Top Ten Tools For Managing Your Ecommerce Store

WordPress Hosting

Great prices and greater support

Mom Webs

Get started for as little as $4.75/month. Pro Tip: If you use a premium theme builder like Avada, upgrade to a faster server. Just ask them for options.

Best Theme

Prebuilt starter websites

Avada

Theme-Fusion spends the time and resources to produce an incredible theme builder. Pro Tip: Start with a prebuilt theme that is closest to the look and feel you are going for.

No Brainer Ecommerce

Very little maintenance required

Shopify

I’m a WordPress expert but I use Shopify for my ecommerce store. Pro Tip: If you want a premium theme, choose a company with great support and an updater app like Pixel Union.

Backup Every Day!

Better to have a backup and not need it than to need it and not have it.

UpdraftPlus

Over the years I have had to restore a website from a backup a dozen times. Life happens. Backing up your website is cheap insurance. I use UpdraftPlus. Pro Tip: don’t backup to your own website. Use Amazon S3 or other cloud service.

A Builder with Benefits

Lead pages, premium commenting, quizzes, courses, etc.

Thrive Themes

Thrive Themes has features that you may want to entice customers to use your products and services. Pro Tip: Use this for building specialty pages and not as the main theme.

My Favorite Shopify Theme

Themes for start-ups, large catalogs, brands with a story and more

Pixel Union

I have used Pixel Union’s Empire Theme for several years. It just keeps getting better. Pro Tip: When it is time to update your theme (due to new features), get the Updater app. It will make the update process much easier especially if you have made customizations.

Need a Membership Site?

The premier membership software with loads of features

Digital Access Pass

Digital Access Pass (DAP) is the plugin to use if you have digital products and want to create a membership area for delivering that content on a one-off or subscription basis. Pro Tip: Use their Smart Pay Cart software to collect money and create Upsells.

Have You Been Hacked?

I personally know Regina and she will clean your site!

WP Security Lock

Hacked websites are no fun! It may be as simple as removing images and improper text or as complicated as finding back doors and malware. Pro Tip: Hire a real expert because it does no good to clean the bad code to only have it reappear because you didn’t remove the back doors.

Stay Safe Traveling

Selling online means you can work from anywhere, but...

Hide My Ass

The great thing about having an online business is that you can work from the beach, a cruise ship, a ski lodge or anywhere. But, you must have a secure connection or risk having a skimmer steal your credentials. I’ve used HMA (Hide My Ass) for years. Pro Tip: Load the software on all your devices. There’s no extra charge to stay safe on mobile.

Analytics You Can Understand

Is Google Analytics too overwhelming?

Clicky

Google Analytics is the gold standard of website tracking but those reports are too much. Clicky gives you succinct numbers right to your email box. You can also watch visitors in real time. Use it for any website including Shopify. Pro Tip: you can get a free account but upgrade to Pro for lots of goodies.