In this digital era, you need to be very fast and technically upgraded. There is a need for tools and software everywhere in every area of life. Similarly, if you are doing an online business, then to run it successfully you will essentially need to take help from some tools. There is a web of software of different varieties in the market. It sometimes becomes very confusing which tool one should select for their particular requirement. Here, we are listing down the list of 15 tools and software that we use personally to run our business successfully. We have tested a variety of software and then selected the best among them which can be helpful to grow your business at a basic level. You can use them free of cost.
Table of Contents
These tools are very important when it comes to starting any type of online business. We are category-wise explaining each tool. So, let’s begin:
Tools For Branding
The first requirement when we start an online or eCommerce business is branding. Let’s know what are the essential tools that could help us for branding of our online business.
1. Canva
We continuously need to create graphics and for that we need tools. To create graphics, our first recommendation is Canva.com. It is the best tool to create high-quality graphics. It is available both for free of cost or you can upgrade to use more features. The tool contains Prebuilt templates and categories, from which you can select. If you don’t know how to design and have the required skills then you can easily create graphics with this tool.
2. Freepik
Canva has a certain set of prebuilt libraries. If you want to use more assets than is given in the Canva library, then Freepik is the best option. You will find many wallpapers, designs, and vectors on the website. You can select any of them according to your requirement and take it to Canva to create your best design.
There are many other things you can take out of canva to enhance your design and one of them is PNGs. PNGs are nothing but images without backgrounds. You can search png images easily from google. Also, you could find the PNG images from the website PngTree.
3. VN Editor
Are you actively into doing video editing for any purpose? Do you mostly opt for mobile to do video editing? Then VN editor is the best application for you. After comparing all the applications, we found out that it has the best features and is easy to use.
4. Powerdirector
If you are personally YouTubing and need to do professional kind of video editing on a desktop and looking for some easy software other than this heavy software like premiere pro, then PowerDirector is the best option. It is available in both paid and free versions. You can easily download it. Also, many cracked versions of this tool are available online if you want to use its pro.
Tools For Website
After successful branding, any business needs a website. If you are doing online business from a basic level, then you would definitely want a website that is free of cost and can convert customers. From the website, you need more and more customers on WhatsApp. The tools that are helpful to create an effective website are:
5. Social Seller Academy
At the initial level, you will need a social commerce website. We at Social seller academy have a tool using which you create websites free of cost. The tool will enable you to create websites very easily. More than 600 people have already created websites using the tool. You will have a WhatsApp button on the website, when the user clicks on the button, they will connect to your WhatsApp. You can save their database and use it for remarketing. Also, you can keep videos on the website.
7. Shopify
It is the best platform to create websites all over the world. It is costly though but has all the integration which is essential to start any eCommerce business. You can easily create an effective eCommerce website with Shopify.
Tools for Payment Gateway
6. Instamojo
After creating the website, you will need an online store where customers come and can also pay online for the purchase. Instamojo is the best application for this purpose. It is a payment gateway that is used to accept payments from customers. One can create a basic-level online store with Instamojo, where you will also get a payment button. This tool is very easy to use. But the negative point of this tool is that charges are very high and hence it is not a good option for the long term.
8. Razorpay
After creating a website, you need to put in a payment gateway. The best payment gateway to be used on a website is Razorpay. There are many payment gateways in the market which might be charging lower commissions than Razorpay. But they will not provide as good services as Razorpay provides. It is the best payment gateway which we are saying after using all the payment gateways. There are different payment gateways for different requirements. But Razorpay can be used at any level of business from the beginning to any level. All the big startups are using Razorpay these days for their payment requirements. Initially, they will charge a 2% commission and 18% GST above that. But later as the volume of your business increases, you can negotiate with them. There is no competition for the dashboard and the service that we get from Razorpay.
Tools For Shipping
People doing online business wish to know which shipping service is fast, which courier gives the cheapest price, COD feature, etc. But let us make it very clear that there is no specific courier that could be used for a particular business needs. There are different courier services operational at different locations and areas. But, there are aggregator platforms available to manage these courier companies. So, let’s know which is the best aggregator platform for your business.
9. Shiprocket
There are many logistic aggregator platforms available in India and the best among them is Shiprocket. Initially, the service was down, but it has totally changed now. While searching online, you might find many new services, but it is the cheapest of all. It is easy to integrate the Shopify website with Shiprocket, the only thing you need to do is KYC.
Whereas, with ShiprocketX, you can send a courier from India to anywhere in the world. You can create a website for the USA or London by sitting at home in India. Also, you can sell and deliver Indian products to customers outside India.
Tools For Content Creation
After setting up the whole online business, you reach the important point, and that is content creation. Now, you need to continuously create and post content by yourself. You can do it free of cost by using the tools or can grow your business by investing money. Without investment you can start at a basic level but to get continuous and spontaneous growth you need to invest money. If you want to invest money for business growth, there are 2 crucial marketing techniques in which you should spend.
10. Facebook And Google ADs
These are the best techniques to promote your business by investing money. For this, you give money to Facebook and Google and in return you get traffic. You will find a complete ADs console there. You can put different types of advertisements with different purposes. There are different techniques to put ADs including stories ads, feed ads, article ads, video ads, retargeting ads, etc. to reach new audiences. The best among them is Facebook ADs.
If your audience is already searching for something on Google or Youtube, then you need to put ADs through the Google ADs console. Youtube ADs are very powerful and you can take high conversion from there.
Facebook ADs are mostly used for retargeting, whereas to enhance your audience, YouTube ADs are used.
Tools For Marketing
WhatsApp marketing is another popular ADs technique that brings conversion and makes people give money. It is the best technique to bring conversions, direct sales, and grow your business very fast. With all these techniques, you might get traffic, but the audience wants you to interact with them and know more and more about your business. Without the WhatsApp marketing tool, you would not be able to fulfil this. There are many tools available for WhatsApp marketing and the best among them are:
14. Interakt, AISENSY, WATI
All these tools are widely used and good when it comes to WhatsApp marketing. With these tools, you can not only manage customers but also can do remarketing and conversion. For all these tools, you need to integrate with WhatsApp API. But there is another very good tool now available in India and that is.
15. Pancake
Pancake is the best tool used for WhatsApp marketing. For this, you don’t even need WhatsApp API. With this tool, you can manage customers from all social media channels in 1 place. Pancake enables you to manage customers without any investment. You can easily manage small sales with this platform, but when you get big clients, you need advanced software such as BIGIN- Zoho CRM. It is a very good CRM using which you can manage all big customers.
So, friends, this is our list of the best 15 tools to manage and grow a business online. After experimenting with different tools, we have prepared a toolkit for a startup. You can also easily trust these tools without any doubt. Also, you can take free versions of many free tools from the website Tools Ninja. This is the platform that provides tool subscriptions at the lowest price. You will find different tools subscriptions at 1 price.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. How can I make my online business grow faster?
With the help of tools, you can grow your online business faster.
Q. What are the 5 common business tools and technologies?
The 5 most common business tools and technologies used for businesses today are branding, website, payment gateway, shipping, content creation, and marketing.