As CRM experts we wanted to answer two of the most common questions we hear when people are considering using a CRM with their Shopify Store. But first, here’s a break down of what a CRM can do for your business. 

What Is a CRM?

A Customer Relationship Management tool (or a CRM) collects and centralizes customer and lead data so that you can streamline your sales process and focus your sales resources more effectively. A CRM puts contact info, customer history, and communication records into an easily accessible format so your sales team can identify and prioritize opportunities using the most up-to-date information. In short, a CRM improves sales productivity. 

Many people think CRMs are only for B2B businesses with complicated buyer journeys, but we believe all types of businesses can benefit from a CRM – even eCommerce businesses. Finding the right CRM for your business can help you improve customer satisfaction and lifetime value by: 

• Helping to establish lines of communications with your customers
• Helping to identify customer needs for your sales and customer service personal 
• Reducing the acquisition cost
• Improving the operational ease of nurturing leads and customers

Common Shopify CRM Questions

Do I Really Need a CRM for My Shopify Store?

The short answer is yes. While Shopify has a Customer Success Manager that records and reports customer order data, it’s limited. This built-in data management tool may be perfectly fine for businesses operating at a small scale, but the second your business starts to grow you could be in trouble. 

Common problems for Shopify stores without a CRM include: 

• Difficulty identifying warm leads in your target audience
• Unreliable sales data based on outdated information or human error
• A longer and less efficient sales outreach process as your leads list grows
• Lost sales opportunities when your un-nurtured warm leads turn cold

A good CRM can address these issues by:

1. Maintaining a comprehensive database of leads and their actions.
2. Scoring leads based on these actions so that you can focus exclusively on warm leads.
3. Streamlining outreach to your leads (e.g., if a potential buyer completes a web form, they will get put in a drip campaign or placed on a nurture track after receiving a “thank you” email).
4. Integrating into your tech stack to more effectively organize data, gain business intelligence, improve time management and sales, and centralize your applications.

How Do I Pick the Right CRM for My Shopify Store?

A robust CRM is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. CRMs can range in price and functionality, so you have to put a lot of thought into your selection. Here are some key considerations:

• Scalability -You want a CRM that is able to grow with you as your business grows.
• Integrations – Make sure it can connect to Shopify and any other software you use. This can either be though out-of-the-box integrations or custom ones.
• Reporting – Every business’s needs are differenct, so do some research on how easily you can create custom reports in the CRM.
• Ease of Use and Support – It’s better for your whole team if you choose something that will be fairly easy to learn. In the same vein, a well-supported CRM will have a lot of documentation and easily accessible phone or email support to help your team through the adoption phase.

Salesforce, for example, is uniquely geared towards handling large scale or enterprise-level business with many users. Because they are an industry leader they have excellent support documentation and many integrations. The CRM is also one of the more expensive options at $150 US/month per user. Alternatively, Zoho CRM Plus provides similar functionality and easily integrates with many business tools. In fact, Zoho has a product suite called Zoho One, with around 40 pre-integrated applications at only $50 US/month per user. 

It’s best to think of your CRM as an investment rather than an expense. Foregoing a CRM will obviously save on licensing costs, but you may end up losing money on ineffective sales efforts and missed opportunities. In fact, according to Nucleus Research, the average ROI for a CRM is around $8.71 for every $1.

Choosing the Right CRM for Your Needs

For most small-to-medium eCommerce businesses, we generally recommend Zoho because of its functionality and affordability. And we like that Zoho One comes with integrations like Zoho Inventory, which can be used to centralize your supply chain data and management. 

But, as we mentioned earlier, CRMs vary wildly in price and functionality, so if you’re debating integrating a CRM with your Shopify store, it’s best to speak with a CRM consultant about which is right for you. You can book a free 30-minute call with one of our CRM consultants here.

Related Read: Why Hire a CRM Consultant? 4 Benefits for Your Business