eCommerce platforms offering small businesses extra support during the Coronavirus pandemic

Right now, there’s nothing we can really say about the madness but we’re happy to report that it’s not a dog-eat-dog world out there. Uncertainty can easily amp up tension and fear, but we can see that instead it’s being channeled into a shared effort of getting through this together.

Here’s our roundup of Shopify integrations doing their bit to help businesses affected by Coronavirus (COVID-19).

A lot of these businesses are offering extended free trials and discounts on their plans. So this might actually be the ideal time for your business to update its suite of Shopify apps and review what measure you can take to encourage more customers.

Shopify

Let’s start with the platform itself. What boosts are Shopify providing its customers during this time?

• An extended 90-day free trial for businesses looking to try the platform
• Gift cards – can now be accessed across all plans. This offer includes both digital and physical gift cards to help with your cash flow.
• Local delivery option – to help flatten the curve and save on delivery costs, you can easily create a local delivery option only visible to customers who live in that zone.
• Shopify Capital is now available in the US and UK – Shopify has $200 million in place for small business funding. They’re also working with governments to roll this out across more countries, so stay tuned. Read more about Shopify Capital here.

Signup for a free trial here

Paypal

Paypal has three main areas that it’s addressing to support businesses and help them get through the pandemic:

• Waiving fees on chargebacks between the 26 March, 2020 and 30 April, 2020 on disputes filed by customers with their credit card issuer.
• Extended customer dispute resolution period – this has doubled. Until 30 April, 2020, you will now have 20 days to respond to a dispute.
• Extending seller protection to cover eligible digital goods. This commences 13 April, 2020 and has no expiration date. Just take note that the Standard Seller Protection eligibility and limits still apply.

Subscriptions by ReCharge

If you don’t know about Subscriptions by ReCharge, it’s a Shopify integrated app for launching and scaling your subscription and recurring order business for free.

For Coronavirus (COVID-19), ReCharge is launching an enhanced free trial between 6 April, 2020 and 30 June, 2020. Any ecommerce business installing their app during this time will get a free trial until they hit their first $100,000 USD in order processing on their Standard plan.

What we like about this action plan is that the free trial itself doesn’t have a time limit. You’ll get full use of the free trial regardless of whether it takes a week or two years to hit $100k in total processing volume.

MailChimp

The cheeky monkey logo aside, Mailchimp is a great app for email marketing needs. And right now, Mailchimp is offering four months free of their recommended Standard plan to:

• Clients new to their mailing platform, or;
• Clients on free accounts without ever having upgraded to paid

As a partner of MailChimp, you can use our signup link to avail of this offer.

Gorgias

A quick introduction into Gorgias is they’re a help desk for ecommerce businesses that enables your customer service team to manage all support and customer service in one place. This multi-channel customer service app is really stepping up to help their clients with 3-6 months free for merchants impacted by Coronavirus.

If you are an existing or a new Gorgias client who’re experiencing a dip in sales, you can use this special link here and Gorgias will offer up to 6 months access to their app for free, depending on the severity of impact to your business.

Now isn’t that nice?

Omnisend

Omnisend is hailed as an easy to use email marketing and marketing automation platform. And for their customers, they’re maintaining their offer of free SMS credits equal to the price of your Omnisend account. What this means is that you have the opportunity to add SMS marketing to your email strategy at no extra cost.

Also, any customer looking to upgrade to the Standard plan will receive 50% off for two months. To avail of this, you can use this code up until 30 April: INTHISTOGETHER50

Okendo

Okendo is the custom marketing platform for high-performance Shopify stores. It’s set up with the tools needed to capture and showcase:

• High-impact and flattering product reviews and ratings
• Customer’s photo and video reviews, and
• Q&As.

If you subscribe to any Okendo plan during the month of April, your first 90-days are free.

Hubspot

Hubspot is a really big deal in ecommerce marketing. It’s got tools as well as really serious training to make your marketing sleek and powerful.

And here to show they’re giving a helping hand:

Pricing changes: the Starter Growth Suite is reduced to $50 USD/month. You can check other price changs out here.

Adding free tools: Hubspot’s paid Meetings functionality, Quotes, E-Sign, and 1:1 video creation tools are now free for 90 days.

Removing limits

• Calling Limits increased for Starter and Professional customers of Sales Hub and Service Hub. Merchants will have access to up to 2,000 minutes of calling per user per month [note: calling isn’t available in all territories].
• Email Sending Limits suspended for Marketing Hub Professional and Enterprise customers.

Shopney ‑ Mobile App

You’re probably tired of hearing anything to do with “mobile-first” or “responsive design”. You know it’s important, and you probably also know that it takes a lot of time to tick off the list to-do list. Shopney helps create a mobile app for your store.

Shopney is taking a supportive stance for online stores and is offering a 30-day free trial. During this trial, you’ll have access to their customer service. Apps can be created with the drag-and-drop builder, has the option for in-app chat, and will be compatible with iOS and Android devices. So if you've been thinking about creating an app for your store this might be the time.

Google Ads & Google Shopping

Many people can’t go out to do their shopping right now, so despite the hardship of the pandemic, there’s the chance to help people with their shopping needs. The Google Ads and Google Shopping app helps you to promote your business so people can connect with your brand. This app takes care of the big Google Ad types:

• Google Adword Ads – targets people searching for your products on Google Adwords network. The app promotes your store using Search Ads & Banners.
• Google Shopping Ads – this app uploads your products on the Google Merchant Centre and develops smart shopping campaigns.
• Google retargeting ads – remind visitors of your brand and keep your bounce rate nice and low.

Their offer during this time is a 6-month free trial of any of their plans – you just need to sign up by the end of April.

Helpful advice

If advice from expert ecommerce consultants sounds good right about now, you can get in touch with us here. Whether you’re a brick-and-mortar who’s doors have had to shut or you’re looking at this as an opportunity to expand, our experts will help guide you and achieve your goals.