a great Zapier alternative. We recommend using HubSpot Automation if you are looking to manage all your marketing and sales tasks in a central place.

4. FunnelKit Automations

FunnelKit Automations

FunnelKit Automations is the best marketing automation platform for WooCommerce websites.

If you have an online store, then FunnelKit Automations can act as a great alternative to Zapier by allowing you to easily set up automated email and SMS campaigns for abandoned carts, win back coupons, lead nurturing, purchase anniversaries, and more. 

FunnelKit Automations can integrate with over 200 plugins, comes with a drag-and-drop interface, and also offers ready-made email sequences from its built-in library.

Pros

  • It allows you to create no-code workflows by setting a trigger and action along with conditional logic.
  • FunnelKit Automations offers A/B testing, contact profiles, broadcast campaigns, email and SMS marketing, and more.
  • It provides detailed analytics and reports for your automated emails.

Cons

  • FunnelKit Automations is a paid plugin.
  • It does not integrate with as many third-party tools as some other automation plugins.

Why we recommend using FunnelKit Automations: This is the go-to Zapier alternative if you have a WooCommerce store. That’s because FunnelKit Automations easily integrates with WooCommerce, connects it with other plugins, and allows you to send automated emails to all your customers.

5. Constant Contact

Constant Contact

Constant Contact is the best WordPress email marketing service for small businesses that allows you to manage all the emails on your website.

However, it can also act as a Zapier alternative by letting you create automated email sequences to build customer relationships, sell products, remind customers about abandoned carts or anniversaries, and so much more.

Constant Contact can integrate with more than 300 tools, including WooCommerce, Shopify, PayPal, and Salesforce.

If you are looking for a tool that allows you to create automated workflows for email marketing, then Constant Contact is the best choice.

Pros

  • With Constant Contact, you can create drip campaigns where a series of automated emails are sent to subscribers over time.
  • You can also create workflows for event-triggered emails that will be sent to users upon taking a certain action.
  • The software also offers a list of other tools, including CRM, A/B testing, list-building tools, SMS marketing, social media marketing, and more.

Cons

  • Constant Contact’s automation interface can be difficult to use for beginners. 
  • It does not offer a free plan.

Why we recommend using Constant Contact: Constant Contact is the best Zapier alternative if you are looking to send automated emails to your users. It will allow you to manage and automate your emails effortlessly.

6. IFTTT

IFTTT

IFTTT is also an amazing Zapier alternative that lets you automate workflows without using any code. It offers a free version, is super easy to use, connects with over 700 services, and also comes with a library of pre-built applets, which are automated workflows.

You can use IFTTT to create WordPress posts from YouTube videos, post new Instagram photos to WordPress, and much more.

For more details, you can see our guide on how to automate WordPress and social media with IFTTT.

Pros

  • With IFTTT, you can use conditional logic to control how your automation runs.
  • It offers a number of advanced features, such as loops, delays, and variables.
  • You can run an unlimited number of workflows with applets.

Cons

  • Some of IFTTT’s applets can be unreliable and do not work as expected.
  • Creating a custom applet can be difficult for beginners.

Why we recommend using IFTTT: Overall, IFTTT is a great choice if you are on a tight budget, as its free version has all the features required to create an automated workflow.

7. Make

Make website

Make is an automation tool that allows you to create advanced automated workflows for your site.

It is a great Zapier alternative that integrates with over 1000 apps and services, including Gmail, Slack, Twitter, Asana, and more. Make also offers around 100 premade templates that let you set up workflows on your site in minutes.

It is a great choice if you want to use automated workflows for your sales, marketing, HR, and operations teams.

Pros

  • The tool provides detailed analytics about the performance of your automations. 
  • It is super easy to use and comes with a visual builder to create and manage automations.
  • It can help you create advanced automated workflows like setting up a new user account and updating product statuses.

Cons

  • The free version of Make has some limitations.
  • It reserves priority support for premium plans only.

Why we recommend using Make: We recommend opting for Make if you want to create advanced workflows or use a lot of apps. It is also a good choice to create different workflows for your support, sales, and marketing teams.

8. Pabbly Connect

Pabbly Connect website

Pabbly Connect is a popular Zapier alternative that comes with a user-friendly interface and highly customizable workflows.

It offers 1000+ integrations, comes with a visual builder, and even has a library of pre-built automation templates that you can use to get started quickly.

Additionally, Pabbly offers advanced features like automation scheduling, delays, and routers.

Pros

  • Pabbly offers a free plan.
  • It can also act as an email marketing platform, form builder, subscription billing, and affiliate marketing platform.
  • Pabbly provides detailed analytics on the performance of your automations, email campaigns, and subscription plans.

Cons

  • Its free version has some limitations.
  • It does not offer any live chat support.

Why we recommend using Pabbly: You should pick Pabbly if you want to create highly customizable workflows, as it comes with pre-made templates, a visual builder, and integrations with over 1000 apps.

Which Is the Best Zapier Alternative for Your Website?

In our expert opinion, Uncanny Automator is the best Zapier alternative for WordPress websites. It has a user-friendly interface, integrates with more than 140 tools, offers a free version, and lets you create unlimited recipes.

However, if you have an online store, then you could pick FunnelKit Automations instead. It is specifically built for WooCommerce and even lets you set up email and SMS marketing for customers.

Similarly, if you only want to send automated emails to users, then Constant Contact and HubSpot Automation are also great choices.

Finally, if you are on a budget, then IFTTT and Thrive Automator are also good Zapier alternatives.

Frequently Asked Questions About Zapier Alternatives

Here is a list of some questions frequently asked by our users who are looking for Zapier alternatives.

What is Zapier?

Zapier is a no-code automation tool that integrates with over 4000 apps and allows you to automate tasks such as sending emails, creating new tasks in project management tools, and posting updates to social media.

However, even though Zapier is popular, it is not the only automation tool on the internet.

To create automated workflows, you can also use tools like Uncanny Automator, Constant Contact, Make, Thrive Automator, and Pabbly, which are more reliable, cost-effective, and easy to use.

Why should I use a Zapier alternative?

You might want to use a Zapier alternative because Zapier’s premium plan isn’t affordable for everyone, and its free plan does not offer all the features you will need to automate your workflows.

Additionally, Zapier can also be slow and unreliable, especially when running complex automations.

Which is the best free Zapier alternative?

If you are on a shoestring budget and looking for a free alternative to Zapier, then Thrive Automator is the perfect choice.

It is a free WordPress plugin that is super powerful, has an easy-to-use interface, integrates with 40+ apps, has amazing customer support, and so much more.

Best WordPress Guides for Automating Your Website

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 8 Best Zapier Alternatives to Automate Your Website first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Convert WooCommerce Visitors into Customers (9 Tips)

Do you want to convert visitors to your WooCommerce store into customers?

Bringing traffic to your WooCommerce store is only half the battle. The other half is to convert those visitors into paying customers. One of the ways you can optimize your online store is by using targeted messages and offering incentives to boost conversions.

In this article, we will show you how to easily convert WooCommerce visitors into customers.

How to convert WooCommerce visitors into customers

Why Do You Need Conversion Optimization for Your WooCommerce Store?

Most eCommerce stores rely on search engines or paid advertising campaigns for traffic.

There are many other ways to get more traffic to your website. However, more than 75% of visitors who find your website through search engines will never find it again. Of the people who stick around, only a small percentage of them will add products to their carts.

In the end, more than 69% of shopping carts are abandoned without making a purchase. Shipping costs, a complicated checkout experience, and bad design are among the top reasons for abandoned carts.

Considering these statistics, your WooCommerce store will continue losing potential sales if you don’t work on converting those visitors into customers.

How Do You Convert Visitors Into Customers?

The process and technique that is used to convert visitors into customers is called conversion rate optimization (CRO). Marketers and usability experts use CRO to successfully drive visitors to become customers.

Basically, you remove obstacles that affect a user’s experience on your WordPress website. You also provide incentives that convince users to buy.

Lastly, if a user must leave without making a purchase, then your goal is to try and get their information through lead generation. This allows you to communicate with them via email and offer personalized messages, special discounts, or new product announcements.

In the early days of eCommerce, you needed programming skills to work on all these tasks, but not anymore. Now, you have tools that make it extremely easy to do all these things without writing code or acquiring any new technical skills.

That being said, let’s take a look at different ways you can convert WooCommerce visitors into customers.

1. Offer Discount Coupons and Free Shipping

One of the easiest ways of converting visitors into customers is by offering incentives like discounts and free shipping.

They also help convert abandoning visitors and reduce abandoned carts. For instance, if a visitor is about to exit your online store without checking out, then you can show a popup with a discount coupon.

WooCommerce popup preview

The best way to show discounts, flash sales, free shipping, and other offers is by using OptinMonster. It is the best conversion optimization and lead generation software.

OptinMonster lets you create different campaigns for your WooCommerce store, including popups, slide-in scroll boxes, floating bars, countdown timers, sidebar forms, and in-line forms.

Besides that, it offers powerful display rules to show the campaign to the right person at the right time.

Ecommerce display rules

For instance, it allows eCommerce targeting, where you can show your campaigns based on cart total, specific product pages, how long a customer has spent in your online store, and more.

For more details, see our guide on how to create a WooCommerce popup to increase sales.

You can also create a spin-to-win campaign to offer discount coupons and free shipping to users. This helps create engagement and is a fun way to boost conversions.

OptinMonster Spin Wheel Campaign

2. Promote Products That Your Audience Prefers

Another way to get more conversions in your WooCommerce store is by figuring out which products your audience likes the most and then promoting them. This way, you can improve the visibility of top-selling products and boost conversions.

To find out which products your visitors prefer, you can use MonsterInsights. It is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress that helps you set up advanced tracking without editing code.

MonsterInsights lets you set up eCommerce tracking, which helps record conversions, revenue, and user behavior in your WooCommerce store. It also offers eCommerce reports, so you can easily view top products inside your WordPress dashboard.

How to set up eCommerce tracking on a WooCommerce store

Once you know which products your audience prefers, the next step is to promote them in your WooCommerce store.

A simple way to do that is by improving their visibility so users can easily find and purchase them. For example, you can show top-selling products under other items, in the sidebar, or within your content.

Showing best-selling products on your WooCommerce store using MonsterInsights

With MonsterInsights, you can easily show top products across your website. It offers a Popular Products feature that lets you add products at the end of a blog post to boost conversions.

To learn more, please see our guide on how to display popular products on WooCommerce product pages.

3. Make High-Converting Sales Pages

You can also create high-converting sales pages to promote different products and boost conversions in your WooCommerce store.

A sales page has a single purpose, which is to get people to buy your products or services. A high-converting sales page will have clear call-to-action (CTA) buttons, engaging product images, and other details to help users buy the product.

You can easily create high-converting sales pages for WooCommerce using SeedProd. It is the best WordPress page builder that lets you create custom landing pages without editing code.

SeedProd's drag and drop page builder

SeedProd offers 300+ prebuilt templates, multiple customization options, a drag-and-drop page builder, and more. It also integrates with email marketing tools and other third-party tools.

For step-by-step details, see our guide on how to create a sales page in WordPress that converts.

4. Build an Email List and Promote Products

Did you know that email lists get 10 times higher conversions than social media campaigns?

Building an email list for your WooCommerce store can help improve your revenue. You can tell your subscribers about the latest products, promotional sales, upcoming campaigns, and more.

Example of a flash sale email blast

You can also send targeted emails to specific subscribers. For example, if you are launching a new product in a specific location, then you can send out an email campaign for subscribers from that particular country.

To get started, you will need an email marketing tool like Constant Contact. It is very easy to use, and you can easily collect email addresses, manage them, and segment them into different groups. Plus, it helps you set up automated drip notifications and other email campaigns.

Create an automated workflow

Once you’ve started collecting emails, you can take things one step further and try different ways to grow your email list.

For example, you can offer discounts, giveaways, and other incentives to customers in exchange for their email. You can see our complete guide to uncover more ways to grow your email list.

5. Leverage Social Proof to Boost Conversions

Another simple hack for converting WooCommerce visitors into customers is by showing social proof.

People feel more comfortable with their buying decisions when they know others have also bought the same product and had a great experience.

There are different ways to show social proof on your WooCommerce store. For instance, you can use TrustPulse to display real-time user activity notifications, such as the latest product purchase.

A notification, created using TrustPulse

Besides that, you can also show testimonials and customer reviews on the product page to boost social proof.

They can help you gain trust from your visitors and encourage them to purchase the product.

Preview for testimonials

You can learn more by following our guide on how to add a customer reviews page in WordPress.

Another way to boost conversions in WooCommerce stores is by using FOMO or fear of missing out. You can add a countdown timer to a discount campaign and encourage users to make a purchase before time runs out.

Black Friday FOMO popup for WooCommerce

6. Run a Giveaway Contest

If you are looking for a way to boost engagement on your website and increase eCommerce conversions, then running a viral giveaway contest is a great way of doing it.

A competition gives your WooCommerce visitors a fun reason to return to your store and stand a chance to win free products.

In return, you can ask users to participate in the competition by following your social media pages, signing up for an email newsletter, inviting a friend to participate, and more.

This way, you’ll also grow your social followers, increase your email list, promote your brand, and build a relationship with your audience.

The best way to run a giveaway contest is by using RafflePress. It is the best giveaway plugin for WordPress that’s easy to use. RafflePress offers a drag-and-drop contest builder with lots of customization options.

Host a giveaway

To learn more, please see our guide on how to create a WooCommerce contest to boost loyalty and engagement.

7. Upsell Products in WooCommerce

Upselling is a technique that encourages visitors to purchase a higher-priced product instead of the one they already have in their shopping cart.

These products might have a higher value, offer more features, or have better quality. As a result, they are also more expensive and more lucrative for your business.

For instance, let’s say you are selling plugins or software in your online store. You can offer users a higher pricing plan with more addons and upgrades than the base plan.

There are several ways you can upsell products in WooCommerce. First, you can show different products on a product page at the bottom and ask visitors to buy them instead. Or you can create a popup to upsell particular products.

Upsell popup preview

Besides that, you can also showcase different products on the checkout page before a user makes a purchase. Or you might promote products on the thank you page, enticing a customer to buy more items.

To learn more details about each of these methods, please see our guide on how to upsell products in WooCommerce.

8. Add Express Checkout Buttons

Another simple method for boosting conversions in your WooCommerce store is offering express checkout buttons. This allows users to skip different steps in the checkout process and go directly to the payment page.

This provides a better shopping experience for customers and makes the buying process quicker. A user can simply click a button to make a purchase. As a result, you’ll see more conversions and less cart abandonment.

Express checkout buttons preview

Please see our guide on how to add express checkout buttons in WooCommore to learn more.

9. Offer a Personalized Experience to Users

Personalization helps you improve the user experience by making your content more personal for each visitor. You can create product offerings for different users to boost WooCommerce conversions.

For example, you might greet logged-in customers with their names, show them products based on their browsing history, and offer them discounts or coupons.

Lightbox popup with yes no optin

For more details, you can see our guide on how to show personalized content to different users in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn how to convert WooCommerce visitors into customers. You may also want to see our guide on how to enable customer tracking in WooCommerce with Google Analytics and our expert picks for the must-have WordPress plugins for business websites.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Convert WooCommerce Visitors into Customers (9 Tips) first appeared on WPBeginner.

9 Best ActiveCampaign Alternatives in 2023 (Compared)

Are you looking for the best ActiveCampaign alternatives for your website?

ActiveCampaign is a popular marketing automation tool that offers a suite of features, including email marketing, forms, sales automations, and more. However, you may be looking for an alternative to better fit your needs.

In this article, we will share a list of some of the best ActiveCampaign alternatives that you can use on your WordPress site.

Best ActiveCampaign Alternatives

Why Use an ActiveCampaign Alternative?

ActiveCampaign is a popular automation and marketing platform that allows small businesses to connect with their customers in multiple ways.

By using ActiveCampaign on your WordPress website, you can launch an email marketing campaign, do customer relationship management (CRM) and eCommerce marketing, create forms and landing pages, and much more.

However, ActiveCampaign may not be the best choice for you because it’s a bit difficult to navigate for beginners and can be expensive for small businesses. It might also not have all the features that you will need for automation marketing.

Additionally, some users have also complained that ActiveCampaign does not offer good customer support.

That being said, here is our list of some of the best ActiveCampaign alternatives that you can use on your WordPress site.

1. Constant Contact

Constant Contact

Constant Contact is the best email marketing service that also offers a suite of other tools, including marketing automation, SMS marketing, event marketing, CRMs, landing pages, and so much more.

It is the best ActiveCampaign alternative because it allows you to easily automate your emails, SMS, and social media platforms using its drag-and-drop functionality.

Constant Contact also offers other features like A/B testing, mobile apps, event marketing, forms, and list-building tools.

It also has its own built-in CRM, allows you to segment your audience, and can integrate with over 5000 apps, including Zapier, WooCommerce, and Salesforce.

Other than being an automation tool, Constant Contact is also the best WordPress newsletter tool because it connects with WPForms to let you easily build newsletter subscription forms.

Creating Welcome Email

Pros

  • Constant Contact offers email campaign templates.
  • It can easily connect with your WordPress site.
  • It is more affordable than ActiveCampaign.
  • The platform offers detailed analytics and reports.
  • Constant Contact also makes the process of switching from different platforms super easy.

Cons

  • It does not offer a free version.

Why we recommend using Constant Contact: Constant Contact is the overall best ActiveCampaign alternative because it has all the features required for marketing automation. It offers SMS marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, and many other tools, making it one of the best automation tools for small businesses.

2. HubSpot

HubSpot email newsletter plugin

HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing software that offers CRM, sales, marketing, operations, and service tools for your website.

It is the perfect ActiveCampaign alternative if you are looking for sales automation. This is because its CRM tool allows you to organize your customer data and view your entire sales funnel in a visual dashboard.

With HubSpot, you can send automated emails, schedule meetings with your leads from the CRM, track leads as they move through the sales process, score leads based on engagement, and even monitor your sales performance.

Pros

  • Other than sales, HubSpot offers email and SMS marketing automation.
  • It comes with a landing page builder, form builder, SEO recommendations, ad management, and a chatbot builder.
  • Its workflow feature allows you to automate your marketing tasks, and it can integrate with over 1300 apps.
  • HubSpot has a free plugin.

Cons

  • HubSpot’s paid plan can be expensive for startups or small business websites.
  • It does not have the best customer support.

Why we recommend using HubSpot: HubSpot is the best automation marketing tool if you want to focus on sales automation marketing. This is because HubSpot is the best CRM software for business websites. Plus, HubSpot also offers email and SMS marketing automation.

3. Brevo

Brevo website

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is a popular SMS and email marketing tool that also comes with automation features.

It allows you to automate marketing tasks like sending emails, SMS messages, and WhatsApp campaigns.

Brevo also lets you build custom workflows, offers a CRM, comes with a drag-and-drop builder, and even lets you create personalized automated SMS and emails.

Pros

  • Brevo allows you to segment your audience based on different demographics for automated emails and SMS messages.
  • It lets you create landing pages and comes with A/B testing, a transactional email service, a sales platform, and multichannel marketing features.
  • It is more affordable and easy to use than ActiveCampaign.

Cons

  • Brevo’s CRM has basic features.
  • Brevo has limited automation features compared to other tools on this list.

Why we recommend using Brevo: You should opt for Brevo if you are looking for a marketing automation tool that’s beginner-friendly and comes with basic marketing automation features. Brevo is also a good choice if you run a small WordPress blog because it’s easy to use and offers a free plan.

4. Omnisend

Omnisend WPBeginner landing page

Omnisend is a well-known marketing automation platform for eCommerce websites.

It is the best ActiveCampaign alternative if you have an online store and are looking to automate emails, SMS, push notifications, WhatsApp campaigns, and more.

Omnisend also lets you segment your audience based on different demographics to send targeted automated messages to users.

Pros

  • With Omnisend, you can personalize your messages with the recipient’s name, location, and other data.
  • It provides detailed reports on your marketing performance.
  • It allows you to create custom workflows and comes with email templates and a visual email builder.
  • You can use pre-built eCommerce workflows, an automation editor, and an automation split feature.
  • Its other eCommerce features include customer lifecycle data, on-site behavior, message engagement, and more.

Cons

  • Omnisend can be expensive for small businesses.
  • The tool can be difficult to navigate for beginners.

Why we recommend using Omnisend: Omnisend is a great ActiveCampaign alternative if you have an online store and need omnichannel software to manage your automated emails, SMS, Facebook Messenger messages, WhatsApp messages, and push notifications.

5. AWeber

AWeber

AWeber is a beginner-friendly ActiveCampaign alternative that lets you send automated emails and newsletters.

It’s a popular email marketing service that comes with email templates, audience segmentation, A/B testing, analytics, and more.

Plus, it can also integrate with popular eCommerce platforms, including WooCoomerce, Shopify, and Easy Digital Downloads.

Pros

  • It’s a great autoresponder tool that also lets you create landing pages.
  • You can easily connect it to your WordPress site using the free AWeber plugin. For more details, see our tutorial on how to connect AWeber to WordPress.
  • It has a free version.
  • AWeber comes with support materials, including master class sessions and live webinars.
  • It has great customer support.

Cons

  • AWeber’s premium plan can be expensive if you have a small business.
  • The free version has AWeber branding, which can affect your brand.
  • It has limited integrations and basic automation features.

Why we recommend using AWeber: Overall, AWeber is a good ActiveCampaign alternative for beginners because it has email marketing and basic automation features. Plus, it is more affordable than ActiveCampaign and has a free plan.

6. FunnelKit Automations

FunnelKit Automations

FunnelKit Automations is one of the best marketing automation services for WooCommerce stores. It allows you to launch email and SMS marketing campaigns, create automated workflows for your messages, and create drip sequences.

With FunnelKit Automations, you can also launch automated campaigns for abandoned carts, win back coupons, lead nurturing, purchase anniversaries, and more.

Pros

  • The software allows you to create segmented and personalized messages for users.
  • It enables you to create customized workflows and comes with a CRM, revenue tracking, A/B testing, and more.
  • FunnelKit Automations has a drag-and-drop builder and a landing page builder.

Cons

  • It’s a premium plugin that can be expensive for small businesses.
  • It offers limited support.

Why we recommend using FunneKit Automations: If you have a WooCommerce store, then FunnelKit Automations is a great choice because its marketing automation features are specifically designed for WooCommerce.

7. MailerLite

MailerLite

MailerLite is a popular email marketing service and ActiveCampaign alternative. It comes with a drag-and-drop builder, premade email templates, and even lets you create landing pages, newsletters, and opt-in forms.

With MailerLite, you can send automated emails when a subscriber joins a group or a customer purchases a product. You are even able to design multi-trigger email automations. This means that you can add 3 triggers for each automation and create multiple entry points for a single workflow.

Pros

  • MailerLite comes with an analytics and reports feature.
  • It is a super affordable alternative to ActiveCampaign.
  • It can perform A/B testing, segment your audience, and let you create personalized emails to improve user engagement.
  • MailerLite tracks your automation history.

Cons

  • MailerLite offers basic triggers and actions for its automations, making it difficult to create complex workflows.
  • It doesn’t offer any templates in the free plan.

Why we recommend using MailerLite: We recommend opting for this tool if you are on a bootstrap budget because MailerLite is super affordable and has all the features you need to create simple workflows.

8. Drip

Drip

Drip is a powerful email marketing platform that allows you to create automated sequences of emails that are sent to your subscribers based on their actions. It can segment your contact list so that your messages reach the right people.

It’s also a good choice for beginner users due to its visual builder, integration with over 200 tools, and ease of use.

Pros

  • Drip marketing reports provide you with detailed insights into your email marketing performance.
  • It comes with a landing page builder, A/B testing tool, and ad management features.
  • Drip provides online courses and detailed documentation for its use.

Cons

  • It is a bit more expensive than ActiveCampaign.
  • Drip is not the best option for startups and beginners.
  • It doesn’t have a free plan.

Why we recommend using Drip: Overall, Drip is a great alternative to ActiveCampaign if you want to focus on email marketing automation. This is because Drip is a super powerful email marketing service that also lets you automate SMS. It is also a good choice if you have an online store.

9. ConvertKit

ConvertKit

ConvertKit is another ActiveCampaign alternative that allows you to create complex automation workflows using a drag-and-drop builder.

It is a popular email marketing service that comes with premade templates and lets you create and send automated emails to users. Plus, the tool also lets you create landing pages, email opt-in forms, perform A/B testing, email blasts, and more.

Pros

  • ConvertKit allows you to segment your audience based on different demographics.
  • It’s flexible, and its visual builder is ideal for beginners.
  • It offers reports and analytics for your emails.

Cons

  • Even though ConvertKit has a free plan, you will need the premium plan to unlock its automation features.
  • It does not offer SMS or social media marketing automations.

Why we recommend using ConvertKit: You should pick ConvertKit if you are looking for a tool that lets you manage your email campaign and automation workflows in one place. It’s also a great option if you are new to automated marketing because its visual builder is super easy to use.

What Is the Best ActiveCampaign Alternative?

In our expert opinion, Constant Contact is the best ActiveCampaign alternative since it is super easy to use, seamlessly connects with WordPress, and offers many automation features for all kinds of websites and online businesses.

However, if you have an online store, then Omnisend, Drip, AWeber, and FunnelKit Automations are also great choices due to their eCommerce-specific features.

Similarly, if you are looking for sales automation, then HubSpot is our pick because of its super powerful CRM and automation marketing features for emails, SMS, and social media platforms.

Finally, if you are on a budget, then MailerLite is a great choice because it is super affordable.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some of the questions that our readers usually ask us about ActiveCampaign and its alternatives.

What’s better than ActiveCampaign?

There are a number of tools that are better than ActiveCampaign in terms of ease of use, support, features, and pricing.

If you have a WooCommerce store, then you can switch from ActiveCampaign to FunnelKit Automations to unlock automation features designed specifically for WooCommerce.

Similarly, if you have a small business website, then Constant Contact is easier to use, is more affordable, and has many automated marketing features, making it a great alternative.

Tools like Drip, Brevo, AWeber, ConvertKit, and Omnisend are also better than ActiveCampaign when it comes to pricing, support, and features.

Is there a free version of ActiveCampaign?

ActiveCampaign does not offer a free version. If you are on a budget, then you can try HubSpot because it has a free plugin.

You can also use Brevo’s free plan or MailerLite as an affordable alternative to ActiveCampaign.

Best WordPress Guides for Automation

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The post 9 Best ActiveCampaign Alternatives in 2023 (Compared) first appeared on WPBeginner.

15 Best WooCommerce Automations to Increase Sales

Are you looking for easy and smart ways to automate tasks and increase sales in your WooCommerce store?

By automating tasks in your online store, you can save time and money while growing your business and increasing sales.

In this article, we will show you how to use WooCommerce automations to increase sales.

15 WooCommerce Automations to Increase Sales

Why Automate Your WooCommerce Store?

If you are running a WooCommerce store, then you probably spend a lot of your time performing repetitive tasks. These can be anything from sending marketing emails for your online store to processing customer invoices.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could automate all of those tasks and focus on growing sales and your business instead?

Luckily, you can use the best WordPress automation tools and plugins to automate WooCommerce tasks. By doing this, you will save time, offer a better user experience to your customers, and ultimately increase sales.

With that being said, here are 15 WooCommerce automations to increase sales:

1. Use Automation to Personalize Your Email Marketing

Are you keeping in touch with your customers using an email newsletter? You may not be taking advantage of all the automation tools available in your email marketing software.

For example, the best email services like Constant Contact, Sendinblue, and Omnisend all have integrations with WooCommerce. They allow you to personalize your emails by adding the customer’s name and more.

They also let you set up a Welcome email series using a drip campaign. This is a sequence of automated emails that will go out automatically to new customers.

Choose an email automation

You can learn how to get started by scrolling down to the automated drip emails section of our guide on how to send automated emails in WordPress.

Additionally, if you are looking for a complete tool that offers WooCommerce email customization and automation, then we highly recommend using FunnelKit Automations.

Apart from letting you fully customize your WooCommerce emails, it also lets you set up smart, automated follow-up emails and workflows to boost your sales.

You can get started with FunnelKit Automations by selecting an automation from a library of handy templates.

Autonami Email Library for WooCommerce

For example, you can automatically send an email series to new customers, recover abandoned carts, send promotional emails to selected audiences, and more.

There is also an option to create your own WooCommerce automation from scratch. You will then see a visual email automation builder where you can make any customizations that you need.

Autonami Marketing Automation Email Analytics for WooCommerce

For example, the screenshot above shows the workflow for sending out a thank you email after a customer makes their first order. You can even see in-line analytics for each email.

You can learn more in our guide on how to customize WooCommerce emails. Make sure you scroll down to the section on FunnelKit Automations.

Tip: We recommend combining FunnelKit Automations with an SMTP service like WP Mail SMTP. This will make sure your emails are delivered to your customers and won’t get lost or end up in the spam folder.

2. Set Up an Automated Marketing Campaign With Push Notifications

You can also run an automated marketing campaign using push notifications instead of emails. These notifications go directly to the user’s web browser or mobile device. This means they have a much higher engagement rate, similar to SMS messages.

The easiest way to set up automated push notifications is with PushEngage. It is the best web push notification software for WordPress, and over 10,000 businesses use it to send targeted messages.

Create a new drip autoresponder

For each notification, you can change the title, message, URL, icon image, and more by expanding it.

There is also a preview of how your notifications will look in the browser.

Edit your push notifications

PushEngage also lets you choose when to send each notification. For example, you can immediately send the first notification and select a different time for the following one.

For more details, see our guide on how to set up automated drip notifications in WordPress.

3. Let Customers Track Orders With Automated Transactional Emails

WooCommerce will need to send different transactional emails to your customers. These help them get order confirmations, track their order status, get invoices, and find out more information about your online store.

You can customize and automate these emails using FunnelKit Automations, which is a popular WooCommerce plugin for marketing automation.

The FunnelKit Automations dashboard makes it easy to create a new automation. You can simply click on one of the plugin’s many templates.

Funnelkit Automations WooCommerce Automation Templates

You can filter the list to quickly find the WooCommerce automation you wish to use. For example, you might want to send automatic thank-you emails to repeat customers.

You can then customize the automation using the visual automation builder, including the content of the email.

Funnelkit Automations Workflow and Email Customization

For detailed instructions, please see the section about sending automated transactional emails with FunnelKit Automations in our guide on how to send automated emails.

4. Quickly Update Your Customers With Automated SMS Messages

Many customers prefer to receive text messages to notify them about their orders. Plugins like YITH WooCommerce SMS Notifications or FunnelKit Automations will automatically send SMS messages to your customers.

Yith SMS Notifications Plugin

SMS messages are an effective way to keep your customers up to date. They have a 98% average open rate, with 95% of messages being read in the first 3 minutes!

You can send automatic texts to your customers when their orders are dispatched or their status changes. You can automatically send SMS notifications to your customers or let them opt in at checkout.

Learn how by following our guide on how to send SMS messages to your WordPress users.

5. Automate All Invoicing and Payment Processes

As a business owner, there is a lot to manage. If you are still creating invoices manually, then you can switch to professional invoicing software that automates all invoicing and payment processes. Then, you will be free to focus on growing your business.

A plugin like WooCommerce PDF Invoices makes it easy to automatically generate invoices, collect orders, and manage your finances.

WooCommerce PDF Invoices

You can also save time by accepting recurring payments or adding subscriptions to WooCommerce. These WooCommerce automations will help automate the billing process and can save you time.

With automatic recurring payments, you don’t have to spend time manually sending invoices and waiting for payments from your customers.

Plus, adding subscription payments to your eCommerce business will give you a more consistent cash flow, fewer payment errors, and fewer payment delays.

Creating a recurring payment in WooCommerce

6. Use Automated Store Activity Notifications to Boost Sales

Automated FOMO and social proof notifications can also increase sales in your WooCommerce store.

FOMO, short for fear of missing out, is a marketing technique used to create excitement about a product. It uses psychology to encourage customers to make buying decisions faster.

Plus, social proof shows visitors that other customers have purchased your products. This can convince users that your online store is trustworthy.

The best way to add social proof to your website is by using TrustPulse. It is one of the best social proof plugins for WordPress on the market.

TrustPulse automatically monitors activity on your site. When potential customers are close to buying something, they will see a notification showing that another customer has just made a purchase.

By simply displaying social proof, you will give your visitors a small push to complete their purchase. To learn more, see Method 1 of our guide on how to use FOMO to increase conversions.

7. Automatically Display Your Best Product Reviews

Would you like to automatically display the best reviews of your products from across the internet? You could copy and paste them manually, but that is a lot of work. Plus, there would be a delay before they appear on your website.

Luckily, Smash Balloon has a Reviews Feed Pro plugin that lets you automatically show off your best reviews from platforms like Google Reviews, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and more.

Customer reviews, displayed on a WordPress website

It comes with pre-designed templates, so you can display your reviews in different layouts, including showcases, carousels, grids, and more.

The Reviews Feed automatically copies your website’s design so that the reviews look like a natural part of your website rather than content embedded from another platform.

You can follow our guide on how to show Google, Facebook, and Yelp reviews to set up your own automatic review feed in WooCommerce.

8. Use an Automated Sales Funnel to Boost Sales Conversions

A sales funnel is the path a user takes on your website to become a customer. It is made up of the specific pages a user may visit before making a purchase.

For example, a new visitor might land on a blog post, then view a product page, then go through your checkout flow.

Unfortunately, only 10% of shoppers, on average, will add anything to their carts. After they do, 60-80% of them abandon their carts without completing the purchase.

Luckily, you can use FunnelKit, the best WooCommerce sales funnel plugin, to change that. You can use the plugin to optimize each step, offer a better user experience, reduce distractions, and nudge users toward completing their purchases.

For example, it comes with a one-click Upsells feature, which allows users to add products to their carts on their way to the checkout.

WooFunnels One Click Upsell

FunnelKit also lets you customize the user journey with pre-checkout offers, custom checkout form layouts, beautiful templates, and more.

For instance, the FunnelKit Funnel Builder lets you add order bumps to boost profits if someone adds $X to their cart. You can also add one-click order bumps to your checkout page.

Edit design of your bump offer

To learn more, see our guide on how to make a high-converting sales funnel in WordPress.

9. Reduce Cart Abandonment With Popups and Push Notifications

As we said earlier, 60 to 80% of people who add items to their cart don’t actually buy them. This means if you have an online store, then you are losing out on a lot of sales.

Luckily, you can use automatic push notifications to reduce cart abandonment rates. For example, you can pop up a notification when a user is about to leave your website and offer a coupon or free shipping.

Or, if the customer already has discounted items in their cart, they may just need some reassurance that they are making the right decision. Push notifications like these can help you recover 3 to 8% of abandoning cart sales.

Smash Balloon exit intent popup

You can learn how to use OptinMonster to add exit-intent popups by following our guide on how to create a WooCommerce popup to increase sales.

But what if the customer leaves your site before they see the popup? Push notifications can also help you connect with your visitors after they leave your website. These messages will display in your subscriber’s browser even when they are not actively browsing your store.

Push notification abandoned cart example

The easiest way to do this is with PushEngage. It is the best web push notification software on the market, and it is used to send over 15 billion push messages every month.

For more details, see our guide on how to add web push notifications to WordPress.

You can also significantly reduce cart abandonment by simply improving your online store and checkout process. We share plenty of proven tips with real examples in our guide on how to recover WooCommerce abandoned cart sales.

10. Send Automated Coupons to Bring Back Customers

It costs 5 times more to get a new customer than to keep an old one. Over time, people may lose interest in your website, forget about your products, or start shopping with a competitor.

One way to bring those customers back is to automatically send them a coupon code via email. You can use automation tools to send a coupon to customers who have become disengaged, such as when they don’t place an order for 2 months or have stopped opening emails.

Scheduling an automated coupon code

You can learn how in our step-by-step guide on how to send automated coupons in WordPress to bring back customers.

Another good use for automated coupons is recognizing and rewarding customers when they engage with your online store. For example, you might send a coupon after a customer reviews one of your products.

This builds loyalty to your store and can get you more sales. It also encourages shoppers to review more products in the future.

You can also schedule coupons in advance so that they go out automatically on popular holidays like Black Friday, Christmas, New Year’s, Mother’s Day, and Valentine’s Day. This will leave you free to focus on promoting your offers and getting as many sales as possible.

See our guide on how to schedule coupons in WooCommerce for detailed instructions.

Additionally, as we mentioned earlier, you can also offer a coupon in a popup. Showing a coupon at the right time makes a huge difference in converting your website visitors into paying customers.

There are a few ways to do this, and we give you all the details in our step-by-step guide on how to create a coupon popup in WordPress.

11. Automate Your Social Media Channels

You can also use automation to post your online store content to your social channels. This lets you keep your social followers engaged with fresh content.

Uncanny Automator has integrations with all popular social platforms. It will let you publish new blog posts on Facebook, show off your latest product images on Instagram, advertise your sales on Twitter, and more.

Post a featured image to Instagram from WordPress

You can learn how to do this step-by-step by following our guides on how to automatically post to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

12. Automatically Display Social Media Content in WooCommerce

Are you looking for ways to show fresh content without doing any extra work? One way to do that is to automatically display your latest social media activity in your WooCommerce store.

This can save you time and keep your website content fresh and engaging for visitors. Plus, it can boost social proof by displaying your social media followers, comments, and like counts.

Smash Balloon automates your website content by displaying your latest social media activity. It is a popular social media feed plugin for WordPress that is used by over 1.4 million websites.

For example, you can add a Facebook feed to WordPress, and new posts will automatically appear in real time. Your customers can also like, share, and comment on your WordPress posts, which is a great way to get more engagement on Facebook.

An example of an embedded Facebook feed, created using Smash Balloon

You can change the feed’s color scheme, design a custom header, add ‘like’ and ‘load more’ buttons, and much more.

If you are posting beautiful photos and engaging videos to Instagram, then it makes sense to post that content to WordPress too.

An Instagram photo feed, created using Smash Balloon

You can even show other people’s photos on your site by creating a hashtag feed or displaying the posts that other people have tagged your account in.

In the following image, you can see an example of an online store that uses a custom Instagram feed to show user-generated content.

An example of Instagram user-generated content

For details, please see our step-by-step guide on how to add your social media feeds to WordPress.

Tip: For more tips on how to use social channels to grow your online store and increase sales, you can see our complete social media cheat for WordPress.

13. Make Your Forms Smarter Using Automation

You can use form plugins like WPForms to collect all kinds of information from your customers.

For example, you can use a form plugin to display a contact form, create a questionnaire, gather testimonials, or build a survey form.

The best thing is that WPForms easily integrates with many other tools and plugins, so you can easily automate any action after someone fills out your form.

For example, when someone fills in an order form, you can use conditional logic to send an email notification to the correct department, depending on the product that was purchased.

WPForms Conditional Logic for Sending Notifications

You can also send a confirmation email to the customer who filled in the form to let them know you will be in contact soon. This a nice gesture that lets your users know that you have received their information.

In addition, by using the Google Sheets Addon, you can send any form fields you want to a spreadsheet. This will allow you to use spreadsheet features to analyze the data and collaborate with others in your team.

Using WPForms' Google Sheets Addon

To automate your forms further, Uncanny Automator will let you connect WPForms and other form plugins to 100+ third-party services without having to pay fees to services like Zapier.

For example, you can create an Uncanny Automator recipe to send customer form data to Airtable. Then, your team will be able to access and use the data easily.

Using Uncanny Automator to Send WPForms Data to Airtable

To learn more, see our guide on how to create automated workflows with Uncanny Automator.

14. Automate Live Chat Using Artificial Intelligence

Automated chatbots are the future of live chat software because they allow you to engage with your customers 24/7. They can free up time by automatically answering common customer questions, generating leads, improving user experience, and making more sales.

Chatbot.com is the best AI chatbot software for WordPress. It lets you easily automate live chat on your website by setting up your own chatbot using a drag-and-drop builder. You don’t need to do any coding or have any special technical skills.

ChatBot live chat

It even comes with pre-built templates that you can use as a starting point to quickly get your AI chatbot up and running. These templates include different scenarios like selling products, customer service, recruitment, bookings, and more.

For example, you can use the eCommerce bot template to walk your customers through the entire buying process. There are even templates for specific industries, including a coffee shopbot, recruitment bot, and restaurant bot.

If visitors want to communicate with a real person, then you can easily forward them to your customer support agent, phone support, or any of ChatBot’s live chat software integrations, such as LiveChat.

15. Use Uncanny Automator for Even More WooCommerce Automations

This article contains many specialist tools that do specific automation jobs very well. By contrast, Uncanny Automator is a Swiss army knife that allows you to create all types of automation workflows without having to write any code.

It acts as a bridge so that you can get different WordPress plugins talking to each other, as well as loads of third-party services.

You create automation by building Uncanny Automator recipes, consisting of triggers and actions. The action will be automatically run when a user or WooCommerce triggers an event.

Uncanny Automator Triggers and Actions for WooCommerce

Here are some of the WooCommerce triggers you can use to run a recipe:

  • A customer viewing a product
  • A customer adding a product to their cart
  • A customer paying for a product
  • A payment failing
  • A customer reviewing a product
  • And much more

Then the recipe can automatically run any of these WooCommerce actions:

  • Creating an order with a product
  • Changing the price of a product
  • Generating and emailing a coupon code
  • Giving an order a specific status

There are dozens of recipes that you can create, allowing you to save hundreds of hours while running your online store more efficiently.

For instance, you can use Uncanny Automator to automatically create a new customer account when someone submits a contact form on your website, or send notifications to Slack.

Bonus: Track Conversions to Learn How to Increase Sales

To use any marketing automation platform effectively, you will need easy-to-understand reports that tell you exactly what is working for your business and what isn’t.

MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. It lets you get a clear picture of what is happening on your site and what you can do to bring in more sales.

It comes with WooCommerce conversion tracking, form submissions, outbound link tracking, and user tracking.

Its Reports page has an ‘eCommerce’ tab that shows your most important conversion metrics, including the conversion rate, transactions, revenue, and average order value. Below that, you will see a list of your top products with quantity, sale percentage, and total revenue.

Ecommerce report in MonsterInsights

You will also see your top conversion sources. You can use this report to attract more customers and offer exclusive discounts for customers from specific sources.

For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to set up WooCommerce conversion tracking.

You can also connect Google Sheets with WooCommerce to easily record and manage your orders and customer data. Once the information is in a Google Sheet, you can easily filter it based on factors like the order total, the customer’s location, coupons used, and more.

You can then share this information with your team, even if they don’t have access to the WordPress dashboard. For example, you can easily send this data to your suppliers, marketing departments, or other team members.

You are even able to turn this data into charts and graphs. All of this makes it easier to analyze the information and then use these insights to fine-tune your business and get more sales.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to increase sales using WooCommerce automations. You may also want to see our guide on how to add wholesale pricing in WooCommerce or our expert picks for the best WooCommerce plugins for your store.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 15 Best WooCommerce Automations to Increase Sales first appeared on WPBeginner.

Push Notifications vs Email: Which Is Better? (Pros and Cons)

Are you comparing push notifications vs email to figure out which is better?

Push notifications and email marketing are two of the most effective marketing tools to increase conversions and sales. But how are they different and which one should you focus on?

In this article, we will compare push notifications vs email marketing with pros and cons to find out which one is better.

Push Notifications vs Email: Which Is Better? (Pros and Cons)

Push Notifications vs Email: Which One is Better?

Push notifications and email marketing are two different marketing channels that each have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Both can help you achieve similar goals like increasing conversions, recovering cart abandonment, boosting sales, and getting more user engagement.

When used properly, they can help you significantly grow your online business.

Due to the difference in the delivery platform, one method could be better suited over the other. For instance, in some places email will be less effective than a push notification and vice versa.

That being said, let’s take a look at push notifications and email and see what are their pros and cons and when one of them is more effective than the other.

Email Marketing – Pros and Cons Explained

Email Marketing Stats

Email marketing is the most effective marketing tool available on the market. However, what most people are unclear about is what makes email so effective and when they are using it wrong.

Pros of Email Marketing

Following are some of the advantages of using email marketing in your business strategy.

1. High ROI with Low Costs

As a business, one factor in your decision-making is the costs and what kind of return you should expect.

For every $1 spent on email marketing, $44 is made in return. That’s an ROI of 4400% (source). 

Email marketing has a very high ROI due to low-cost email marketing platforms. These services allow you to send thousands of emails to your customers for a very low cost.

2. Wider Availability to All Customers

Most internet users today have 24/7 access to their email inbox via a variety of devices laptops, mobile, and even smartwatches.

An average internet user checks their email several times a day and due to cheaper unlimited storage, many people don’t bother deleting emails.

This increases the chances of your subject line and a snippet been seen by users even if they don’t open the email.

3. Perfect for Longer Content

Emails can be as long as you need, so you have plenty of room to create an effective copy for your email.

We generally do recommend keeping it short and sweet. However, sometimes you may need to add more information to your email.

You can place multiple calls to action if needed, add several products, provide users instructions on how to do something on the website, and more.

4. Emails Are More Customizable

Emails can be in plain text, or you can use HTML and CSS to create beautiful newsletter templates. You can also add images, link to YouTube videos, create buttons, and more.

Emails are more customizable

Most email service providers allow you to use smart tags to personalize your emails. Plus, you can segment your email list into different user groups.

For instance, you can segment your email list into users who have already made at least one purchase and users who have never bought from you.

You can also set up automated drip notifications that send a sequence of emails with a set frequency to users.

All of this allows you to make your emails look more personalized, professional, and persuasive.

5. Email Isn’t Time Limited

Unlike push notifications, which demand the user’s urgent attention, emails are more relaxed and users can decide to read them later.

Once the email arrives in a user’s inbox, it will sit there until the user takes an action.

Most users check email several times a day, so even if they don’t open it right away, they will scan through your subject line multiple times.

Cons of Email Marketing

Email is cheap and highly effective. There is no doubt that it will remain one of the most efficient marketing tools for businesses in the future.

However, there are certain areas where email puts you at a slight disadvantage.

1. Too Frequent Blog Post Emails

Sending users an email for every blog post doesn’t work very well. Specially if you publish daily or several times a day.

Longer emails

That’s why you see a ton of blogs (including WPBeginner) sending weekly emails with a recap of all the blog posts they published this week.

2. Competition in Your Customer’s Inbox

An average internet user gets a lot of marketing emails each day. Each one of them tries to come up with a creative subject line to get their attention.

You are competing with many other businesses for users’ attention, and this affects your open rates. You have to learn how to write better emails that users actually open and take action.

3. Email Apps like Gmail Assigning Low Priority Labels

Marketing emails

Due to huge volume of marketing emails, popular email clients like Gmail may not display any notification for new emails to your users.

Your email may be labeled low priority promotional email among hundreds of other marketing emails. This may reduce the visibility, open rates, and CTR for your email campaigns.

Push Notifications – Pros and Cons Explained

Push notifications pros and cons

Push notifications are a highly effective marketing tool with higher click-through and open rates. Let’s compare how they stack up against email marketing.

Pros of using Push Notifications

Following are some of the advantages of using push notifications over emails in your marketing strategy.

1. Easy to Subscribe

Push notifications are very easy to subscribe to. Users simply need to click a button to subscribe for notifications.

Whereas in a traditional email sign-up forms, users will have to first go through popups and opt-in forms to fill in their email address, submit the form, and then confirm their subscription via double opt-in.

This easy subscription option in push notification works very well for users as it instantly gets out of their way once they click subscribe. Most push notification software offer 1-click subscription options.

2. Messages Are Delivered to Users Instantly

Push notifications appear on users’ screens as soon as they receive them. Unlike emails, they don’t need to open them separately.

They work on all platforms and are particularly more effective on mobile phones. Basically, users will get the message instantly as a notification regardless of which device they are using.

This increases the visibility of push notifications and makes them much more effective than email marketing.

3. Push Notifications Add Urgency and FOMO

Push notifications appear as mobile notifications, which adds urgency to them.

Users feel that they will not see the notification if they dismiss it, so they don’t want to miss out on anything important.

Urgency example

4. Users Cannot Provide Fake Signup

Push notifications work on users’ browsers, so users cannot provide fake sign-up information.

This is far more effective when comparing to email sign-ups. Many users now enter disposable email addresses that they have made particularly for subscriptions.

Users may also provide wrong email addresses or makeup fake ones to signup. As marketers, this affects the open and CTR rates of your email campaigns.

5. Highly Effective Personalization

Push notifications can be customized for individual users and triggered based on user activity.

You can do this with emails too. However, it becomes more effective when combined with the urgency and FOMO effects of push notifications.

For instance, a user added a product to the cart, you can use push notifications to nudge them into completing the purchase.

You can also add drip push notifications which work very well for blog post alerts and many publishers / bloggers send targeted push notifications based on user’s interest.

Cons of Using Push Notifications

Push notifications work great for most websites. However, to avoid misusing them, you need to keep in mind the following disadvantages.

1. No Lengthy Content

Push notifications have a character limit which varies on different platforms and browsers.

For instance, you can use 30-70 characters for titles and 65 to 200 characters for descriptions.

You’ll have to keep your messages short and persuasive with in these limits.

2. Limited Media Options

Platforms like PushEngage allow you to create rich push notifications with hero images, Gifs, videos, and emojis.

There is still a limit on what you can use to make your notifications more interactive.

3. Can Easily Get Excessive

Push notifications have a much higher CTR, which may compel some website owners to use them more frequently.

This could ruin user experience as they may start getting more than usual notifications.

On the other hand, if the user has signed up for too many notifications, their notification panels may get too many messages from different websites which may affect how they feel about web push notifications.

Which is Better, Push Notifications vs Email?

Push notifications are better than email due to the higher click-through rates, urgency, personalization, and easy subscription options.

However, email is still highly effective for transactional emails, upsells, newsletters, and other campaigns.

We believe that they are two separate tools. While one of them can be more efficient in particular scenarios, the other one may excel in other areas.

Combining email and push notifications is ultimately the best win-win strategy for most businesses.

This is why we use both push notifications and email marketing in our business to get maximum results.

How to Get Started with Push Notifications

To send push notifications, you’ll need to sign up for a push notification service.

We recommend PushEngage because it is the best push notification service on the market.

PushEngage

PushEngage comes with powerful customization options, triggered notifications, automatic drip campaigns, A/B testing, and more features to grow your business.

Plus, it is extremely beginner friendly and much easier to set up without any special technical skills.

For more details, see our tutorial on adding web push notifications to your WordPress site.

How to Get Started with Email Marketing

You’ll need to sign up for an email marketing service to get started.

We recommend using Constant Contact, which is the best email marketing service for small businesses and bloggers.

Constant Contact website

Constant Contact comes with easier setup, beautiful email templates for every type of campaign, engagement reporting, and dynamic personalization.

For more detailed instructions, see our article on how to start an email newsletter in WordPress.

We hope this article helpes you compare push noticiations vs email and which one is better for your business. You may also want to see our practical tips to grow your email list quickly or see our complete conversion tracking guide.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post Push Notifications vs Email: Which Is Better? (Pros and Cons) first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Send A Follow-Up Email After No Response in 7 Simple Steps

Send follow-up emails on autopilot with Constant Contact. It’s easy to get started and budget-friendly, plus you can try Constant Contact for free for 60 days.

You craft an enticing sales email but, alas, get no response. What do you do? Leave that potential lead on the table? You don’t have to. There’s every chance your email simply got lost in the shuffle, your recipient was too busy to reply, or maybe you just weren’t persuasive enough the first time around. This is where a follow-up email comes in. It may be the prompt your recipient needs to take action.

Did you know that 80% of sales require 5 to 12 exchanges to convert? Yet 44% of sales reps give up after just one attempt. Don’t fall into that crowd. Take matters into your own hands and use a follow-up email as your do-over whenever you don’t get a reply. Here, we’ll walk you through the steps it takes to write a follow-up email worthy of a positive response.

How to Send A Follow-Up Email After No Response in 7 Simple Steps

The 9 Best Marketing Automation Software for Sending a Follow-Up Email After No Response

Marketing automation software streamlines the process of sending follow-up emails and increases your chances of getting responses from potential leads. Here are the top 9 marketing automation tools to help you nurture leads and create effective follow-up sequences:

Send A Follow-Up Email After No Response in 7 Easy Steps

Follow these seven steps to craft the perfect follow-up email and set up automated follow-up sequences:

  1. Sign Up for Constant Contact
  2. Decide on Timing and Frequency
  3. Write Great Follow-Up Emails
  4. Make an Enticing Offer
  5. Personalize Your Follow-Ups
  6. Use a Compelling Subject Line
  7. Automate Follow-Up Campaigns

Step 1: Sign Up for Constant Contact

Constant Contact gives you the ability to schedule emails in advance and create personalized, automated follow-up sequences. Use these to target decision-makers at different stages in the customer lifecycle, including cold leads. 

Furthermore, with Constant Contact, you have the option to set behavioral triggers and create email workflows. Thus, you can automatically follow up with recipients that don’t open your emails. And through segmentation, you have the opportunity to target the least engaged members of your email list with follow-up emails.

Screenshot of Constant Contact user dashboard with red boxes around Contacts, Segments, and View Contacts
Tap into Constant Contact’s pre-built segments to re-engage contacts who rarely view your emails with a follow-up sequence.

Constant Contact offers a 60-day free trial that you can use to explore. All you need to do is add some basic account information to get started in seconds. The tool has a free forever plan but it’s limited. To access the features we mention here you’ll need to trial the Constant Contact Plus plan.

Step 2: Decide on Timing and Frequency

Follow up too soon or too many times and your emails are just going to seem like spam. This will of course turn recipients off and hinder any future outreach attempts.

Opinions differ on how many times you should follow up with a prospect. We recommend you stick to three emails maximum to avoid frustrating users. And that is indeed a maximum. You should only follow up with a prospect if you have something new to say. Each follow-up email needs to provide value to the recipient and have its own purpose. In other words, don’t just send three “Have you had a chance to consider my request yet?” emails.

Moreover, each of your follow-up emails should be at least three days apart. You can set a time delay between each email in your follow-up sequence with Constant Contact.

Screenshot of a draft of Constant Contact automated email series with red box around Edit button
Customize the number of days between your follow-up emails within Constant Contact’s campaign editor.

Bear in mind that you can always experiment with timings and frequencies to see what works best for different kinds of campaigns. For instance, you might find that a link-building campaign requires one quick follow-up while cold sales campaigns need multiple emails.

Step 3: Write Great Follow-Up Emails

There’s a reason why your first email didn’t get a response. It might be that it wasn’t convincing enough. That’s why you need to make your next emails extra compelling. 

Social proof works great in a follow-up email. It’s a subtle way to say “here’s what you’re missing out on.” For example:

Hi [Prospect],

It’s [Name] again from [Company]. I must say I’ve been enjoying your tweets about [topic] this week. I saw that you shared an article from [Client].

We actually worked with them on their [solution]. We helped them raise their [XYZ] by [%]. Maybe we could do something similar for you?

Are you free for a 10-minute call next week?

Kind Regards

Social proof, especially when it concerns a brand known to the contact, ups your credibility tenfold and gives them a strong incentive to respond. 

Furthermore, it’s tempting to include a ton of information in an email like this such as a longer case study as your social proof. But, it’s better to be concise and to the point. That way you don’t bombard the contact with a ton of extra information that they have to think about. Rather, you want them to react quickly and respond to your request.

You may also note in this example that the request is highly specific. It’s not “maybe we can have a chat about this sometime.” The clearer you are the easier it is for the contact to respond with an answer. No matter what your request is, provide an unambiguous call to action.

Step 4: Make an Enticing Offer

Another key strategy for convincing a contact to respond to your follow-up email is to make an offer they can’t refuse. The idea is to offer them something of value in return for their time or attention. Again, if you didn’t give them reason enough to respond to your first email, this should lure them in.

This offer can come in the form of a freebie. If you know your audience well enough, then you’ll know what they’re most likely to respond to. Perhaps, a free consultation has worked well for you in the past, or access to some gated content, etc.

Another approach is to offer to solve a simple problem for the lead. Here’s an example:

Hi [Prospect],

I just wanted to reach out again as I was browsing your site today and noticed a broken page. If you’re free to jump on a call this week, I’ll be happy to walk you through how to fix it, and we can have that quick chat about web development I mentioned. How does 2pm on Wednesday work for you?

Kind Regards

Naturally, the specificities here will relate to your particular product or service. Either way, the desired result is that the contact is so surprised and delighted they’re more than prepared to hear out your request.

Step 5: Personalize Your Follow-Ups

The worst thing you can do is send out impersonal, robotic follow-up emails. Prospects receive enough emails and follow-ups to know when you’ve just hit copy and paste. These types of emails go into the trash every time. This is because you fail to prove you value the recipient and their individual needs. In other words, your offering or solution isn’t necessarily right for them, you’re just casting out a net over everybody.

However, there are several things you can do to make your follow-up emails more personalized. You can even draw the recipient in with your opening line. Mention something personal to them and/or their company or perhaps talk about a mutual connection or previous meeting.

What Not to Do

Hi [Prospect],

This is just a follow-up in case you didn’t see my last email…

What to Do Instead

Hi [Prospect],

Thanks so much for accepting my LinkedIn invite yesterday. In case you were wondering who the heck I am, I sent you an email last week about… 

OR

Just wanted to touch base again as I saw you shared a blog post on [topic] today. I’d love to get your thoughts on…

OR 

I was chatting with [mutual contact] last week and she said you were still looking for [solution]…

And so on.

It pays to do your research and get on the radar of each individual contact. This way you can make a genuine connection with them in all of your emails.

And, believe it or not, it’s still possible to send personalized emails when you automate the follow-up process. You just need to make sure you continue to segment contacts on your list. To give you an example, you could tag every C-suite exec you met at a particular conference so that they enter the same automated follow-up sequence.

With Constant Contact, you can get super granular about who receives which emails through the process of tagging.

Screenshot of Constant Contact webpage that shows how to add tags with Constant Contact
Constant Contact allows you to filter email lists on a granular level and narrow users by multiple tags.

This ensures the right person receives the right email with the most relevant message at the right time.

Step 6: Use a Compelling Subject Line

Before you can encourage a contact to respond to your email, you first need to get them to open your email. You need a subject line that will pique curiosity. Nobody’s going to open an email with the subject “Follow-Up,” especially if they weren’t interested the first time around.

A couple of rules of thumb. Make the subject line for each follow-up email different. If the first subject line didn’t warrant an open then there’s no sense using it again. Also, make sure your subject lines are honest, not some clickbait ploy.

The best way to create a compelling subject line in this case is to capitalize on the most convincing aspect of the content of your email. For example, if your email contains an offer, your subject line would be “[Offer] for [Contact]”. Or if you’re utilizing a mutual connection it might be “[Mutual friend] gave me your email address” and so on.

Step 7: Automate Your Follow-Up Campaigns

Sending follow-up emails at scale can be difficult and time-consuming. So it makes sense to automate at least some parts of the process so you can focus on more important activities, such as relationship building once you finally get a response.

We’ve touched on this in part already. But we want to give you a little more information, to sum up how you can use Constant Contact to automate follow-up emails.

You can set up multiple automated follow-up sequences for different segments. Set a behavioral trigger—for instance, if the recipient opens an email but doesn’t click a link, then they’ll start to receive these emails. 

Screenshot from Constant Contact webpage explaining how to put your emails on autopilot
Create multi-step email sequences based on user behaviors with Constant Contact.

You’re able to customize who receives specific email content by tagging contacts. When you set these filters, a contact must meet certain criteria to be entered into a particular follow-up sequence. 

You can also customize the delivery timings between each follow-up email. And easily remove tags or manage contacts depending on how they respond to your follow-ups.

Final Thoughts About How to Send A Follow-Up Email After No Response

A follow-up email is another chance to prompt a response from a potential lead. It’s important you don’t miss the opportunity to connect as it may take several exchanges to get a sales prospect on board with your offering. 

Seeing as your email didn’t land the first time around, it’s arguably more important to get follow-up emails right. As such, you need to craft a compelling message and use the best strategies in your arsenal to encourage a positive response, for example, personalization, social proof, and/or an offer that provides value to the recipient in question. 

And given the fact that this process can be so difficult and time-consuming, it’s a good idea to automate your follow-up emails. It will allow you to streamline the process and personally follow up with prospects at scale.

How to Set Up Automated Drip Notifications in WordPress

Do you want to send a series of automated drip notifications to your subscribers?

Automated drip campaigns are great for welcoming new users and boosting engagement on your WordPress site. You can use them to guide your users along a specific journey.

In this article, we will show you how to set up automated drip notifications in WordPress using both push notifications and email notifications.

Setup drip notifications in WordPress

When Should You Use Automated Drip Notifications in WordPress?

Drip notifications are automated messages that are sent to your subscribers, usually in the form of a push notification or an email.

These messages are part of a series, and they are automatically triggered to send at a predefined interval. In other words, they are ‘dripped’ to your subscribers over time rather than ‘poured out’ all at once.

You can use drip campaigns to promote a product, get more pageviews on your WordPress blog, build a relationship with your users, increase sales, and even teach a course over a specific period of time.

Here are a few use cases to get the most out of automated drip campaigns in WordPress:

  • You can send an automatic welcome drip notification to new subscribers and customers. This way, you can educate users about your products and services and build brand trust.
  • If you are running an eCommerce store, then having automated drip notifications setup can help upsell and cross-sell different products upon purchase.
  • You can promote your most important content and get people to revisit your website.
  • Using drip notifications, you can show targeted messages to people from different regions. This helps get more conversions based on geographic segmentation.
  • You can get people to register for your webinars and upcoming events using automated drip notifications.

In this guide, we will cover push notifications and email drip campaigns. You can click the links below jump to your preferred method :

How to Set Up an Automated Push Notification Drip Campaign

The easiest way to set up automated push notifications is with PushEngage. It’s the best web push notification software for WordPress, and over 10,000 businesses use it to send targeted messages.

First, you will need to visit the PushEngage website and click the ‘Get Started for Free Now’ button.

The PushEngage push notification software

Next, you will need to select a pricing plan that meets your needs. PushEngage offers a free plan that includes 30 campaigns and up to 200 subscribers.

After selecting a pricing plan, you can create an account or register with a Google account.

Create an account on PushEngage

Upon signing in to your account, you will see the PushEngage dashboard.

The tool will then take you to Site Settings » Site Details and ask you to enter your website details, like your site name, domain name, site icon, and more.

Enter website details

If you scroll down further in the ‘Site Details’ section, you can generate the API key for connecting PushEngage with different platforms, select a time zone, and enable geolocation.

There is also an option to remove the ‘Powered by PushEngage’ branding.

Copy the API key

Next, you will need to connect your WordPress website with PushEngage.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the PushEngage WordPress plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you will see the PushEngage setup wizard. Go ahead and click the ‘Connect Your Existing Account’ button.

PushEngage setup wizard

A new popup window will now open.

You can then select your website from the dropdown menu and click the ‘Let’s Get Started’ button.

Connect your existing site

Next, you will see a success message that PushEngage is connected to your website.

You can go ahead and select the ‘PushEngage Dashboard’ option to close the setup wizard.

View PushEngage success message

You can follow our detailed guide on how to add web push notifications to your WordPress site for more details.

Next, you can set up automated drip notifications using PushEngage. For this example, we will create a welcome campaign for new subscribers.

To start, you can head to PushEngage » Drip from the WordPress dashboard. After that, click the ‘Add New’ button.

Add new drip responder

After that, you can add different push notifications and edit the content you want to display.

Go ahead and click the arrow at the end of the notification to see more options.

For each notification, you can change the notification title, message, URL, icon image, and more by expanding each notification. There’s also a preview of how your notifications will look in the browser.

Edit your push notifications

If you scroll down, then you’ll find more options, like showing multi-action notifications. Here, you can show call-to-action buttons on the push notifications and edit their text.

There is also an option to enable notification duration. This allows you to set an expiration time for your notification.

Enable multi action and notification duration

PushEngage also lets you choose when to send each notification. For example, you can send the first notification immediately and select a different time for the following notification.

To select when you’d like to send the push notification, simply click the ‘Send notification’ dropdown menu.

Select when to send the notification

To add another notification to the drip campaign, simply click the ‘Add New Notification’ button at the bottom.

Once you’ve added all the notifications, simply click the ‘Drip Settings’ button.

Edit drip settings

Next, you can choose whether you’d like to send the notifications to all your subscribers or a specific audience group that you create.

PushEngage lets you segment your subscribers and create different groups. For this tutorial, we choose the ‘Send to All Subscribers’ option.

Select user segment and activate autoresponder

After that, you can simply click the ‘Activate Autoresponder’ button to enable automated push notifications for your WordPress website.

You can then go to PushEngage » Drip from your PushEngage dashboard and see the drip notifications as ‘Active’.

See your welcome campaign active

That’s it! You have set up an automated push notification drip campaign for your site.

Now you will be able to get detailed stats on its performance in the Analytics section of your PushEngage account.

PushEngage analytics overview

Set Up Automated Drip Notifications Using an Email Marketing Tool

Another way you can create automated drip notifications in WordPress is by using an email marketing tool.

We recommend using Constant Contact because it’s the best email marketing service on the market. It’s super easy to use and offers a drag-and-drop email builder.

However, the drip email notification functionality exists in all major email marketing platforms, including Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), HubSpot, and others.

You can set up email automation in just a few clicks and send email series to your subscribers with ease. Plus, Constant Contact integrates with WordPress plugins like WPForms and OptinMonster.

It even works with eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce and Shopify, so you can automate emails for new customers or help recover abandoned carts.

To start, you can visit the Constant Contact website and create an account. The best thing about using this software is that you get a 60-day free trial. This way, you can try out the tool before committing to a premium plan.

Constant Contact Website

If you use our Constant Contact coupon code, then you can also get 20% off by purchasing upfront.

After creating an account, you can visit the Constant Contact dashboard to create a contact list.

Constant Contact will have already created a default list for you. However, you can create your own list by going to the ‘Contacts’ tab in the top menu and then clicking the ‘Create List’ button.

Create a list in constant contact

Next, a popup window will appear where you will need to enter a name for your list.

Simply click the ‘Save’ button after entering a name.

Enter a name for contact list

After that, you can add contacts to your email list.

You can manually add contacts by going to the ‘Contacts’ tab and clicking the ‘Add Contacts’ button.

Add contacts to list

A popup window will open with multiple options for adding new contacts.

You can connect your WordPress newsletter form with Constant Contact and start building an email list. For more details, see our guide on how to add email subscriptions to your WordPress blog.

Alternatively, you can manually create new contacts, upload a spreadsheet or CSV file, or integrate with lots of other platforms to import saved email addresses.

Add a new contact

Now that you’ve added subscribers to your Constant Contact list, the next step is to create an automated drip campaign.

To do that, head over to the ‘Marketing campaigns’ tab and then click the ‘Create’ button.

Create a new marketing campaign

Next, Constant Contact will show you multiple options for creating a campaign.

Go ahead and select the ‘Automations’ campaign.

Choose a campaign type

From here, Constant Contact will show you multiple templates to choose from.

You can select a pre-built template and customize it according to your requirements or create an automation path from scratch.

Select automation template

For this tutorial, we will select the ‘Create custom path’ template option.

After that, you will need to select when your contact starts the path. Constant Contact will show different options.

You can go ahead and choose the ‘Subscribes for email’ option and then click the ‘Next’ button.

Create custom path

Next, you will have to enter a name for your custom path.

Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Create path’ button.

Enter a name for new path

This will launch the Path Builder, where you can create an automated workflow.

By default, you will see the Trigger for your path. In this case, it’s when someone subscribes to any list.

However, you can simply drag actions and rules from the menu on the left onto the path. For instance, you add different actions like sending an email or sending an SMS to your workflow.

There are also different rules that help you customize your automation. You can add a time delay and specify when the next email should be sent. Similarly, there is a conditional split option that lets you set up Yes and No conditions and split the path.

Create an automated workflow

You can also edit each action in the automated workflow. Simply click the 3 dots icon and select the ‘Edit’ option. For example, let’s edit the Send an email action.

Next, a popup window will open where you create a new email or copy an existing email.

Since we are creating the workflow for the first time, go ahead and select the ‘Create a new email’ option, enter a name for your email, and click the ‘Continue’ button.

Name your new email

After that, Constant Contact will show you multiple email templates.

You can also search for a template based on the occasion or use a blank template to create an email from scratch.

Choose an email template

Once you select a template, the email editor will launch.

You can add different blocks to the template, edit existing text, customize the design, and more.

Customize your email design

When you are done, simply click the ‘Save & Close’ button at the top.

You will now return to the Path Builder in Constant Contact. Go ahead and finish your automation path by adding as many actions and rules to your path and editing each one of them.

Activate your path

After creating an automated workflow, you can simply click the ‘Activate’ button at the top.

That’s it! You’ve now successfully launched an automated drip notification campaign using an email marketing tool.

Bonus: Grow Your Email List in WordPress

In the second method of this tutorial, we showed you how to set up email drip notifications. But before you can send out your emails, you will need a list of subscribers.

Here are a few tips to grow your email list:

For more ideas, you can see our complete guide on how to grow your email list. You may also want to read our article on how to start an email newsletter to help you design better email campaigns.

We hope this article helped you learn how to set up automated drip notifications in WordPress. You may also want to check out our expert pick of the best WordPress plugins to grow your business and our ultimate WordPress SEO guide to improve your SEO rankings and get more traffic.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Set Up Automated Drip Notifications in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Share Your Blog Posts With Readers (4 Ways)

Are you looking for proven ways to share your blog posts with blog readers to grow your traffic?

Most people who read your blog won’t come back to see if you’ve published new posts. By sharing your new posts with readers, you can get them to come back to your website and potentially convert into customers.

In this article, we’ll show you how you can share new blog posts you’ve recently published with your readers.

How to share your blog posts with readers (4 ways)

Why Share Your Blog Posts with Readers?

Nearly 70% visitors leaving your website will never come back to visit again. As a website owner, you need to give them a reason to come back.

One of the best ways to do this is by sharing your new blog posts with them. If your blog posts are packed with value, then you’re helping your readers succeed by encouraging them to read your new content.

If you run an online store, then sharing your posts will deepen the relationship and turn subscribers into customers. Those running affiliate or review websites will get more views on their content, which means more clicks and commissions.

With that said, let’s take a look at a few different ways you can share your blog posts with your readers. Simply use the quick links below to go straight to the method you want to use to share your blog posts.

1. Share Your Blog Posts with Push Notification Subscribers

One of the easiest and most effective ways to share new blog posts with your readers is by using push notifications.

A push notification is a popup message that goes out to your subscribers across desktop and mobile devices.

These can be very effective because they show up instantly no matter where your visitors happen to be. You don’t have to wait until they check their email or social media accounts for them to see your notification.

Here’s an example of what a blog post notification can look like:

PushEngage blog post notification

The easiest way to add push notifications to your WordPress blog is by using PushEngage. It’s the best push notification software in the market used by over 10,000 businesses.

PushEngage

For more details on setting up and sending push notifications, see our guide on how to add web push notifications to your WordPress site.

After you activate and set up the plugin, push notifications for new blog posts will automatically be enabled on your site.

The moment you publish a new post, your notification will send out to all of your subscribers.

The push notification will include the title of your blog post and the featured image. Once they click the notification, they’ll be taken to the post on your website.

2. Share Your Blog Posts with Your Email List

Your email list is one of most valuable assets in your business and one of the best ways to stay in touch with your readers.

Email subscribers who have joined your list have already verified their identity and are very interested in what you have to offer, which makes them more likely to open your emails and return to your website.

Haven’t started to build your email list yet? The first thing you need to do is get a high quality email marketing service provider.

We recommend using Constant Contact since it’s one of the best email marketing services for small businesses.

Constant Contact

Constant Contact offers tools that make it easy to manage your email list, like simple tracking and reporting, unlimited emails, segmentation, an image library, and more.

For more details on setting up your email list and sending emails, see our guide on how to create an email newsletter the right way.

Once your email list is set up, you can start sharing your blog posts with your email list.

Constant Contact has all the tools you need to start sending your blog posts to readers, including an option to embed posts directly into your email.

Constant Contact send blog post

If you’re looking for creative ways to get more email subscribers, then consider adding a yes/no optin, using content upgrades, or getting started with coupon code popups on your website.

Looking for a Constant Contact alternative?

There are dozens of other email marketing services that you can use too including HubSpot, Sendinblue, and ConvertKit.

3. Share Your Blog Posts with Your Social Media Followers

Social media platforms are a great place to tap into a network of billions of people, build a following, and send traffic back to your site.

To build a loyal following, you need to engage with your users by interacting with them, posting updates, and sharing your content.

We regularly share our latest blog posts with our audience on Twitter and Facebook.

WPBeginner Facebook share example

However, the big issue with manually sharing your blog posts on social media is that posting can be very time consuming.

Luckily, you can automate your WordPress website so that the moment you publish a new post, it’ll automatically share to social media.

The easiest way to do this is by using Uncanny Automator. It’s the best WordPress automation plugin that lets you create automated workflows without writing any code.

Uncanny Automator

It connects with over 50 different plugins, tools, and applications, including popular social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

If you want to share your blog posts to Facebook, then see our guide on how to automatically post to Facebook from WordPress. For Twitter, see our guide on how to automatically tweet when you publish a new post in WordPress.

With your automations all set up, the moment you publish a new blog post, it’ll automatically share your blog posts with your social media followers.

4. Share Your Blog Posts with Your SMS Subscribers

Sending SMS messages can be a great way to share your new posts with your readers. Not only do text messages have a very high open rate, but people will check their text messages almost instantly.

The first thing you need to send SMS messages to your subscribers is an SMS marketing provider.

We recommend using Sendinblue since it’s one of the best email marketing providers that also allows you to send SMS messages.

Sendinblue

For more details, see our guide on how to send SMS messages to your WordPress users.

Once your account is set up, you can share your blog posts with your readers via SMS. You’ll have full control over the recipients, message, sending time, and more.

SMS message example

We hope this article helped you learn how to share your blog posts with readers. You may also want to see our comparison of the best domain name registrars, and our expert picks of the best AI chatbots software for your website.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Share Your Blog Posts With Readers (4 Ways) appeared first on WPBeginner.

How to See Who Is Following My WordPress Site (4 Quick & Easy Ways)

Do you want to see who is following your WordPress site?

Seeing who follows your website lets you better understand your audience and improve your website to suit their needs, so you can grow your traffic and get even more followers.

In this article, we’ll show you how you can easily see who is following your WordPress site.

How to see who is following your WordPress site (4 quick & easy ways)

Why See Who is Following Your WordPress Site?

By analyzing who is following your WordPress website, you can better understand your website visitors and the people who enjoy your content.

Here are just a few things you can learn from your website followers:

  • How many people are following you across different platforms
  • Which devices and web browsers your visitors use
  • What pages on your site visitors like the most
  • Where in the world your visitors are located

This information will help you make more informed decisions about your website, which will help you create a better user experience, get more traffic, and make more sales.

That being said, let’s take a look at how you can see who is following your WordPress site using a few different methods. You can use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use to find your followers.

1. View Your Website Analytics Data in WordPress

Your website analytics data can give you a lot of different information about who is visiting your website. The easiest way to view that data is by using Google Analytics.

Google Analytics shows you where your visitors are coming from and gives you overall demographic data about who they are. However, setting up Google Analytics the right way can be difficult for beginners.

This is why we recommend using MonsterInsights. It’s the best analytics solution for WordPress and lets you add analytics to your website in a couple of clicks.

MonsterInsights

For more details, see our guide on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress for complete setup instructions.

Note: It will take some time to start gathering the data before it can be displayed in your dashboard.

After you activate and set up the plugin, you can view your Google Analytics stats directly in your WordPress dashboard.

To get a detailed breakdown of your visitors, simply go to Insights » Reports.

This brings you to a screen where you can view all of your website analytics data in depth. First, you’ll see a breakdown of your traffic levels and engagement metrics.

MonsterInsights traffic data

As you scroll down the page, you’ll see more reports on what devices visitors use to view your site, the countries they’re from, what sources send you the most traffic, and more.

MonsterInsights follower data

You can also get a detailed breakdown of the pages on your website that bring you the most traffic, the top pages that visitors exit on, scroll depth, and other reports.

For the full report, simply click on the ‘Publishers’ tab at the top of the page.

MonsterInsights top pages

All of this visitor data helps you to better understand your visitors and how they use your website.

2. View Your Email List Subscribers

Your email list is an incredible way to make money online, plus it’s a great source of information about who is following your WordPress site.

Haven’t started an email list yet? The most important thing you need to get started is an email marketing service provider.

We recommend using Constant Contact since it’s one of the best email marketing services for small businesses.

Constant Contact

For more details on setting up your email list, see our guide on how to create an email newsletter the right way.

Once your email list is set up, you can view your subscriber data. First thing you need to do is log in to your Constant Contact account.

Then, click on the ‘Contacts’ menu option and click the ‘Contacts’ tab. This will give you a detailed breakdown of the size of your email list and your subscriber information.

Constant Contact subscribers example

Once you start to send emails, it will give you data about how engaged your subscribers are. Engaged subscribers are those who open, click, and reply to your emails more often.

The process is similar on other email marketing services like HubSpot, ConvertKit, Drip, etc.

3. View Your Social Media Followers in WordPress

Viewing your social media followers is easy, since you can see your follower count directly from your profile on most social media accounts.

For example, you can view your Instagram followers by simply going to your profile and clicking on the ‘followers’ link.

Click Instagram followers

This brings up a popup that shows your followers.

You can scroll through and click to open their profiles to learn more.

View Instagram followers

Other networks like Facebook give you page insights data, where you can get a more detailed breakdown of your followers’ ages, genders, countries, languages, and more.

To find this information, open up your Facebook Business Page Insights account, click on the ‘Insights’ menu icon, and then click on ‘Audience’.

Facebook audience insights follower information

This brings up any available data on your Facebook page followers.

One great way to use your social media follower information is to display your social media feeds and follower counts in WordPress. Doing this can help to boost social proof and visitor engagement.

The best way to add your social media feeds to WordPress is by using Smash Balloon. It’s a collection 4 different WordPress plugins that let you add social feeds from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube to your website.

Social media feed and followers example

For more details, see our step by step guide on how to add your social media feeds to WordPress.

4. View Your Web Push Notification Followers in WordPress

Another way people can follow your WordPress website is by subscribing to push notifications. These notifications let you send messages to visitors on mobile and desktop, even when they aren’t on your website.

On most websites, about 70% of people who leave the site will never come back. Adding push notifications lets you easily get these visitors to come back again and again.

Here’s an example of what it looks like:

PushEngage example notification

With push notifications, you can reach your followers immediately without waiting until they decide to check their inbox, which makes push notifications extremely valuable.

The easiest way to add push notifications to WordPress is by using PushEngage. It’s the best push notification software in the market used by over 10,000 businesses.

PushEngage

For more details, see our guide on how to add web push notification to your WordPress site.

After you activate and set up the plugin, you’ll be able to view your push notification follower stats. This shows you who’s signed up to receive push notifications, their location, device used, and more.

To find your push notification followers go to your dashboard on the PushEngage website, and then navigate to Analytics » Subscriber Statistics.

PushEngage follower stats example

You can also view your list of subscribers by clicking on the ‘Summary’ tab.

Note about WordPress.com Followers

The methods above are a great way to see who is following your WordPress blog. However, if you’re using WordPress.com, then you can view follower stats directly in your WordPress dashboard.

To learn the difference between the two, see our comparison of WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

To view your followers, simply navigate to your admin dashboard, click on ‘Stats’, and then click on the ‘Insights’ tab.

Navigate to WordPress.com stats and insights

As you scroll down the page, you’ll see ‘Follower totals’ and ‘Followers’ sections.

This shows you how many followers you have, along with their username and how long they’ve been following.

WordPress.com follower totals

If you want to switch your website to the self-hosted version of WordPress, then see our guide on how to move your site from WordPress.com to WordPress.org.

We hope this article helped you learn how to see who is following your WordPress site. You may also want to see our guide on how to get a free business email address and our expert pick of must-have WordPress plugins for small business.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to See Who Is Following My WordPress Site (4 Quick & Easy Ways) appeared first on WPBeginner.

12 Best WordPress Automation Tools and Plugins Compared (2021)

Are you looking for the best WordPress automation tools and plugins?

By automating tasks on your WordPress website, you can save time and money while growing your website traffic and business.

In this article, we’ll share the best WordPress automation tools and plugins to help you speed up your workflows.

12 best WordPress automation tools and plugins

Why Use WordPress Automation Tools and Plugins?

When you’re running a WordPress website, there are many repetitive tasks that can take up a lot of your time.

By using WordPress automation tools and plugins, you can free up your time to spend on more productive tasks. They help to automate tasks like marketing, lead generation, social media, customer support, and much more.

For example, you can create an AI chatbot to automate basic customer support, or use an email autoresponder to welcome new subscribers.

That being said, let’s take a look at some of the best WordPress automation plugins and tools you can use to automate your WordPress site.

1. Uncanny Automator

Uncanny Automator

Uncanny Automator is the best WordPress automation plugin in the market. It lets you create powerful workflows to save time and reduce errors without writing any code.

Uncanny Automator seamlessly integrates with all the most popular WordPress plugins and third-party tools in the market. This makes it easy to set up your own custom automations in a couple of clicks.

Think of it like Zapier, but for WordPress websites.

For example, you can connect WordPress with Google Sheets, integrate Slack and WordPress, create buttons that trigger actions, and so much more.

There’s support for 70 different WordPress plugins and third-party apps to help you create endless automations and run your WordPress blog more efficiently.

You can get started with the free version of the plugin, which supports all kinds of WordPress plugins and actions.

2. Constant Contact

Constant Contact

Constant Contact is the best email marketing service for small businesses.

Constant Contact lets you stay in touch with your visitors after they leave your website. You can use it create automated email sequences to build customer relationships, sell products, and more.

Plus, it’s very easy to set up and create your own email newsletters. You can use the drag and drop email creator and bundled email templates to quickly create beautiful emails to send to your subscribers.

It also integrates with popular lead generation tools like WPForms and OptinMonster to fully automate your lead generation and follow-up process.

You can use our Constant Contact coupon code to get 20% off your monthly plan.

Alternatives: SendinBlue, HubSpot, and Drip are great alternatives for email marketing automation.

3. OptinMonster

OptinMonster

OptinMonster is the best conversion optimization software and WordPress popup plugin in the market. It lets you automate your lead generation and convert website visitors into new email subscribers and customers.

OptinMonster includes a library of high-converting templates you can use to create location based popups, announcement bars, slide-ins, gamified spin wheels, and more to capture your user’s attention.

Spin the wheel popup example

All of the templates can be fully customized with the drag and drop builder.

There are also advanced targeting features so that each campaign will display based on the rules you decide. For example, you can have popups display for visitors in a certain location, or show targeted messages for different pages on your website.

Note: You can get a free version of OptinMonster to get started.

4. WPForms

WPForms

WPForms is the best contact form plugin in the market used by over 4 million websites. It’s very beginner friendly and lets you create forms that make it easy for your visitors to get in touch with you.

The drag and drop form builder lets you quickly create a nearly endless amount of forms like contact forms, order forms, email subscription forms, survey forms, and more.

Beyond beginner-friendly form creation tools, you’ll find advanced features like conversational forms, geolocation tracking, login forms, and much more.

WPForms easily integrates with a ton of other tools and plugins so you can easily automate any action after someone fills out your form.

For example, you could automatically send the data to a Google Sheet, register new users on your membership site, get an SMS message from your form, and much more.

The free version of WPForms lets you create simple contact forms, but for the more advanced form creation features, you’ll need to update to WPForms pro.

5. Chatbot

ChatBot

Chatbot.com is the best AI chatbot software for WordPress. It lets you easily automate live chat on your website by setting up your own chatbot.

It comes with an easy to use chatbot builder and template library, so you can quickly create your own chatbot without any coding or technical skills.

The templates include different scenarios where a user might reach out to live chat, including customer support, bookings, selling products, and more.

Plus, it integrates with popular live chat software like LiveChat, so you can have a live agent jump in if the user needs extra help.

6. HubSpot

HubSpot CRM

HubSpot is one of the best CRM software for small businesses. It allows you to manage your leads better and automate aspects of your online marketing.

With HubSpot, you can easily manage your marketing, sales, and customer service together in one place. All of your customer data will be updated automatically.

You can view detailed performance reports to help you improve your sales and lead generation process.

Plus, it integrates easily with all the top email marketing and lead generation plugins and tools.

You can get access to the core features of the CRM for free, but to get even more features and advanced tools, you can upgrade to one of the paid plans.

7. TrustPulse

TrustPulse

TrustPulse is the best social proof plugin for WordPress that lets you set up automatic notifications to improve website conversions and make more sales.

TrustPulse automatically monitors activity on your site. When potential customers are close to buying something on your site, they will see a notification from other customers who have just made a purchase.

By simply displaying social proof, you’ll give your visitors a nudge to complete their purchase.

TrustPulse example

TrustPulse can be installed on any website without any code and customized to easily match your website’s design.

Plus, there are advanced targeting options so you can choose which products and pages you want your social proof notifications to display on.

For more details, see our guide on how to use FOMO to increase conversions.

8. Smash Balloon

Smash Balloon

Smash Balloon is a collection of 4 different WordPress social media plugins that let you add social feeds from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube to your website.

It’s the most popular social media feed plugins for WordPress, used by over 1.4 million websites.

Smash Balloon automates your website content by displaying your latest social media activity. This can save you time and keep your website content fresh, while keeping visitors engaged on your site.

Plus, it can boost your social proof by displaying your social media followers, comments, and like counts.

There are a lot of different ways you can customize how your social media feeds display.

For example, you can customize the design to match your brand, choose from a handful of pre-designed templates, and even add Instagram shoppable feeds to make more money.

Smash Balloon Instagram example

All of your feeds will be automatically updated when you post new content to your connected social media accounts.

You can choose to add individual social media feeds to WordPress, or use the Smash Balloon Social Wall plugin to display all of your social media feeds in one place.

There are also free versions of Smash Balloon available to let you try before you buy.

9. RafflePress

RafflePress

RafflePress is the best WordPress giveaway and contest plugin in the market that lets you grow your email list, traffic, and social media followers with giveaways and contests.

It has a drag and drop builder, so you can easily create successful giveaways using proven templates that will attract your visitor’s attention.

To enter your giveaway, your visitors will need to enter their email address, so you can automatically gain new email newsletter subscribers.

Plus, you can connect other tools you’re using like your WordPress form plugins, WordPress CRM, marketing automation tools, and more.

There is a free version of RafflePress available. If you want more powerful features to skyrocket and automate your growth, then you need to get RafflePress pro.

10. MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights is the best analytics solution for WordPress used by over 3 million websites.

It helps you automate tracking on your website with Google Analytics, without having to modify your tracking code. For more details, see our beginner’s guide on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress.

Plus, you can view these stats directly inside your WordPress dashboard. You’ll get a quick overview of your traffic sources, most popular pages, and more.

MonsterInsights stats

You can optimize your website to get more traffic, revenue, and email subscribers when you know this information.

MonsterInsights has a free version available, but to unlock the tool’s true power, you’ll want to upgrade to the premium version.

11. SeedProd

SeedProd

SeedProd is the best drag and drop WordPress page builder in the market used by over 1 million websites.

With SeedProd, you can create beautiful landing pages to automate things like product sales, webinar signups, newsletter subscriptions, and more.

SeedProd templates

There are built-in blocks that let you add things like countdown timers, optin forms, and more to build urgency and get your visitors to take action.

Plus, you can integrate your landing page with your email marketing service to send an automated email after they sign up.

The lite version of SeedProd lets you create simple maintenance mode pages, but for advanced page building features, smart blocks, and the library of templates, you can sign up for the pro version.

12. PushEngage

PushEngage

PushEngage is the best push notification software for WordPress. It lets you send automated push messages to your visitors after they leave your website.

You can set it up to automatically send out new blog post notifications, or use it to send custom messages.

Thank you push notification

It comes with all kinds of advanced marketing features like automatic drip campaigns, opt-in reminders, interactive messages, and more.

Your campaigns can be customized to work with your online store so you can increase revenue and reduce abandoned carts.

The level of personalization and targeting available will greatly help to improve your website conversions. For more details, see our guide on how to add web push notifications to WordPress.

We hope this article helped you find the best WordPress automation tools and plugins. You may also want to see our guide on how to get a free SSL certificate and our expert picks on the best HR payroll software for small businesses.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 12 Best WordPress Automation Tools and Plugins Compared (2021) appeared first on WPBeginner.

14 Best WooCommerce Sales Funnel Plugins to Boost Your Conversions

Are you looking for the best WooCommerce sales funnel plugins to boost your conversions?

There are many WooCommerce plugins out there to help you optimize your sales funnel, so you can make more money from your existing traffic.

In this article, we’ve hand picked some of the best WooCommerce sales funnel plugins you can use to increase conversions.

14 best WooCommerce sales funnel plugins to boost your conversions

Why Use WooCommerce Sales Funnel Plugins?

WooCommerce makes it easy to create an online store, but the default features and settings aren’t built to help you sell more products.

On average, only 10% of shoppers will add anything to their carts. After they do, 60-80% of them abandon their carts without finishing the purchase.

Luckily, there are all kinds of WooCommerce plugins to help you boost conversions, so you can make more sales from your existing traffic. Using WooCommerce sales funnel plugins can help your store in a lot of ways.

  • Recover sales from users abandoning their carts
  • Stay in touch with customers via email marketing
  • Create store pages to promote best-selling products
  • Offer coupon codes to bring in more sales
  • And much more

With that said, let’s look at some of the best WooCommerce sales funnel plugins that you can use with your WooCommerce store.

1. SeedProd

SeedProd

SeedProd is the best drag and drop WordPress page builder in the market used by over 1 million websites.

It’s very easy to use and has a collection of pre-made templates and blocks that will help you customize your WooCommerce product pages, checkout pages, and more.

SeedProd WooCommerce blocks

By creating custom pages for your WooCommerce store, you can improve conversions, promote popular and related products, and make more money.

Plus, it works with any WooCommerce theme, so you can create custom product pages, checkout pages, and more, without any limitations.

There is a free version of Seedprod you can use to create beautiful landing pages. However, the WooCommerce blocks are only available in the pro version of the plugin.

2. OptinMonster

OptinMonster

OptinMonster is the best WordPress popup plugin and lead generation tool in the market used by over 1 million websites.

It helps you convert your abandoning website visitors into new customers and email subscribers.

You can use OptinMonster to boost your conversions, reduce shopping cart abandonment, show targeted website messages, grow your email list, and much more.

OptinMonster has a ton of built-in popup features that can help you boost sales easily.

For example, you can create floating header or footer bars perfect for announcing ongoing sales, free shipping, sale countdown timers, and other special offers.

Floating header bar

Plus, every popup can be customized to display based on the rules you decide. For example, you could set your countdown timer to only appear during checkout, or only show a sales banner on a certain product category.

You can even create popups that will display based upon the visitor’s location. Plus, you can gamify popups with the spin the wheel feature, and much more.

Spin the wheel popup example

For more details, see our guide on how to create a WooCommerce popup to increase sales.

Note: You can get a free version of OptinMonster to get started through WordPress.

3. MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights is the best analytics solution for WooCommerce stores.

It’s incredibly easy to set up and comes with enhanced eCommerce tracking, which gives you more insights you can use to optimize your funnel and make more sales.

Plus, all of this information is displayed directly in your WordPress dashboard. You don’t need to sort through the complex Google Analytics reports to find what you’re looking for.

WooCommerce analytics report

You can also get a detailed breakdown of your shopping cart activity, the total number of purchases, top performing products, and more.

This helps you make data-driven decisions to grow your business and quickly see if the changes you’re making are helping to improve your store’s conversions.

WooCommerce cart report

For more details, see our step by step guide on how to setup WooCommerce conversion tracking.

4. WooFunnels

WooFunnels

WooFunnels is an easy to use WooCommerce sales funnel builder. It lets you create lead pages, checkout pages, order bump pages, upsells, downsells, and more.

It has dozens of different templates you can use to create your sales funnel pages in a couple of clicks.

You can easily customize every page of your funnel with the drag and drop builder. WooFunnels also includes built in customer reporting, so you can track customer and order data.

5. TrustPulse

TrustPulse

TrustPulse is the best social proof plugin for WooCommerce that helps you improve conversions and get more sales.

When potential customers are close to making a purchase, they’ll see a notification from other customers who have just made a purchase. By adding social proof, you give your visitors a nudge to complete their purchase.

TrustPulse example

TrustPulse makes setting up this kind of notification incredibly easy. You can install it on any WordPress website without code and customize the notifications to match your brand and website design.

There are advanced targeting options, so you choose the products and pages to run the campaign.

For more details, see our guide on how to use FOMO to increase conversions.

6. CartFlows

CartFlows

CartFlows is a feature rich WooCommerce sales funnel builder that helps you optimize your WooCommerce checkout process.

It includes a variety of templates and lets you create custom pages for every part of the sales process, including thank you pages, checkout pages, and more.

Once you activate the plugin, it’ll automatically replace the default WooCommerce checkout with a checkout process optimized for conversions.

Plus, it integrates with most popular WordPress page builders like Divi, Beaver Builder, etc to easily customize the templates and pages.

7. LiveChat

LiveChat

LiveChat is the best live chat support software in the market. It lets you easily add live chat to your WooCommerce store and instantly respond to questions.

This makes it easy to help your visitors move forward with their purchase and avoid abandoned carts. Plus, the chat window can be fully customized to match your brand.

It also integrates with top email marketing, WooCommerce CRM, and customer support tools.

The live chat apps work across mobile, tablet, and desktop devices, so you can answer questions on the go, without having to login to your WordPress dashboard.

For more details, see our guide on how to add LiveChat to your WooCommerce store.

Alternative: If you’re looking for chatbot software, then check out ChatBot.com to fully automate your WooCommerce live chat.

8. Nextiva

Nextiva

Nextiva is the best business phone service in the market that works seamlessly with WooCommerce.

Adding a business phone number to your online store will help improve credibility and trust, while boosting your store conversions.

Since it’s a virtual business phone app, you can use it to receive calls on your mobile phone, tablet, and desktop computer.

It offers advanced enterprise level features at an affordable price like call routing, auto-attendant, and more.

Once you’ve set up your business VOIP, you can add a free click-to-call button to your store, so customers can reach your team with a single click.

Alternative: RingCentral and Ooma are good business phone alternatives.

9. WP Mail SMTP

WP Mail SMTP

WP Mail SMTP is the best WordPress SMTP plugin in the market used by over 2 million websites. It helps to ensure that all of your WooCommerce emails are delivered to your customer’s email inboxes.

WooCommerce will send email notifications to the store owner and customers when certain actions are taken in your store.

But, many WordPress hosting companies haven’t set up the email function correctly, and some even block it from happening. In this case, your store emails will not send.

WP Mail SMTP fixes this problem and uses an SMTP service provider to send emails. This ensures your emails will actually be delivered to your user’s inbox and not go to the spam folder.

The free version of WP Mail SMTP will work for most WooCommerce stores. The premium version, WP Mail SMTP Pro, gives you access to premium support, a white glove set up service, and even more features.

10. Advanced Coupons

Advanced Coupons

Advanced Coupons is the best WooCommerce coupon code plugin in the market. It expands the default WooCommerce coupon functionality and helps you boost sales by offering attractive coupons for your visitors.

It easily integrates perfectly with WooCommerce and lets you create BOGO offers (Buy One Get One), scheduled coupons, auto apply coupons, shipping coupons, and more.

You can even get started with the free version of the plugin to test out different coupon offers and see how it impacts your online store.

For more details, see our guide on how to create smart coupons in WooCommerce.

11. Easy Affiliate

Easy Affiliate

Easy Affiliate is the best affiliate tracking and management plugin for WooCommerce.

It lets you easily create an affiliate program for your online store, so your customers can promote your products.

When someone joins your affiliate program, they’ll get a unique link and will earn a commission whenever a sale is made through their link.

It’s fully customizable, and you can control who is allowed to join your affiliate program and the payment options you want to offer.

Easy Affiliate also includes reporting, so you can track sales, payments, link clicks, and more.

For more details, see our guide on how to add an affiliate program in WooCommerce.

12. WPForms

WPForms

WPForms is the best contact form builder in the market used by over 4 million websites. It’s very beginner friendly and lets you create contact forms to answer your customer’s questions and resolve issues.

You can choose from the collection of 100+ prebuilt templates to quickly create the exact kind of form you need.

WPForms templates

You’ll find templates for user feedback forms, polls, surveys, and more. Then, you can simply customize the form with the easy to use drag and drop builder.

The free version of WPForms lets you create simple contact forms, but if you want to create more advanced forms, then you’ll need the premium version of WPForms.

13. PushEngage

PushEngage

PushEngage is the best web push notification software in the market used to send over 9 billion push messages every month.

It lets you connect with your visitors and customers after leaving your online store with targeted push messages. These are messages that will display in your subscriber’s browser even when they’re not browsing your store.

For example, if a customer adds items to their cart and leaves before making a purchase, then you can send an abandoned cart notification to improve conversions.

You can also send out information about product webinars, flash sales, coupons, and much more.

There’s also a free version of the plugin that lets you send messages to up to 500 subscribers.

For more details, see our guide on how to add web push notifications to WordPress.

14. Constant Contact

Constant Contact

Constant Contact is the best email marketing service for WooCommerce businesses. It’s packed with features while still being beginner friendly, so you can easily add it to your store and start building your email list.

With this tool, you can easily manage your email subscribers and deepen your relationship with your customers.

Every plan gives you access to unlimited emails, tracking and reporting, list segmentation, and much more.

It has dozens of professionally designed email templates built for specific niches, so you can quickly start creating your own email campaigns.

WPBeginner readers can use our Constant Contact coupon code to get 20% off your plan.

Alternative: HubSpot, SendinBlue, and Drip are great alternatives for WooCommerce email marketing.

15. Bonus: Uncanny Automator

Uncanny Automator

Uncanny Automator is the best automation plugin for WooCommerce. It acts as a connector between your WooCommerce store and other apps, so they can talk to each other without you writing any code.

It’s very easy to use and comes with all kinds of automated workflows you can set up in a couple of clicks.

With Uncanny Automator, you can automate many WooCommerce tasks to save time and offer your customers a better user experience.

For example, you can automatically send SMS notifications to your customers and send order data to Google Sheets for better customer tracking.

There are dozens of other automations you can create to help you run your online store more efficiently.

We hope this article helped you find the best WooCommerce sales funnel plugins to boost your conversions. You may also want to see our guide to creating a free business email address and creating an email newsletter the right way.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 14 Best WooCommerce Sales Funnel Plugins to Boost Your Conversions appeared first on WPBeginner.

How to Create Beautiful Coming Soon Pages in WordPress with SeedProd

Do you want to create a beautiful coming soon page for your WordPress site?

All websites need a pre-launch coming soon page. It allows you to build anticipation, create hype, and spread the word even before the launch of your main website.

In this article, we will show you how to quickly and easily create beautiful coming soon pages in WordPress.

Creating coming soon pages for a WordPress website

Why Create Coming Soon Pages in WordPress?

Coming soon pages are not just a placeholder for your website. They can be an effective lead generation tool for your business even before the site launch.

Here are a few ways that we have used coming soon pages:

  1. Gauge User Interest – If you are unsure about an idea, then coming soon pages can help you asses user interest in the project.
  2. Build Hype – Coming Soon pages can also be used to build anticipation and create hype. Give product information and offer users incentives for sharing.
  3. Capture Leads – Start building your email list and ask users to follow your social profiles. This allows you to have likes and followers as social proof even before you launch the site.

To create a coming soon page in WordPress, you would need to get the best WordPress hosting and install WordPress.

For more detailed instructions, you can also follow our step by step guide on how to make a website.

Example of what we will Create

Following are a few examples of effective coming soon page designs.

Coming soon page with countdown timer, email form, and social buttons

Coming soon page with fullscreen background image, lead signup form, and countdown timer

Coming soon page preview with email sign up form and social buttons

How to Create a Beautiful Coming Soon Page

First, you need to install and activate the SeedProd plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

SeedProd is the best WordPress page builder plugin on the market. It allows you to build any type of landing page including Coming Soon page to limit access to your site and turn the pre-launch page into a lead magnet.

Note: There is a free version of SeedProd available as well that you can use, but for this tutorial we’ll show the Pro version since it has more features.

Upon activation, you need to visit SeedProd » Settings page to enter your license key. You can find this information under your account on the SeedProd website.

Enter your SeedProd license key

Next, you need to visit SeedProd » Pages page and then click on the ‘Set up a Coming Soon Page’ button.

Set up a coming soon page

On the next screen, you will be asked to choose a template. SeedProd comes with several professionally designed coming soon page templates to choose from. Simply click on a template to select it.

Choose a page template

This will launch the SeedProd page builder interface. You’ll see a live preview of your selected template where you can simply point and click to select and edit any item.

SeedProd page builder interface

You can also add new blocks to your page from the left column. Let’s add a countdown timer that tells users when your site will be launched.

Simply drag the ‘Countdown’ block and drop it on the page preview where you want it to be displayed.

Add a block

After that, point and click on the countdown block, and you will see its properties in the left column.

Editing a block in SeedProd

Feel free to edit the page as much as you need. Try adding different blocks, changing text colors, add your business logo, and more.

Connect Your Email Marketing Service

Once you are finished with the design, you can switch to the ‘Connect’ tab. This is where you can connect your email sign up form to your email marketing service provider.

Connect your email marketing service

SeedProd supports all top email marketing platforms. For the sake of this tutorial, we’ll be connecting our coming soon page to Constant Contact. Simply click to select it and then click on the ‘Connect New Account’ button.

Connecting your email account

Next, you’ll need to provide an API Key and a name for this connection. Simply click on the ‘Connect to Constant Contact’ button to continue.

Getting the API key

This will open up a popup where you’ll need to log into your Constant Contact account. After that, click on the Allow button to give SeedProd access to your Contact Contact account.

Allow access

Next, it will show you the API key which you need to copy and paste into SeedProd and click ‘Connect’ button.

SeedProd will then fetch your email lists. You’ll need to choose the email list you want to use and then click on the ‘Save Integration Details’ button.

Publishing Your Coming Soon Page

Once you are finished with the page design and integrations, you are now ready to publish your coming soon page.

First, you need to click on the Save button and then select ‘Publish’ to save your coming soon page and make it publicly available.

Publish your coming soon page

SeedProd will now publish your page, and you can exit the page builder by clicking on the close button.

Next, you need to turn on the ‘Coming Soon’ mode to make sure that people visiting your website see the coming soon page only.

Simply go to SeedProd » Pages page and then switch the toggle under ‘Coming Soon Mode’ to active.

Turn on coming soon mode

SeedProd will now turn on the coming soon mode for all your website. You can still login and work on your website but other non-logged in users will only see the coming soon page you created.

Coming soon page preview

Advanced Settings for Coming Soon Page

SeedProd allows you control how your coming soon page is displayed. You can access those advanced settings by visiting the SeedProd » Pages page and clicking on the ‘Edit Page’ button under the Coming Soon Mode box.

Edit coming soon page

This will launch the page builder interface where you need to switch to the ‘Page Settings’ tab. Under the General settings you can provide a title for your page, select isolation mode, or change the page template start with a new one.

General page settings

By default, the plugin will start showing your coming soon page to all non-logged in users. However, SeedProd gives you full control on who can access your website while it is under coming soon mode.

This comes in handy in certain situations. For instance:

  • You only want to allow a client to view the site when logged in
  • You want to make some URLs publicly accessible
  • Allow user with specific IP address to view the website.

For advanced access rules, click on the ‘Access Control’ menu to select who can access your website when its under coming soon mode.

Control who can access your website under coming soon mode

You can also switch to the SEO tab to provide an SEO title, description, a featured image to be used when your link is shared on social media websites, and more. You can also choose to tell search engines not to index that page.

If you have popular SEO plugins like All in One SEO installed, then SeedProd works seamlessly with them as well.

SEO settings for your coming soon page

Lastly, you can switch to the Scripts tab where you can add any third-party scripts that you may need to add. For instance, you may want to add Google Analytics code, Facebook pixel, or other tracking code here.

Add third-party scripts to your coming soon page

Don’t forget to click on the Save button at the top to save your advanced page settings.

Switching off The Coming Soon Page

Once you are ready to publish your website, SeedProd makes it super easy to turn off the coming soon mode.

Simply visit SeedProd » Pages page and switch off the ‘Active’ toggle under the Coming Soon Mode box.

Turn off coming soon mode in WordPress

Creating a Maintenance Mode Page in WordPress

Some site owners may want to display a maintenance mode page instead of a coming soon page. A maintenance mode page is helpful if your site is undergoing maintenance, and you want to let your users know that you will be back soon.

SeedProd’s Coming Soon Pro plugin also lets you create beautiful maintenance pages in WordPress.

Simply go to SeedProd » Pages page and click on the ‘Set up a Maintenance Mode Page’ button.

Set up a maintenance mode button

The rest of the process is the same as creating a coming soon page. You will get full access control and you can easily turn off maintenance mode when you are done.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create beautiful coming soon pages in WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate guide on how to increase your blog traffic, and our comparison of the best business phone services to improve your workflow.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Create Beautiful Coming Soon Pages in WordPress with SeedProd appeared first on WPBeginner.

How to Start an Online Boutique Shop that Drives Sales (2021)

Do you want to run your own online boutique shop but not sure how to get started?

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need any technical skills to start an online boutique. Often people prefer to buy from small / personal businesses, and your online boutique store could be the next success story.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily start an online boutique shop that drives sales.

Starting an online boutique shop that drives sales

What Do You Need to Start an Online Boutique Shop?

Starting your online store is a lot simpler than you might think. To start an online boutique shop, you need:

  • A domain name (a name for your website)
  • A web hosting account (this is where your website files live on the internet)
  • Your undivided attention for 30 minutes.

Yes, you read that right. You can build an online boutique shop website from scratch in less than 30 minutes, and you don’t need any technical skills.

We will show you everything you need to know, step by step.

Simply follow our step by step checklist for starting a successful online boutique shop that drives sales. We will cover:

  1. Choosing and Setting Up Your Online Boutique Shop Platform
  2. Set Up WordPress and WooCommerce on Your Website
  3. Add Products to Your Online Boutique Shop
  4. Change or Customize Your WordPress Theme
  5. Add Plugins to Extend Your Online Shop and Drive Sales
  6. Learn More About WordPress
  7. FAQs About Setting Up an Online Boutique Shop

Tip: You can use the links in the checklist to jump straight to the relevant section of our online boutique shop tutorial.

1. Choosing the Best Online Boutique Shop Platform

The biggest mistake that new store owners make is choosing the wrong eCommerce platform for their online shop.

This could be a costly mistake because not only will it mean you’ll have to re-do all the work, but it could also mean losing money.

Thankfully you’re here, so we can help you avoid making that mistake.

When it comes to eCommerce platforms for boutique shops, we recommend only two platforms: Shopify or WooCommerce (built on WordPress).

Shopify is a fully hosted solution that lets you get started quickly. The big drawback is the pricing which starts at $29/month and goes up to $299 per month for features not including third-party extensions. Also, you’re limited to using their payment system otherwise they charge you additional transaction fees. This is a lot to spend for small business owners.

This is why most small business owners choose WordPress + WooCommerce. It’s cost efficient, has all the features, flexibility, and it’s easy to setup. You can setup in less than 30 minutes which is well worth it in the long run. WooCommerce is also the world’s most popular eCommerce platform.

For more about these platforms, check out our side by side comparison of Shopify vs WooCommerce.

In this tutorial, we’ll walk you through how to start an online boutique shop using WooCommerce.

To start an online shop, you need to have three things: a domain name, web hosting, and a SSL certificate.

A domain name is your website’s address on the internet. This is what users type in their browsers to reach your website (for example: google.com or wpbeginner.com).

Web hosting is where your website files live on the internet. Think of it as your website’s house on the internet. Every website on the internet needs web hosting.

Last but not least, you need a SSL certificate. This adds a special security layer on your website, so you can accept credit cards and other personal information.

Note: Normally if bought separately, a domain name costs around $14.99/year, web hosting costs around $8.99/month, and an SSL certificate costs around $69.99/year.

That’s a lot of startup cost.

Thankfully, Bluehost, an official WordPress and WooCommerce recommended hosting provider, has agreed to offer our users a free domain name, free SSL certificate, and a discount on web hosting.

Basically, you can get started for as low as $2.75 / month.

This will help you keep the costs of building a WordPress site to an absolute minimum.

However, Bluehost also has a dedicated WooCommerce hosting plan that comes with over $1,000 worth of premium WordPress and WooCommerce extensions which is totally worth it.

This costs $24.95 per month, but it includes security & backup features, premium WooCommerce extensions like subscriptions, bookings, etc.

Click Here to Claim this Exclusive Bluehost Deal »

Note: At WPBeginner we believe in transparency. If you sign up with Bluehost using our referral link, we will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you (in fact, you will save money and get a free domain). We would get this commission for recommending just about any WordPress hosting company, but we only recommend products that we believe will add value to our readers.

If you’re looking for a Bluehost alternative, then we recommend trying out SiteGround WooCommerce hosting which is another officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.

With that said, let’s go ahead and get your store domain name, web hosting, and SSL certificate.

You need to start by opening up Bluehost WooCommerce website in a new window and click the ‘Start Your Store’ button.

Starting your online store with Bluehost

Next, you’ll be asked to choose a hosting plan. Their premium plan, which costs $24.95 per month, comes with over $1,000 worth of premium WordPress and WooCommerce extensions.

It’s a great deal because the WooCommerce subscription and bookings extension alone cost more than the annual subscription of Bluehost.

Note: if you’re looking for the $2.75 per month plan, click this link.

Choose Bluehost WooCommerce plan

You need to click on the ‘Select’ button below a plan to continue.

Next, you’ll be prompted to enter or choose a domain name. Remember, you get a free domain name with Bluehost.

If you need help picking a domain name for your store, you can use our free business name generator tool.

Create a domain name for your website

On the next screen, you need to enter your account details such as your name and address.

Below this, you need to confirm the package you’ve chosen is correct.

Tip: You get the biggest saving by signing up for a 36-month plan.

You can uncheck the package extras because you don’t need them right now. You can always add them later if you like, and we’ll show you how to get some of the similar features for free later in the article.

Checking and confirming your web host package details with Bluehost

After entering your payment details and purchasing your hosting, Bluehost will prompt you to create your account. Once you have done so, you will be able to log in.

Login to your Bluehost account

2. Set Up WordPress and WooCommerce on Your Website

The good part about Bluehost WooCommerce plan is that it comes with an automated wizard that guides you through the entire setup.

First, it will ask you how much help you need building your site. Simply click the ‘No Help Needed’ button, as you have this tutorial to help you.

On the next screen, select ‘Online Store’ for your website type and simply continue following the website creation wizard.

At the final step, Bluehost will ask you to enter a name and a tagline for your website. You can change this later so don’t worry if you haven’t decided yet.

Enter the name and tagline for your online boutique shop

Bluehost will now offer you some WordPress themes to choose from. If you are unsure, then you can start with the Storefront theme. You can change the WordPress theme later on.

Select the Storefront theme for your online store

After this, Bluehost will install both WordPress and WooCommerce for you.

Once the screen refreshes, you’ll see your Bluehost dashboard with the option to log in to WordPress.

Log in to WordPress from your Bluehost account

Your WordPress site will open in a new window, and you will see your WordPress admin area.

Your WordPress admin area

Bluehost gives you a free SSL Certificate. This certificate is pre-installed for your domain. However, your WordPress site needs to be configured, so that it loads using HTTPS vs HTTP.

Go to the Settings » General page and change your WordPress Address and Site Address to use https instead of http.

Setting your website to use HTTPS instead of HTTP

Don’t forget to scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your changes.

Now, you can go ahead and set up your online store.

Simply click on the WooCommerce link on the left-hand side of your screen, then follow the WooCommerce setup wizard to set up your online store with your address, industry, product types, and business details.

After completing the setup wizard, you need to add payment methods to accept online payments on your boutique shop.

WooCommerce integrates with a number of popular payment gateways. The most popular are PayPal and Stripe (credit cards).

To connect WooCommerce to a payment gateway, go to the WooCommmerce » Settings page and switch to the Payments tab.

Here, you simply need to click the toggle in the ‘Enabled’ column for the payment method you want to use. We’re going to use PayPal Standard for our online store.

Selecting your payment methods for your online boutique shop

After switching on a payment method, click the ‘Set Up’ button to the right of it. For the PayPal Standard method, this will then take you to a page where you need to enter your PayPal email address.

Entering your PayPal email address and setting up PayPal with WooCommerce

Once you’re done with the configuration, don’t forget to scroll down and click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the screen.

You can switch to the Payments tab again and add other payment methods.

Tip: We recommend switching on check payments and/or cash on delivery while setting up your online store. This makes it easy to create test orders without spending any money.

3. Add Products to Your Online Boutique Shop

Now that you’ve set up payment methods, it’s time to add products to your online store. If you haven’t done any product sourcing yet, check out our comprehensive guide on choosing the best products to sell online.

To add a product, go to the Products » Add New page in your WordPress admin area.

First, you need to enter product title and then provide a detailed description. This not only helps to drive sales by giving potential customers the details they need, but it also helps your product page to rank in search engines.

Adding your product's name and description in WooCommerce

Next, scroll down to the ‘Product Data’ section below the description box. You need to decide on your pricing and enter the Regular Price of your product. If it’s on sale, then you can set a Sale Price too.

Entering the price for your WooCommerce product

Under the Product Data box, you can optionally enter a short description of your product. This appears in areas where the long description will not fit.

Next, click on the ‘Set Product Image’ link in the right-hand side of the screen and upload product images.

Adding a product image for your WooCommerce product

Tip: we highly recommend that you optimize your images for web to ensure that your website is always blazing fast.

Above the product photo upload area, you can also set your product categories and tags. We recommend giving your product at least one category.

Once you’ve entered all the details for your product, simply click on the Publish button to put it live on your website.

Publish your finished product to make it live in your store

Repeat the same process to add more products if needed.

Once you’ve added your products, you can visit your site to see them listed on your Shop page.

Viewing your products in your online store

4. Change or Customize Your WordPress Theme

Themes control the design template of your website. There are thousands of free and paid WordPress themes that you can choose from, and most of them are compatible with WooCommerce.

However, not all of them are ideal for a WooCommerce boutique shop.

By default, Bluehost may install the Storefront theme for you, or you may be using some other default theme right now.

You can change your website design by installing a different WordPress theme. Not sure which theme to choose, see our handpicked list of the best WooCommerce WordPress themes.

Best WooCommerce WordPress Themes

Once you have found the theme you like, you can download and install it. For help with installing WordPress themes, check out our beginner’s guide to installing a WordPress theme.

Most WordPress themes are highly customizable. For instance, you can change fonts, colors, header styles, background, and more.

Simply go to the Appearance » Customize page to launch theme customizer. You’ll see a live preview of your site with customization options in the left column.

The WordPress theme customizer, showing the main shop page

You can use the tabs down the left-hand side to change various aspects of your site. The WooCommerce options let you control how your store displays.

For instance, you can go to WooCommerce » Product Catalog to change how your Shop page looks. Here, we’ve set our shop page to have 4 images per row instead of 3 per row.

Changing the number of products per row

As soon as you make a change, you will see a live preview of your customization. Make sure you check that you are happy with all your pages, including functional ones such as the cart and checkout pages.

Once you’ve finished making changes using the theme customizer, you just need to click the Publish button on the top left. This saves your changes and makes them live on your website.

Pro Tip: If you want to further customize your WooCommerce store, you can use one of the drag & drop page builders, or use a styling plugin like CSS Hero to create custom styles without any code.

5. Add Plugins to Extend Your Online Shop and Drive Sales

Plugins are like apps for your WordPress site. They allow you to add new features to your online store. Some WordPress plugins are essential that all WooCommerce stores may need and some you can choose to add specific features.

The best part about WordPress is that there are over 58,000 plugins that you can use to add new features to your site without hiring a developer.

You can follow our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin to install any of the plugins below.

Here are our recommendations for some of the most essential plugins for your online shop:

  • MonsterInsights – leading WordPress analytics plugin helps you track visitor stats (free version available).
  • WPForms – #1 form builder for WordPress, trusted by 4 million websites. You can use it to build contact forms, surveys, polls, etc. (free version available).
  • AIOSEO – leading WordPress SEO plugin that will help your store rank higher in Google and other search engines (free version available).
  • UpdraftPlus – leading WordPress backup plugin that will help you make automated backups in case of an emergency.
  • OptinMonster – #1 conversion optimization toolkit that will help you get more subscribers and sales (free version available).
  • Sucuri – free website malware scanner plugin for WordPress.
  • WP Mail SMTP – helps improve email deliverability of your website, so customers get their receipt, login information, etc. (free version available).

Aside from these, we have our complete list of the best WooCommerce plugins that you may want to checkout for additional features.

Here are some of our other recommended WooCommerce plugins and tools that can help you make more sales.

1. Advanced Coupons

The Advanced Coupons website

Advanced Coupons plugin allows you to create smart coupons. These let you go far beyond WooCommerce’s default coupon functionality. They can help you attract more customers and boost your sales and revenue.

2. TrustPulse

Example of social proof notification

TrustPulse is another great plugin to help you drive more sales. It lets you show real-time notifications of product sales to leverage FOMO and increase conversions.

3. AliDropship

The AliDropship plugin for WooCommerce

AliDropship is the best dropshipping plugin for WordPress. it lets you import products directly from AliExpress into your WooCommerce store.

This allows you to create a dropshipping online boutique without actually storing the products, managing inventory, or worry about shipping products.

Bonus tip: Another popular online shopping business model is to create an Amazon affiliate store. This allows you to promote third-party products on your boutique store and send them customers for a commission. You can check out our guide to building an Amazon affiliate store using WordPress.

4. LiveChat and ChatBot

LiveChat is one of the best live chat software in the market.

It lets you offer real-time support to your customers from your laptop, tablet, and mobile devices. You can add your team members to speed up replies.

They also have a second product called ChatBot which helps you build smart workflows to automatically answer customer’s questions and boost sales.

5. Constant Contact

The Constant Contact website

Constant Contact is one of the best email marketing services in the market.

They let you connect with your customers via email, so you can send them product updates, new offers, and get them to buy more.

Constant Contact comes with all the powerful features such as autoresponders, A/B testing, WooCommerce integration, personalized email automation, and more.

Alternative: if you’re looking for a Constant Contact alternative, then we recommend Drip for Pro users, and Sendinblue as a general good alternative.

6. Learn More About WordPress to Grow Your Store

WPBeginner is the largest free WordPress resource site for beginners. Our main goal is to provide helpful and easy to follow WordPress tutorials for small business owners, bloggers, and non-techy WordPress site creators. You can find out more about us here.

To learn more about WordPress, we recommend starting with the:

  • WPBeginner Dictionary – The best place to look up WordPress terms. We explain everything in a beginner-friendly way.
  • WPBeginner Videos – New to WordPress? Watch our videos to master WordPress.
  • WPBeginner Blog – The central place for all our WordPress tutorials.

We also have a guide to show users how to make the most out of WPBeginner’s free resources.

Many of our users type their question in Google and just add wpbeginner at the end of it. This shows them the most helpful answer for their question.

For further help and support, we recommend joining our free Facebook group WPBeginner Engage. It has 65,000+ members and focuses on helping beginners and non-techy users go further with WordPress.

You can also subscribe to the WPBeginner YouTube Channel. We regularly share helpful WordPress video tutorials.

7. FAQs About Creating an Online Boutique Shop

Having helped thousands of people start their online shop, we have answered quite a lot of questions. Below are the answers to the most frequently asked questions about creating an eCommerce website.

Do I need a business plan or business license to sell online?

No you don’t need a business license to sell online. You can start as a sole-proprietorship which is what most people do.

Once your business starts to take off, you can register an official LLC, corporation, or private limited company based on your country / legal jurisdiction.

Reducing these upfront cost and barriers can let you get started faster.

How do I choose the best products for my online store?

All boutique owners need to think about their target audience because it will have a huge impact on your overall success.

For instance, an online clothing store aimed at 20-somethings might sell geeky t-shirts. An online clothing boutique for retired boomers might focus on practical but stylish leisurewear.

We have a detailed guide on how to choose the best products to sell online.

Also, you can take a play out of dropshippers playbook and expand your product collection by using a dropshipping plugin. This lets you sell products without the inventory hassle.

How can I make more sales?

You can make more sales from your eCommerce website by building an email list, growing your social media following, or even partnering with influencers.

You could also use more advanced marketing strategies like retargeting visitors who leave products in their shopping cart.

Like any retailer, you need to pay attention to measure marketing efforts and track what works. Remember, your online business is competing against many other online stores like eBay and wholesalers, so you need to consider how to make your shop stand out.

Do I need to charge sales tax?

You may need to charge sales tax, depending on where you live. You should check your local government’s website for details on this.

There are WooCommerce plugins that can handle sales tax for you.

Can I charge for shipping separately?

Yes, you can absolutely add shipping costs in your WooCommerce checkout. There are plugins that can automatically calculate the shipping rates based on user’s address.

You can also use the Advanced Coupons plugin that we mentioned above to offer free shipping on orders above a certain $ amount to encourage higher purchases.

Can I sell my products in bulk / wholesale?

Yes, you can absolutely sell your products in bulk at lower prices. While WooCommerce doesn’t have this functionality by default, you can use the Wholesale Suite for WooCommerce plugin to sell your products in bulk.

For example, if you have an online clothing business, you can offer wholesale suppliers a separate login, bulk price discounts, and separate order form, so they can place large orders at once.

How do I get started with my online boutique?

Starting a new business can feel daunting, but you just need to work through our guide step by step.

Begin by thinking about your ideal customer, and then registering a domain name and hosting account.

We strongly recommend using Bluehost’s WooCommerce hosting to keep your startup costs as low as possible. The setup process is straightforward and won’t take more than 30 minutes.

Plus, WordPress + WooCommerce is the best website builder for your online store.

Start Your Online Boutique Shop Today »

Are there other eCommerce platforms for boutique shops?

Yes, aside from WooCommerce, there are several other eCommerce platforms that you can use such as Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, etc.

We have done a detailed comparison of the best eCommerce platforms.

Although, we always recommend users to use WooCommerce because of it’s flexibility, affordability, and ease of use.

We hope this article helped you learn how to start an online boutique shop that drives sales. You might also like our articles on how to grow your online business and how to track WooCommerce conversions to make more sales.

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