Must-Have Shopify Apps to Grow Your Store

There are over 8,000 apps in the Shopify App Store. No wonder it’s challenging to choose just three to five of them and make sure they’re essential Shopify apps for your store. Luckily for you, we at DigitalSuits are no strangers to enhancing the Shopify store’s feature kit with third-party apps. So, we know which apps are irreplaceable in creating a better ecommerce store.

Best Shopify apps available in the Shopify App Store

Shopify offers a lot of built-in features to help you start an online store without hassle. Features for all plans include Fraud Analysis, Discount Codes, Custom Pricing by Market, Analytics, and Finance Reports. However, to truly extend the store's functionality, consider integrating some must-have Shopify apps.

We selected the best apps for Shopify store from ten categories, from email marketing and subscriptions to accessibility and customer support, to help you establish your store in the best way. However, to customize the shopping experience and tailor Shopify features to your business, we recommend professional Shopify development services. It will help you boost your growth and achieve the desired results faster than if you do it yourself.

Essential apps for Shopify product reviews

Social proof and public opinion matters: Local Consumer Review Survey 2022 from BrightLocal shows that 97% of the surveyed consumers read reviews online to search for local businesses. Here’s how Yotpo can help you do it.

#1 Yotpo

Vendor: Yotpo

App categories: Product reviews

Description: Yotpo is a marketing platform with multiple products, such as SMS and email marketing, loyalty programs and referrals, subscriptions, and review tools. Yotpo’s Shopify app for product reviews lets merchants connect stores with this platform and showcase social proof on product pages. With this app, you can enable your customers to submit a review after a purchase and display it on your store with a star rating. This rating is also displayed in the Google search results, making your pages more appealing.

Key features:

• Easy customers’ photo and video collection
• Review highlights and summaries
• Smart filters for delivering relevant content to users
• Customizable widgets for presenting reviews on your website
• Integrations with Facebook, Instagram, and Google

Customer review:

Pricing: Yotpo provides a free plan for trying the service. Paid plan pricing depends on the number of orders. The Starter plan starts at $15/mo for up to 50 orders, while the Pro plan for $169/mo allows up to 500 orders. If you need even greater volume, the company offers Premium tailored plans.

Check out how DigitalSuits leveraged Yotpo for our client – a knife manufacturer, Artisan Revere.

Shopify best apps for on-site search

On-site search is vital for a positive shopping experience, while search abandonment costs brand loyalty. This function is the most commonly used feature in online stores, so you should consider the best tactics for site search customization and personalization. We recommend trying Nosto for this purpose.

#2 Nosto

Vendor: Nosto Solutions Ltd

App categories: Search and filters , Upsell and cross-sell

Description: Nosto provides personalized AI search for accurate product discovery. Since this tool is based on approximate nearest neighbor (ANN) algorithms, you can make your on-site search hyper-relevant to customer preferences. On top of that, the Nosto app allows you to use intent-rich search data for product recommendations and content personalization.

Key features:

• Instant search with autocomplete features
• AI-based search bar with personalization option
• Search suggestions and synonym groups
• Conversion tracking and AI insights
• Integrations with Yotpo, Klaviyo, Shopify Flow, and more

Customer review:

Pricing: Nosto is free to install. Paid plan pricing depends on traffic volume and is available upon request.

Must-have Shopify apps for ecommerce returns and exchanges

This kind of Shopify app lets you manage returns and refunds in case a product doesn’t suit a customer, regardless of the reason. This service is essential for every store where a return is possible, such as for the clothing or electronics industry, since it strongly impacts customer purchase decisions. Given that the average return rate in ecommerce in 2023 was 17.6%, you also need to make the return and refund process as simple as possible. That’s where ReturnGO comes in handy.

#3 ReturnGo

Vendor: ReturnGo

App categories: Returns and exchanges, Order tracking

Description: The ReturnGO platform allows you to create your workflow for seamless and automatic return processing. Installing this app allows you to create automation rules, such as auto-exchange, auto-refund, and auto-credit for managing customer requests. There is also an option to automatically generate return shipping labels for tracking returns that empowers your analytics system.

Key features:

• Automated and manual returns
• QR codes and gift cards
• Real-time tracking and custom tracking links
• SMS and email notifications
• Stock updates

Customer review:

Pricing: ReturnGO has a 14-day trial period. After that, you have to choose between Starter—$23/mo, Premium—$121/mo, Pro—$297/mo, and Enterprise—$417/mo. Each plan includes its unique features; however, all of the plans are compatible with Shopify.

See how DigitalSuits helped ReturnGo become a leading AI-powered Shopify return and exchange app.

Necessary Shopify apps for subscription management

A subscription app is essential for businesses that offer subscription products and have recurring purchases. Such apps help merchants manage customers and orders, sort and segment customer profiles, enable customers to edit their orders and subscriptions, and much more. To leverage these features, we recommend Recharge.

#4 Recharge

Vendor: Recharge

App categories: Subscriptions , Product bundles

Description: Recharge is a subscription management platform for building retention strategies. It enables the creation of a full-circle retention model that encompasses conversion, retention, upsell, analytics, and refinement steps. This includes promoting subscriptions, enabling subscribers to easily manage their orders, offering customized bundles, and rewarding subscribers with gifts.

Key features:

• Curated, replenishment, and custom subscriptions
• Fixed, mix-and-match, and variant bundles
• Upsell and cross-sell bundles
• Fixed, quantity, dynamic, and custom pricing
• Volume, flat, and percentage discounts

Customer review:

Pricing: Recharge has a 30-day trial period. If you decide to use it further, you can proceed with the Standard plan for $99/mo (1.25% + 19¢ per transaction) or the Pro plan for $499/mo (1% + 19¢ per transaction).

The best Shopify app for email marketing

Email marketing remains one of the most effective tools for merchants. A recent study shows that businesses can expect an average return of $40 on every $1 spent on email marketing. Klaviyo can help you harness the power of email marketing.

#5 Klaviyo

Vendor: Klaviyo

App categories: Email marketing, SMS marketing

Description: Klaviyo is among the most popular Shopify apps with plenty of integrations. It comes with powerful personalization, automation, and predictive analytics features, among others. It’s also a must-have app for Shopify if you rely on comprehensive data to drive your marketing efforts.

Key features:

• Automation for campaigns and event-based emails and messages (price drops, back in stock, etc.)
• Detailed customer list segmentation powered by predictive analytics
• Comprehensive real-time metric tracking (per automation, segment, etc.)

Customer review:

Pricing: Klaviyo is free for up to 250 email contacts and 50 SMS contacts; If you need more, you’re required to pay $20/mo for email (up to 500 contacts) and $5/mo for SMS (up to 150 contacts), with upgrades available.

DigitalSuits turned to Klaviyo multiple times throughout the development process: MyBalto and Artisan Revere are just a couple of examples.

Must-have apps for Shopify store design

Your store’s design is a first impression of a potential customer. It’s also key to a great user and customer experience, as well as making your SEO efforts more efficient. You don’t have to start designing from scratch. You can use an app like Replo to create beautiful, optimized pages in a matter of minutes!

#6 Replo

Vendor: Replo

App categories: Page builder

Description: The Replo page builder allows merchants to create and edit product pages, blog posts, landing pages, pop-ups, review pages, and more using its multiple features. This allows you to customize your theme and add dynamic fields without coding. It has a user-friendly interface and integrates with other must-have apps for Shopify store to extend its functionality.

Key features:

• 100+ pre-designed templates
• Built-in A/B testing
• AI tools for creating on-brand content
• Page versions for easy editing
• Lazy loading
• Analytics

Customer review:

Pricing: You can start for free to try all of the Replo features. However, the pages created in this plan are only available for preview. To publish them, you have to switch to a paid plan. Replo offers three plans: Basic – $99/month for 10 published pages and 10 sections, Standard – $249/month for 30 published pages and 30 sections, and Growth – $499+ per month for over 100 published pages and sections.

Shopify best apps for customer support

Customer experience is a key competitive differentiator for your store; it can inspire a shopper to make a repeat purchase on your website or never return again. Customer support is vital to enhancing the customer experience – and with the Gorgias Shopify app, you can truly excel at it.

#7 Gorgias

Vendor: Gorgias Inc.

App categories: Chat, Helpdesk

Description: Gorgias empowers ecommerce companies to manage every aspect of customer support with a single AI-powered tool. This Shopify app allows you to automatically insert customer data right from the Shopify dashboard to your responses, create and edit customer orders, connect multiple support channels, and much more. Still, it’s a user-friendly platform that’s easy to set up and get answers to your questions.

Key features:

• AI chatbots, live and email chats
• Automated responses for cart recovery and order updates
• Workflow automation, such as rule-based triggers
• Tagging, spam detection, and order tracking

Customer review:

Pricing: Gorgias offers 7-day trial period, after which you should choose one of its paid plans: Starter – $10 for 50 tickets per month, Basic – $60 for 300 tickets per month, Pro – $360 for 2,000 tickets per month, and Advanced – $900 for 5,000 tickets per month.

Essential apps for Shopify store accessibility

Today, complying with accessibility standards is a must for every online store. The European Accessibility Act obliges businesses operating across Europe to comply with accessibility standards by June 2025. In the US, similar requirements are outlined in Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). So, if your store isn't yet compliant, hurry up and fix this problem with an accessibility app like Accessibly.

#8 Accessibly

Vendor: On The Map Marketing

App categories: Accessibility

Description: This Shopify app helps you comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), making your store accessible for users with disabilities. It includes features like widgets for selecting accessibility options that improve navigation and overall user experience.

Key features:

• Content, color, and navigation items for users to apply
• Background features like skip to content, AI alt texts for images, and more
• Engagement analytics for implementing enhancements
• Headless JS features for developers

Customer review:

Pricing: Accessibly offers pricing starting at $5 per month for the Regular plan with basic features. If you need more advanced features like text-to-speech tools and AI for alt tags, you can switch to their Professional plan for $20 per month.

Top Shopify apps for retention improvement

It’s hard to imagine a business that doesn’t strive to maximize its profit. The smartest way to do this is by increasing customer lifetime value (LTV) since customer retention costs significantly less than acquiring new customers. We recommend trying the RetentionX app to prioritize customer retention.

#9 RetentionX

Vendor: RetentionX

App categories: Ads, Analytics

Description: RetentionX turns your data into actionable insights, focusing on customer retention. It shows which customers spend more or less on your products, their purchase frequency, and the recency of their purchases. This allows you to assess each customer's purchase potential and loyalty and win back lost customers. Plus, it helps you create ad campaigns with built-in automation features for audience targeting.

Key features:

• Audience segments and custom audiences
• AI targeting and retargeting
• Performance tracking with UTM attribution
• Conversion tracking and ROI analysis

Customer review:

Pricing: RetentionX is free to install and use for up to 250 active customers. After exceeding this limit RetentionX charges $0.01 per customer. You only pay for customers who have ordered in the last 12 months.

Must-have apps on Shopify for upsell and cross-sell

Without upsell and cross-sell options, you may lose a chance to boost your average order value. It would also be a mistake to ignore the post-purchase stage of a customer journey since at this step, a customer decides if they want to return to you in the future. Shopify apps like Rebuy help merchants be proactive in this realm.

#10 Rebuy

Vendor: Rebuy

App categories: Upsell and cross-sell

Description: Rebuy offers multiple features to boost sales, from progress bars to highly personalized product recommendations. It combines AI/ML solutions, A/B/n testing, Smart Cart, Re-Order landing pages, and much more to ensure perfect purchase experience with high conversion rates.

Key features:

• Cart and checkout upsell
• Thank you page upsell
• Volume and tiered discounts
• Product add-ons and frequently-bought-together feature
• Recommendation performance

Customer review:

Pricing: Rebuy offers a 21-day trial period, next, for stores doing up to 1,000 orders the company has the Starter plan for $99 per month. Their Scale plan costs $249 for up to 2,500 orders per month, the Pro plan is $499 for up to 5,000 orders, and Grow is $749 for up to 7,500 orders.

To sum up

We’ve reviewed the ten Shopify must-have apps to build a successful store. Let’s recap.

• Yotpo for managing product reviews
• Nosto for personalized on-site search
• ReturnGo for processing returns and exchanges
• Recharge for subscription management
• Klaviyo for email and SMS marketing
• Replo for designing your store
• Gorgias for AI-powered customer support
• Accessibly for making your site inclusive
• RetentionX for increasing customer lifetime value
• Rebuy for enabling upsell and cross-selling

If you have any questions or need assistance implementing app and custom features in your store, don’t hesitate to contact DigitalSuits’ specialists. We have in-depth knowledge of Shopify web development and would be happy to help you with any requests and issues.