Most sellers in the ecommerce space know how essential Shopify is when it comes to running a DTC store and growing a brand. As an all-in-one platform for managing and scaling your business, there are few others like it.
It is made even more indispensable thanks to the suite of apps and services that are directly available to users. These add-ons can help you achieve any number of objectives–from getting more reviews to boosting your conversion rates–and take your storefront to the next level.
If you're short on time, here's a quick breakdown of our top picks for the best Shopify apps for different use cases (but we recommend reading the full article to learn how we came to these conclusions):
- 📧 Best for email marketing - 🥇 Klaviyo
- 💬 Best for SMS marketing -🥇 Postscript
- ⭐️ Best for reviews - 🥇 Okendo
- 🍿Best for popups - 🥇 Privy
- 👯 Best for referral marketing - 🥇 Social Snowball
- 🏆 Best for rewards - 🥇 Smile.io
- 😄 Best for customer support - 🥇 Gorgias
- 📈 Best for analytics - 🥇 Triple Whale
- 🪃 Best for returns - 🥇 Loop Returns
What’re the best Shopify apps? 🚀
The Shopify App Store provides a comprehensive library of software tools that can be downloaded and integrated into your site. These apps make it possible to beef up your storefront with critical enhancements, and make improvements in areas that were lacking previously.
With little or no coding required, the apps we have chosen to highlight here provide an optimal solution for enriching your online presence with features both you and your customers are sure to find valuable.
1. Klaviyo
Klaviyo is a marketing tool that allows you to create highly targeted email campaigns, as well as build extensive contact lists. You can segment your shoppers by different criteria like order history and past browsing behavior, and can deliver fully customized, branded emails that are crafted to increase engagement.
Klaviyo Key Features 🧰
- Automated Email Campaigns: You are able to establish rules that will trigger automatic emails at various points of the customer journey. This means that whether you want to send a welcome email or a happy birthday email, you can do so without having to lift a finger.
- Customizable Templates: You can make use of Klaviyo’s pre-built email templates and customize them to fit the look and feel of your brand. No longer do you have to worry that the messages hitting the inboxes of your buyers will feel cold and lifeless.
- Detailed Reporting: Klaviyo provides a comprehensive breakdown of metrics related to your email campaigns, to allow you to understand what’s resonating most with shoppers and where you might need to make adjustments in order to elevate sales.
Klaviyo Pricing 💰
Klaviyo is free to install and free for up to 250 email contacts and 50 SMS contacts. For more email outreach capacity, it is $20/month for up to 500 contacts, which you can further upgrade as you grow. It is $5/month for up to 150 SMS contacts, which you can also upgrade.
2. Postscript
Postscript is one of the best Shopify apps designed to help manage your SMS text marketing. With Postscript, you can use your store data to initiate both automated and personalized conversations with your customers. You can utilize this to contact those who have abandoned their cart, for instance, and entice them to complete their purchase with exclusive discount codes.
Postscript Key Features 🧰
- SMS List Building: Postscript can be used to collect phone numbers throughout all facets of your ecommerce site, such as during checkout, on a landing page, or a popup.
- Purchase Follow-ups: You can set up Postscript to fire off automatic text message reminders to customers, stimulating more traffic and keeping customers engaged.
- Converse Directly: The app supports multimedia like GIFs and photos in the SMS campaigns you send, which are sure to stand out among the heap of other messages people are receiving. You can also talk one-on-one with customers to foster a highly personalized experience.
Postscript Pricing 💰
Postscript is free to install, and is $100/month for the Growth Plan, and $500/month for the Professional Plan. Enterprise plans are available for larger brands.
3. Okendo
Okendo allows you to collect and highlight reviews on your site. You can use a range of display widgets to showcase product ratings and other user-generated content. As any consumer-facing company knows, social proof like this means everything, so Okendo is a solid way to put a spotlight on your brand’s community of adoring fans.
Okendo Key Features 🧰
- Automated Review Requests: Take the manual hassle out of asking for reviews by setting up personalized requests through email and text that fire off automatically post-purchase.
- Photo and Video Reviews: Basic text reviews can often be dull, but with Okendo, you can let your customers’ personal experiences really shine through with photos and videos.
- Visual Displays: Customer feedback is great, but with no way and no place to show them, they are virtually meaningless. Luckily with Okendo, you can use customizable displays so that anyone visiting your site can see the testimonials you have collected.
Okendo Pricing 💰
Okendo has four packages: the Essential Plan, the Growth Plan, the Power Plan, and the Advanced Plan. They range from $19/month to $499/month.
4. Privy
Privy is a dynamic and flexible popup tool that you should likewise consider adding to your ecom arsenal. The fun, interactive popups incentivize email sign-ups and opt-ins. With the ability to then launch highly targeted, effective, and personalized email marketing campaigns, Privy can be used to drive repeat sales and get your shoppers clicking back for more.
Privy Key Features 🧰
- Creative Popup Displays: You can select from different popup types like a countdown timer or a spin-to-win wheel that engages visitors and encourages them to type in their email address, which in turn helps grow your contact list.
- Drag-and-drop Email Editor: Building emails to send to customers couldn’t be easier with the intuitive interface that Privy provides. You can integrate your own designs and logos to spice up a host of pre-made templates.
- Email and SMS Marketing Automations: You are able to use Privy to create targeted messages that are intended to keep customers in your ecosystem, and hit them with everything from welcome messages to purchase follow-ups.
Privy Pricing 💰
Privy has a free plan, and three paid plans. The paid plans range from $15/month for the Starter Plan, to $70/month for the Conversion Only Plan.
5. Gorgias
Gorgias provides streamlined, efficient customer service in an automated fashion. It consolidates your support interactions, which might be spread across multiple channels, into one easy-to-use feed. You are also able to create and use templates to address common requests that people might have, leading to more satisfied buyers and less time wasted.
Gorgias Key Features 🧰
- Automated Ticket Routing: Gorgias allows customers to quickly route their inquiries to the right team and agent, based on the type of issue they are facing.
- Customizable Knowledge Base: Gorgias allows sellers to compile a custom knowledge base of frequently asked questions to help customers find their own answers quickly.
- Automated Outreach Campaigns: Gorgias allows merchants to create automated campaigns to proactively reach out to customers with helpful information and resources.
Gorgias Pricing 💰
The Gorgias Starter Plan begins at $10/month, and there are additional tiers that offer unlimited customer support agents. Pricing scales depending on how much ticket volume you anticipate needing each month.
6. Social Snowball
Social Snowball is an affiliate marketing tool that can turn all of your customers into potential ambassadors for your brand. It generates an affiliate account and discount code at the point of purchase, incentivizing your buyers to spread the word about your products by giving them a cut of sales in the form of commissions.
Social Snowball Key Features 🧰
- Automated Referral Program: Snowball's automated referral program allows store owners to easily build and manage their own referral program. This feature allows you to create initiatives, track their progress, and reward customers for getting their friends on board with your brand.
- Referral Widgets: Snowball provides customizable referral widgets that can be integrated into your existing website. These widgets allow customers to quickly and easily share referral links with friends and family.
- Analytics & Insights: Snowball gives detailed insights into the performance of referral programs, including referral activity, customer sign-ups, and conversions. This feature allows merchants to monitor and optimize their referral campaigns to maximize their ROI.
Social Snowball Pricing 💰
The Snow Day Plan is $99/month, and the Blizzard Plan is $499/month.
7. Smile.io
Smile.io is a Shopify app designed to build brand loyalty and retain customers for longer. It allows you to give out loyalty points, facilitate referrals, and give VIP perks to your most ride-or-die shoppers - its great UX and robust features make it one of the top Shopify apps in the loyalty space.
Smile.io Key Features 🧰
- Loyalty Rewards: Smile.io automatically rewards customers for their loyalty, giving customers points for purchases, referrals, and more.
- Referral Program: It offers a referral program that encourages customers to spread the word about your store and get rewarded for it.
- Customizable Benefits: The app allows merchants to customize rewards, from discounts and free shipping to exclusive products and members-only offers.
Smile.io Pricing 💰
Smile.io is free to sign up. There is also a Starter Plan, a Growth Plan, and a Pro Plan, ranging from $49/month to $599/month.
8. Triple Whale
Triple Whale is a tool designed to track key metrics associated with your business, and correctly attribute customer purchases to the different platforms you are advertising on. It uses first-party data to connect ad clicks and conversions with precision and transparency.
Triple Whale Key Features 🧰
- Triple Pixel: This feature allows you to track customer events on your storefront and follow your customer’s journey. You are able to measure performance indicators like number of orders, conversion value, cost per action, add to carts, and more.
- Creative Dashboard: The Creative Dashboard enables you to gauge the effectiveness of your creative assets. Essentially, you can see how your ads are performing at a granular level. You are able to use this dashboard to segment your assets. For example, say you wanted to sort your ads by CPC or ROAS. You would be able to do that here.
- Customer Insights: This particular suite of tools helps you put together an accurate profile of your customer base. With Customer Insights, you can analyze such metrics as average order value over a specific duration of time. You can also look at your top products and which bundles have led to the most sales.
Triple Whale Pricing 💰
Triple Whale has two tiers to choose from. Regular and “+ Attribution,” which grants access to the tracking capabilities of the Triple Pixel. Pricing varies depending on your last twelve months of gross revenue. For stores doing less than $1 million in sales, plans start at $100/month, or $300/month for Triple Whale + Attribution.
9. Loop Returns
Loop Returns takes the frustration out of managing merchandise return requests. It automates the process by allowing you to easily create and manage customer returns and exchanges. It also provides customers with an easy-to-use portal to initiate returns, track progress, and make sure they receive their money back when needed.
Loop Returns Key Features 🧰
- Seamless, Automated Returns: Loop Returns automates the returns process, allowing customers to easily initiate returns and track how the return journey is coming along.
- Enhanced Customer Support: The app provides customers with knowledgeable responses to assist them with their returns. This way they are never kept in the dark and left wondering whether their return will reach its destination.
- Effortless Store Integration: Loop Returns is easy to implement and smoothly embeds within the framework of your existing Shopify store. It will not disrupt the speed or flow of how your ecommerce site is already operating.
Loop Returns Pricing 💰
While the Advanced Plan costs $375/month, the Essential Plan is only $165/month and can handle up to 1,000 returns/year. You can pick which plan best corresponds with your order volume and anticipated return rate.
10. ShipStation
ShipStation is a top Shopify app that is designed to streamline the shipping process for sellers. It helps save time by integrating with major carriers and automating order processing, and offers features such as batch printing, shipping label creation, and order tracking from a single platform. ShipStation is an ideal tool for store owners who need to quickly and efficiently ship their products to customers.
ShipStation Key Features 🧰
- Speedy Shipping: ShipStation automatically imports orders from Shopify and other popular selling channels. It can also print labels, track packages, and notify customers of shipping updates.
- Multi-carrier Support: ShipStation can connect with a multitude of carriers (UPS, USPS, FedEx, DHL, and more) to offer customers the best shipping rates and options.
- Custom Branding: ShipStation allows sellers to customize emails, packing slips, and labels with their brand's logo and colors.
ShipStation Pricing 💰
ShipStation has a Starter Plan at $9.99/month, but scales up to an Enterprise Plan that will cost you $229.99/month.
11. Rebuy
Rebuy is an AI-powered Shopify app that makes personalized upsell recommendations for your customers. It is essentially a no-code solution that provides white-glove service in an automated fashion. You can use Rebuy to expose your customer base to new products in your catalog they may not have seen otherwise, and increase sales in the process.
Rebuy Key Features 🧰
- Upselling and Cross-selling: You can drive sales by suggesting related products to customers when they are viewing a product page, and also by sending automated emails with product recommendations after a customer has made a purchase.
- Track Customer Behavior: Additionally, Rebuy helps merchants track customer behavior to identify trends and recommend products to customers that they might be interested in.
- Recommend During Checkout: You can suggest related products that customers are likely to buy based on their current cart contents.
- Performance Dashboards: Rebuy also provides detailed analytics so you can track your upselling performance and re-calibrate as needed.
Rebuy Pricing 💰
Rebuy has three tiers available: the Starter Plan, the Scale Plan, and the Pro Plan. They are $99/month, $249/month, and $499/month, respectively.
12. Fairing Post Purchase Surveys
Fairing is one of the best Shopify apps which allows you to quickly and easily send surveys to customers post-purchase in order to get feedback on your products and services. This can give you actionable insights into what consumers think about your business and their feelings about your brand identity.
Fairing Key Features 🧰
- Quick, Actionable Surveys: Fairing Post Purchase Surveys automatically send surveys to customers after they make a purchase to ensure they are satisfied with their order, and gather any other thoughts or comments they might have.
- Customizable Questions: Shop owners can tailor their surveys to ask the right questions and get the feedback they need.
- Easy Reporting: Fairing Post Purchase Surveys provides easy-to-understand reports so sellers can quickly analyze customer feedback and make informed decisions.
Fairing Pricing 💰
For up to 1,000 orders, the app will cost you $49/month. It increases accordingly, up to $599/month for up to 100k orders.
13. Octane AI
Octane AI is a top Shopify app that creates quizzes for your customers. You are able to ask visitors to your site about their personal preferences, and depending on how they answer, recommend specific products that are more likely to convert. This enables you to focus your marketing efforts in a highly targeted manner.
Octane AI Features 🧰
- Quiz Builder: Octane AI enables merchants to easily create beautiful, interactive quizzes tailored to their customers' interests.
- Personalized Messaging: The app allows you to engage with customers through unique messages based on the results of their quizzes.
- Customer Segmentation: Octane AI enables sellers to automatically segment customers into different categories based on their quiz responses, allowing for more effective targeting of customers with personalized campaigns.
Octane AI Pricing 💰
The Octane Plan starts at $50/month, and the Octane Plus Plan starts at $200/month.
14. Tapcart
Tapcart is an app that enables Shopify store owners to create, manage, and publish native iOS and Android apps. It provides sellers with an easy-to-use platform to design and customize their own mobile app, and allows them to make changes in real time. Additionally, the Shopify app includes features for tracking user engagement and notifying customers about new products, enabling store owners to maximize their mobile sales potential.
Tapcart Features 🧰
- No-code App Development: Tapcart provides you with the ability to customize a mobile app with your own branding and content, allowing for unique designs, colors, and fonts to be used to create a one-of-a-kind app experience.
- Seamless Integrations: Tapcart seamlessly integrates with the backend of your Shopify store, allowing for product information, images, and other content to be imported with ease.
- Unlimited Push Notifications: You can reach your customers in a flash by sending push notifications to their phones, which can alert them to store updates like holiday sales and new product launches.
Tapcart Pricing 💰
The Tapcart Core Plan is $250/month, the Tapcart Ultimate Plan is $550/month, and the Tapcart Enterprise Plan is $1,200/month.
What are Shopify apps? 🤔
Shopify apps are tools that can be layered on top of your existing storefront. Many of them are built by third-party developers and offered by vendors on the Shopify App Store, a rich marketplace where you can browse thousands of apps that can help your business scale. They are designed to solve many of the common problems that merchants like yourself face every day, and make it easier to execute and run an online business. View this guide for more Shopify apps focused on increasing sales and view our full Shopify app directory for a more comprehensive list of the best Shopify apps.
Benefits of using Shopify apps? 📈
Shopify apps amplify the impact of your storefront beyond what is readily available out-of-the-box. It’s the same way that a smartphone might come preloaded with a number of native features, but can be improved by downloading and installing specific apps.
These apps improve the functionality of your store and expand the scope of what you can accomplish. They give you back precious time through automation, improve sales and customer retention, and provide you with an invaluable edge over the competitors in your space. Simply put, apps are one thing you definitely don’t want to neglect when it comes to making sure your Shopify store is running on all cylinders, and is fully optimized for peak performance. But since there are thousands of apps available, it’s vital to ensure you’re using the best Shopify apps for your store to give you a competitive advantage over your customers.
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