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What is Drip?

Drip is the unmistakable CRM designed specifically for eCommerce brands, promising to help online retailers turn leads into paying customers.

The self-titled ECRM aims to help you guide prospective customers along the buying process and personalise the entire experience to maximise sales, repeat purchases and customer value.

drip

There’s a lot to like about Drip, too, but there are a few areas where it doesn’t quite live up to the hype. So here’s our no-nonsense Drip review to tell you where the platform shines and where it doesn’t.

Drip pros & cons

drip ecommerce

Before we get into the specifics, let’s give you a quick idea of what to expect in this review by looking at the pros and cons we’ve experienced while using Drip.

Drip pros

  • Specialist eCommerce CRM
  • Strong automation features
  • Solid integrations
  • Easy-to-use

Drip cons

  • Kind of pricey
  • Email templates could be better
  • Platform can be buggy
  • Lacks CRO features
  • Form builder is limited

The key selling point of Drip is that it’s designed from the bottom up for eCommerce brands selling physical products online. The software integrates excellently with a number of eCommerce, including Shopify and you also get a bunch of pre-built automations that you can use right out of the box.

What can you do with Drip?

When it comes down to it, Drip is a CRM platform and the feature list is going to look pretty familiar if you’ve already checked out alternative options. The difference is these features are designed specifically for eCommerce campaigns and this can make it easier to get your head around them if you’re new to using tools like this.

Marketing automation

First off, we’ve got marketing automation and Drip is a solid choice in this department. There’s a heavy emphasis on email marketing automation, which is normally where the focus should be for eCommerce brands.

Drip’s email builder will help you create designs quickly although it would be nice if the platform had a better range of templates on offer to speed the process up even further.

It’s a small gripe but one I have to mention.

It’s easy to forgive Drip, too, because it has plenty to offer when it comes to automation workflows. It comes with a bunch of pre-built automation workflows for you to use – all designed for real-world eCommerce functions like cart abandonment, customer win-back, Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals and so much more.

drip

You can also build your own workflows using Drip’s builder and the platform’s excellent integration support gives you a huge amount of freedom to automate your own processes.

You can do all of this with most CRM platforms but the heavy eCommerce focus of Drip and its integrations make this an incredibly easy and powerful platform to pick up and use for eCommerce business owners who don’t have a great deal of experience with CRMs.

Personalisation

Another key function Drip aims to fill is personalisation, allowing you to create unique customer journeys. This is a crucial strategy for eCommerce brands to maximise sales and repeat purchases after the initial conversion.

To make this happen, you need a CRM platform that allows you to track contacts as they interact with your website in different ways. Drip makes this straightforward with its eCommerce-focused tracking system.

Again, you can do with most CRM platforms but Drip’s eCommerce focus makes it easier to get to grips with setting these processes up if you’re new to it all.

Multichannel marketing

Email and on-site interactions are two of the most important processes for eCommerce brands to manage but there are other channels you need to integrate into your sales/marketing strategy.

drip ecommerce

Social media is becoming increasingly important for retail brands as the likes of Facebook and Instagram make it easier for users to buy directly from retailers.

While Drip does offer social integrations and some Facebook advertising features, this isn’t one of the platform’s strongest areas.

Your paid search efforts will be helped by Drip’s website and landing page personalisation features, though. This helps you to create more relevant messages to user needs – something you can continue as they progress through the consumer journey on your site.

Finally, you also get text message functionality and the ability to send postcards to your contacts through the actual mail.

Analytics & reporting

To prove your CRM is having a positive impact on your marketing strategies and profit margins, you need reliable data. Drip’s analytics and reporting features aren’t the most extensive but they don’t need to be as comprehensive as platform’s like HubSpot because they’re laser-focused on eCommerce performance.

drip

How much does Drip cost?

As you can see, Drip kicks off its pricing at $49/mo for the Basic version of its platform. This comes with a limit of 2,500 contacts, which is about right at this price range although it’s a touch lower than you get with some alternatives (such as ActiveCampaign, which gives you 2,500 contacts for $39/mo).

drip ecommerce

This is part of Drip’s revised pricing policy so keep this in mind when reading other reviews, which might be out of date. You used to only get 1,000 contacts for $49/mo on the basic version and this was a common complaint – so this is one area where Drip has improved in recent years.

The problem with Drip pricing (aside from being a touch more expensive than similar platforms to begin with) is prices increase steeply when your contact list grows. Keep this mind when you’re comparing Drip with alternative platforms and consider how you expect your online store to grow.

Drip will argue its specialist eCommerce features are worth the expense but only you can decide whether these features add enough value to your brand to justify the price tag.

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Shafiq Armani
I'm Shafiq Armani, an expert in selling group buying tools. With more than 10 years of experience in the digital marketing industry
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