100 Amazing Free Tools and Resources for e-Commerce Small Business Owners Online Retailers

Shopify will train you to become an online retailer, entrepreneur for free

https://www.shopify.com/blog/introducing-shopify-academy

Abandoned Shopping Cart Recovery

Make a discount offer to a customer who has already expressed interest! Shopify offers this feature free of charge. 

Startup Name Generator

Dreaming of the becoming the next featured hotshot on Product Hunt? Generate a random idea and a company name with startup name generators. It's also a great to generate cheaper alternative of your current domain name or business idea.

http://www.naminum.com/

https://startupnamegenerator.com/

https://www.namemesh.com/company-name-generator

https://getsocio.com/tools/business-name-generator/startup

https://anadea.info/tools/online-business-name-generator/startup

https://mashable.com/2013/07/20/startup-name/#EML.29kzpPqB

Buffer

Social sharing made easy. Buffer can schedule and share posts to multiple channels including twitter, pinterest, google plus and facebook.

Custom Domain

Custom domain allows you to white label your website, your brand. Instead of my.wordpress.com you can have mybrand.com. Many e-Commerce platform now offers hosted custom domain services with a premium fee or subscription

Kit CRM or simple Kit

Shopify platform's chatbot and seller's assistant. It can post to Facebook, start instagram and Facebook ads! Even do some basic report. Free with Shopify subscriptions. 

Wanelo

Sales channel, pinterest-like interface, all products are shoppable and sharable. Works well with Shopify Sales Channels. 

Google Webmaster Tool

Official Google tool for domain owners

Google Trend

Official Google search engine insights: see what people are searching.

Google Shopping API and Google Shopping Advertising

https://www.google.com/ads/shopping/
Shopify offers free integration with Google Shopping API https://apps.shopify.com/google-shopping

Moz Tool

Professional tool to check Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Page Rank. Also check out Moz Open Site Explorer
http://moz.com/search-ranking-factors

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is integrated and included for free on SquareSpace and Shopify. A professionally recommended SEO tool on WordPress is Yoast. 

Google Keyword Planner Tool

Use Google's official tool to plan out Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Adwords campaign.  

Twilio

Programmable phone number, voicemail, voice routing and call center on the go.

Zendesk

Programmable support website, email funnel and also FAQ page. 

Tweepi

Delete and remove harmful tweets. Remove users that don't follow you. Might trigger a twitter API usage red flag. Warning!

Poshmark

Used clothing and accessories like Fitbit bracelet? Demo clothing for sale? Use Poshmark for used fashion items.

eBay Shopping API

- https://developer.ebay.com/Devzone/shopping/docs/Concepts/ShoppingAPIGuide.html

- https://go.developer.ebay.com/adding-search-abilities-your-app

Other paid tools: Amazon referral, advertisements, useful chrome extensions

FierceRetail Newsletter and Shopify Newsletter

Feeling lonely and stuck as a solepreneur? Join the FierceRetail newsletter and learn what the top guys are doing. Frequent news update including supreme court rulings, amazon, macy's and more. 

Shopify has newsletter that teaches you how to start online businesses like subscription box, a t-shirt company and an enamel pin business.

Buyable Pins - Pinterest for Retail

Pinterest allows approved merchants to sell products directly through pins. Other developers can use Pinterest specific meta mark up for web pages find out more about Rich Pins here. https://business.pinterest.com/en/rich-pins

Buyable Pin by Pinterest is integrated with premium Shopify subscription. Buyable Pins allows customers to purchase your products without leaving Pinterest. That means faster conversion - faster checkout, better sales. Note Pinterest is also a family friendly social network, that means no derogatory terms, even no alcohol such as champagne. Just like Facebook! 

Small Business Saturday by American Express

Get marketing kits and free promotion from American Express by registering for their Small Business Saturday program. Get listed in the Small Business Saturday local business registry. 

Use Bulk Uploading Tools to List Multiple Items at Once

This is especially useful for products with lots of variants. Use an excel template or online UI to upload multiple listings. Offered by Shopify and eBay.

Use both bulk important and export to speed up the process.

Holiday Sales Webinar, Bestseller List and Buyer's Guide

Platforms like eBay offers extra help during holiday seasons. It shows you what's selling, what are the compelling offers and more.
holiday hot list http://pics.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/sc/pdf/eBay-2015HolidayHotlist.pdf

Wanelo, Pinterest, Poshmark Are Great Retail Social Networks

In addition to Wanelo, Pinterest, and Poshmark (for consignment, i.e. used goods), Polyvore is also a popular place female shoppers make visual style collages and share them with their community and followers.

Shopify Academy

Shopify Academy teaches you how to start an online business from scratch. 

https://www.shopify.com/academy/courses/shopify

Providing Feedback and Reviews

Did you know that providing customer feedbacks or reminder emails can drive customers to reciprocate positive feedback, for example eBay Feedback, and even sales? Also it will help you proactively identify unsatisfied customers.  

More tips and tricks

• Powerful Social Media e-Commerce Statistics that will make you rethink retail. 
• http://www.trueship.com/blog/2015/01/06/powerful-social-media-ecommerce-statistics-that-will-make-you-rethink-e-retailing-altogether/#.VUrAIReBBFQ
• Dropshipping
• Shopify drop shipping https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2cGiSamRjY
• While not free nor cheap, Uline offers shipping and packaging solutions for all kinds of industries and retail needs such as shipping of cooled products and also art works.
• eBay Trend Research, eBay unpaid assistant (automatically reminder to collect payments on auction bids)
• While not free, I highly recommend using Promoted Listing to social share and broadcast product pictures and collages to social media. 
• Shopify launches business competitions judged by the industry's best such as Shark Tank judges https://www.shopify.com/build-a-business These competitions are free to join. If you win, you win big. 
• Inventory logistics - UPC code database http://www.upcitemdb.com/
• Google Merchant, Google Shopping Ad (paid) https://www.google.com/retail/merchant-center/
• Google Product Feed for Shopify
• https://ecommerce.shopify.com/c/shopify-discussion/t/google-product-feed-144276
• Make your Wix website more interactive and snappy with Wix Animation wix animation http://www.wix.com/web-lp/wix-animation