As the ecommerce landscape evolves, the competition to capture and retain customer attention intensifies. While many marketers focus on top-tier solutions like Klaviyo or Mailchimp, there are lesser-known but equally powerful tools that can significantly boost your email marketing, SMS outreach, and customer retention efforts. These underrated platforms might not be the first names that come to mind—but that’s exactly what makes them hidden gems.
TL;DR: If you’re only relying on mainstream tools for your ecommerce communication strategy, you’re missing opportunities. There are underestimated platforms offering better value, deeper insights, and more efficient automations. This guide introduces 7 underrated tools that can elevate your retention strategy through smarter email marketing, SMS automation, and intelligent customer engagement. Trustworthy results can come from the tools everyone else is overlooking.
1. Sender – Powerful Email Marketing Without the Hefty Price Tag
What it is: Sender is an email and SMS marketing solution that offers an intuitive drag-and-drop builder, pre-designed templates, and robust automation workflows – perfect for lean ecommerce teams.
Why it’s underrated: Despite its affordability, Sender delivers everything a growing ecommerce brand needs for personalized and automated messaging. Features like dynamic content, smart segmentation, and visual automation make it a surprisingly powerful player in this space.
- Free plan supports up to 2,500 subscribers
- A/B testing and advanced analytics included
- Integrates with major platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento
If you’re trying to escape bloated pricing from the mainstream giants, Sender offers a practical escape route without skimping on functionality.
2. Postscript – Streamlined SMS for Shopify-First Stores
What it is: Designed specifically for Shopify, Postscript is an SMS marketing tool built to help ecommerce businesses personalize customer engagement via text messages.
Why it’s underrated: While SMS marketing tools are often overlooked in favor of email, Postscript proves that mobile-first outreach is crucial in retention. It excels in campaign-triggered automation, abandoned cart reminders, and seamless Shopify integration.
- Tight native integration with Shopify checkout flows
- Great for conversational commerce
- High deliverability and TCPA-compliant
For ecommerce merchants focused on mobile conversion and immediate engagement, Postscript is a high-impact, underutilized channel.
3. Omnisend – Multi-Channel Marketing Automation Made Simple
What it is: Omnisend is a marketing automation powerhouse that provides an all-in-one platform for email, SMS, and push notifications tailored to ecommerce environments.
Why it’s underrated: Although not as well-known as some email marketing giants, Omnisend offers outstanding ecommerce workflows like cart recovery, product recommendations, and transactional emails—all wrapped in an easy-to-use interface. It’s ideal for scaling brands that want multiple channels without multiple platforms.
- Pre-built automation tailored for ecommerce
- Excellent drag-and-drop email editor
- Built-in SMS and web push notifications
Omnisend bridges the gap between over-simplified email tools and enterprise-grade automation suites, making it ideal for growing Shopify and BigCommerce users.
4. Gorgias – Customer Support as a Retention Tool
What it is: Gorgias is more than just a helpdesk—it’s a customer support platform designed for ecommerce that integrates with Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce.
Why it’s underrated: Customer support plays a critical role in long-term retention, yet it’s too often siloed from marketing. Gorgias allows support agents to view, edit, and refund orders directly from the platform, improving resolution speed dramatically.
- Auto-replies for common support tickets
- Real-time customer data from your ecommerce store in one dashboard
- Tagging and automation features that boost team productivity
With customer experience being a competitive battleground, Gorgias elevates support into a proactive retention strategy.
5. Reco – Smart Product Recommendations Powered by Data
What it is: Reco is a recommendation engine that uses AI to suggest personalized products to site visitors, email recipients, and even in SMS interactions.
Why it’s underrated: Many ecommerce businesses use basic product carousels without real personalization logic. Reco offers an affordable and robust alternative to expensive AI solutions, tracking behavior to automatically suggest items that customers are more likely to buy.
- No-code integration options for Shopify
- Improved upsell/cross-sell performance
- Supports email integrations for dynamic product blocks
By inserting intelligent product recommendations into customer touchpoints, Reco drives repeat purchases that feel genuinely personalized.
6. Retention.com – Identify and Win Back Anonymous Visitors
What it is: Retention.com is a privacy-compliant identity resolution platform that helps you identify users who visit your site without converting, then retarget them through email automation.
Why it’s underrated: Most marketers rely on on-site opt-ins and first-party data. Retention.com flips the script by capturing contact information from anonymous traffic and converting them into subscribers or buyers with minimal effort on your part.
- Capture lost revenue from non-converting sessions
- Can be used to build ‘win-back’ and abandoned cart sequences
- Proven ROI for DTC brands with high traffic but low conversion
Retention.com targets the ‘invisible majority’—site visitors who don’t complete checkouts or sign up—unlocking a powerful yet mostly untapped audience segment.
7. Winback – A Low-Cost Way to Revive Dormant Customers
What it is: Winback specializes in re-engaging dormant or lapsed customers with AI-generated campaigns via SMS.
Why it’s underrated: Numerous studies show it’s cheaper to retain an existing customer than acquire a new one. Winback offers ecommerce brands a plug-and-play system to write, send, and optimize win-back campaigns that get past customers clicking again.
- Machine learning writes SMS messages that convert
- Performance-based pricing means you pay on success
- High open and response rates, especially for returning clients
Most ecommerce tools focus on acquisition. Winback flips the model by doubling down on renewal and reactivation with tangible ROI metrics built in.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to ecommerce growth, bigger isn’t always better. Instead of relying solely on high-visibility platforms, consider integrating these underrated tools strategically to reinforce your retention messaging and customer experience. These overlooked solutions are often more agile, cheaper, and highly customizable—exactly what lean ecommerce teams need.
Pro Tip: Test and measure rigorously. Many of these tools offer free trials or scalable plans, giving you the flexibility to optimize without a long-term commitment.
In an industry where automation and personalization are becoming the new norm, leveraging underutilized tools for email, SMS, and retention gives you a serious advantage over competitors sticking with the status quo.