Sales Tools: 10 Types and Which Your Store Needs (2026)

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A sales tool is software that helps a sales team close deals with less manual work. It could be a customer relationship management (CRM) platform that houses customer data or an AI assistant that drafts your outreach emails or summarizes a sales call.

A 2026 Gartner survey found that sellers who use AI tools save an average of 4.8 hours a week. Sales organizations that put that time back into selling are 2.2 times more likely to exceed their customer growth goals.

This guide covers 10 types of sales tools, what each one does, and how to figure out which ones your business needs.

What are sales tools?

Sales tools are software built to help a sales team do three main things: automate routine tasks, manage customer relationships, and close deals faster. Your sales process includes everything from the moment a lead shows interest to when they become a repeat customer. Specific software is available for each stage of that pipeline.

If you’re a solo operator, you might only need what’s already built into your Shopify admin. But when team members follow up on leads, a CRM keeps everyone organized by organizing contact history in one place. If you’re a wholesale or business-to-business (B2B) seller, you need tools for managing large accounts and repeat orders.

The right mix of sales tools depends on your store, your team size, and your sales strategy.

Best sales tools for ecommerce

Be selective as you review sales tools; the best selection includes all the functions you need, with minimal overlap. 

Initially, wine retailer Vin Chicago ran five separate systems across their point of sale, website, ecommerce back end, and credit card processing, before consolidating with Shopify. 

Business consultant Pete D’Amico, who served as the company’s chief of staff, says, “If we changed one thing on the website, we might have to change something in the POS and with our other systems. It was very inefficient.”

The company projects that unifying sales tools on Shopify reduced their software costs by 20%.

The categories below cover common sales tools. Review the quick-reference table for a basic overview.

Customer relationship management (CRM) tools

Customer relationship management is the process of tracking and organizing your interactions with customers, so each new conversation picks up where the last one left off.

Your CRM needs depend on the size of your ecommerce business:

• Solo store. A dedicated CRM isn’t necessary yet. Shopify’s built-in customer profiles and customer segmentation group your customers by purchase history, location, or spend.
• Growing store. Once you have a team member following up on leads or managing accounts, a dedicated CRM keeps contact history, deal stages, and follow-up tasks in one place. Before you choose a CRM, check its rating and recent reviews on the Shopify App Store.
• Wholesale or B2B seller. With Shopify B2B, you can create company profiles for your wholesale customers, complete with their locations and payment terms, plus B2B catalogs for wholesale pricing. 

Whichever point you’re at, choose a tool that integrates directly with Shopify so your order and customer data sync automatically instead of fragmenting across systems.

CRM tools that integrate with Shopify include:

• HubSpot. A CRM platform with contact management, email templates, and sequences that send follow-up emails and create tasks.
• Salesforce. A CRM platform for tracking leads, contacts, accounts, and opportunities in one place.
• Pipedrive. A CRM platform with a visual sales pipeline, automated follow-ups, and an AI assistant that predicts which deals you’re most likely to win.

AI sales tools

AI sales tools help ecommerce business owners and sales teams with several jobs: research and prospecting, writing and outreach, conversation intelligence, and analytics. 

However, just because a tool is AI-powered doesn’t mean it deserves a place in your stack, especially if another tool already covers its capabilities. Check what a vendor means by “AI-powered” before you buy. In August 2026, the FTC finalized orders against Cox Media Group and two marketing firms that “deceived customers by falsely claiming to offer an AI-powered service” for targeting ads.

Shopify’s built-in AI assistant Sidekick answers questions using your store’s data and takes action in your admin. Maggy London, a six-brand fashion company run by a four-person ecommerce team, uses Sidekick to pull sales data, compare new and returning customer behavior, and prepare weekly reports.

“Sidekick is a gamechanger, particularly for teams like ours,” says President Sara Bako. “It acts as a multifaceted extension of the team that alleviates limitations in knowledge or research time.” 

Her team cut weekly reporting time by more than 80%, from three to four hours to 20 to 30 minutes.

In a 2025 Shopify survey,* 75% of store owners said they use AI tools. Content generation is their most common use, at 69%, while fewer than a third use AI for automation or data analysis. And 2026 Census data shows that among US firms using AI, 52% say they use it for sales and marketing most.

Examples of AI sales tools include:

• Shopify Sidekick. An AI assistant in your Shopify admin that answers questions using your store’s data, builds reports, and takes action in your admin.
• Overloop. A prospecting platform with a B2B contact database that drafts personalized outreach messages for you to review before sending.
• Pipedrive Nova. A meeting intelligence tool that records and transcribes calls, writes recaps, and drafts CRM updates you can approve.
• Fin AI Agent. An AI agent from Intercom that answers customer questions across phone, email, chat, and Slack.

Prospecting and sales intelligence tools

Prospecting tools support lead generation by helping you find, qualify, and reach out to potential customers. Sales intelligence tools go a step further by adding company and contact data (like firmographics, recent funding or hiring activity, and account history) that you can use to prioritize who to contact first. Sales engagement tools handle the outreach itself, running email and LinkedIn sequences so follow-ups go out on schedule.

If you run a solo direct-to-consumer (DTC) store, you likely don’t need a prospecting or sales intelligence tool as part of your stack. Many DTC customers arrive through marketing and organic traffic instead of one-to-one outreach. However, if you’re a wholesale or B2B seller building a list of retail accounts or distributors to contact, this type of tool can help you pinpoint accounts worth pursuing.

Examples of prospecting and sales intelligence tools include:

• LinkedIn Sales Navigator. A premium LinkedIn add-on with advanced lead and company search, saved leads, and saved leads, alerts, and CRM sync on its Advanced Plus plan.
• Overloop. A sales engagement platform with a B2B contact database and email and LinkedIn sequences.
• Crunchbase. A company database with funding, investor, and leadership data, plus predictions of which private companies are likely to raise funding or be acquired.

Before paying for a contact database, check how recent its data is, whether contacts have opted in to being contacted, and whether the vendor discloses its data sources. Outdated contact data can raise your bounce rates. Whatever list you use, every commercial email must follow the CAN-SPAM Act, which requires a valid physical postal address, an honest subject line, and a working way to opt out.

Automation tools

Sales automation tools handle repetitive tasks like data entry, follow-up communications, and tagging, freeing up time for sales reps to focus on sales. Before buying a new one, review the automation options you already have. For example, Shopify Flow is a free Shopify app for building no-code automations that lets you set up “trigger, condition, action” workflows right inside your Shopify admin.

Email and SMS marketing automation tools are useful for sales and marketing teams alike. They give your team the ability to set up automated sequences for email marketing and outreach. Shopify Messaging, for example, sends and tracks email, SMS, and WhatsApp campaigns right from the Shopify admin. You can also segment your list to reach specific audiences and use Sidekick to create email copy that matches your brand.

Jewelry brand Little Words Project uses Shopify POS’s email capture at checkout to connect in-store purchases with online customer data. The brand increased in-store email capture rates by more than 20% on average, with some locations seeing increases of up to 95%.

A dedicated data integration tool can also be useful if your store runs several disconnected systems that don’t otherwise talk to each other, such as a separate POS, accounting platform, and email tool.

Examples of automation tools (other than the Shopify-native options already covered) include:

• Zapier. A no-code tool that connects Shopify to other apps, for tasks like sending new orders to a spreadsheet or adding new customers to an email list.
• HubSpot. A CRM with sales automation for follow-up sequences, lead assignment, internal task creation, and meeting scheduling.
• Jitterbit. An integration platform that connects SaaS, on-premises, and cloud applications so data moves between them automatically.

Productivity tools

Sales productivity tools differ from automation tools: Automation software takes a task off your plate entirely, while productivity tools make your remaining workload more efficient. For example, productivity tools can help you with tasks like scheduling a call, prioritizing which account to follow up with, or building a proposal from a template.

Examples of productivity tools include:

• Quickbase. An AI app builder for creating custom workflow apps, forms, and dashboards, such as one that tracks your sales process.
• Salesloft. A sales engagement platform with call recording, and pipeline tracking for reps managing a high volume of outreach.
• Calendly. A scheduling tool with email and text reminders, team meeting types, and integrations with CRMs like HubSpot and Salesforce.

Sales management and planning tools

Sales management and planning tools cover forecasting, target-setting, and inventory and staffing projections. Shopify’s order forecasting feature uses your store’s historical sales data to predict future demand. This helps with inventory decisions, seasonal planning, and understanding how promotions affect order volume.

Matthew Burrows, cofounder at Plant Material, says Shopify helps his team plan around seasonal trends: 

“Shopify has really helped with that,” Matthew says. “No matter if you’re up or down in a season, the general trend of seasonality in our business is the same, so you can really start to forecast what you need for the future season.”

Examples of sales management and planning tools include:

• <Shopify order forecasting. A Shopify feature that predicts future demand from your store’s order history.
• Aviso. A forecasting platform that uses machine learning to score deals and project revenue.
• Clari Forecast. A revenue forecasting and pipeline inspection product from Salesloft.

Analytics tools

Analytics tools track sales performance so you can see what’s working in your sales strategy. To see what’s working, look past a single “total sales” number to view your performance by sales channel (including marketplaces), product, location, and staff member.

Shopify Analytics is available on all Shopify plans and includes sales reports by month, channel, and staff. If you have a physical location, Shopify POS syncs with your Shopify admin to track orders and inventory across your retail locations, your online store, and other active sales channels, so your analytics reflect your full store performance.

A 2025 Shopify survey* found 77% of store owners track total sales revenue, the most commonly tracked metric, but fewer than half track profit margin, traffic, average order value, or conversion rate. Total revenue by itself doesn’t tell you whether your marketing is working or which channel deserves more budget.

Examples of analytics tools include:

• Shopify Analytics. Built-in reports and dashboards covering sales, customers, inventory, and marketing.
• GoodData.AI. An analytics platform for building dashboards and reports on your data.
• Zoho Analytics. A business intelligence platform that connects more than 500 apps and data sources to build dashboards and reports.
• Insightly. A CRM platform with pipeline tracking, forecasts, and reporting.

Enablement tools

Sales enablement tools organize the training materials, playbooks, and content your sales team uses to close deals. They also include conversation intelligence software that records and analyzes sales calls, giving managers a way to review calls and coach reps on how to improve.

If your store doesn’t have a sales-call function, you likely don’t need this type of sales tool. It matters most for teams that have sales calls, like wholesale account managers, B2B sellers, or a retail team that takes custom orders by consultation.

Examples of enablement tools include:

• Highspot by Seismic. A go-to-market platform for content management, buyer engagement, coaching, and training.
• Mindtickle. A revenue enablement platform with rep onboarding, skills coaching, and conversation intelligence for reviewing sales calls.

Customer success tools

Customer success tools track how customers interact with your brand after the sale. You can use them to spot delivery or customer service problems early and encourage repeat orders.

Examples of customer success tools include:

• Intercom. A help desk with an inbox, ticketing, and outbound messages, plus an AI agent called Fin.
• Planhat. A customer success platform for tracking customer health, renewals, and usage data in one place.

Communication tools

Communication tools have two primary functions: facilitating conversations with customers and conversations with your team.

Shopify Inbox handles the customer-facing side. Shoppers can chat with you within your online store, and you or your team can respond with product links, discount codes, and product images. Or, you can turn on the Inbox agent to answer basic FAQs automatically.

For internal coordination, tools that offer team messaging, video calls, and file sharing help sales and marketing teams align on leads and accounts throughout the sales funnel.

Examples of communication tools include:

• Shopify Inbox. Live chat for your online store, with an optional AI agent that answers routine customer questions.
• Slack. A secure communication platform with channels, direct messages, and huddles for your team, plus Slack Connect for chatting with clients and vendors.
• Monday.com. A work platform with shared boards, automations, and a CRM product for customer-facing teams.
• Webex. A collaboration platform for video meetings, calling, and messaging, with admin and security controls.

What sales tools does your business need?

The sales tools your business needs depend on its stage: start with what Shopify already includes, then add tools as your team grows. According to a 2025 Shopify survey,* marketing was the top year 1 challenge for store owners, at 37%, followed closely by finding customers, at 36%.

Use this order to decide:

• Start with: Shopify’s built-in customer profiles, segments, and sales reports come with any plan and let you track who’s buying and what’s selling.
• Check what else you already have: Shopify has several native tools that cover the basics. For example, you’ve got Shopify Flow for basic automation, Shopify Messaging for email and SMS campaigns, and Sidekick for questions about your store’s data. All three work right inside the Shopify admin.
• Add as you grow: It might be time to add a dedicated CRM once a team member starts managing accounts; you may need a forecasting tool if inventory planning gets more complex as your store grows. You can search through the Shopify App Store to find additional tools that integrate directly into the ones you’re already using.
• Wait for a bigger team: Prospecting and sales intelligence, enablement, and conversation intelligence tools all solve problems that arise when you have a dedicated team of sales reps making outbound calls.

Try to find tools that offer free plans and trials so you can test them before you sign a contract. Some examples include:

• Shopify Sidekick. Included with your Shopify plan, with features and usage limits that vary by plan.
• Shopify Flow. A free app on the Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Shopify Plus plans.
• Shopify Inbox. Free to install.
• Shopify Messaging. Free to install, with 10,000 emails a month included and $1 per 1,000 emails after that. Additional charges may apply.
• Pipedrive. A 14-day free trial with no credit card required.
• Calendly. A free plan with no credit card required to sign up.

Chris Cote’s Golf Shop provides a useful example of what this might look like if you sell both online and in person. What started as an eBay-based side hustle has grown into a local brand with two retail stores, two pro shops, more than 75 driving range stalls, and seasonal pop-up events.

The golf shop uses Shopify POS to keep inventory, customer profiles, and payment processing consistent wherever sales happen. They also manage sales and marketing initiatives with tools like Shopify Flow, Zapier, and Mailchimp. Automating instructor notifications, custom club orders, and data entry saves the team about 10 hours a week.

“Golf is having a moment,” says Store Manager Danielle Cote. “Because we’re able to have a more automated system, we’re able to take advantage of so much more of the business that’s coming our way.”

*Based on a 2025 survey of 500 Shopify merchants conducted in English across Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States. Respondents were established merchants with two or more years on the platform. Results reflect the experiences of this specific sample and may not be representative of all merchants.