Running an online store is simpler than it's ever been. Ecommerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and Volusion offer all the tools you need to manage an online business in one place. And if Volusion is your top choice, you can integrate dozens of Volusion apps to further power your online store. 

Get to know the pros and cons of eight software solutions you can use with Volusion.

3 Volusion Apps for Sales

When you gain a new lead, getting them from the start of the sales funnel to the end can be tricky business. You want to keep them engaged and happy with your brand, but the Velocity store builder may not have all the functionality you need, and you don't have unlimited resources to spend. Luckily, these three Velocity apps can help you automate, streamline, and improve your sales workflows.

1. Mailchimp

Image credit: Mailchimp

Mailchimp for Volusion is an email marketing integration that helps ecommerce businesses re-engage customers and prevent leads from dropping off in the sales process. You can use it to automate abandoned cart emails, send product recommendations, and more based on your Volusion store data.

This integration can be free if you have less than 2,000 contacts. But Mailchimp does not allow you to create drip email campaigns, which are common for ecommerce sales, unless you have one of its two most expensive plans. Outside of these plans, you can only automate single email sends.

2. POWR Popup

Image credit: POWR

On ecommerce websites, a strong call to action (CTA) can help you win new customers and leads faster. Website popups make your CTA hard to miss by displaying a large featured promotion as soon as shoppers enter your site. POWR Popup is a free Volution app that offers eye-catching popup templates, so you can attract users, collect emails, promote sales, and more.

However, popups can be a nuisance to clients, since they feel like intrusive ads. Use them sparingly and for valuable messages if you integrate POWR Popup to your site. Otherwise, it's possible your popups will cause website visitors to bounce.

3. ShipStation

Image credit: ShipStation

A big part of sales is ensuring customers receive their orders in time. If you’re selling physical products, ShipStation is a tool that helps you automatically create shipping labels for Volusion store orders (as well as for orders on Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and more). You can select from most major shipping providers, like USPS, UPS, and FedEx.

Using this Volusion app, you don’t have to manually enter any shipping data, which reduces errors and shipping delays. Plus, ShipStation will automate order status updates for a better experience that can drive clients toward long-term loyalty.

ShipStation isn’t free, and you may need to upgrade quite a bit depending on your shipping volume. You can only have 1-2 users and fewer than 1,500 monthly shipments with ShipStation’s three low-tier plans.

3 Volusion Apps for Payment Processing

Once your prospects are ready to buy, you need a great checkout process to ensure shoppers don't abandon their shopping carts. And once your shoppers complete a purchase, you need a way to efficiently create invoices and log the transaction in your accounting books. These three Volusion apps can help.

1. PayPal Express Checkout

Image credit: PayPal

The average shopping cart abandonment rate is over 88% across industries. A speedy checkout process is the best way to prevent shoppers from leaving before they complete a purchase. PayPal Express Checkout is a popular website integration that allows clients to check out with just two simple steps: connecting their PayPal account and confirming their purchase. Only PayPal users can take advantage of this Volusion store integration.

This payment processing integration doesn't require monthly fees, though you will have to pay 2.9% plus 30 cents per U.S. transaction. This pricing is on the high end for most credit cards.

2. Stripe

Image credit: Stripe

For users without PayPal accounts, Volusion's Stripe integration can offer a seamless checkout experience. It allows you to accept most major credit cards — including Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express — in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and a number of European countries. Stripe ensures that clients don't have to leave your site to make a payment.

However, Stripe's basic fees are exactly the same as Paypal Express Checkout's, which means you might end up paying more than average for processing fees.

3. QuickBooks Online

Image credit: QuickBooks

As soon as shoppers complete the checkout process, QuickBooks can help you streamline all your following tasks. With this integration, you can automatically create and send invoices as soon as an order is placed. And to help with your accounting, it can also sync your revenue and expenses to your records (with discounts, taxes, and shipping costs accounted for).

A QuickBooks integration can help you simplify inventory management by syncing your stock levels on your Volusion store, too. However, keep in mind that you may first need to upgrade your QuickBooks account to a plan that offers inventory tracking. This can take your monthly cost from $25-$50 to $80 per month.

2 Volusion Apps for Customer Support

Volusion stores can help you support your customers. For example, you can set up a knowledge base or manage sales tickets with a built-in CRM system. But if you really want your ecommerce store to stand out, you'll need a third-party Volution app to engage your customers with a more personalized touch. Here are two you can choose from:

1. ServiceBell

ServiceBell is a live video chat tool that allows you to communicate with customers face-to-face, from any webpage you choose. Instead of messaging a bot or your team, clients can ring you up at their convenience for a personalized support experience. ServiceBell also supports live takeovers, so you can add visual context to your live tutorials and resolve issues faster.

All you need to do is sign up for free, grab your API key, and add a few lines of code to your site to start offering real-time support.

Once integrated, ServiceBell can even benefit your sales process by allowing you to offer convenient consultations, demos, and more.

2. Facebook Chat by POWR

Image credit: POWR

If you want to offer standard live chat on your site, too, Facebook Chat by POWR is a free Volusion app that lets users start a text-based conversation with your team by tapping an icon on your site. You can automate a welcome message, too. But beyond that, customization and automation is limited unless you start paying for the POWR tool.

Since this Volution-friendly plugin runs on Facebook Messenger, it'll only work if you connect an account from the social media platform.

Power up Your Ecommerce Website

Ecommerce platforms like Volusion can be powerful tools on their own. But when you start to take advantage of Volusion apps and integrations, you can further improve your customer support, build a more fluid sales process, and close sales with ease. The best part is, the apps listed in this article are just a handful of dozens of tools you can use with your Volusion store.

When you're ready to integrate your first sales and support tool, sign up for a free ServiceBell account to engage customers with a live video chat widget to your site.