1. How Do Shopify Apps Work to Increase Sales?
Don't worry; you are not alone in your contemplations. Every Shopify business owner wonders the very same thing at some point. While we guide you through how these apps can help boost your online sales, we will also introduce you to some of the best Shopify apps on the market.
Let's start at the very beginning. Why do you need a Shopify app to increase your eCommerce sales? By now, you've built your Shopify site- it looks great, and you have high expectations. You could update images, add new products, write dynamite content descriptions, and make your store appear impressive all day. But having a store is pointless if no one is buying your goods.
'If you try to eat soup with a fork, you'll constantly be busy, but you'll also be hungry,' as an old acquaintance with 40 years of retail experience used to say. And this is precisely the reason your store needs a Shopify app - for better sales. These apps will help you guide customers to your website and start selling. However, how do you decide which Shopify app is right for your eCommerce business?
Shopify apps can help you perform better and sell better. They can help you with various tasks, right from email marketing applications to lead capture applications for reviews. And then there are consumer loyalty apps that you can use to enable cross-selling and up-selling of your products. We have dug deep into the numerous options available on the internet and shortlisted ten of the best Shopify applications for you.
2. Detailed Review Of Shopify Apps for Increasing Sales
2.1) ClickPost Returns Plus
A Shopify returns app, ClickPost Returns Plus assists eCommerce businesses in managing and tracking online returns. It helps you set up and customize a branded portal for customers to initiate and track returns. ClickPost Returns Plus comes with the dual power of automation and AI-driven decisions.
ClickPost Returns Plus auto-generates RMAs for every successful returns request. These returns requests and RMAs can then be tracked on a single dashboard. You can tailor your visibility by filtering based on criteria such as requests from last week, requests from today, and so forth.
How returns are handled is a vital element of the customer service experience. By enabling convenient returns, ClickPost helps you beat the challenges of repeat purchases and low conversion rates. It also facilitates the ability to auto-notify customers on every milestone, beginning with the placing and acceptance of returns request to closing.
Key Features
- ClickPost Returns Plus is beneficial when it comes to defining non-returnable SKUS such as discounted goods or promotional items.
- By setting your own eligibility criteria and rules for returns, you can ensure that you remain in control of what ClickPost accepts and rejects on your behalf.
- This Shopify returns management app can help you with request processing as well as returns data to help you reduce return rates.
- By using ClickPost’s default templates or creating your own, you can send timely updates to customers via emails.
- Using a single dashboard, ClickPost Returns Plus provides you with visibility on the entirety of your online store's reverse logistics operations.
Best used for:
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ClickPost helps you analyze the reason for returns and enables you to reduce it or convert it into exchanges.
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It provides data on most returned SKUs and reasons for returns which can help you course-correct your sourcing or product design.
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This Shopify returns app is excellent for automating a majority of your returns requests tasks and workflow based on pre-fed decisions.
Cons
- ClickPost Returns Plus is more suited for big eCommerce businesses and might not be the right fit for small-to-medium online stores.
- This Shopify app might not be helpful for businesses that see low return volumes.
- Currently, this returns app is designed to integrate solely with Shopify which might prove to be a deal-breaker for brands that are present on multiple online platforms.
2.2) Omnisend Email Marketing & SMS
Omnisend is a popular Shopify email marketing app used by over 70,000 eCommerce merchants. By integrating Omnisend into your eCommerce store you can take advantage of its pre-built workflows. It aids you in covering the complete funnel, from building a subscriber list to retaining customers.
Omnisend helps you design and email beautiful, shoppable newletters. It facilitates boosting of conversions through targeted and personalized messages across multiple platforms.
Furthermore, this marketing tool also helps you analyze promotions and consumer behavior. You can also incorporate SMS and push alerts in your communication.
Key Features
- Omnisend enables easy email design using a drag-and-drop email editor which allows you to craft and send a shoppable email in minutes.
- Its email segmentation facility allows you to target specific groups of shoppers with more precision, particularly high-value, likely to churn and specific product customers.
- With Omnisend, you can set up a range of triggers with automated workflows to ensure your store's revenue sees a constant increase.
- This zero-coding marketing tool has a variety of pre-made themed templated for various promotions and notifications.
- You will have access to fully customizable popups, signup buttons, and also be able to design the perfect landing page for your online store.
Best Used For:
- Omnisend can help you build segmented email lists and maintain it using a tool for email list cleaning.
- Their automated email, SMS, and push marketing can help you grow your Shopify store.
- It can help you convert customers who are likely to churn with cross-selling and win-back strategies.
Cons
- Omnisend's email marketing feature appears to suffer technical glitches.
- With Omnisend's new update, users no longer have visibility on anonymous store visitor data.
- Their customer support team can be slow to respond to and resolve issues.
2.3) Shopify Email
Shopify Email is Shopify's foray into email marketing, and it helps users connect with their shoppers and maintain client-brand relationships. It's simple to use for beginners, and it allows you to create branded emails that you can send to subscribers. This email app is also great for sending out newsletters to your customers.
Being an app for and by Shopify, it is only natural that it provides members with a seamless user experience. They offer an assortment of marketing templates for your emails that cover restocking alerts, products and sales notifications, and holidays and event promotions.
Shopify Email also allows users to automate emails, segment recipients and track the results of this action.
Key Features
- If you have a store set up on Shopify, you will be able to send shoppers emails from your own domain.
- Shopify Email requires no-coding and allows you to easily customise the various design aspects of the layout and content as well as personalize it to match your store.
- The useful and neat express checkout feature on this app enables shoppers to purchase products directly from email links with just a couple of clicks.
- This email app allows you to directly import customer lists into Shopify.
- With Shopify's email app, you can duplicate any previous email to ensure your content remains consistent.
Best used for:
- This app is better suited for small online businesses that are only getting started.
- It is beneficial for newbies on the Shopify platform who are still learning about the components of email marketing and how to harness its power.
- Shopify Email works well for sending different targeted messages for different customer segments.
Cons
- This app is only available for Shopify Plus members.
- While Shopify offers multi-lingual support, this app does not provide multi-lingual features.
- Shopify Email only allows users 20 sections in their content, which can be quite short when designing newsletters.
2.4) Klaviyo : Email marketing & SMS
Klaviyo is one of the more popular email and sms marketing solutions on Shopify. Klaviyo identifies itself as a unified brand-consumer platform that enables eCommerce businesses to possess ownership of consumer interactions and data. It focuses on converting first-time shoppers into lifelong customers.
Klaviyo offers seamless and convenient integration with your store's tech and provides valuable insights on store visitors. You will be able to see data on which links generate more clicks, reasons for purchase and reasons for exiting your store.
Klaviyo is also perfect for users who wish to understand consumer trends. This can help Shopify retailers attract and retain new shoppers as well as keep existing clients interested by sending them relevant product updates.
Key Features
- Klaviyo allows you to sync the entirety of your Shopify store's data with just one click.
- Its automated welcome and special occasion email features as well as abandoned cart alerts are fully customizable.
- Klaviyo's personalization option can help you send relevant information to customers and boost engagement which will result in higher revenues.
- Its one click integration will help you synchronize historical as well as real-time data so you never lose out on necessary information.
- Klaviyo's pre-structured data reports can help you pinpoint and address performance-related issues.
Best used for:
- Klaviyo is well-suited for small and medium-sized enterprises (but can become expensive for larger and smaller businesses)
- Its power can be fully harnessed by online retailers who have a solid understanding of email marketing.
- This app is perfect for those who want to gain insight on consumer behavior and trends and use it to increase sales of their Shopify store.
Cons
- Klaviyo's customer support can be slow to respond to and address queries or problems.
- Many Klaviyo users are disgruntled with the constant increase in pricing.
- Lack of tech support means that users of this app often have difficulty with setting up or syncing it to their Shopify store.
2.5) Tidio - Live Chat & Chat Bots
Tidio is a great app if your strategy to improve sales is by bettering your brand's customer experience and satisfaction. It allows Shopify stores to provide customer support via Live Chat, FAQ builder, Helpdesk, and Chatbots.
With Tildio, Shopify retailers can encourage customers to check product availability, purchased orders and delivery status without having to reach out to customer support. Its ticketing system ensures that requests are monitored, assigned and prioritized accordingly.
Tildio's automated chatbots can help you with 24/7 communication. On Instagram and Facebook, these AI-bots can also receive orders directly from customers as well as collect their contact information on your behalf. In addition, Tildio's bots can also be utilized to build mailing lists and segment visitors to your Shopify store.
Key Features
- Tildio's intelligent AI- driven bots can be automated for analyzing, categorizing and responding to queries.
- While Tildio has pre-built chatbots, you can also design your own even if you have zero coding abilities using their drag-and-drop editor.
- Tildio allows you to cater to your global audience by supporting multiple languages.
- It allows you to convert specific portions of support emails or chats into tickets with notes and custom tags.
- Tildio sets the context and helps you respond to customers quicker by displaying the shopper's orders and purchase history in the chat.
Best used for:
- Tildio is great for quicker support, faster resolutions and more interactive customer support, something that shoppers appreciate.
- It is perfect for automating responses for generic questions with bots, as well as creating a segmented support team that can focus on different areas of queries and issues.
- Tildio is a well-crafted raft best utilized by Shopify store owners whose customer support team is constantly drowning in a barrage of requests and queries.
Cons
- Over time, many, if not all, of the useful features Tildio offers have migrated from the free to the paid version, pushing users to opt and subscribe for it.
- You will also need to shell out for "extra features" such as chatbot responses that cross a particular limit.
- Their tracking data results don't match those of other data analyzing tools - since subscribers are often charged by numbers, this could mean overpaying.
2.6) HelpCenter | FAQ Chat HelpDesk
HelpCenter helps eCommerce businesses make more effective interactions with their customers. It facilitates this possibility by offering a number of different options. It offers solutions such as Live Chat, Chat Bots, FAQ builders, Tabs and HelpDesk ticketing.
It allows you to manage product details, shipping and other information via custom tabs. Shopify orders can be easily integrated and accessed from the HelpDesk. This makes it easy for you to cancel, duplicate or refund purchases.
All aspects of the HelpCenter can be easily customized so its appearance is in line with your store's aesthetics. This app is great for answering customer's questions in real-time and after office hours. This feature ensures that you have better conversions when it comes to store visitors purchasing a product from your eCommerce store.
Key Features
- HelpCenter supports enquiries from multiple channels such as FB, email or chat.
- It allows you to integrate multiple stores and channels and use just one account for communication.
- Their quick to create FAQ page is SEO friendly and supports multiple languages.
- Popularly searched questions can be grouped in categories and sections so customers can easily find them.
- One tab can be applied to multiple products as long as they fall under the same category, or are from the same vendor.
Best used for:
- This is a great app to address common and important questions that customers often have before they place an order without having to rely on your customer support team.
- Even if your team is unavailable, you can ensure the line of communication between your store and your customers is never cut.
- HelpCenter allows easy organization and customization of queries, products and purchase history - everything you will need to address your shoppers question with speed.
Cons
- There are multiple reports that the HelpCenter page is unstable and does not load.
- It appears that the tech support is slow to correct issues and respond to user's queries.
- Expanding your basic options or customizations can prove to be expensive as HelpCenter offers these facilities under their paid versions.
2.7) Gorgias - HelpDesk & Live Chat
Gorgias focuses on lowering your customer acquisition costs by retaining your clients. They help you do this by improving customer loyalty and experience. Since shoppers often use multiple platforms to access your brand, it is vital that you unify all those conversations in a single feed.
Gorgias helps you with bringing your Shopify store, email account, Instagram, Live Chat and FB on a single dashboard. It also helps you look at the big picture i.e.purchase journey of the customer, as well as zoom in on the details such as the reason for the ticket.
With Gorgias' Shopify integration, it is easy to duplicate, refund, cancel or edit purchases with a single click. They also have over 80+ app integrations which ensures that every move you need to make can be done within this app.
Key Features
- Allows you to utilize automation and self-service features to address common queries, and let your team take control of WISMO demands.
- This app provides the facility to auto-tag any ticket with intent of purchase so they can be high on the priority list.
- The live chat feature can help you address questions in an instant regardless of time-zone or office hours.
- Gorgias is specifically designed to support your Shopify eCommerce store and unify all stacks in a common place so you have better control.
- In order to have a holistic view when interacting with customers, Gorgias displays all relevant information for you including purchase history and details.
Best used for:
- Gorgias is a great app for unifying all your stacks in one common place.
- It works well for converting online store visitors into clients and retaining your existing customer base.
- This app provides the perfect balance of automation and self-service ensuring that customers queries are addressed appropriately.
Cons
- While Gorgias offers live customer support, each response can take 10-20 minutes.
- Deleting the app requires you to get in touch with their customer support team.
- Users have experienced difficulty integrating apps with Gorgias and have reported that it is not supported by the Firefox system.
2.8) Popups & Upsell by Personizely
Personizely is a conversion marketing toolset that uses tailored popups to capture customer information, raise average order value, and increase sales. It helps you convert store visitors into customers with features such as exit intent and Shopify email popups.
This app is great for boosting sales. It provides with you with an assortment of strategies such as upselling, cross-selling, and bundling of products. It also comes with with option to customize bars targeted at increasing sales such as promotion, free shipping and sales motivation.
In addition, Personizely helps you increase your mailing list. It does so by allowing you to offer discounts on products through the use of newsletters. It also facilitates easy migration from and integration with a host of other apps.
Key Features
- Personizely helps Shopify e-tailers to acquire and retain customers, create newsletters and design popups.
- It helps you improve average order values by using cross-sell and upsell popups.
- This app assists you in identifying and targeting visitors who are about to leave with exit-intent popups.
- It allows you to customize a range of promotion bars which will help you motivate shoppers to make a purchase.
- Personizely also enables you to offer discount codes to newsletter subscribers via email.
Best used for:
- This Shopify app is great for converting store visitors into customers.
- It helps you improve order values by offering you a host of tools such as cross-selling and upselling.
- It transforms numbers into useful data and insight that you can utilize when implementing strategies in your Shopify store.
Cons
- Personizely can be a little difficult to set-up and use for users new to online stores and the Shopify platform.
- The customization and editor tool of this Shopify app does not have an undo button so you often have to start at the beginning after you've made an error.
- It's dashboard can appear a little cluttered which can have you searching for information.
2.9) OptiMonk : Website Personalizer
The tag line of OptiMonk requests Shopify store owners to stop treating visitors like traffic and instead like people. This vision has enabled them to design useful and interactive popups that will help you keep your customers coming back for more.
OptiMonk also helps you perform and achieve several basic tasks. It can aid you in building an SMS and email list for your Shopify store. It can assist in preventing abandoned carts. With this app, you can promote seasonal offers and unmissable deals to your customers.
Furthermore, their cross-selling and upselling tools will lead to improved order values for your Shopify store. And while helping store visitors find the perfect product for their needs, you can also collect useful feedback and turn it into data to improve brand loyalty.
Key Features
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This app helps you increase sales of your Shopify store via sticky bars, popups, teasers and surveys.
- OptiMonk's Shopping Quiz popup is brilliant for collecting data and guiding shoppers to the right products.
- With this Shopify app, you will be able to motivate your customers to provide post-purchase feedback in exchange for special discounts.
- Its NPS survey bar can help you measure customer satisfaction and loyalty and use the data to improve areas of operation.
- Spin-the-wheel popups bring a game element to shopping and allows your customers to avail of various prizes.
Best used for:
- If you are interested in options for triggering and targeting shoppers, OptiMonk comes with 30+ options to help you achieve this.
- It allows auto-generation and auto-redeeming of coupon codes enabling you to provide these perks without the need to organize it yourself.
- It can help you combine dynamic recommendations from your inventory along with countdown timers ensuring higher conversions.
Cons
- The discount options on the spin-the-wheel feature of this Shopify app cannot be customized.
- When users try to customize popups and bars for their Shopify store, they encounter multiple bugs and technical glitches.
- Many users feel that OptiMonk is pricey and complicated.
2.10) Free Shipping Bar
Free Shipping Bar helps you promote offers of free shipping one your Shopify store. It facilitates the creation of progressive content with the goal of generating higher order value in the checkout cart. It enables you to motivate customers and store visitors into spending more, which in turn will increase your store’s revenue.
You can use this Shopify app to create a range of shipping offers depending on the customer’s location, device or segment. When designing your free shipping bar, you can curate background images to reflect the promotion mood or festivity.
Its easy one-click installation means that you do not need to bring in a coding expert. Its fully customizable bar can be placed anywhere on your Shopify store and you can even throw in some emojis in the content!
Key Features
- Free Shipping Bar helps you keep track of your various promotions to analyze which one brought in the highest sales.
- You can configure this Shopify apps bar to appear only on certain pages or URLs and not on others.
- Its automated currency exchange features allows you to immediately calculate and display shipping rates and free value.
- The free shipping bar is designed for optimized display on all types of devices.
- A bar that is un-watermarked by the app developers means that your customized free shipping bars appear professional and clean.
Best used for:
- This free shipping bar app is great for optimizing the content and placement of this bar.
- This Shopify app gives you enough leeway to target customers all over the world as well as give them an idea of free shipping value in real-time.
- Customization is a necessity for all online brands and tools and this app offers plenty of freedom when it comes to ensuring your free shipping bar matches your store.
Cons
- Many users complain of having difficulty in getting the app to run on their Shopify store.
- The Free Shipping Bar app appears to cause glitches on websites supporting multiple languages.
- Users report that this Shopify app is difficult to edit or delete on an Android device.
3. How to Select the Best Shopify Apps for Increasing Sales
There are plenty of Shopify apps to choose from. There are over 3,000 in total! But what should you look for in a Shopify app? Each app should have four basic characteristics:
- Easy to Use : Why spend money on an app that you won't use? Make sure the software is foolproof and simple to use. This means limited to no-coding and easy to follow instructions.
- Efficiency : If you're looking for an app, you're probably seeking a solution to a marketing or sales issue. As a result, ensure that your app accomplishes this in the most effective manner feasible.
- Affordability : In practically every transaction, the price is the most important consideration. Consider the app's price versus the possible benefits (many of these tools can pay for themselves if utilized appropriately.)
- Friendly User Interface : It is never a great idea to choose an app that is too complicated to navigate with ease. Complicated interfaces mean that customers can grow weary of looking for information on your online store. To prevent this, choose an app that has a simple interface.
- Customization : It is crucial that you present your customers and store visitors with a harmonious Shopify store where nothing looks out of place. In order to achieve this look, the app that you choose must present the option of customization.
- Easy to install : Another key element is the installation of the app. The process should be straightforward such that you can build your store in a few clicks.
- Range of features : The more features your app can give, the better. It will allow you to provide better utility for your customers and hence boost sales. A good example of the same is targeted notifications to draw the attention of customers.
- Support : Finally, ensure that the app is updated on a regular basis and that it has a support team. As a result, you'll never feel "stuck" while troubleshooting any annoying issues.
- Reviews : Every app ends up collecting customer and expert reviews. As a user, you should be able to view this data for your analysis. This can help you review the performance of your store as well as the app.
- Downtime Issues: Software applications tend to suffer from glitches and errors leading to downtime issues where the app is nonfunctional. This results in businesses losing customers and money. Downtime issues either need a good customer support or they should not occur regularly with a well-configured app. Keep these points in mind before selecting an app.
- Integration: eCommerce businesses generally utilize a fair number of software systems and apps to manage operations. Any app that you select to improve your Shopify sales should be able to integrate well with the other software systems in your business ecosystem. Otherwise, you will be left facing regular glitches and errors that can cause considerable constraints in your workflow.
- Best Solution : Every Shopify store is different and may need attention on certain sections. Look at which aspect of your store you can boost to increase sales and pick a suitable app accordingly.
4. Overall Recommendation
There are many different Shopify apps for increasing sales available on the market. They all claim to be the one that will help you grow your e-commerce business to the level of success you desire. There are many apps that are worth testing out. However keep in mind that not every app is suited for every Shopify store's business strategy.
To begin with, figure out EXACTLY what you want to achieve as part of your overall business plan. Delve deeper into each component to pinpoint the feature you would like the app to address. This will help you decide which Shopify app is most suited for your online store.
And don't forget - if the one you choose doesn't meet your Shopify store's expectations or needs, you can always try another!
5. FAQs
5.1) What are the best apps to Increase Sales for Shopify?
Some of the best apps to increase sales for Shopify are Omnisend, Shopify Email, Klaviyo, Tidio, Help Center, Gorgias, Aftership Returns Center, Personizely, etc.
5.2) What are the basic characteristics for selecting the Best Shopify Apps for Increasing Sales?
The four basic characteristics for selecting the Best Shopify Apps for Increasing Sales are Ease of use, Efficiency, Affordability and Support .