The 13 Best Shopify Apps to Level Up Your Online Store
Shopify store owners juggle dozens of tasks to grow their businesses. From attracting customers to managing your inventory to gaining reviews, any of these challenges can make or break your ecommerce store if not handled properly.
Luckily, there's an app for that. Actually, there are lots of apps.
In this article, we’ll get you up to speed on what Shopify apps are, why they’re important, and which ones can help you make the most of your ecommerce experience.
What are Shopify apps?
Shopify apps are add-ons (also called plug-ins) that improve the functionality of your online store. There are thousands of apps in the Shopify App Store. Some apps are free, while others charge a one-time fee or a subscription fee.
Shopify includes basic features with any plan you purchase. However, if you want to attract more customers, maximize sales, and get accurate customer insights, apps are essential.
Figuring out which apps you need can be overwhelming, especially if you’re new to Shopify. The next section will simplify that process for you.
How to choose the best Shopify apps for your online store
There’s a lot to consider when it comes to Shopify’s massive ecosystem of apps. These five steps will help you narrow down which Shopify apps are best for you.
1. Define your top 3 goals
Prioritizing your goals helps you determine which types of apps to look for. Your goals might include growing your email list, reducing cart abandonment, increasing conversion rates, or boosting your social media following.
2. Determine your budget
If you’re new to Shopify, your budget might be limited—that’s ok. There are plenty of free apps, but keep in mind that apps with paid plans can save money (and time) in the long run. Many apps also have free trial periods, so you can take them for a test run and see if they’re worth the investment.
3. Rank your priorities
Depending on your experience with Shopify (and ecommerce in general), you’ll want to distinguish between must-have apps and nice-to-have apps.
For example, you might want apps that come with 24/7 support or apps with drag and drop templates (as opposed to apps you have to design manually).
4. Focus on consolidating features
Let’s say your primary goals are getting more email subscribers, getting more product reviews, and recovering abandoned carts. Instead of finding three separate apps for each goal, look for apps that bundle several features applicable to your business.
Consolidating tools in one app keeps you organized, not to mention it can save you money.
5. Read reviews
Look for apps with a high volume (100+) of 4 and 5-star reviews. Further, scan user reviews for specific feedback such as ease of use, reliability, and how it stacks up to similar apps.
Now that we’ve covered the basics of Shopify apps let’s dive into some of the best apps for each component of your business.
Best Shopify apps for dropshipping and merchandising
These apps help you source, curate, and sell products without the hassle of warehousing or inventory management.
Printful
Price: Free
Use the Printful app to create custom-designed products for your store and ship them all over the world with no order minimums or inventory. This print-on-demand Shopify integration also has a product personalization tool that lets shoppers create one-of-a-kind designs right on your storefront.
With Printful's print-on-demand model, if someone places an order for a custom item from your store, the order will be designed, printed, and shipped to your customer, allowing you to focus on other areas of your business.
Spocket
Price: Free plan available, with upgrades starting at $24/month
If you want to start dropshipping, start with Spocket. The app allows you to choose products from suppliers all around the world and sell them directly to customers via your own store. You don’t handle the products yourself—you’re simply the mediator who keeps the profits.
Some of Spocket’s key features include 24/7 support, one-click fulfillment, and custom invoices, so your invoice represents your brand.
Oberlo
Price: Free plan available, with upgrades starting at $29.90/month
Oberlo is another popular dropshipping app. Just like Spocket, Oberlo helps you find and sell products without worrying about warehousing or packaging. However, Oberlo’s range of products is much wider.
Oberlo’s key features include auto-updated inventory and pricing, automated bulk orders, and an affiliate program so you can earn a commission with every product you sell with the Oberlo app.
Best Shopify apps for marketing and conversions
These Shopify marketing tools are built to help you find new customers and increase sales.
Privy
Price: Free trial and free plan available, with upgrades starting at $20/month
With 18,000+ 5-star reviews on Shopify, Privy is the #1 sales app for small and large ecommerce businesses alike. Privy has the tools to increase conversions, grow your email list, reduce abandoned carts, and more.
Privy’s key features include cross sell popups, SMS marketing, email marketing, custom discount codes, free shipping bars, just to name a few.
Getting your first campaign live takes only minutes. Plus, you don’t need any experience in website development or design since Privy provides a user-friendly interface along with easy-to-use templates to help drive sales.
SEO Optimizer
Price: Free plan available, with upgrades starting at $29.88/month
If your goal is to generate more leads from Google, you’ll need to focus on search optimization. SEO is a long-term investment that can take months or even years to pay off, and this app can kick start the process.
The SEO Optimizer app analyzes your Shopify store to ensure your product descriptions, image alt-text, and links are easy for search engines to recognize. It also monitors and redirects broken links that can hurt your SEO.
AdRoll
Price: Free plan available, with upgrades starting at $25/month
AdRoll is a retargeting app that uses machine learning to keep customers engaged with dynamic digital ads. With AdRoll, you can create Facebook ads, Instagram ads, and Google ads that feature relevant product recommendations to encourage visitors to make purchases and build brand loyalty.
The app also gives you in-depth insights into campaign performance and audience trends, so you always know what’s working and what isn’t.
Pagefly
Price: Free plan available, with upgrades starting at $19/month.
More than 100,000 Shopify business owners use Pagefly to easily build landing pages that convert traffic into paying customers. That includes sales landing pages, “coming soon” pages, product pages, and more.
PageFly’s Elements Library gives you access to “fear-of-missing-out” effects to boost sales, like countdown timers and low-stock alerts.
Best of all, PageFly’s drag-and-drop functionality means you never have to worry about coding or designing from scratch.
Best Shopify apps for shipping and fulfillment
These apps ensure your products get to the right place at the right time.
ShipStation
Price: 30-day free trial with prices starting at $9/month
The process of shipping, especially when it’s accompanied by order tracking and labeling, can be overwhelming, especially if you’re new to ecommerce.
That’s where ShipStation comes in.
ShipStation simplifies the order fulfillment process, no matter what, where, or how you sell. The app syncs all your orders into one dashboard so you can track and manage your products in real-time.
ShipStation gives you access to discounts from carriers like USPS, UPS, and FedEx with no volume requirements, so you can maximize your margins.
ShipBob
Price: Free trial available, prices vary
ShipBob is a third-party logistics (3PL) app for outsourcing shipping and fulfillment. Rather than stocking inventory in your own space, ShipBob stores your products in its own network of warehouses. When a customer places an order, ShipBob picks, packs, and ships the product directly from the fulfillment center.
ShipBob’s inventory management feature for Shopify tracks your stock levels and predicts demand, so you know exactly when it’s time to reorder products.
Best Shopify apps for customer service
These apps help you maintain strong, personal connections with all of your customers—even as you grow.
Smile
Price: Free plan available with upgrades starting at $49/month
Smile lets you integrate custom loyalty programs into your Shopify store to build trust with your top customers. The app has three main features to foster brand loyalty:
- Loyalty points to incentivize repeat purchases
- Referral program to kickstart word-of-mouth marketing and establish social proof for your brand
- VIP program to keep your most profitable customers coming back for more
Smile has one-click integrations with marketing apps like Privy and Klaviyo so you can build retention and community into your marketing campaigns.
Gorgias
Price: 7-day free trial available with prices starting from $60/month
Gorgias is an omnichannel helpdesk (help center) for ecommerce stores that allows your customer service team to manage all of your support and customer service in one place. Shopify stores use Gorgias to resolve customer issues faster and increase the efficiency of their customer support teams.
Gorgias gives your customer support team a true all-in-one helpdesk experience across email, live chat, phone, Facebook messenger, Instagram, and contact page in one unified view to streamline your support tickets, saving you time and money.
Best Shopify apps for store management
These apps help you stay on top of your finances and inventory so you can keep growing.
QuickBooks Online
Price: Free
Manual data entry can pull you away from high-level work, not to mention the risk of human error. Fortunately, the QuickBooks Online app automates your accounting, invoicing, and inventory management tasks.
Instead of tracking your financials in clunky spreadsheets, QuickBooks Online organizes your income, expenses, invoices, and more into one dashboard. Plus, you can generate reports with a single click instead of crunching numbers for hours.
Data Export Reports
Price: Free trial available with plans starting at $10/month
It’s hard to improve what you can’t measure. That’s why Data Export Reports helps Shopify store owners automate, customize, and analyze 2,000+ data fields, so you get a granular view into the health of your store.
With more than 1,200 5-star reviews, this is the go-to reporting app for stores of all sizes that want a lot of data without spending a lot of money.
Beware of App Overload
If you’re new to Shopify, you might be overwhelmed by the number of apps out there. But before you go down the rabbit hole in Shopify’s App Store, take a step back and consider what your unique needs are.
There isn’t a “correct” number of Shopify apps you should have—every business is different. The most important thing is striking the right balance between what’s essential and what fits your budget.
Got suggestions for more awesome apps we should add to this guide? Give us a shout on Twitter @Privy.
