Automation is essential for the long-term success of eCommerce businesses. There are a variety of tools that help automate various aspects of an online store, from marketing to fulfillment. In this write-up, we put together the list of the 5 most essential BigCommerce automation tools that you can use with a small budget.  

1. Backend store task: Atom8 

Atom8 is an easy-to-use drag and drop software that enables merchants to automate backend tasks that often take up a lot of time to finish. Specifically, the app converts these tasks into a workflow following the Trigger – Condition – Action logic. 

Some of the most commonly-used workflows are:

• Auto-hide/unhide products & catalogs on a scheduled time
• Auto-change product merchandising (prices, purchasability, visibility,…)
• Auto-segment customers (based on behaviors, geographic, demographic…)
• Auto-trigger email marketing to customers
• Auto-notify team members about product inventory & order status
• Auto-generate reports & lists on Google sheet

It can also be integrated with multiple apps to streamline your management, making it the best choice for BigCommerce store owners.   

Starting price: free

Standout review: 5.0/5 on BigCommerce marketplace

“In the time we’ve been using this tool it has grown to be ever more capable. The team has been very responsive to feature requests and has delivered new items faster than any Dev team I have worked with for a long time. Our use of the tool continues to grow as they add features that take annoying tasks off our hands. The support team is excellent as well as personable.”

2. Marketing automation: Klaviyo

Klaviyo is one of the best marketing automation tools for BigCommerce stores. Overall, the app is well-known for its dynamic form builder that allows merchants to increase efficiency with personalization. It also comes with best-in-class segmentation and unparalleled data science functionality, contributing to better customer analysis. 

Starting price: free up to 250 contacts

Standout review: 4.0/5 on BigCommerce Marketplace

“This is a great email marketing solution. The benchmarking data is invaluable and the service is always prompt and helpful. The interface is intuitive without being overwhelming. Furthermore, it integrates with our loyalty program, allowing us to centralize all of our emails to customers in one app.”

3. Fulfillment & Shipping: Shipstation

Shipstation helps automate the management procedure from your sales channels to your shipping carriers. Accounts based in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom can also enjoy a self-service Branded Returns Portal for an exceptional customer experience. Furthermore, the app is natively integrated with over 70 of the best sales channels, making it easier than ever to centralize your sales. 

Starting price: free

Standout review: 4.0/5 on BigCommerce marketplace

“We’ve used this app for several months and it quickly became a favorite because of its list of features and ease of use. It is great to be able to import customer orders/addresses without manually typing anything! Also, being able to compare rates between all the carriers we use is great. Recently, with a website update, we ran into a glitch with this app, but the ShipStation customer support via chat/email took care of it!”

4. Order management: ConnectPOS

ConnectPOS automated a company’s payment system. It takes over everything from order management to sales reports. More specifically, the app allows for multiple payment methods including cash, cards, cheques, and points. Once your online and offline platform is connected, it ensures 100% real-time synchronization between your inventory and the POS system, even when there is no internet connection. 

Starting price: free

Standout review: 5/5 on BigCommerce Marketplace

“Actually, it’s not easy to find a POS that integrates smoothly with BigCommerce. Most of the POS we found are standalone POS, which means they use their own inventory system, not BigCommerce’s inventory. Therefore, we were happy when we tried ConnectPOS. Needed some customization to 100% fit our business though. But anyway, we highly recommend this app.”

5. Inventory management: BackOrder

BackOrder allows customers to order a product even when out of stock and receive it in the future. Moreover, by taking over your inventory tracking, the app keeps you informed about the total salable and backordered products in your store. It also provides merchants with real-time in-depth reports into their order data. 

Starting price: free forever

Standout review: 4.5/5 on BigCommerce marketplace

“A great app to save out-of-stock revenue especially on high-demand products. This app also comes in handy for seeing what products are popular with customers and predicting market needs. Great customer service as well.”

Final note

One special note: every of these BigCommerce automation tools can be connected to streamline your store operations. Our Customer Success team is available 24/7 to help set up and configure Atom8 and BackOrder so that you can get more done today.