Customer relationship management (CRM) software for retail businesses has advanced functionality, such as inventory management, quoting, and payments. Retail CRM software can either be a point-of-sale (POS) tool with customer management features or a standalone CRM that can easily integrate with a third-party POS system. Either way, reps can focus more on selling and engaging…
Customer relationship management (CRM) software for retail businesses has advanced functionality, such as inventory management, quoting, and payments. Retail CRM software can either be a point-of-sale (POS) tool with customer management features or a standalone CRM that can easily integrate with a third-party POS system. Either way, reps can focus more on selling and engaging with leads to boost retail sales.
We evaluated several of the best CRM for retail businesses and narrowed it down to the top seven.
HubSpot CRM: Best overall for retail marketing automation
Zendesk Sell: Best for retail sales management and reporting
HubSpot CRM: Best for Overall Retail Marketing Automation
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HubSpot CRM Pricing Plans*
Cost:
$0 for five users
Key Features:
Mass email marketingIt comes with email template storage, list segmentation, and campaign automation.
Marketing events objectStore, track, and manage marketing event data from an API or an event integration.
Email health reporting
Facebook Messenger, Shopify, Square, and WooCommerce integrations
Contact and company management with activity tracking and pipeline tracking
Prospects tool for monitoring leads visiting your web pages
Quote generation and payment processing via an integrated Stripe account
Appointment scheduler
Mobile CRM
Live chat engagement
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-month breakdown of the HubSpot Customer Platform plans for individuals and small teams. Monthly billing and enterprise-level plans are also available for a higher cost. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing.
**Customer Platform includes sales, marketing, customer service, content management system (CMS), and operations software. Individual modules can be purchased for lower monthly costs.
HubSpot CRM is our top retail marketing CRM system, offering marketing features like mass email marketing in its freemium plan. Its paid plans offer a more comprehensive suite of marketing tools, such as marketing automation, campaign reporting, and social media integration. HubSpot is the best CRM in the retail industry, highly recommended if you want to reach broader audiences to promote your brand.
Zendesk Sell: Best for Retail Sales Activity Management & Reporting
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Zendesk Sell Pricing Plans*
Cost:
$19 per user
Key Features:
Up to two customizable sales pipelines
Custom data fields, filters, and tags for sales tracking
Prebuilt sales dashboards
Sales triggersIt is used to automate specific parts of the workflow of every sales rep.
Email and calendar integrations
Task and appointment setting
Call tracking and recording, and text messages
Mobile app for iOS and Android devicesIt includes offline access, geolocation, and visit tracking or geo-verification.
Collaboration toolsIt includes a team document repository, assigning collaborators, and @mentions (to call attention to coworkers when logging notes, calls, and visits).
Robust API—coreIt is used to create, read, update, and delete Sell data.
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-month breakdown of the plans for individuals and small teams. Monthly billing and enterprise-level plans are also available for a higher cost. Zendesk Sell offers a 14-day free trial. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing.
Creating sales triggers on Zendesk Sell (Source: Zendesk Sell)
Pipeline development report on Zendesk Sell (Source: Zendesk Sell)
Our Expert Opinion
Zendesk Sell is our top pick for sales activity management and reporting. It is equipped with sales triggers, plus advanced and custom sales reports that can help improve efficiency in your retail business operations. You can connect data sources into your technology stack and build a custom retail app with Zendesk Sunshine, accessible via Zendesk Sell, to enhance customer experience.
Sales force automationIt includes leads, accounts, deals, contacts, activities, and a document library.
Standard reports on CRM analytics
Marketing automationIt includes campaigns, 10 templates, and email opt-out.
Document managementIt includes 1GB file storage and 10MB data storage (5,000 records), merge duplicates, import history (past 60 days), export module data, and data Import (clone option).
Product customizationOrganize and rename tabs, layout editor, standard list views, five smart filters, five custom list views, contact role, and record image field.
Lead, account, and contact management
Deal tracking for one sales pipeline with viewing from a mobile app
Document storage
Activity tracking
Zoho CRM Pricing Add-ons:
Additional File Storage (for organization): $4.60 for 5GB per month
Additional Data Storage (1 to 200 users): $4 for 100MB
Additional Data Backup: $12 per request
Premium Support: $13.80 per user monthly
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-month breakdown of the plans. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing.
Zoho CRM’s price book example compares flat and differential discounts. (Source: Zoho CRM)
Zoho CRM is the best CRM for retail stores looking for inventory management tools like price books and modules for products, vendors, sales orders, purchase orders, invoices, and quotes.
Its product configurator is another notable feature of this CRM software for the retail industry, allowing you to cross-sell for an added source of sales revenue. All these advanced capabilities are available in the Professional plan for only $23 per user monthly.
Pipedrive: Best for Retail Sales Performance Monitoring
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Pipedrive Pricing Plans*
Cost:
$14 per user
Key Features:
AI sales assistant and activity reporting
Company and user sales goals tracking
Custom data fields and pipeline stages
Deal management with rotting indicator alerts and deal progress reporting
Lead and contact managementWith activity tracking and document storage
Products and services catalog
Apps marketplace for third-party integrations
Duplicate data detection and merge
Comments and user mentions for collaboration
Chatbot support
Pipedrive Pricing Add-ons:
ProjectsProject management tools, free with Power and Enterprise plans : Starts at $6.70 per user monthly
CampaignsCustomizable email campaigns : Starts at $13.33 per company monthly
LeadBoosterLead generation tool set (chatbot, live chat, prospector, web forms, and appointment scheduler) : Starts at $32.50 per company monthly
Smart DocsTrackable quotes, proposals, and contracts; free with Professional, Power, and Enterprise plans : Starts at $32.50 per company monthly
Web VisitorsWeb tracking and lead ranking : Starts at $41 per company monthly
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-month breakdown of the plans. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost. Pipedrive offers a 14-day free trial. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing.
Pipedrive’s insights dashboard for team performance monitoring (Source: Pipedrive)
Pipedrive AI summarization tool generates concise conversation summaries. (Source: Pipedrive)
Our Expert Opinion
Pipedrive is our top choice for tracking retail sales performance because it has customizable reports, sales dashboard collaboration features, and a shareable live dashboard for collaboration.
Another remarkable feature that can help improve your retail sales is its AI capabilities. It enables you to create and summarize emails and gain valuable insights on the next best steps to move leads quickly in your sales pipeline.
Bitrix24: Best for Sales Intelligence & Customer Journey Tracking
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Bitrix24 Plans*
Cost:
$0 for unlimited users
Key Features:
Unlimited deals and contacts with sales intelligence for customer journey tracking
AI CoPilot for creating and summarizing tasks and more
Instant synchronization Google Calendar, Apple iCloud, Microsoft Office 365
Chat, email, and video call clients and employees
Select a meeting room for calendar events
View the team’s calendar and choose available slots for meetings
Calendar access permissions
Product catalog inside CRM
5GB online storage with personal and group drive
Custom fields on user profiles
Bitrix24 Pricing Add-ons:
Landline calling: Starts at .005 cents per minute
Rent local numberU.S. and UK : $4 to $11 per month
Rent toll-free number: $6 per month
Rent SIP (session-initiated protocol) connector: $49 per month
Call transcription: 5 cents per minute
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-month breakdown of the plans. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost. Bitrix24 offers a 15-day free trial. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing.
Bitrix24’s sales intelligence and analytics features (Source: Bitrix24)
Custom traffic sources for ad campaigns and lead tracking in Bitrix24 (Source: Bitrix24)
Our Expert Opinion
Bitrix24 is ideal for retail companies seeking free sales intelligence tools, such as source tracking for marketing and lead generation, plus automatic customer journey tracking. One of the notable features we evaluated in this recommended CRM software for the retail industry is CoPilot.
This AI assistant can help you craft emails, website texts, chat, feeds, and other content forms to engage with customers and promote your retail brand more effectively and efficiently.
Kanban viewIt is a card-based view of contacts, leads, projects, and opportunities. to assign and prioritize task
Templates for lead, contact, and deal management
Mobile app for iOS and Android users
Create a dashboard based on one board
Web forms to capture leads
Customizable notifications
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-month breakdown of the plans for individuals and small teams. Monthly billing and an enterprise plan are available for a higher cost. There is a 14-day free trial for all the plans. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing.
monday CRM lets you customize your data visualization. (Source: monday CRM)
With monday CRM, you can easily structure your data as your retail business grows. Use its data management tools to structure your data based on lifecycle stages, lead status, and other customized needs.
Create stunning dashboards and email templates and add new categories to advance a lead down the path to close the deal easily. Moreover, you can seamlessly manage documents and tasks in this recommended CRM for the retail industry.
Case managementAutomatically route inquiries to the right agent or group for accurate issue resolution.
Simplified setup and onboarding
Lead, account, contact, and opportunity management
Email integration and automated activity capture
Salesforce mobile app
Customizable sales process
Task management, activity feed
Salesforce meetings
Lightning app builder
File sharing and mass email
Salesforce for Small Business Pricing Add-ons**
Sales Dialer: Starts at $5 per user
Social Intelligence: $25 per user
Sales Cloud Einstein (turnkey intelligence and automation): Starts at $50 per user
CPQ (Basic Configure, Price, and Quote software): $75 to $150 per user
Sales Email and Alerts: $50 per user
Revenue Intelligence: $220 per user
*Pricing is based on annual billing per month based on the Salesforce Sales Cloud product. Monthly billing for the Starter Suite is available at a higher cost. The provider offers a 30-day free trial for its plans. We update pricing information regularly but encourage readers to check current pricing.
**Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-user, monthly basis. See the Salesforce Add-on Pricing page for a complete list of add-ons and plan eligibility.
Case and progress details on the Salesforce dashboard (Source: YouTube)
View a new opportunity and change the assigned owner on Salesforce. (Source: YouTube)
Our Expert Opinion
Salesforce is the best CRM in retail with a case management feature, allowing you to resolve customer service issues and track incident reports. Another remarkable feature of this CRM is its opportunities management.
This is the best CRM for small retail businesses looking to add products to opportunities for seamless deal management. You can also use this CRM to update product prices and quantities for effective pricing and stock inventory.
To determine the best CRM in retail, we evaluated various aspects of dozens of CRM providers, including general features, pricing, and level of customer support. Whether online or offline, users working in retail stores—whether online or offline—need features like product management, payment processing, and email marketing. We considered POS systems with customer management tools or whether the CRM can be integrated with popular POS tools. Get more insight into our evaluation process for how to choose the best CRM for retail businesses.
Methodology weights
Pricing 15%
General Features 25%
Advanced/Niche Features 10%
Ease of Use 20%
Support 15%
Expert Score 15%
Cost is always an important factor, so CRM pricing was the most heavily weighted when reviewing our top picks. We also considered the availability of a free plan, pricing of entry tiers, savings for annual prepayment, and whether or not monthly billing options are available.
We evaluated the overall set of CRM features available, especially product management, sales and order tracking, and payment processing. In addition, we looked at the availability of third-party integrations to expand the software’s functionality.
We evaluated the advanced or niche features of the best CRM for retail businesses. These include marketing automation, loyalty programs, and omnichannel capabilities for customer engagement and team collaboration. We also factored in AI assistant and order or delivery management, assisting in improving retailers’ overall sales operations.
A CRM for retail business must be easy to use. We evaluated whether the software can be used out of the box or requires technical experience that may include a steep learning curve.
Support is critical for running any CRM system, especially for small businesses that don’t have in-house technical support. We analyzed the types and availability of support these providers offer through live chat, email, and phone.
We looked through existing customer reviews on credible sites to measure the level of satisfaction current users have and any problems they typically encounter. We also added our thoughts and expert opinions on key features, value for money, and the popularity of the providers included on this list of the best CRM in the retail industry.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
A CRM for retail includes helpful tools that can automate tasks to streamline your day-to-day operations. These capabilities include sales intelligence, inventory management, ticketing, marketing automation, and workflows, boosting your retail employees’ productivity, customer relationships, and overall store sales.
The best CRM for retail is HubSpot CRM because of its robust freemium tools and advanced capabilities that retailers can use in managing their sales, marketing, and customer service tasks. Other providers like Zendesk Sell, Zoho CRM, Pipedrive, and Bitrix24 are great retailer CRM options. These are equipped with sales intelligence, client management, and inventory management tools for more efficient retail operations.
Zendesk Sell is the best CRM for overseeing retail sales activity and reporting because of its prebuilt sales dashboards, customizable pipelines, sales triggers, and sales tracking appointments and tasks. On the other hand, Bitrix24 is equipped with sales intelligence features like custom traffic sources, buyer journey tracking, and a sales intelligent website widget for streamlining your sales process.
Bottom Line
CRM systems help retail businesses automate day-to-day tasks and sales processes. They help store sales managers track performance and generate reports for strategic decision-making. Most importantly, they help sales associates focus on what they love the most: selling. While HubSpot is the best retail CRM software for small businesses, other providers like Zendesk Sell and Zoho CRM could be a better option for your needs.
Lorraine Daisy Resuello is a specialist at Fit Small Business who focuses on Sales and Customer Service topics and she has experience in customer service in business process outsourcing (BPO). At present, she uses her decade-long writing experience to provide FSB readers with the best answers to their questions.
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