The Best Shopify Apps

Over the last decade, e-commerce has exploded as one of the most profitable and sought-after industries for businesses across the globe. In fact, in 2020, consumers spent $861.12 billion with U.S. merchants, up an incredible 44.0% from last year. Now, more than ever, businesses are shifting their focus to digital retail. Consequently, the demand for website domain providers and e-commerce platforms has skyrocketed. 

One platform that has quickly become one of the top dogs in the industry is Shopify. With its user-friendly yet highly customizable interface, Shopify has become one of the best ways for new businesses to make their way into e-commerce. This article will break down some of the best Shopify apps to increase sales and help you make the most of the platform.

what are shopify apps

What is Shopify? 

Shopify is an e-commerce platform that helps people grow their businesses both online and offline. They do this with their own personalized website or in a brick and mortar location with Shopify POS. Unlike WordPress and other website building services that typically require users to purchase a theme for their respective websites, Shopify loads in a free theme available for customization right out of the gate. This makes life as a beginner extremely easy. 

The platform also offers a wide range of reports and analytics regarding the performance of both your website and your business. Some of this information includes things such as the number of orders you have received on any given day and a real-time view of your website’s visitors and where they are on your page. Additionally, unlike many server-based website building platforms, Shopify is cloud-based. This means that server issues that arise on the most popular online shipping days of the year, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday, are significantly less likely to occur. 

Although Shopify does offer a free theme for your website, the service itself is not free. Shopify’s offers paid plans starting at $9 a month for its “Shopify Lite,” yet most business owners opt for the basic plan that starts at $29 a month. 

How Does Shopify Work?

The first step in starting your Shopify business is to design your online store, decide which products or services you want to include, and test your customized website for both desktop and mobile use. The second step is to begin to promote and market your product and website as much as you possibly can to drive traffic to your website. Once someone has arrived at your website, Shopify actually allows you to see where a customer is on your website. You can also see whether they have a product or service in their cart to be purchased. Once a customer does purchase your product or service, Shopify will process the payment for you and you’ll get paid right there and then. It is perfect for beginner business owners. 

best free shopify apps

What are Shopify Apps? 

Shopify apps are third-party websites that improve upon many of the core aspects of the base Shopify platform. Some apps may serve to promote your store or sell your products, while others can help you deal with your inventory and shipping. There are thousands of different Shopify storefront apps the Shopify App Store that exist to improve the functionality of your ecommerce business.

How Do Shopify Apps Work?

When you install an app within Shopify, you are essentially granting a third-party website permission to access your store through Shopify’s application programming interface (API). In simple terms, an API allows two applications to talk to each other. In this case, the third-party application can communicate with Shopify. You can revoke this permission at any time by uninstalling the application from your admin. 

How Do You Know What the Best Apps for Shopify Are? 

As mentioned, there are thousands of different applications available for download within the Shopify platform. However, some applications are significantly more trustworthy and reliable than others. You don’t want to grant a shady third-party website access to your Shopify store. This is how you can tell whether an app is trustworthy enough to use.

Determining if an app is trustworthy enough to download typically involves checking a couple of boxes. The first thing that you should look at is the application’s reviews. If the app has a significant amount of downloads associated with a bunch of positive reviews, odds are that it does exactly what it is advertised to do and it will not harm your store in any way. This would be a must-have Shopify app, since you know other business owners have loved it, too. Now, in the case that the application has a lot of negative reviews, then you might want to opt out of downloading it. If you come across an application with poor reviews, it is best to keep looking. There is guaranteed to be a number of other apps that do either the same thing or similar things. 

Another thing you should look at is the application’s install page. This install page will tell you exactly which permissions it requires and what type of access the app is looking to have. If the app requires granting access to things you don’t feel comfortable granting access to, then steer away from it. Typically though, if the application has a lot of good reviews, you shouldn’t have to worry much about it negatively impacting your store. At the end of the day, for most app developers, what’s good for the consumer is good for them. This means that they want to make their app attractive to consumers so that more people download it.

best apps for shopify

What Are the Best Shopify Apps? 

Now that we’ve broken down some of the general aspects of the Shopify platform and its apps, this is our list of the best Shopify apps in 2021. 

1. Oberlo 

If you are a small business in search of a new product to sell, Oberlo is one of the best Shopify apps to help you source a supplier. Oberlo allows you to search for a variety of different products depending on the market you wish to become involved in and makes them readily available for direct import into your store. It essentially cuts down your entire supply chain process into a streamlined, two-step process. 

When you receive an order, you can fulfill it right away through your dropshipping supplier via Oberlo, which will directly ship the order to your customer. This means that you don’t have to worry about packaging or shipping the products yourself. It’s an excellent way for solo business owners that have a lot on their plate already. 

2. Shopify Email 

If you are looking for an inexpensive, yet effective marketing tool, Shopify Email is a must-have Shopify app. This is one of the best marketing apps for Shopify It is made for building an email list and managing your campaigns. With Shopify Email, you can send branded emails to all subscribers or customers of your business in a few easy clicks. Marketing automation is a great way to avoid abandoned cart issues, offer customer service, and use a Shopify app to increase sales. 

The app offers a variety of different customization options, including pre-made templates that pull your product logos, images, and descriptions directly from your store. The interface is also extremely user-friendly and doesn’t require too much effort. All you have to do is import your contact lists into Shopify, create and send out your marketing campaign emails, and keep note of your customer analytics. The app gives 2500 emails for free each month. It then charges you just $1 for every 1000 emails you send for the rest of the month. 

best shopify apps

3. BetterReplay 

The BetterReplay app is one of the best Shopify apps for tracking how your customers interact with your store. It provides live recordings of shoppers’ sessions so that you can see exactly how people interact with your store. You’ll be able to see what they click on, what they don’t click on, and how they move from item to item. This information is so important in being able to improve both your customer inflow and conversion rate. BetterReplay is one of the best free Shopify apps available.

4. Advoz 

If your business utilizes social media advertising, Advoz is a must-have Shopify app for you. With Advoz, you can access a certified advertising pro who creates custom advertisements for Instagram, Facebook, and Google. They will even introduce these advertisements directly to your target audience. As long as you have a weekly ad budget and a Facebook Business account, this app will undoubtedly drive traffic to your store.

5. Product Reviews

You can use the Product Reviews app to add a customer review feature to your products. This allows your customers to engage with your business and help encourage sales. Reviews act as social proof and can influence other customers. 

6. PushOwl Web Push Notifications

Use the PushOwl app to send push notifications to your customers and avoid abandoned cart issues. SMS marketing is extremely effective.

7. UpPromote 

The top-rated affiliate marketing app in the Shopify App Store is UpPromote. UpPromote is an automated, all-in-one affiliate and influencer marketing solution. you can build a professional affiliate marketing campaign and easily increase sales for your Shopify store.

8. Plug in SEO 

A final must have Shopify app is Plug in SEO because it helps you find, troubleshoot, and fix any search engine optimization (SEO) issues, which can improve traffic to your store.

must have shopify apps

The Best Apps for Shopify Will Improve Your Business’s Website 

App developers are constantly coming up with new ways to improve the functionality and efficiency of a business, so take advantage of it. If you are on Shopify, we encourage you to take a hard look at the needs of your store to find an app that can help you. We have listed some of the best Shopify apps for a variety of business functions. Try one out, you have nothing to lose! It might just prove to be exactly what you needed to take your business to the next level! 

FAQ:

  • What are Shopify apps used for? 
  • How do I know which Shopify apps are trustworthy?
  • How do I identify the best apps for Shopify?
  • What is the best app for dropshipping? 
  • What are the best free Shopify apps?

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