The 6 Best Ecommerce CRM Software Systems in 2022
This article is part of a larger series on CRM.
Ecommerce customer relationship management (CRM) software provides tools for managing online sales, including inventory, marketing, and order and payment processing. We reviewed dozens of options to identify the six best ecommerce CRMs for small businesses. See how they stack up based on cost, ease of use, general features, and ecommerce functionality to see which solution provides the best CRM for your ecommerce business.
Here are our picks for the six best ecommerce CRM software:
- Agile CRM: Overall best ecommerce CRM, and our top pick for multi-channel digital marketing tools in one platform
- Zoho CRM Plus: Most advanced ecommerce CRM tools and features
- QuickBooks Commerce: Top choice for businesses using QuickBooks Accounting software
- Bitrix24: Best free ecommerce CRM solution
- BigCommerce: Excellent option for businesses wanting a highly scalable solution
- Metrilo: Solid ecommerce CRM for businesses that want advanced analytics
The Best Ecommerce CRMs Compared at a Glance
Free Plan | Up to 10 users | N/A | N/A | Unlimited users | N/A | N/A |
Free Trial | N/A | 30 days | 14 days | 30 days | 30 days | 14 days |
Starting Price for Paid Plans* | $9.99 per user, per month | $57 per user, per month | $50 per month—but must be paired with QuickBooks Online for a total of $100 per month** | $39 per month, includes 5 user seats | $29.95 per month, unlimited users | $99 per month, unlimited users |
Multi-channel Marketing | Email, SMS text, social media, and telephone | Email, SMS, social media, live chat, and telephone | Limited to the sales channel integration | Email, SMS, social media, live chat, and telephone | Limited to the sales channel integrations | Email only |
Order and Payment Processing | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | N/A |
Inventory Management | Only through integration | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | Only through integration |
Built-in (Web) Store Designer | Landing page only | N/A | N/A | ✔ | ✔ | N/A |
Customer Support | Live chat and email 24/5 or by phone during standard business hours | 24/7 by phone, live chat, and email | Phone, live chat, and email during standard business hours plus Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. | Help desk, online training, chat with tech support, and email during standard business hours for all paid plans | Phone, live chat, and email during standard business hours | Live chat and email during standard business hours |
*Pricing based on annual billing.
**QuickBooks Commerce is currently offering the first three months at half-price to new customers.
Overall, we found Agile CRM to be the best CRM for ecommerce, especially for businesses looking for multi-channel marketing capabilities. It offers a free-forever plan for up to 10 users as well as low-cost paid plans that scale with more features as your business grows. Agile CRM also stands out as one of the easiest ecommerce CRMs on this list to operate and navigate.
Agile CRM: Best Overall Ecommerce CRM
What We Like
- Free option for up to 10 users, 1,000 contacts, and unlimited deals
- Integrates with popular ecommerce and payment processing platforms
- Solid all-around platform with sales, marketing, and help desk management tools
What's Missing
- Customer support limited to standard business hours
- Limited integrations for Free and Starter plans
- Limited built-in ecommerce tools
Agile CRM Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Up to 10 users
- Starter: $9.99 per user, per month
- Regular: $39.99 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $64.99 per user, per month
*Pricing based on annual billing. Monthly billing is available at a higher cost.
Agile CRM is an excellent all-around ecommerce CRM solution for managing sales, marketing, and customer service operations in one platform. It’s easy to use through drag-and-drop interfaces and is inexpensive to use unless you need to subscribe to higher-tier plans. A free-forever plan is available for up to 10 users, but the automation and integration capabilities are limited.
Agile CRM gets most of its ecommerce-specific functionality from integrations. You can operate your online store by integrating the CRM with popular ecommerce systems like Shopify, WooCommerce, or Magento. There is also multi-channel marketing to promote your online store through email, short message service (SMS) texting, social media, and online landing pages.
Although Agile CRM is rated as one of the best ecommerce CRMs, its main limitation is that you cannot access most ecommerce tools without using third-party integrations. For a system that gives you more online store management functionality through built-in features, we recommend BigCommerce as the best alternative.
Agile CRM Plan Summary
Free | Starter | Regular | Enterprise | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Contact and Company Management | Up to 1,000 | Up to 10,000 | Up to 50,000 | Unlimited |
Plugins/Integrations | 1 | 3 | 50+ | 50+ |
Landing Page Builder | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Customer Help Desk | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Email Campaigns and Template Builder | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Google, Shopify, and Stripe Sync | Google only | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Automation Rules and Configurable Triggers | 1 | 5 | 10 | Unlimited |
Marketing Automation | N/A | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Mobile SMS Text Marketing | N/A | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
Agile CRM Key Features
- Ecommerce integration: Integrates with popular ecommerce systems including Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento for promotional management, email and social media engagement, web analytics, and marketing event triggering.
- Customer service features: Customer support capabilities with help desk, ticket management, and customer communication tools.
- Payment processing integration: Payments can be managed directly from the Agile CRM system by integrating it with popular platforms like Stripe, FreshBooks, or QuickBooks.
- Email campaign tools: Features for designing and deploying email campaigns, including premade and customizable sales email templates.
The Agile CRM is an ideal solution for a wide range of businesses and the clear favorite for best ecommerce CRM. Read our expert Agile CRM review to discover if its features, pricing, and best-for scenarios make it the best CRM for your ecommerce operation.
Zoho CRM Plus: Most Advanced Ecommerce CRM Features
What We Like
- Advanced features including artificial intelligence (AI), workflow automation, analytics, and multi-channel campaign tools
- Supplemental built-in tools for inventory, project, and customer support management
- Many integration/plugin options, including both third-party platforms and native software
What's Missing
- Only one subscription option that is fairly expensive, especially compared to starter plans from other providers
- No free version, and add-ons can drive up the cost even more
- Some users find it difficult to navigate and operate the tools
Zoho CRM Plus Pricing at a Glance*
- Zoho CRM Plus: $57 per user, per month
- Free trial: 30 days
Add-ons
- CRM Plus-Support: $13.80 per user, per month for premium support or $17.25 per user, per month for enterprise-level support
- SalesIQ: $25 per 25,000 visitors, per month
- Campaigns-Contacts: $6 per 500 contacts, per month
- Social-Brand: $23 per brand, per month
- Survey: $6 per 100 responses, per month
*Pricing based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available at a higher cost.
Zoho CRM Plus provides advanced or additional features your business might want in an ecommerce CRM like artificial intelligence (AI), project management, advanced analytics, and plenty of automation tools. The platform also integrates with software solutions native to Zoho, including its Social, Analytics, SalesIQ, and Campaigns products.
Zoho CRM Plus offers an array of capabilities either through built-in tools or integrations. This includes inventory management, operational support, and multi-channel marketing and advertising tools such as social media, email marketing, SMS text messaging, and Google Ad management.
Unfortunately, Zoho CRM Plus does not offer a free plan and has only one, relatively expensive subscription option. The best ecommerce CRMs that are more cost-friendly would be Bitrix24 or Agile CRM, which offer both free and low-priced subscriptions.
Zoho CRM Plus Plan Summary
Zoho CRM Plus | |
---|---|
Lean Scoring | Up to 40 rules per module |
Zia Artificial Intelligence | ✔ |
Data Enrichment Tools | ✔ |
Unlimited Custom Reports | ✔ |
Social Media Features | ✔ |
Customer Segmentation | ✔ |
Email Templates Designer | Unlimited templates |
Mass Emailing Tools | ✔ |
Website Visitor Tracking | ✔ |
Google Ad Management | ✔ |
Inventory Management Tools | ✔ |
Customer Support Management | ✔ |
Custom Website Chatbots | Up to 10 |
Campaign Analytics | ✔ |
Zoho CRM Plus Key Features
- Social media marketing: Social media tools include data enrichment from Twitter and Facebook profiles, lead generation from social media accounts, and interaction with contacts through social media channels.
- Zia artificial intelligence (AI): CRM AI features for data enrichment, reminders, automation suggestions, suggestions for the best time to contact customers or prospects, and live chat with customers using an AI bot.
- Inventory management: Purchase order tracking, product quantity monitoring, product catalog designer, and sales order management tool.
- Integration with business operations apps: Integrates with operations management systems like Amazon Seller Central and FedEx Rate Comparator for logistics management.
- Ecommerce email marketing tools: Premade email templates, drag-and-drop editing, newsletter designer, and mass email deployment tools include mail list subscriber management, customer segmentation, and automation triggering.
Looking for more information on other Zoho products? Check out our in-depth Zoho CRM review for price comparisons, feature evaluations, native integrations, and best-for purchase scenarios.
QuickBooks Commerce: Best Ecommerce CRM for QuickBooks Accounting Users
What We Like
- Seamless integration with QuickBooks Accounting
- Extensive third-party ecommerce integration options
- Built specifically for ecommerce businesses
What's Missing
- No free plan
- Lacks marketing tools, including email and social media campaigns
- Doesn’t have some of the traditional CRM campaign automation features such as drip email campaigns, promotional email deployment, or email template design
QuickBooks Commerce Pricing at a Glance*
- Existing QuickBooks Online Customers (ecommerce features only): $25 per month for three months, then $50 per month assuming users are already subscribed to QuickBooks Online at $50 per month
- New Customers (ecommerce and accounting features): Must be paired with QuickBooks Online; $50 per month for the first three months, then $100 per month (total for both tools)
- Free trial: 14 days
*Pricing based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available at a higher cost.
QuickBooks Commerce is supplemental ecommerce CRM software that can be purchased by existing QuickBooks Online users or purchased alongside QuickBooks Online for new customers. Among its operational features are robust inventory management, sales order management, and the ability to centralize multiple product selling channels in one system through its integration capabilities.
While QuickBooks Commerce is one of the best ecommerce CRMs for managing operations and finances, it is limited in digital marketing capabilities and lacks email and social media management tools. Agile CRM and Zoho CRM Plus are the best alternatives for robust multi-channel campaign capabilities.
QuickBooks Commerce Plan Summary
QuickBooks Commerce | |
---|---|
Inventory Management | ✔ |
Order Management | ✔ |
Ecommerce Accounting | ✔ |
Multi-channel Ecommerce Integration | ✔ |
Product Listings Management | ✔ |
Business-to-Business (B2B)/Wholesale Capabilities | ✔ |
Reporting and Insights | ✔ |
QuickBooks Commerce Key Features
- Third-party ecommerce integration: Integrates with many popular ecommerce platforms, including Shopify, eBay, Amazon, WooCommerce, Squarespace, and Etsy.
- Product listings: Product listings can be posted and managed on all channels from the QuickBooks Commerce system.
- Inventory management: Product quantity tracking across all channels along with stock purchase order management.
- Order management: Customer order tracking across all channels, real-time reporting, and workflow automation for order management.
- B2B/Wholesaler features: Built-in features for catalog customization, pricing, discounts, and invoicing specifically for business-to-business (B2B), or wholesale, businesses.
Bitrix24: Best Free Ecommerce CRM Software
What We Like
- Free version for an unlimited number of users
- Most ecommerce features are available in the Free or Basic plan
- Acts as a full business management platform that includes project and human resource (HR) management tools
What's Missing
- Can be challenging to set up and navigate the interface
- The free plan is limited to 100 ecommerce orders
- Mass marketing tools aren’t available until subscribing to the Standard plan
Bitrix24 Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Free for unlimited users
- Basic: $39 per month
- Standard: $79 per month
- Professional: $159 per month
- Free trial: 30 days
*Pricing based on annual billing, reflecting a 20% discount compared to monthly pricing. Monthly billing is available at a higher cost or save 40% off monthly pricing by committing to a two-year subscription.
Bitrix24 offers comprehensive business tools for managing sales, marketing, projects, human resources, and website-specific tools that include managing an online store. The value of Bitrix24 isn’t just the ecommerce features it offers, but the fact that many of its ecommerce CRM features are available on the Free or Basic plan.
Within the free-forever plan, online businesses can create a website, manage inventory, develop product catalogs, process orders, and handle payment processing from the CRM system. Upgrade to the Basic plan for automated workflows for sales orders or subscribe to the Standard plan to add mass marketing capabilities to customer segments.
Relative to other products on this list, Bitrix24 is fairly difficult to set up and not as easy to use. When navigating, for instance, many users say the interface is clunky because it has a lot of buttons to choose from that have unclear functions. Agile CRM and QuickBooks Commerce are two alternatives better suited for users looking for a more user-friendly interface.
Bitrix24 Plan Summary
Free | Basic | Standard | Professional | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Users | Unlimited | Up to 5 | Up to 50 | Unlimited |
Product Catalog | Unlimited items | Up to 3,000 items | Up to 5,000 items | Unlimited items |
Omnichannel Contact Center | Facebook, Instagram, and Telegram | Everything in Free plus WhatsApp, Viber, and Apple Business Chat | Everything in Free and Basic | Everything in Free and Basic |
Website Builder | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Free Website Hosting | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Customer Journey Tracking | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Ecommerce CRM Store | Up to 100 orders | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Self-service Checkout | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Payment Processing | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Coupon Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Order Processing Automation | N/A | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Cumulative Discounts | N/A | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
Customer Segment-based Email Marketing | N/A | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
Ad Management (Google and Facebook) | N/A | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
Bitrix24 Key Features
- Ecommerce payment processing: Ecommerce payment processing through integration with popular platforms like Authorize.net, Stripe, Square, and PayPal.
- Inventory management: Product quantity tracking and purchase order management.
- Order processing automation: Automated workflows for processing customer orders.
- Segment-based marketing: Create customer segments and mass-market to specific groups through email, SMS, robo-calling, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Instagram Messenger, WhatsApp, and Viber.
- Ad management tools: Google and Facebook ad management that can target customer segments.
Want to know if Bitrix24 is the best option for your business? Check out our comprehensive Bitrix24 review for an in-depth analysis of pricing, features, and usability.
BigCommerce: Most Scalable Ecommerce CRM Software
What We Like
- Scalable plans with modular features added for each upgrade
- Product is built specifically for online store businesses
- Tons of integrations, especially with ecommerce-related platforms
What's Missing
- No free plan
- Plus and Pro plans get very expensive
- Poor usability rating in terms of setting up, operating features, and navigating the interface
BigCommerce Pricing at a Glance*
- Standard: $29.95 per month
- Plus: $71.95 per month
- Pro: $269.96 per month
- Enterprise: Contact for quotes
- Free trial: 30 days
*Pricing based on annual billing. Monthly billing is available at a higher cost.
BigCommerce is CRM software specifically built for ecommerce that has everything needed to manage your online business, including multi-sales channel storefronts, payment processing, and tools for online customer cart management. The functionality of this CRM stems from both its built-in tools and the multitude of available integrations.
However, the modular approach to upgrading to the next subscription plan is what makes BigCommerce the most scalable ecommerce CRM solution. You can build an ecommerce website and manage multiple sales channels up to $50,000 in revenue with the Standard plan.
When you need more in-depth marketing tools like segmentation for promotions, upgrade to the Plus plan. Then get the Pro version when you want to give customers advanced product filtering options.
Unfortunately, BigCommerce performs poorly for the usability factor. For businesses looking to invest in one of the best ecommerce CRMs for ease of use, we recommend Metrilo as the top alternative.
BigCommerce Plan Summary
Standard | Plus | Pro | Enterprise | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Point of Sale and Online Storefront Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Online Store Website Designer | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Coupons, Discounts, and Gift Cards | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Built-in Website Blog | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Customer Segmentation | N/A | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Persistent Cart and Abandoned Cart Saver | N/A | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Customer Product Filtering | N/A | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
B2B/Wholesale Price Listing | N/A | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
BigCommerce Key Features
- Online cart management: Customer experience features while shopping on website, including abandoned cart saver (which auto-sends emails to encourage a shopper to finish the purchase) as well as “persistent cart” (which saves items in the online shopper’s cart when they log off).
- Point of sale solutions: Point of sales (POS) management through integration with popular tools like Square, Vend, and Clover.
- Marketplace/Sales channel integrations: Integrations with other sales channels like Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Google Shopping, Facebook Shop, and Instagram Checkout.
- Payment processing: Online store payment processing through integrations with Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Authorize.net, Stripe, PayPal, and Checkout.com.
- Webpage builder: Online website designer using drag-and-drop functionality.
Read our BigCommerce review to get a full understanding of the platform’s pricing, features, and what other users are saying about the platform. It offers a more detailed explanation as to why BigCommerce is most ideal for online stores as well as businesses that process a high volume of transactions.
Metrilo: Best Ecommerce CRM for Analytics & Insights
What We Like
- Designed specifically for ecommerce businesses
- High-level analytics for performance, revenue, funnel, and retention insights
- Great usability for operating features
What's Missing
- No free plan and expensive compared to other ecommerce CRMs on this list
- Lacks features for inventory and order management
- No phone support availability
Metrilo Pricing at a Glance*
- Essential: $99 per month
- Pro: $165 per month
- Premium: $249 per month
- Free trial: 14 days
*Pricing based on annual billing. Monthly billing is available at a higher cost.
Designed specifically for ecommerce, Metrilo is a great option for online stores seeking advanced data analytics on their revenue and customers. It even extends those capabilities through its Intelligence Growth Assistant tool, using data to provide suggestions on how to improve the overall performance of your online store.
The low-tiered Essential plan starts you off with the ecommerce data analytics tools and a Growth Assistant for suggestions on how to improve business performance. The Pro plan gives you more traditional CRM features like customer profile storage, filtering, and segmentation as well as insights on ways to retain current business. The Premium package broadens your capabilities to include email marketing and email automation tools.
Metrilo, unfortunately, does not have some of the internal management features helpful for ecommerce businesses, like inventory management or order management, without adding plugins like Shopify, Magento, or WooCommerce. BigCommerce and QuickBooks Commerce are the best alternatives for teams looking for those features.
Metrilo Plan Summary
Essential | Pro | Premium | |
---|---|---|---|
Growth Assistant | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Ecommerce Analytics | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Ecommerce Customer Database, Profiles, and Segmentation | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
Customer Retention Analysis | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
Email Marketing Designer | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
Email Automation | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
Metrilo Key Features
- Growth assistant tool: Uses data to provide tips on how to improve performance.
- Analytics features: Data analysis through a real-time dashboard and reports on marketing performance, revenue breakdowns, product performance, sales funnel conversions, and customer lifetime metrics.
- Ecommerce CRM organization: Customer data storage and organization as well as customer profiling, segmentation, and filtering.
- Email marketing: Drag-and-drop email template editing with automation tools and the ability to receive customer feedback via email.
How We Evaluated the Best Ecommerce CRMs for Small Businesses
To determine which are the best CRMs for ecommerce businesses, we evaluated product features specifically applicable to running an online store. Some of these included inventory management features, the ability to process online orders, and marketing tools like email campaign deployment and website design functionality.
We also evaluated general product characteristics like product price, usability, and customer support. The tabs below offer insight into our evaluation process for choosing the best ecommerce CRMs for small businesses:
40% of Overall Score
Cost is typically among the most important criteria for any business, so it was the most heavily weighted when evaluating the best ecommerce CRMs. Pricing took into account free plan availability, scalable pricing options, and having options to pay monthly or save by paying annually.
20% of Overall Score
We looked at overall features we feel are necessities, such as CRM integration options, analytics tools, and a mobile app. We also evaluated features specific for online store management like order processing, customer segmentation, multi-channel marketing capabilities, and the ability to manage various sales channels for your online stores like eBay, Amazon, or Facebook Marketplace.
15% of Overall Score
The best CRMs for ecommerce were also evaluated on platform usability. This was analyzed in terms of the expertise needed to set up an account and the ease of integrating with native or third-party applications. We also assessed the skill required to operate ecommerce features from the CRM and the intuitiveness of navigating the system’s interface.
15% of Overall Score
Extensive support and service help prevent poor user experiences and outcomes users may encounter while using any of these CRM software platforms. Help and support were evaluated in terms of customer service hours and the availability of support via phone, live chat, and email.
10% of Overall Score
In addition to firsthand experience with these software systems, we evaluated what users say about each product. These criteria consider how customers feel, based on their reviews, to gain insight on platform popularity, ease of use, and overall value for the price.