The Shopify App Store has over 4,000 apps and counting, all designed to meet your niche business requirements. Whether you want to add customer ratings and product reviews, apply SEO tactics, dropship, cross-sell, or let the power of AI do your marketing for you, the options are seemingly endless.
With a broad array of apps available, you need to start somewhere, which is where we can help. Keep reading to learn more about some of the best and most indispensable apps you should integrate into your Shopify store.
SEO Site Audit, Benchmark Hero (SEO)
Price: Free
Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential yet often overlooked. When done properly, SEO highlights and improves your site’s rankings in Google’s search results, which can have a direct effect on improving your conversion rates and sales. The SEO Site Audit, Benchmark Hero app does just that by giving you a comprehensive review of your site to let you know your strong and weak points in terms of SEO and your store’s performance. It will also assist you in zeroing in on issues that are preventing your pages from converting as much as they ideally should.
You can find more SEO apps for Shopify here.
Related Article: Shopify SEO: Actions You Can Take to Make Your Site Rank
UserGems (Influencer Marketing)
Price: Free for the first 100 customer queries, $19–249 / month after
In the era of hyperactive social media, influencer marketing is a trending approach to establish social proof for your brand. The UserGems app makes it easy for you to identify and get in touch with influencers amidst your actual customers who are actively purchasing products from your store and already have an organized, committed following.
The app can even send you push notifications regarding influential shoppers who are sharing social media posts about your brand, giving you the opportunity to initiate a deeper discussion from there. It’s free to use for up to 100 customer queries a month, and it’s a creative way of using your store’s customer base to drive your marketing strategy in a new direction.
Recom.ai (Upselling & Cross-selling)
Price: Free for the first 500 views, $30–150 / month after
Upselling and cross-selling to your customers is an excellent way to grow your average cart size and order value. With Exto’s upsell and cross-sell app Recom.ai, you can set up personalized product recommendations based on similarities between diverse SKUs to create a tailored experience for each shopper.
You can find more upselling and cross-selling apps for Shopify here.
Oberlo (Dropshipping)
Price: Free for the first 500 products, $30–80 / month after
Oberlo lets you search for dropshipping products from AliExpress that potentially appeal to your customers; add them to your Shopify store; and ship them directly to your customers. You don’t have to manage inventory, packaging, or shipping the order.
There is virtually no risk involved, but there are some considerations to dropshipping. We recommend using Oberlo to supplement your existing products rather than your primary source as you’re not only competing with Oberlo’s large number of users but also AliExpress’ official marketplace. That being said, dropshipping is definitely a good way to test new markets and product categories before expanding on them with your own inventory.
You can find more dropshipping apps for Shopify here.
Kit (Productivity)
Price: Free with additional costs for running Facebook Ads
After much brainstorming, you’ve designed and developed your Shopify store. Now the next step is to generate business by attracting customers. There are many ways to do this but if marketing isn’t your strong point yet, Shopify has developed an app that uses AI and powerful algorithms to market your products for you.
Introducing Kit, your own virtual advisor and administrator for email marketing, Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns, performance analysis, and reviews. With the help of Kit’s algorithms, it’s easy to target messaging and customized offers at the right time to your potential customers, 24/7.
You can find more productivity apps for Shopify here.
Order Printer (Orders & Shipping)
Price: Free
If you’ve ever spent an afternoon printing invoices, item labels, sale receipts, or packing inventory, you know how chaotic it can get wrapping your head around bookkeeping. The Order Printer app gives you the ability to create custom templates to accommodate your specific requirements and bulk printing to speed up your shipping and handling. You also have the option to customize the branding on your printed documents, which in turn, helps to create a personalized brand experience for customers.
You can find more orders and shipping apps for Shopify here.
Product Reviews (Sales & Conversion Optimization)
Price: Free
With Shopify’s Product Reviews app, your customers are able to write feedback, and in doing so, promote your products to other potential customers at the point of sale. Needless to say, authentic product reviews have become crucial for the majority of successful eCommerce stores and important to Google as a ranking factor, so we suggest taking advantage of this free app as soon as possible.
Free Shipping Bar (Sales & Conversion Optimization)
Price: Free for basic features, $10 / month for additional features
When it comes to running an eCommerce store, free shipping is no longer optional for many niche product categories. If you find your competitors offering similar discounts, it’s best to follow suit. And if your competitors aren’t offering free shipping yet, then you can use these discounts to set your store apart from the rest.
The Free Shipping Bar app lets you prominently showcase your free shipping offers at the top of each page; display dynamic text and animation to inspire shoppers to meet your free shipping threshold amount; and applaud customers once they have reached it.
PushOwl (Sales & Conversion Optimization)
Price: Free for the first 500 push notifications, $19 / month after
If you have a lot of customer traffic but are making very few sales due to abandoned carts, you’re not alone. A study by the Baymard Institute found that about 70 percent of online shopping carts are abandoned before the purchase is finalized. PushOwl is an effective solution to this prevalent issue. The app can help you by sending automated abandoned cart push notifications to increase traffic and gently remind soon-to-be customers to return to your site to complete their orders. (Throwing in a 10% discount with the push notification could be all that is needed to complete the sale!)
You can find more sales and conversion optimization apps for Shopify here.
Troubleshooting Shopify Apps
When it comes to eCommerce, Shopify’s apps help make the platform one of the best hosted solutions out there. All of the apps listed above have been proven to be effective by countless store owners, but there is so much more to explore. Always read through each app’s customer reviews to get a well-balanced idea of what it can and can’t do, and see how often the app developer responds to questions and criticisms — it’s a good indication of whether or not you will have quality dev support if needed.
While Shopify apps are designed to work across themes, there may be times when you need help in troubleshooting coding issues. To help you quickly find the answers to your questions, we’ve put together this detailed Shopify resource list of where you can go to get help for all things Shopify.
