7 Best Shopify Apps Ranked in order by must-have to nice to have for your Shopify store
1- Klaviyo - Email marketing app - This is your biggest asset and fundamental to any marketing strategy
2- Postscript - SMS marketing app - A huge asset for any product launch
3- Judge me - Product reviews app - Great customer service and super affordable
4- Helpscout - Customer service platform - Easy to use and very affordable
5 - One Click Upsell - A post-purchase upsell. cross-sell and pre-purchase tool that can increase average order value
6- Privy - Pop up and lead capture tool to build your customer list
7- TaxJar - Sales Tax - Not fun but necessary!
Bonus:
8- Bonjoro - Make custom videos for your customers! Great for long term brand building and increasing customer engagement and repeat orders.
My love-hate relationship with Shopify Apps
I have a personal love and hate relationship with Shopify apps. The marketing behind some of the Shopify apps is simply fantastic. The marketers make me think that if you download their app that all their eCommerce dreams will come true. That is unfortunately not the case.
A great Shopify app is simply a tool to help you run a successful ecommerce store. An app or platform will never be the reason you will be successful. Keep that in mind. Store owners have enough distractions already.
There are literally thousands of apps available for to store owners out there. My philosophy is to use the LEAST amount of apps possible. This keeps my online store running fast, and having an eCommerce store running fast is one of the best ways to increase your conversion rate. Secondly, some apps simply don't play nice together.
The worst-case scenario is to download multiple apps from the Shopify app store to find out that something is broken on your website!
Before installing any app for my online store, I read all the reviews and send the app to a Shopify developer to see if the code seems sound. This may seem like an unnecessary step, but I have too much traffic to my eCommerce store to risk having the checkout page not work.
Back to the 7 best Shopify apps for your online store
1- Klaviyo - (Best Email marketing app to increase sales)
At this point, Klaviyo is the clear leader in email marketing. I have been a fan for 5 plus years and for good reason, it works, it’s easy to use and even I can understand it.
An effective email strategy can drive a significant portion of your revenue, in some cases up to 40 percent of your e-commerce store revenue. If you truly had to have only one app on your Shopify store, this would be it.
Your customer list and email list are your business and it’s your greatest asset. Bottom line:
Klaviyo is a must-have!
2- Postscript - (Best SMS Marketing App to increase sales)
Text messaging has gained traction over the years, and although email is the gold standard for sending messages. Text can have an amazing impact to your business revenue. It just needs to be treated differently then email, it’s a more intimate channel. Treat it as such! The email and SMS combo is the literal 1-2 punch for retention marketing.
Properly sending texts to hype a product launch can be an absolute game changer, just don’t abuse it. Marketers love to ruin things!
3- Judge me (Product Reviews App to increase sales)
I am a huge fanboy of Judge me because the product works well, is easily customizable, has a massive impact on conversion rate and the customer service is amazing.
I have had a number of questions or things I wanted to have modified, a quick live chat in the app, and poof…it’s done. Absolute no-brainer to have on your ecommmerce store.
4- Helpscout (Best customer service app to increase sales)
This is a personal preference, but I love Helpscout because it is simple, effective and affordable. The saved replies feature saves a ton of time for the customer support team.
The customer support ratings gives a great high-level overview to see how team members are performing. You can also easily see what customers order if you connect to Shopify.
5- One click upsell (Best upsell app to increase sales)
Who doesn’t want to increase their e-commerce store average order value? One-click upsell is easy to set up and you can be offering upsells with a few clicks. I will say, the revenue is incremental, it is not as big of a lever as dialing in your front-end offer.
This is one of those apps that not only drives more revenue but can give you a lot of insight into what people buy together.
6- Privy (Best pop-up app to increase sales)
There seems to be an endless supply of apps that will pop up and gather emails. Many of them are good but slow. I always choose privy over others because of how fast it loads! Speed matters.
I personally use the privy in cart page to tell customers they are close to the free shipping threshold and it works fantastic. You can see how we used privy in our product launch here.
7- TaxJar (Best Tax Software for Sales Tax)
No one wants to talk about sales tax and for good reason. It’s a pain in the ass, not to mention it’s expensive to do properly. Taxjar was an absolute game changer to keep our brand compliant in almost 30 plus states.
Trust me, I tried to have my accountant do this before and it was a disaster. Taxjar made it feasible for users to scale and be compliant. It’s not cheap but anything that saves time and effort…I’m a fan of it.
8 -Bonjoro (Best app to increase customer loyalty and satisfaction)
This is one of my secret game changers. For e-commerce stores that want to invest in their growth and customers. Make simple thank you videos to your customer in a flash.
Customers love the extra effort and it truly builds a deeper relationship to your e-commerce brand. It does take effort but for brands this care about customers (that should be all of you!) it’s a game changer.
Sorry I couldn't help myself and had to make the list 8 apps long. Ha.
Shopify store owners need to focus on an overall solid marketing strategy
I don't want to make these apps seem insignificant but they are simply tools that allow you to get your message in front of your ideal customers. I think a more important discussion is around the use of the apps to increase sales and build a brand of loyal customers.
A poor product experience and marketing message will make each app useless in your journey. I like to focus my effort specifically on the following:
A strong brand position - What do you stand for and who is your ideal customer? You can't please everyone it will be impossible to. Having this strong and unique brand position will help you make customer acquisition profitable and vocal.
An amazing product - Seems like a no-brainer, but I have seen many try to run a Shopify store by selling products that are subpar and they don't even use themselves. Make a truly outstanding product and iterate from your customer feedback.
You should also use your apps to ask your customers what they like and don't like about your product. Your job is to take action and make a better product with each launch!
Wow your existing customers and new customers - Take the time and money to do whatever it takes to wow your customers. Fast response times, no arguing about refunds and use this as an opportunity to wow them. If you want to run an online store and ecommerce business for years to come, you need to treat your customers like royalty.
You are nothing without them. They will reward you with a high repeat order rate and word-of-mouth referrals. Don't wow they and growth will be extremely difficult.
P.S. There are a number of Shopify apps that I did not cover, such as a referral program, push notifications, the different actual ecommerce platforms, and the awful fake scarcity apps.
I excluded those apps because they truly aren't big levers in my opinion.
Focusing on the fundamentals for your ecommerce store is a much bigger opportunity than scouring the app store for more revenue.
What Shopify apps do you use on your website to increase your sales?