Category: PPC

Top 7 inventory management tools for e-commerce brands

Posted on by Khubi Ali

Imagine this. You’ve just launched a winning ad, and sales are skyrocketing. Your best-selling product is flying off the virtual shelves—all is well until your bestseller is unexpectedly out of stock. At the same time, other products sit untouched in your warehouse. This imbalance not only results in lost sales but also ties up capital in unsellable inventory.

Such scenarios are all too common among businesses without effective stock control. To avoid these pitfalls, e-commerce brands need reliable tools and software to help manage stock efficiently. The right solution can automate reordering, track stock levels in real-time, and offer valuable insights into your sales performance.

Here, we look at the top inventory management tools tailored for Shopify stores, to help you streamline operations and fuel growth.

Benefits of a good inventory management system

  • Optimise stock levels: Prevent over-ordering or running out of stock.
  • Automate restocking: Trigger orders automatically when stock levels are low.
  • Track trends: Monitor what’s selling quickly and what’s underperforming for better forecasting.

Top inventory management systems for e-commerce brands

Stocky by Shopify

Best for: Shopify stores looking for a native solution.

Stocky is Shopify’s native inventory app, designed to integrate seamlessly with your store. It helps you manage stock, track supplier performance, and automate purchase orders. Stocky’s intuitive dashboard lets you see sales trends and restock needs at a glance.

Key features

  • Automated purchase orders based on sales performance
  • Real-time inventory tracking
  • Advanced reporting on product profitability

Pricing
Included with Shopify POS Pro plan (£89/month).

Our verdict
Stocky is perfect for Shopify users who want a streamlined, native inventory solution. It provides all the essential features for managing stock and is built to handle both online and in-store stock seamlessly.

TradeGecko (QuickBooks Commerce)

Best for: Multi-channel sellers using Shopify and QuickBooks.

TradeGecko, now known as QuickBooks Commerce, is a powerful inventory and order management platform that integrates smoothly with Shopify. It helps you manage stock across multiple locations, automate workflows, and track sales performance, offering advanced insights into your supply chain.

Key features

  • Multi-location inventory management
  • Integration with Shopify and QuickBooks
  • Automated purchase orders and workflow automation

Pricing
Starting at £40/month.

Our verdict
Ideal for growing businesses that sell across multiple channels, TradeGecko offers robust tools for inventory management. Its integration with QuickBooks makes it a strong choice for businesses looking to streamline both inventory and financial operations.

Katana

Best for: Manufacturers using Shopify.

Katana is designed for small manufacturers who also sell online. It tracks inventory across locations in real time and provides visibility into raw materials and finished goods. Katana helps manufacturers streamline production workflows and manage stock levels efficiently.

Key features

  • Real-time inventory control of raw materials and products
  • Integration with Shopify and WooCommerce
  • Visual production planning and stock management

Pricing
From £160/month.

Our verdict
Katana is a great solution for manufacturers that need more visibility and control over their production and inventory. Its seamless integration with Shopify makes it an excellent choice for small manufacturers.

Skubana

Best for: Fast-growing e-commerce brands.

Skubana is an all-in-one platform that centralises order and inventory management for fast-growing e-commerce brands. It connects with Shopify and other sales channels to synchronise stock levels, automate purchase orders, and provide actionable insights for optimising inventory.

Key features

  • Unified order and inventory management across multiple channels
  • Automated stock replenishment based on sales forecasts
  • In-depth analytics for better stock control

Pricing
Starts at £790/month.

Our verdict
Skubana is an excellent option for businesses scaling quickly and needing a robust inventory management tool. It offers advanced features for businesses with complex inventory requirements.

DEAR Inventory

Best for: Comprehensive stock management with financials.

DEAR Inventory offers end-to-end stock management, from purchasing and sales to production and fulfilment. It integrates seamlessly with Shopify and includes built-in accounting features, allowing businesses to manage both inventory and finances in one place.

Key features

  • Full inventory and order management
  • Multi-currency support
  • Built-in accounting and financial reporting

Pricing
Starting at £180/month.

Our verdict
DEAR Inventory is ideal for businesses looking for a comprehensive solution that manages both stock and finances. It’s a great tool for growing brands that need to optimise their operations while maintaining control over their financials.

Zoho Inventory

Best for: Small to medium-sized Shopify businesses.

Zoho Inventory offers a cost-effective solution for small and medium-sized businesses. It includes multi-channel sales, warehouse management, and real-time inventory tracking. Zoho’s user-friendly interface makes it a popular choice for businesses that don’t need overly complex systems.

Key features

  • Multi-channel sales and warehouse management
  • Real-time inventory tracking
  • Integrations with Shopify, Amazon, and eBay

Pricing
From £25/month, with a free version available.

Our verdict
Zoho Inventory is an affordable solution for small businesses looking to gain more control over their stock. It’s simple to use and integrates well with Shopify, making it a solid choice for growing e-commerce brands.

Finale Inventory

Best for: High-volume Shopify stores.

Finale Inventory is built for high-volume e-commerce businesses. It offers advanced features like serial number tracking, inventory replenishment forecasting, and barcode scanning. Finale also integrates seamlessly with Shopify, making it easy to manage stock and fulfilment for large-scale operations.

Key features

  • Real-time stock updates and multi-location management
  • Barcode scanning and serial number tracking
  • Forecasting tools to prevent stockouts

Pricing
Starts at £90/month.

Our verdict
For businesses handling large volumes of stock, Finale Inventory offers the advanced features needed to keep things running smoothly. Its forecasting tools and real-time updates make it ideal for high-volume operations.

Key features to look for in an inventory management tool

  • Automation: Automate stock control to reduce manual input and errors.
  • E-commerce integrations: Ensure the tool integrates with platforms like Shopify, Amazon, or WooCommerce.
  • Mobile access: Manage your inventory on the go with mobile apps.
  • Analytics: Get insights from sales and stock data to make informed decisions.

Choosing the right tool for your business

Choosing the best tool depends on your business size, needs, and budget. Follow these steps to find the right solution.

Define your needs: Consider your business size, whether you sell across multiple channels, and your stock management needs.

Set your budget: Weigh the cost of manual stock management against investing in a tool that automates and optimises processes.

Test the software: Take advantage of free trials to see which tool suits your workflow.

Look for unique features: Evaluate any additional features that could benefit your business.

Investing in the right inventory management software can help improve your operational efficiency, prevent stockouts, and streamline your e-commerce growth. Whether you’re a small business or a fast-growing brand, these tools will help you stay on top of your stock management in 2025.

 

Top marketing attribution software to boost your business growth

Posted on by Khubi Ali

Whether you’re an e-commerce brand or a B2B business, it is important to understand which marketing channels contribute most to your sales and conversions to make smart decisions. By tracking customer journeys across various touchpoints, attribution tools provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of ad campaigns, enabling you to see exactly where your marketing is paying off. Thus allowing you to create informed strategies and optimise your efforts for maximum impact.

However, navigating the world of attribution software can be overwhelming. With countless choices available, it can be difficult to determine which one is the best fit for your business.

Here we look at the best available attribution software for 2025. We’ve broken them down by type, features, benefits, and price point—to help you choose the right solution.

Different types of marketing attribution software

Attribution tools generally fall into three key categories: single-touch, multi-touch, and marketing mix modelling. Each type has its strengths, and understanding these distinctions can help you choose the right solution for your business.

1. Single-touch attribution

Single-touch attribution assigns all credit for a conversion to a single touchpoint in the customer journey, either the first or last interaction.

  • First-click attribution focuses on the initial touchpoint, rewarding the channel that first introduced the customer to your brand.
  • Last-click attribution credits the final interaction, or the last ad clicked before a purchase.

While useful for understanding which channels bring in new customers and which channels close sales; single-touch models offer a limited view of the entire customer journey and may miss important touchpoints that influence conversions.

2. Multi-touch attribution (MTA)

Multi-touch attribution gives credit to multiple touchpoints throughout the customer journey, offering a more comprehensive view of how various channels work together to drive sales. 

Common multi-touch models include

  • Linear attribution: Distributes credit equally across all touchpoints involved in the conversion process.
  • Time-decay attribution: Assigns more weight to interactions that occur closer to the conversion event.
  • U-shaped and W-shaped models: Attribute more credit to touchpoints at critical moments, such as the first interaction and the point of conversion.

This type of attribution provides deeper insights into how different channels contribute to conversions and is useful for businesses with complex marketing funnels.

3. Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM)

Marketing mix modelling uses statistical analysis to evaluate the impact of various marketing efforts, including both online and offline channels. Unlike multi-touch attribution, which focuses on digital interactions, MMM also considers broader marketing activities such as TV, radio, and print.

MMM is especially valuable for businesses investing in a wide range of marketing efforts, providing insights into how different marketing activities work together to drive sales and optimise budgets accordingly.

The benefits of using marketing attribution software

Marketing attribution tools offer several benefits, especially for brands relying on multi-channel marketing efforts:

  • Maximised marketing spend: By clearly identifying which channels drive conversions, businesses can focus their budgets on the most effective platforms, improving overall return on investment (ROI). This ensures that no money is wasted on underperforming channels.
  • Enhanced decision-making: Attribution software provides detailed insights into customer journeys, helping businesses make informed decisions on where to invest in marketing efforts. This clarity leads to better optimisation of campaigns and improved targeting.
  • Improved collaboration across teams: Marketing attribution software gives teams a unified view of the customer journey. Whether it’s marketing, sales, or product teams, they can work together more effectively to optimise customer touchpoints and messaging.
  • Deeper customer insights: By tracking customer interactions across various platforms, attribution tools help businesses understand what motivates customer actions, allowing for more personalised marketing approaches and better customer engagement.

Top 5 attribution software to choose from

Fospha

Best for: Comprehensive data analysis

Fospha is a versatile attribution tool designed to provide detailed insights into customer journeys across multiple channels. With its advanced machine learning and predictive analytics capabilities, Fospha enables businesses to optimise their marketing efforts and forecast customer behaviour accurately.

Key features

  • Multi-touch attribution
  • Predictive analytics using machine learning
  • Cross-channel performance tracking

Pricing
Custom pricing based on business needs.

Our verdict
Fospha is perfect for brands seeking a powerful solution for tracking multi-channel performance. Its ability to provide predictive insights makes it an essential tool for brands aiming to improve marketing efficiency.

Ruler Analytics

Best for: Multi-channel attribution

Ruler Analytics is an exceptional tool for tracking customer journeys across multiple channels, including Google Ads, Facebook, and LinkedIn. It connects marketing activity to sales and revenue, making it easy for businesses to see exactly which marketing efforts are driving conversions.

Key features

  • Multi-channel attribution
  • Lead and revenue tracking
  • Integrates with major ad platforms like Google Ads and Facebook

Pricing
Starts at £179/month.

Our verdict
Ruler Analytics is a fantastic option for mid-sized businesses looking for a comprehensive attribution solution across multiple channels. Its user-friendly interface and deep analytics make it a popular choice for brands aiming to optimise their marketing spend.

Hyros

Best for: High-level campaign tracking

Hyros is designed for businesses that require in-depth tracking of marketing campaigns across multiple platforms. By using machine learning to analyse customer behaviour, Hyros helps brands make data-driven decisions, particularly in campaigns with high ad spend.

Key features

  • AI-driven attribution
  • In-depth ad tracking across multiple platforms
  • Customisable reports

Pricing
Starts at $299/month.

Our verdict
Hyros is ideal for brands running complex, high-budget campaigns. Its AI-powered insights provide clarity into customer journeys and enable accurate tracking of return on investment (ROI).

Triple Whale

Best for: Shopify-based e-commerce businesses

Triple Whale is tailored for Shopify stores and provides an easy-to-use platform for tracking marketing performance. It helps measure ad spend and customer journeys in real time, with a focus on optimising marketing efforts to drive growth.

Key features

  • Shopify integration
  • Real-time analytics
  • Ad spend tracking across platforms

Pricing
Starts at £135/month.

Our verdict
Triple Whale is a must-have for Shopify-based brands. It delivers real-time insights into marketing performance, allowing you to tweak campaigns and improve ROI effectively.

Cometly

Best for: Social media ad tracking

Cometly is an attribution tool designed to track and optimise social media ad campaigns. It integrates with major platforms like Meta providing real-time insights into ad performance and helping businesses link campaigns directly to revenue.

Key features

  • Multi-channel attribution
  • Social media ad tracking
  • Real-time data and reporting

Pricing
Starts at £100/month.

Our verdict
Cometly is ideal for businesses focused on social media ad campaigns. Its intuitive dashboard and powerful tracking features make it a great option for small to medium-sized brands.

Choosing the right attribution software for your business

Selecting the right attribution software is key to optimising your marketing efforts. To make the right choice, consider the following features and factors:

  • Multi-touch attribution: Opt for software that can track and credit each touchpoint in the customer journey, offering a comprehensive view of how different channels contribute to conversions.
  • Real-time insights: Choose a tool that provides immediate feedback on campaign performance, enabling quick adjustments for improved results.
  • Cross-channel compatibility: Ensure the software integrates with all your marketing platforms, such as social media, email, and paid ads, for a unified view of your efforts.
  • Custom reports: Look for software that allows you to tailor reports to your business needs, highlighting the metrics most relevant to your objectives.

In addition to these features, keep the following considerations in mind:

  • Understand the complexity of channels: Identify the complexity of sales channels and the level of data insights needed to inform your marketing strategy.
  • Budget wisely: Ensure the software fits your budget while offering essential features to enhance your marketing performance.
  • Test before committing: Many attribution tools offer free trials—use these to evaluate if the software meets your needs.
  • Plan for growth: Select a tool that can scale with your business, handling increasing data as your brand expands.
  • Ensure data accuracy: The software should provide precise tracking of customer journeys and lead sources to support more informed decision-making.

Attribution software will continue to be an essential tool for businesses in 2025, helping optimise marketing spend, track customer journeys, and boost conversions. Whether you’re a small brand or a fast-growing enterprise, investing in the right software can make a significant impact on your bottom lines.

‘Tis the season to scale: winning Q4 strategies for e-commerce brands to boost holiday sales

Posted on by Khubi Ali

As we enter Q4, the most critical time for e-commerce brands, it’s essential to have a game plan in place that ensures success through the holiday season. With events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas just around the corner, the stakes are high, and competition is fierce.

To help you have a profitable Q4, our e-book: ‘Tis the season to scale: a guide to making the most of the festive quarter, offers actionable insights that can transform your approach. Here is a quick glimpse into our proven Q4 strategies—but for the complete guide be sure to download the e-book!


For a deep dive into our Q4 strategies, holiday campaigns and checkout optimisations—download our Q4 playbook   

Getting ready for the holiday rush

To make the most of Q4, your business needs to be prepared on every front—consumer behaviours shift, buying journeys lengthen, and there’s no shortage of competition. Brands that align their strategies across channels and optimise their customer experience are more likely to thrive during this period.

Key strategies to level up for Q4 success

  • Timing is everything 

One major takeaway from our e-book is the importance of timing your campaigns. Consumers shop at different stages—some start as early as October, while others wait until the last minute in December. Planning your campaigns to hit all these stages is critical. Early shoppers might be looking for pre-holiday sales, while last-minute buyers need urgency-driven promotions.

Hot tip: Stagger your promotions and create a timeline that captures all types of shoppers, from early planners to impulse buyers.

  • Layer your offers

Rather than relying on a single promotion, offer different types of deals throughout the holiday season. Discounts, early bird flash sales, personalised bundled deals, and free gifts can all help you engage different customer segments at the right time. For example, while Black Friday may focus on discounts, offering exclusive bundles closer to Christmas can help you maximise revenue from last-minute shoppers. Moreover, offering personalisation and bundling products can appeal to shoppers looking for unique, thoughtful gift sets. This not only adds value for the customer but also increases average order value for your business.

Hot tip: Think beyond the standard discount. Create value with bundles and gift sets, or offer something special like free expedited shipping for those last-minute purchases.

  • Optimise your website for conversions

Your website is often the first touchpoint for shoppers, so it needs to be fully optimised. From mobile compatibility to fast load times and seamless navigation, small tweaks can make a big difference. Make sure your site is ready for the influx of traffic and is designed to guide shoppers smoothly from discovery to checkout.
Review your website’s user experience now to avoid missing out on conversions during peak shopping periods.

  • Personalised email campaigns 

Email marketing is still one of the most effective tools in your Q4 arsenal. Sending personalised, timely, and engaging emails can help keep your brand top of mind throughout the holiday season. Whether it’s early access to sales or a last-chance reminder, strategic email campaigns can keep customers engaged and ready to buy. Create segmented email campaigns tailored to different customer behaviours, offering personalised deals that cater to their specific needs.

Hot tip: Make sure to pace your emails well to avoid overwhelming your audience, but keep them engaged throughout the season. If you need help optimising your email marketing strategy, we have curated an email flows checklist to help you do just that.

  • Craft tailored campaigns for demographic preferences

One key takeaway from this year’s consumer survey is the importance of aligning holiday marketing strategies with specific demographic preferences. Consumer behavior varies significantly based on factors such as age, location, and spending habits, so tailoring your campaigns to match these differences can give your brand a competitive edge. For example, younger consumers (18-24) are more likely to splurge on high-end items like fashion and tech, while older demographics tend to prioritise practical gifts.

Hot tip: Shoppers in urban areas, particularly in London, are more inclined to support smaller, independent brands and may be swayed by eco-friendly or sustainable product offerings. By leveraging this data, brands can create personalised campaigns that highlight luxury products for younger audiences or focus on practical gifts for older shoppers.

Boost your sales this Q4

The holiday season presents a golden opportunity for e-commerce brands to grow, but preparation is key. From optimising your website to crafting layered promotions and running personalised email campaigns, success lies in a thoughtful, data-driven approach.

To learn how to implement these strategies and end the year strong, be sure to download the full e-book for an in-depth look at what it takes to drive success this Q4.


For a deep dive into our Q4 strategies, holiday campaigns and checkout optimisations—download our Q4 playbook   

Optimise your ad spend and maximise ROI with our budget planner

Posted on by Khubi Ali

In the world of digital advertising, every penny counts. The success of your paid media campaigns hinges not just on the creative messaging or targeting of your ads but also on how effectively you allocate your ad spend. Your money can easily go to waste without proper allocation, leaving you with subpar results. 

Our paid media budget planner is a game-changing resource if you are unsure how to allocate your ad spend for maximum impact. It is designed to help e-commerce brands like yours make data-informed decisions and get the best ROI.


Take control of your ad spend, get the most out of every dollar with our paid media budget planner!  

 

Budget planning is key for paid media success

Whether you’re managing Google Ads, paid social campaigns, or display ads, budget planning is often the most overlooked aspect of campaign planning. Yet, it is the foundation around which your advertising should be structured. Poorly planned ad spend can lead to overspending on low-impact channels or underfunding high-performing ads.

Our budget planner is specifically designed to prevent such pitfalls. It allows you to strategically allocate your budget across channels, helping you maximise performance.

Features of the paid media budget planner

This intuitive tool offers a step-by-step approach to planning your paid media strategy:

  • Customisable budget breakdown: The tool lets you allocate your money across different channels and campaigns based on your unique business objectives.
  • Performance insights: Get projections on your expected ROI and key performance indicators (KPIs) based on your budget allocation.
  • Scalable planning: Whether you’re working with a small investment or managing large campaigns, the tool adapts to your needs and offers tailored recommendations.
  • Real-time adjustments: As you tweak your budget, the planner instantly updates your projections, helping you see the impact of every dollar spent.

Data-informed budget allocation: what you need to know

One of the standout features of our Paid media budget planner is its ability to provide data-driven insights into how you should distribute your ad spend. For instance:

  • Prioritise high-performing channels: The tool helps identify which platform will consistently deliver the best returns for your brand, allowing you to allocate more money where it counts.
  • Balance awareness and conversion goals: Whether you aim to build brand awareness or drive conversions, our planner ensures you strike the right balance in budget distribution based on your goals.
  • Optimise for seasonality and trends: We’ve designed the tool to help you adjust your ad spend based on seasonal peaks, industry trends, and campaign performance.

Take control of your ad spend, get the most out of every dollar with our paid media budget planner!  

Boost your online store’s performance with our split-testing guide

Posted on by Khubi Ali

In the ever-evolving, crowded world of e-commerce marketing, staying ahead of the curve is essential for brands. The need for data-driven decision making has never been more apparent!   

One of the most powerful tools in an e-commerce marketer’s arsenal is split testing or A/B testing. But with so many elements to test, where would you start, and where would you focus your efforts?

In our e-book, a split-testing guide for e-commerce brands, we explore the most effective areas for online store optimisation. Here are some excerpts and highlights from the ebook that can transform your online store and drive business growth.


Want to know what specific split-tests help us scale 8 and 9-figure brands?   

Cart optimisation: the final frontier

Your shopping cart is the last stop before a sale. It’s also a goldmine of optimisation opportunities. Our research and split-testing experiments have revealed several strategies that can significantly boost your revenue.

  • Cart upsells: Implementing smart upsell strategies in your cart can increase your conversion rate.
  • Layout matters: A user-friendly cart layout can substantially impact your average revenue per user (ARPU).
  • Product comparisons: Testing different products in your cart upsell can yield surprising results.

However, these are just the tip of the iceberg. Our e-book delves into the specifics of each test, providing insights and strategies to implement them for your brand.

Product pages: where the magic happens

Your product pages are where customers make their buying decisions. Our split tests revealed some fascinating insights:

    • Visual appeal: Increased imagery on product pages can lift both revenue per visitor and conversion rates for brands in some sectors.
    • Simplicity wins: Lightweight, simplified designs often outperform busier layouts.
    • Social proof: Creative use of testimonials can significantly boost engagement and conversions.

Want to know what specific split-tests help us scale 8 and 9-figure brands?   

Mobile optimisation: the future is now

With more shoppers using mobile devices, optimising for smaller screens is no longer optional. 

Our tests uncovered some key insights:

      • Sticky elements: Implementing sticky add-to-cart buttons on mobile can lead to higher engagement and conversions.
      • Font sizes: Larger, more readable fonts can improve time on site and navigation on mobile devices.

Site-wide elements: small changes, big impact

Sometimes, the smallest changes can have the most significant impact. Our tests on site-wide elements revealed:

      • Header simplification: Streamlining your site header can direct customers more efficiently towards products.
      • Button design: Even subtle design elements like button shadows can affect your bottom line.

Presell pages: setting the stage for success

Presell pages are a powerful tool for warming up your audience. Our tests showed:

      • Layout optimisation: Simplified layouts can dramatically increase opt-ins and store visits.
      • Column structure: The number of columns can affect ARPU (average revenue per user or unit) and conversion rates, especially on larger screens.

Looking ahead: the future of e-commerce optimisation

Key takeaways from our split testing guide include:

      • Prioritise mobile experiences
      • Leverage social proof creatively
      • Focus on performance and accessibility
      • Implement strategic upselling
      • Embrace data-driven decisions through continuous testing

To sum up, split testing is an invaluable tool for e-commerce brands looking to optimise their performance. You can significantly improve your conversion rates, average order value, and overall revenue by focusing on key areas.

Remember, the world of e-commerce is always changing. What works today might not work tomorrow. That’s why continuous testing and optimisation are crucial for long-term success.


Want to know what specific split-tests help us scale 8 and 9-figure brands?   

Strategies to double your abandoned cart recovery

Posted on by Khubi Ali

In the competitive world of e-commerce, every sale counts! Losing a potential sale at the final stage—when a customer abandons their cart—can be frustrating. However, abandoned cart recovery is not always a challenge; it can also be a huge opportunity for brands. With the right strategies, you can turn those abandoned carts into completed sales, boosting your overall revenue. 


Want to learn advanced strategies to recover abandoned carts? Get the ebook now!  

The secret sauce to crafting impactful abandoned cart emails

Your abandoned cart emails are your last chance to win back abandoned carts. But what makes an email truly effective? Our research has uncovered several key elements.

  • Compelling subject lines: Your email’s subject line is the first thing a potential customer will see. Crafting a message that instils urgency, curiosity, and/or FOMO can drive higher open rates. We offer tips and examples to inspire your next campaign.
  • Strategic timing: Use optimal timing strategies to send reminder emails for maximum impact.
  • Personalisation: Leverage dynamic content to create a personalised experience for each customer.
  • Clear CTAs: The email should include multiple opportunities for customers to return to their cart through buttons, hyperlinks, or images. The more chances they have to click, the better.
  • Overcoming objections: Address common concerns that may have caused cart abandonment, such as delivery costs or delivery times, directly within the email. Building trust and resolving concerns can nudge the customer toward completing the purchase.

Bonus inside: Free AI prompt to craft effective cart recovery emails

One of the highlights of the ebook is the AI prompt we’re giving away to help you craft impactful abandoned cart emails. With GPT-4, you can create personalised, compelling messaging that resonates with your customer, write creative subject lines and personalise content at scale for maximum impact.


Want to learn advanced strategies to recover abandoned carts? Get the ebook now!  

Hacks to maximise your abandoned cart recovery

While an impactful email is crucial, there are other additional strategies you can employ to boost your recovery rates:

  • Multiple touchpoints: Create a timely multi-email sequence that gently nudges customers back to their cart.
  • Social proof: Leverage customer testimonials and reviews creatively to build trust and encourage purchases.
  • Urgency and scarcity: Explore techniques to create a sense of urgency and scarcity that prompts immediate action.

Timing your reminder emails

Timing is everything when it comes to recovering abandoned carts. 

  • First reminder: Send the first email within minutes to an hour of the cart being abandoned.
  • Second reminder: Follow up 24 hours later if the cart is still abandoned.
  • Final reminder: A final email, sent 72 hours after the second, can often be the last push needed to convert the sale.

Understanding the best times to reach your audience can dramatically improve your recovery rates. 

Recover lost sales and abandoned carts

Cart abandonment solutions are a game-changer for e-commerce brands, but only if done right. The ebook covers everything you need to maximise your recovery rates, from optimising your timing to creating personalised, persuasive content.


Want to learn advanced strategies to recover abandoned carts? Get the ebook now!  

Navigating the cookieless world: strategies for a privacy-first future

Posted on by Khubi Ali

As digital marketers, we’re on the cusp of a significant change. The phaseout of third-party cookies marks a significant shift in how we track, target, and engage with our audiences online. But with change comes opportunity. By making some strategic shifts in approach, your brand can not only survive but thrive in a cookieless world. 

Here is an overview of the strategies from our e-book, The State of Cookies and Ad Tracking in 2024 and Beyond, created in collaboration with Hyros, to help you adapt and navigate this new landscape successfully.


  Want to know what industry leaders at Hyros and Pixated are saying about the crumbling cookies?   

 

Understanding the shift to a cookieless world

Growing privacy concerns among users and stringent regulations like GDPR and CCPA have driven the decline of third-party cookies. Major browsers such as Safari, Firefox, and now Google Chrome are phasing out third-party cookies, leaving marketers with the challenge of finding alternative methods for delivering personalised ads. This shift is not merely a technological change but a fundamental rethinking of how customer data will be collected, processed, and utilised.

The impact on marketing strategies

For years, third-party cookies have been the backbone of digital advertising, enabling precise targeting and retargeting based on user behaviour across different sites. With their impending deprecation, marketers must now rely on first-party data and explore new ways to maintain the effectiveness of their campaigns. This transformation will not only impact how ads are targeted but also how their success is measured.

Strategies for thriving in a cookieless world

Leverage first-party data

The most immediate and effective response to the loss of third-party cookies is to maximise the use of first-party data. Which is information collected directly from your audience through interactions on your websites, apps, and other owned channels. By building robust strategies, brands can continue to deliver personalised experiences without infringing on user privacy. Incentivising customers to share their data through loyalty programs, personalised offers, and enhanced user experiences will be key.


  Want to know what industry leaders at Hyros and Pixated are saying about the crumbling cookies?   

 

Invest in contextual advertising
Contextual advertising, which targets ads based on the content a user is currently engaging with rather than their past behaviour, is making a strong comeback. This approach respects user privacy while still delivering relevant ads. AI and machine learning can significantly enhance contextual advertising by analysing the sentiment and tone of the content, ensuring that ads are not only relevant but also resonate with the user’s current mindset.

Utilise identity resolution techniques
Identity resolution allows marketers to create anonymised profiles of users by combining various data points like demographics, interests, and behaviours. These profiles enable targeted advertising without relying on cookies, maintaining effectiveness while adhering to privacy standards. By enriching these profiles with additional non-sensitive information, brands can improve their understanding of user segments and tailor their marketing efforts accordingly.

Reevaluate key performance indicators (KPIs)
With traditional tracking methods becoming less reliable, marketers need to shift their focus from vanity metrics to more meaningful KPIs. Metrics like conversion rates, customer lifetime value, and engagement quality will become increasingly important in measuring the success of campaigns in a cookieless world. Additionally, privacy-focused analytics tools such as Google’s GA4 are designed to operate effectively without third-party cookies, offering a more sustainable solution for performance measurement.

Adopt server-side tracking
Server-side tracking is an advanced method of data collection that offers greater control over user information and enhances privacy compliance. Unlike traditional client-side tracking, where data is collected via the user’s browser, server-side tracking allows information to be gathered directly from the server, providing a more reliable and secure means of monitoring user interactions. This method also reduces the dependency on browsers, which are increasingly restrictive of cookies and other tracking technologies.

Embracing the future

The phaseout of third-party cookies presents both challenges and opportunities for marketers. By embracing first-party data, investing in new technologies, and adapting to evolving privacy regulations, brands can continue to thrive in this new environment. The transition to a cookieless world is not just about survival; it’s about seizing the opportunity to build deeper, more meaningful relationships with your audience while respecting their privacy. As the digital landscape evolves, those who are proactive and innovative in their approach will be best positioned to succeed.


  Want to know what industry leaders at Hyros and Pixated are saying about the crumbling cookies?   

The state of the DTC nation report 2024: unpacking key insights and takeaways

Posted on by Khubi Ali

Every year, we conduct an extensive DTC brand survey inviting over 1,000 decision-makers and marketers from across the UK and USA to share their two cents about e-commerce advertising. 

We use the survey’s insights to curate an annual report, which guides and informs our direct-to-consumer strategies throughout the year. The 2024 report presents an in-depth look at the current state of the DTC market, focusing on primary challenges, revenue dynamics, and growth marketing strategies. 

This year’s survey drew responses from various industries, including skincare, beauty, health, fitness, fashion, food, beverage, and more. The findings reveal how brands are navigating increased competition, rising costs, new e-commerce trends and shifting consumer behaviours.

Here is an overview of the key insights, takeaways and DTC marketing trends from this year’s survey…


  For more information and detailed insights on the state of e-commerce marketing in 2024   

Marketing budgets on the rise

As global advertising and marketing spend continues to grow, brands are increasing their investment in marketing to stay competitive. With a projected 7.7% rise in global marketing spend in 2024, businesses are recognising the need to allocate more resources toward their marketing efforts.

Our survey reveals that brands are following this trend, with a notable increase in marketing budgets. They are not only allocating a significant portion of their revenue to marketing but also prioritising channels that deliver measurable ROI.

The importance of ROI in marketing decisions

Strategic allocation of marketing budget is essential for driving growth and maintaining a competitive edge in the increasingly crowded e-commerce landscape.

The participating brands unanimously agreed that the emphasis on ROI is more critical than ever. Businesses are no longer just spending on marketing because it’s a necessary expense; they are investing in marketing as a core driver of growth. This shift in mindset is reflected in the strategic allocation of budgets toward channels that are not only cost-effective but also capable of delivering tangible results.

Our survey found that businesses are increasingly prioritising channels that allow for clear measurement and optimisation. This trend is particularly evident in the growing investment in data-driven marketing strategies. By leveraging data analytics, businesses are tracking the performance of their campaigns in real-time, making adjustments as needed to enhance effectiveness. This level of insight and adaptability is what sets successful DTC brands apart in today’s competitive landscape.


  For more information and detailed insights on the state of e-commerce marketing in 2024   

 

Rising competition and costs

The competitive e-commerce marketing landscape is driving costs up, particularly in paid media. Meta’s CPM has fluctuated but remains high overall. 

Paid search continues to be a top-performing channel for fashion retailers but presents challenges for the food, beverage, health and fitness sectors due to escalating costs. To navigate this high-cost environment, diversifying the marketing mix and exploring lower CPM platforms is recommended.

Navigating platform changes

Email marketing faces new challenges with updates from Google and Yahoo, including stricter spam filters and enhanced privacy features. However, marketers can navigate these changes by focusing on compliance, list management, and authentication to ensure effective email deliverability

Overview of top and underperforming marketing channels

According to our survey, some marketing channels emerged as clear winners, while others struggled to deliver results. 

  • Email marketing stood out as one of the most effective strategies for DTC businesses, offering high personalisation, cost-efficiency, and strong direct communication with customers. A powerful tool that brands are leveraging to maximise engagement and conversions in 2024.
  • Organic social, on the other hand, proved to be less effective, often hindered by low reach and engagement challenges.
  • Paid social offered mixed results, performing well for some sectors but underdelivering for others. Businesses are finding success by focusing on detailed audience segmentation and innovative content strategies.

Reasons to be hopeful

Despite some challenges, there are several reasons to be optimistic 

  • The global e-commerce market is expected to surpass $5.8 trillion in 2024, indicating robust growth potential. 
  • According to the OECD Economic Outlook 2024 report, signs of economic recovery are evident, with consumer confidence and spending rebounding.
  • Consumer spending on brands is expected to rise by 15% in 2024 as digital shopping habits become more entrenched and the economy stabilises.
  • Social commerce platforms like TikTok Shop are revolutionising consumer shopping behaviours by integrating entertainment and e-commerce, which is expected to grow by 20% in 2024.

  For more information and detailed insights on the state of e-commerce marketing in 2024   

Marketing in its Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER) era

Posted on by Khubi Ali

ROAS is not the North Star metric you thought it was!

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) just isn’t good enough as a measure of your marketing efforts—even if you are brand advertising on one platform. In-platform reported ROAS is inherently flawed, misleading and at best only 70% accurate.

ROAS is a marketing performance metric that calculates revenue generated by your ad campaigns. However, it has shortcomings.

  • It is channel-specific: ROAS is simply too focused on individual channel reporting, failing to account for the entire customer journey across multiple touchpoints.
  • Vanity metrics: ROAS often leads to misleading conclusions if not considered within the broader context of overall marketing performance.

Instead, your brand needs a metric that is able to measure your marketing’s overall impact on real business outcomes; across platforms.

That overall impact is your Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER)

Simply put, MER is total revenue (for your business) divided by total ad spend for all channels (Facebook, Google, etc.) Essentially, it is the average ROI across all channels.

In this article, we dive deep into why MER is the metric you need to be tracking over ROAS, how to measure and optimise it, and how to use it to win the war of attention in your market.

But first, what is the difference between the two metrics and where and when should they be used?

MER vs. ROAS

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)

  • Purpose: Measures the revenue generated per dollar spent on individual ad campaigns.
  • Usage: Best for analysing the performance of specific marketing campaigns or comparing the profitability of different ad initiatives.

MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio)

  • Purpose: Assesses the overall efficiency of all marketing efforts combined across various platforms.
  • Usage: Ideal for evaluating the comprehensive efficiency of your entire marketing strategy.

Comparison

Both MER and ROAS are crucial for assessing marketing effectiveness and can be utilised to inform your marketing strategy, evaluate campaigns, and track ROI.

  • ROAS: Offers an in-depth understanding of the performance of specific campaigns and creatives.
  • MER: Provides a holistic view of overall marketing performance, capturing the efficiency of all combined marketing campaigns.

While ROAS focuses on individual campaign effectiveness, MER delivers a broader perspective on the collective impact of your marketing activities.

In the war for attention, your approach is key!

Whatever the size and shape of your advertising campaigns, it’s important to analyse and measure them well to maximise your ROI.

Whilst there is value in taking a detailed approach to analysing the performance of each creative in your ad campaigns there is greater value in being able to view your ad campaigns as more than standalone creatives.

For instance, there have been cases where we assessed the performance dashboards of multi-channel campaigns and stressed over the 15% week-on-week drop in ROAS for one channel, only to find out that conversions had increased by 45% on another channel and that the overall revenue had grown by 20%. All of which in totality are great results.

ROAS therefore does not facilitate the multi-channel approach that is required to stay ahead of the curve in the marketing paradigm of 2024. While ROAS can tell you how much revenue any specific ad spend is driving, it does not take into account the user journey across all touchpoints that contribute to the final conversions.

Customer journeys are unpredictable and can follow various paths

In no particular order, your customers might…

  • See your Meta ad in the wild
  • Google your brand
  • Google your product
  • Compare prices on Amazon
  • Visit your website
  • Check your socials… then get distracted
  • See your ad… AGAIN, with a lot more interest this time
  • Visit your website again and add to the cart
  • May or may not abandon the cart
  • See your ad yet again
  • Revisit the website and cart
  • Finally, convert

If we look at the customer journey mapped above; we know that customers typically interact with more than one ad campaign and more than one channel before buying into a brand. MER is a metric that takes into account the total value generated by your marketing strategy across all platforms.

The relationship between MER and your attribution model

ROAS can only credit sales to the very last touchpoint, discrediting all the crucial steps that came before. This is especially true now that GA4 only offers two attribution models: last click and data-driven.

This is precisely why e-commerce brands need MER as their main metric, to eliminate the attribution problem by looking at the marketing efforts holistically and not just at standalone platforms.

All marketing teams; SEO, search and social want to claim a sale or lead as their achievement. However, the fact is, that no customer journey is straight or limited to one channel. (see the customer journey map above)

MER eliminates this conflict by focusing on overall efficiency instead of individual attributions. Now it won’t matter which channel or campaign generated a conversion. This way you can attribute the success and/or failure of your marketing campaigns to the overall effectiveness and efficiency of your ads across platforms in driving revenue growth.

By looking at your total marketing spend across ad spend on various channels vs. your total revenue irrespective of your marketing platform; MER cuts through the noise of vanity metrics and channel-specific KPIs to answer the only question that really matters.

How to calculate MER

To calculate your marketing efficiency ratio you need to calculate your cumulative marketing expenses and overall revenue from all your marketing platforms. Some of the most common expense metrics include your total spend on marketing including the cost of services and resources. Revenue metrics can include website traffic and conversions, sales and/or leads generated from your marketing campaigns.

Once you have this data, you can use it to calculate your marketing efficiency ratio as follows:

So for instance, if you spent $10,000 on marketing activities over a given period and generated $25,000 in revenue during that same time period, your marketing efficiency ratio would be 0.4 ($10,000 / $25,000).

Or, if you generated $1,000,000 in revenue on $200,000 in marketing spend last quarter, your MER would be 5.

$1,000,000 / $200,000 = 5

So, how do you use MER to inform your marketing decisions? The key is benchmarking.

Current metrics against your benchmarks

Start by recording your key metrics—MER, nCAC, nMER—during a period when your business is performing well. These metrics will serve as your benchmarks.

As you track performance over time, compare your current metrics against these benchmarks. The goal is to maintain or exceed your benchmarked MER, rather than focusing solely on an arbitrary ROAS figure.

The litmus test to check if your MER is working

Assuming your benchmark MER is 3.5 and your Meta ROAS is 1.23. If your Meta ROAS decreases to 1.1 but your MER remains at 3.5, that’s acceptable!

It likely indicates that your Meta marketing is effectively driving upper-funnel activities, with sales being captured through other channels.

On the other hand, if your Meta ROAS increases to 2.0 but your MER drops to 3.0, it may signal an issue. This could suggest over-investment in lower-funnel activities at the expense of upper-funnel channels that were initially driving your pipeline. Therefore, your MER benchmarks should be aligned with your specific growth goals and unit economics.

To ensure you meet your goals and targets, work backwards from your revenue objectives to set your MER benchmarks accordingly.

Advantages of using MER to inform your marketing strategy

Holistic view: MER takes into account all marketing channels, thus providing a comprehensive picture of marketing and advertising efficiency.

Cost efficiency and resource allocation: MER helps brands optimise their marketing expenses by identifying underperforming marketing channels. This allows a thorough analysis of all marketing costs, helping businesses eliminate unnecessary spending and make informed decisions on resource distribution. These insights provide a direction to where marketing investments should be directed to enhance overall efficiency.

Sustained performance monitoring: MER facilitates long-term evaluation of marketing impact and effectiveness. By tracking this ratio over time, marketers can identify trends, recognise patterns, and make strategic decisions to ensure sustainable growth.

The benefits of using MER as your North Star metric will reflect in the way it informs your marketing strategies, allowing you to make data-driven decisions and improve your ROI.

Strategies you can implement to optimise MER

To enhance your brand’s marketing efficiency ratio and maximise ROI for your e-commerce brand, consider the following strategies:

  1. Dynamic creative optimisation (DCO)
    • Use Dynamic Creative Optimisation to automate the testing of various ad elements such as images, headlines, and CTAs. This allows you to identify the most effective combinations in real time. Tools like Google Ads’ responsive search ads or Meta’s dynamic creative ads can help you implement DCO effectively.
    • Example: Regularly update and rotate ad creatives based on performance data to keep your campaigns fresh and engaging. This can lead to higher engagement rates and conversion metrics.
  2. Advanced segmentation and personalisation
    • Implement advanced segmentation strategies to target different customer segments with personalised marketing messages. Use customer data to create detailed buyer personas and tailor your ads accordingly.
    • Example: Segment your email list based on purchase history, browsing behaviour, and demographic information. Send personalised product recommendations and special offers to each segment to increase relevance and engagement.
  3. Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) techniques
    • Focus on CRO techniques to improve the performance of your landing pages. Conduct A/B testing on headlines, images, CTAs, and form lengths to determine what converts best. Use heatmaps and user session recordings to identify pain points and areas for improvement.
    • Example: Test different value propositions and CTAs on your product pages. Use tools like Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity to gather insights and make data-driven decisions to enhance user experience and increase conversion rates.
  4. Implementing retargeting campaigns
    • Use retargeting campaigns to re-engage users who have interacted with your brand but haven’t converted. Tailor your retargeting ads based on user behaviour and stage in the buying journey.
    • Example: Create a series of retargeting ads that show different product benefits or customer testimonials to users who abandoned their shopping carts. This can help nudge them towards completing their purchase.

In the new era of e-commerce marketing, it is important to identify the right time and opportunity to focus on the right metric and understand when it is optimal to focus on each to ensure long-term success.

How is AI changing the course of paid search? We investigate…

Posted on by Neha Chauhan

There is no denying that Artificial intelligence (AI) is now well past being just a trend. It is no longer a buzzword but has become a phenomenon that is now an integral part of most industries, including digital marketing. It has significantly reshaped most marketing disciplines, and paid search is not immune to this change.

It is time for marketing professionals and businesses to get to grips with the abundant world of AI tools, its fast-evolving capabilities, and features to stay ahead in this competitive industry. AI-powered algorithms have transformed the realms of paid search, and there is more to come.

In this article, we explore how AI is currently reshaping paid search and anticipate future developments that are expected to drastically alter the landscape.

Let’s dive right in…

How has AI changed paid search?

AI has managed to revolutionise paid search by introducing unprecedented levels of automation and optimisations. With functions like smart bidding, marketers can now manage extensive advertising campaigns more efficiently than ever before.

For example, Google’s case study on FishingBooker, an online platform for booking fishing trips, revealed a 49% increase in return on ad spend (ROAS) and a 57% increase in conversions through smart bidding​.

While these tech advancements offer substantial benefits, it is possible that these automatons might render traditional advertising methods obsolete.

Let’s look at how AI has already impacted paid search…

Enhanced automation via smart bidding

AI has revolutionised the automation of bidding strategies in paid search. Features like Google Ads’ smart bidding allow bids to be calculated automatically using machine learning, ensuring ads are shown to the right audience at the right time.

Google offers several bid strategies to choose from:

  • Enhanced Cost Per Click (ECPC)
  • Maximise clicks
  • Maximise conversions
  • Maximise conversion value
  • Target Cost Per Action (tCPA)
  • Target Return on Ad Spend (tROAS)
  • Viewable CPM (vCPM)
  • Cost Per View (CPV)

This reduces the need for manual intervention while enhancing campaign efficiency. Smart bidding therefore makes it possible for marketers to manage hundreds of paid search campaigns with ease at a lower cost and higher CTR.

Better ad relevance and targeting via query-matching

Through Artificial Intelligence, ad relevance has seen a substantial boost. AI-powered algorithms deploy advanced query-matching and targeting to analyse vast amounts of data, including demographics, search history, online user behaviour, and search patterns, to deliver precisely targeted ads. This helps advertisers create highly personalised ad campaigns that resonate with specific audience segments, leading to better engagement, conversion rates, and improved ROI.

Dynamic Search Ads

Based on the product information, the content of the website and the user’s search query—AI can dynamically generate ad copy and headline variations. This creates multiple versions of dynamic ads which allows Google to optimise them in real-time, saving hours’ worth of manual labour.

AI-generated responsive ads

AI can generate responsive ads based on combinations of provided headlines and descriptions. AI tests different combinations of headlines and descriptions to find the most effective ones, allowing advertisers to upload multiple ad versions while Google optimises them in real time. This automation also saves hours of manual labour to keep ads relevant and increases conversions and ROI.

AI ad content generation

While there are several AI content generation tools available to help create marketing assets through templates, Google Ads now offers an integrated tool—the Gemini Model—which helps create optimised search campaigns through a conversational experience. It generates relevant ad assets for responsive search ads, including creatives and keywords, based on the advertiser’s website and inputs.

This means AI can not only optimise the combinations of ad assets that the advertiser has provided, but it can also create new versions. Early adopters claim to have seen increased conversions when using this technique.

Predictive analytics

Google’s AI-driven predictive analytics tools can now forecast the click-through rate (CTR) of an advert for a specific keyword, providing predictions in three statuses: above average, average, or below average. If an advert receives a below-average status, the tool suggests that the ad copy may need to be better aligned with the target keyword, or that the keyword’s relevance might need re-evaluation.

Google can now actually predict the impact on the Quality Score, a metric that indicates how your advert’s quality compares to that of the competitors. Ad quality is essentially a measure of user experience with the ad. Key factors influencing the quality score include the expected CTR, ad relevance, and the landing page experience, which assesses the relevance and usefulness of the landing page content.

How is AI expected to evolve the search landscape further?

AI-generated SERPs, user behaviour, and the changing discourse of paid search

As AI-generated content increasingly dominates search engine results pages (SERPs), user behaviour is also expected to evolve. With detailed, highly relevant, and more personalised information readily available in search results, users are likely to interact with search engines more conversationally, akin to engaging with ChatGPT and chatbots. This shift will significantly change how marketers approach keyword targeting and content creation.

Traditional strategies focused on targeting specific keywords are becoming increasingly less effective. Instead, marketers will now need to consider how users phrase their queries more conversationally. This transformation will challenge marketers to refine their strategies, ensuring their content aligns with the nuances of user queries.

As AI continues to shape search interactions into a chatbot-like dialogue, creating content that comprehensively answers users’ questions becomes crucial. Marketers will need to rethink their approaches, moving away from keyword-centric tactics to developing content that addresses the full scope of user inquiries.

The rise of AI chatbots

AI chatbots have already revolutionised NLP (Natural Language Processing) and fundamentally changed how people interact with search engines. These intelligent bots gather information from diverse sources to provide comprehensive and precise answers to search queries, moving beyond the brief snippets typical of traditional search results. As a result, users now receive more in-depth and engaging responses from AI, making the search experience richer and more interactive.

The era of quickly scanning short summaries on SERPs is being replaced by AI chatbots that engage in meaningful conversations with users. This shift creates a more conversational and interactive search experience, which users are increasingly embracing. Consequently, marketers need to evolve their strategies to keep up with these advancements, ensuring their content meets the demands of this new conversational search environment.

Voice search optimisation

As voice search becomes more prevalent, AI will also play a crucial role in optimising ads for voice queries. This will involve understanding natural language patterns and providing relevant responses that match the conversational tone of voice searches.

Advanced fraud detection

AI will enhance the detection and prevention of ad fraud. By continuously analysing patterns and behaviours, it can identify fraudulent activities such as click fraud or impression fraud, ensuring that advertising budgets are spent more efficiently and effectively.

Integration with augmented reality (AR)

In the near future, AI will likely integrate with AR to create immersive ad experiences. This could involve interactive ads that users can engage with in a more meaningful way, blending digital and physical worlds to capture attention and drive engagement.

AI’s influence on search is profound and continually evolving. As technology advances, it will bring even more innovative solutions to enhance ad targeting, creation, and optimisation, making paid search more effective and efficient than ever before.

Shopify vs. WooCommerce: Which e-commerce platform is better?

Posted on by Lily Lofthouse

Shopify and WooCommerce are two of the world’s most popular eCommerce platforms, between them boasting 5 million users who generate billions of dollars a year. But with key differences between the platforms, which is right for your eCommerce business?

Setup and UX

Shopify is geared much more toward the public, while WooCommerce has been created with designers and programmers in mind. WooCommerce entails a far steeper learning curve for business owners, whereas Shopify guides you automatically through a step-by-step setup process, at the end of which you’ll have a fully functioning eCommerce site.

Shopify’s dashboard is easy to navigate. It’s intuitive to add new products, not least because of the simple guide advising you on what details to add. WooCommerce’s dashboard is also easy to navigate and add products to, but since it’s not a subscription-based platform you’ll need to perform some integrations before you can get underway:

  • purchasing a domain name
  • finding a hosting account
  • installing WordPress
  • finding and installing a WordPress theme

These integrations are better performed by someone confident with the platform and who knows what plugins to use.

Design and themes

When you sign up for Shopify you get immediate access to over 70 free themes, as well as several paid themes, all of which are visually striking and easy to implement. There’s also a ton of design elements to explore. You might choose to purchase a theme from the Shopify store for a one-off fee.

Over at WooCommerce are hundreds of themes and designs, which can be automatically programmed to be mobile-responsive. However, with WooCommerce it takes longer to ensure your website’s design is clear and easily navigable, because every plugin has its own unique user experience to learn. On the other hand, WooCommerce is the best platform if you’re looking for a more custom layout for your eCommerce site—as long as you have the requisite time and money for its development.

Costs

Shopify has a 14-day free trial period, after which you’ll need to pay a monthly subscription fee. Its Basic package is $29 a month, its medium Shopify package is $79 a month, and its top-of-the-range Advanced package is $299 a month. All plan prices are paid annually, and include web hosting and SSL, the standard technology for keeping your internet connection secure and safeguarding any sensitive data. If you want your own domain name without your URL containing the brand name (such as Shopify), you’ll need to pay an additional $14 a year.

With Shopify, the entry-level package allows two users per account, along with unlimited product and storage space. However, it doesn’t include the use of in-platform third-party tools and add-ons. And remember, with Shopify there’s a sliding scale for transaction fees. With the Basic package you’re charged a flat fee of 2% for all transactions, while the range-topping Advanced package entails a flat fee of only 0.5% on transactions. Depending on the sales volume you’re processing, it might be worth upping your package to retain more of the overhead profit on your offerings.

Meanwhile, WooCommerce offers a free initial service, but you’ll need to pay for additional services like SSL certifications, domain names and one of the many WordPress hosting accounts. Costs for these services vary from $5 to $30. Purchasing a domain name costs an average $9 a year. Depending on how you mix and match your third-party apps for WooCommerce, you can create a website at a fairly low cost, although bear in mind you may find yourself needing to pay for several extensions in the future, like SEO plugins.

Support

While Shopify and WooCommerce both offer support, Shopify’s is much better. Shopify has a 24/7 customer service team, able to give you a fixed solution to your problem by virtue of the fact it operates on a closed platform. This results in better-documented user errors. On the other hand, as an open platform WooCommerce allows anyone to integrate add-ons, but this means the support team simply can’t have a predetermined solution for every lodged issue.

SEO

SEO is vital for making your eCommerce website discoverable on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs). Shopify has a builtin SEO plugin and helps with basic practices, like web copy and metadata. It’s also important to note that Shopify sites load faster than WooCommerce sites, and site speed is an important SEO ranking signal. However, because it’s integrated with WordPress, which is designed specifically for blogging, WooCommerce is easier than Shopify when it comes to altering URLs, alt tags, body content, meta descriptions and lots of other on-page elements.

Dropshipping

When starting an eCommerce website you need to ensure your customers are actually receiving what they ordered. This means integrating delivery vendors into your site. Shopify has several popular options, the costs of which vary, as well as its own monthly membership fees or one-off costs for dropshipping—although then you’re limited to the platform’s own plugins. Whereas with WooCommerce you can browse hundreds of options and decide what you need. For example, if you’re a small business with only one or two deliveries a month, the best choice will be per-item delivery as opposed to a monthly subscription.

Shopify vs WooCommerce: which should you choose?

Shopify is incredibly easy to use from the beginning, and enables you to optimise your website for search within hours. It’s a more complete package than WooCommerce for business owners with neither the time nor inclination to learn more technical skills. However, Shopify is less customisable than WooCommerce because it’s a closed platform.

WooCommerce has become the behemoth of eCommerce platforms it is today because it’s basic but customisable, meaning you can build a more creative interface. Of course, creativity entails the cost of hiring a developer, which offsets the fact that WooCommerce is free in itself.  WooCommerce is suggested automatically when you register an account with WordPress, giving new users an easy route to getting started. However, WooCommerce is perhaps less intuitive than Shopify—or at least requires more development experience—so you may need to devote more time to building your online store than you would with Shopify.

Shopify is the eCommerce platform for you if you want:

  • a myriad of integration options
  • lots of easy-to-use apps and features
  • an all-in-one platform that gets everything running quickly
  • a helpful and enthusiastic support team ready to assist you with any problems

…Whereas WooCommerce will be right for you if you:

  • already have a WordPress website or plan to create one
  • are particularly focused on ranking well for SEO on Google’s SERPs
  • want to take more control of your eCommerce store or have the time to pore over its design details
  • are especially interested in finding a platform that’s highly adaptable and can be scaled up by magnitudes

Choosing between Shopify and WooCommerce depends on your budget, objectives, your target audience, the experience of who’s building your website, and who will be editing and managing it. Both platforms are fantastic at what they do, and as long as you understand the inherent limitations of whichever you opt for, you’ll have an aesthetic and intuitive eCommerce website going live in no time at all!

Webflow vs. WordPress: Which website builder is better?

Posted on by Lily Lofthouse

There are so many website builders to choose from, but most of our clients use either Webflow or WordPress. Despite having similar functionality, they’re markedly different products—which is why today we’re comparing the two so you can see which is right for your business.

Webflow… is easier to set up

As a cloud-based all-in-one SaaS product, Webflow has everything you need to get your website live.

It’s easy to get your account set up: simply follow the step-by-step tutorial. A short survey will assess your level of coding experience, asking you a few questions about your knowledge of CSS and HTML. Then the Webflow bot walks you through using the tool, highlighting the most important areas you’ll need to know about and what they do. You can click to read more, or start building your site when you’re ready to go.

WordPress entails a clunkier setup, not least because it won’t be hosting your website as part of a package and therefore you’ll need to find and pay separately for a host and domain—and identifying a suitable host can be tricky.

Once you have your host, you download WordPress as a one-size-fits-all version which comes with instructions for installation described as ‘basic’—although many non-developers might feel otherwise.

While many web hosts offer WordPress installer tools to simplify the process, it’s never going to be as easy or seamless as an all-in-one package like Webflow.

WordPress… is free (in its basic form)

WordPress is an open-source web platform, so it’s free to use—technically. But you still have to pay a third party to use WordPress—for hosting, domain name, and usually plugins and templates (which WordPress calls themes). This is assuming you don’t have a web developer to design and build your site from scratch—but of course, dev time is also far from free!

Your total expenditure for a WordPress website can creep up if you’re after something more than basic, because of the associated costs:

  • custom domain: $10–$30 a year
  • hosting provider: $2–$15 a month
  • preset theme: some are free, some cost up to $200 a month—or alternatively, you may wish to go all-out and hire a designer
  • plugins: many are free, but premium plugins cost $40–$200

To be clear, Webflow isn’t free either, but one upside to the platform is that you pay for everything you need to build and host your website in a handy monthly package. The price you pay depends on the tier of the package, but you’ll always know upfront what it’s going to cost:

  • Basic package: $14 a month, billed annually
  • Standard eCommerce package: $29 a month, billed annually
  • Business package: $39 a month, billed annually
  • Advanced eCommerce package: $212 a month, billed annually

Webflow billing is split into two categories: Your site and Workspace—but as the Workspace is where you build and manage websites, the latter billing category is mainly for consultants working on multiple website projects at once.

Webflow… is more accessible to non-developers

If you’ve never built a website before, Webflow will ease you in—especially if you’re a designer or content manager, as the platform is visually oriented and requires almost zero code.

If you’re not using a preset template, you’ll build using drag-and-drop building blocks called containers to construct the various sections of your website. Within these containers are elements, like headings, buttons and images, which you style using classes.

With Webflow, the code is still there, and you can access it if you want, but you can build and manage your website without ever having to look at it, too. But if you tried building a WordPress site without a preset theme and no coding experience, you’d probably never get the thing off the ground. However, as WordPress’s preset themes are fairly inflexible, you’ll get more out of them if you know at least a little HTML. You can integrate a visual drag-and-drop design builder plugin like Elementor on WordPress—making it work more like Webflow, incidentally—but you’d need to pay for the plugin package, which is where the endeavour might start getting pricey.

WordPress… is better for blog hosting

There’s a reason so many blogs are hosted on WordPress: that was the platform’s original raison d’être when it was launched back in 2003.

WordPress is incredibly easy to work with when it comes to blogging. With its Gutenberg editor you can build blogs using blocks, which contain text and other media. It’s a simple and intuitive system.

While Webflow does have a CMS package, it can’t hold a candle to WordPress. Its editor isn’t the easiest to use, and it lacks many of WordPress’s advanced features, such as the comments section, and the ability to categorise and add multiple tags to posts. Webflow just isn’t built with content-driven businesses in mind—which is totally fine if that’s not what you’re about, although even then it’s worth bearing in mind in case you want to build out your blog in the future.

Webflow… offers customer support

Because you’re paying a monthly fee for Webflow, you benefit from new features, continual product improvements and customer support, the latter being especially handy if you don’t have in-house developers to call on when something goes wrong.

WordPress, on the other hand, is an open-source platform, so there’s no customer support available. That being said, the platform’s been going so long that a raft of free resources has accumulated on easily accessible websites like WPBeginner, although naturally nothing compares to realtime assistance from a dedicated customer support team as you’ll enjoy with Webflow.

WordPress… caters better to marketers

If you have a team of marketers who will be working on your website daily, WordPress is the platform for you, not least because it can handle an unlimited number of users.

Webflow enables you to edit on-page, which is a nice touch, whereas on WordPress you always need to make changes to pages via the CMS dashboard. But generally, Webflow simply isn’t built to support the level of activity possible on WordPress. With its CMS package you can have up to three ‘guest editors’, but the free and Basic packages don’t allow any editors whatsoever, meaning you’ll also be working from a single login. With the most expensive package you can have up to 10 editors. (Technically you can have more if you opt for a custom plan, but that’s when things start getting seriously pricey.) Even the nomenclature of guest editors speaks to the fact that Webflow considers marketers from within the company using the CMS as ‘guests’ to the website.

The two platforms’ different approaches to SEO optimisation also reflect their target users. Much of the SEO performance on Webflow is generated automatically, negating most of the manual work. You simply define a pattern using things like title tags and meta descriptions, then all pages in that collection will use that pattern to generate SEO settings automatically. This setup suits designers who don’t want to be thinking about writing metatags and other SEO-related tasks.

Meanwhile, over on WordPress is the Yoast plugin, which is either free or $99 annually for the premium version. This caters far more for marketers, because rather than doing anything automatically Yoast highlights keywords and guides you to create higher-quality content that’s as SEO-friendly as possible.

Webflow… offers more design freedom

Webflow is aimed at those with little or even no coding experience, often visually oriented designers and marketers who don’t want to be limited by code. Webflow therefore gives you a lot of freedom to design your website. You have the same level of customisation on WordPress too, of course, but if you’re not confident with coding then you’ll need a developer’s help to realise your vision.

Because of this setup, Webflow has far fewer preset templates than WordPress—1,000 vs 10,000 respectively. WordPress’s templates are out-of-the-box, whereas with Webflow’s templates you need to want total control and freedom over designing your website yourself.

Making changes to your Webflow design is easier post-build than on WordPress. Webflow utilises classes to style elements, such as headings, buttons and images, and you name each class—Big heading, Medium heading, Small heading, for example. Then if you want the text to be bigger for all your Big headings, you simply search for the class in the righthand menu, where you can make changes to its size, spacing and layout. These alterations are then applied automatically across all elements using that class. You can do this with CSS in WordPress, but the platform doesn’t offer no-code design tweaks unless you integrate a visual drag-and-drop design plugin.

WordPress… integrates better with other tools

WordPress is specifically designed to be used with plugins, and at present there are 60,000 available. WordPress plugins make integrations native: you don’t need to leave the platform to add them—simply go to the plugin menu on the dashboard and browse the thousands of options. Installation is performed with a single click!

In contrast, the premise of Webflow is that you have everything you need ready to go in a single handy package—no need to integrate any add-ons. You can still pull other tools into your Webflow website using code snippets, whereby you embed code into the backend of your site—but since Webflow’s strength lies in the fact you barely need code to manage your site, these code snippets are a workaround at best. Moreover, you’ll need to work with the third-party software separately, as it won’t be fully integrated into Webflow.

Webflow vs WordPress: which should you choose?

Webflow is the website builder for you if:

  • whoever’s building your site has little to no coding experience
  • you want to get your website up and running fast and with minimal effort
  • you’re new to website building and would benefit from customer support
  • you want to be able to make custom design changes to your website without having to call on a developer

…Whereas WordPress will be right for you if:

  • you have coding experience or the budget to hire a web developer
  • you have an existing tech stack you want to integrate into your website
  • you have a team of editors or marketers who will be contributing regularly
  • you want to host a blog or plan to frequently add new content pages to your site

Choosing between Webflow and WordPress depends on your budget, objectives, the experience of who’s building your website, what you plan to use the website for, and who will be editing and managing it. Both platforms are fantastic at what they do, and as long as you understand the inherent limitations of whichever you opt for, you’ll have a fabulous and SEO-worthy website going live in no time at all!