Looking for the Best App for Shopify Store? Here Are Your 10 Must-Haves

There are over 8,000 options on the Shopify app store. No wonder it’s challenging to choose just three to five of them and make sure they’re the best Shopify applications out there.
Luckily for you, we at DigitalSuits are no strangers to enhancing the Shopify store’s feature kit with third-party apps. As a leading Shopify app development company and a certified Shopify partner, we have rich hands-on experience with Shopify apps. So, we know which apps are irreplaceable in creating a better e-commerce store.
Today, let us draw on our experience and introduce you to the best Shopify applications in ten categories, from email marketing and shipping to order fulfillment and customer support.
When done right, loyalty programs and rewards can drive customers to choose your store over competitors. They will place orders more frequently and pay more to stay with your brand, according to McKinsey.
But what does “done right” mean? In a nutshell, customers expect discounts and free shipping from a loyalty program – and they don’t want to wait too long to redeem a reward. So here’s one of the best Shopify applications to help you create an effective reward system and loyalty program.
Rating: 5.0/5
Pricing: free; $29/mo. (Pro)
Developer: Joy Loyalty
Joy managed a rare feat – earning a perfect 5.0 rating on the Shopify app store. It’s no surprise, however: the Joy app has everything you need to set up reward and loyalty programs, from redeemable points to referrals and commissions. You’re also flexible in customizing earning and spending rules for the bonuses and branding to make your program one of a kind.
Key features:
Like any other business, you must have some users that start shopping on your website but abandon their cart before checkout. (The cart abandonment rate is a whopping 75.6% worldwide!)
You don’t have to cut your losses here. Instead, you can recover some of those abandoned carts and reduce the loss of revenue with Abandoned Cart Recovery by Marsello.
Rating: 4.6/5
Pricing: $19/mo. (Standard), $29/mo. (Pro)
Free trial: 14 days
Developer: Marsello
You don’t have to play Sherlock Holmes and detect abandoned carts manually one by one. All you need is Abandoned Cart Recovery, a must-have app for Shopify stores that automatically detects incomplete orders and acts accordingly to recover them. You can set it up to send emails, show exit pop-ups, remember carts across multiple devices, and more.
Key features:
Email marketing remains one of the most effective tools. 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.
Rating: 4.0/5
Pricing: free (up to 250 email contacts and 50 SMS contacts); $20/mo. for email (up to 500 contacts) and $5/mo. for SMS (up to 150 contacts), with upgrades available
Developer: Klaviyo
We’ve turned to Klaviyo multiple times in the development process: MyBalto and Artisan Revere are just a couple of examples. The reason? Klaviyo 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 in your marketing.
Key features:
Subscriptions are a new goldmine. According to CaaStle data, subscribed customers of one apparel company spent on average 2.5 times more than their traditional counterparts. But consumers want a good value for their money, per McKinsey. Here’s how Appstle can help you deliver just that.
Rating: 4.9/5
Pricing: free until $500 in subscription revenue per month; $10/mo. for up to $5,000; $30/mo. for up to $30,000; $100/mo. for up to $100,000
Free trial: 10 days
Developer: Appstle Inc.
One of the most powerful apps for e-commerce stores, Appstle has everything you need to deliver a rich subscription experience to your customers. It’s also an extremely flexible tool: you can offer a variety of loyalty benefits, different subscription types, and custom UX features.
Key features:
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. H3 Yotpo Product & Photo Reviews
Rating: 4.9/5
Pricing: free (up to 50 monthly orders); $15/mo. (50 monthly orders); $24/mo. (100 monthly orders); $49/mo. (250 monthly orders)
Developer: Yotpo
We used Yotpo in developing a store for a kitchen knife manufacturer, Artisan Revere. So, we can attest that collecting and displaying reviews is as easy as it can be with this app. And thanks to Yotpo’s partnership with Google, these reviews can drive more organic traffic from search results to your store.
Key features:
U.S. shoppers expect fast delivery from online stores. For instance, 42% of shoppers expect two-day shipping for online purchases. To help you match these expectations, you can take advantage of Shipway, one of the best Shopify applications.
Rating: 4.9/5
Pricing: $19.99/mo. (500 orders + 1 courier integration); $39.99/mo. (1,200 orders + 3 courier integrations); $99.99/mo. (3,000 orders + 5 courier integrations); $169.99/mo. (5,000 orders + unlimited courier integrations)
Free trial: 7 days
Developer: Shipway
Shipway is a five-in-one app that lets you automate everything related to shipping. From automatically processing orders to choosing the right courier service and creating a branded return workflow for your customers, you can automate most of your shipping efforts with Shipway – and manage everything from one panel.
Key features:
Fulfilment costs have been rising in the US both for B2B and B2C segments. But as the purchasing power of consumers is in decline, shoppers often can’t afford to pay the price. So, your task is to bring down your order fulfilment costs and duration – and Auto Fulfill is the right app for this job.
Rating: 4.3/5
Pricing: $20/mo. (up to 500 unfulfilled orders); $30/mo. (up to 1,000 unfulfilled orders); $40/mo. (up to 2,000 unfulfilled orders); $50/mo. (up to 3,000 unfulfilled orders)
Free trial: 7 days
Developer: Estore Automate
If you’re tired of sending order details to your vendors manually, Auto Fulfill is the Shopify app must-have for you. It can take care of sending unfulfilled order data while you take care of more essential business operations. Auto Fulfill will also help you keep track of orders and update tracking without breaking a sweat.
Key features:
Clothing, home and garden, jewelry and watches are the top three dropshipping products on Shopify. So, if you want to get in on it, here’s how Spocket can help you set up your dropshipping business with ease.
Rating: 4.6/5
Pricing: free; $29.99/mo. (Premium); $49.99/mo. (Pro); $99.99/mo. (Empire)
Free trial: 14 days
Developer: Spocket
Need access to fast-shipping products and vendors for your dropshipping business? Spocket has you covered. This app allows you to look up any product, find the right vendor, and import the item to your store in seconds. It’s integrated with AliExpress, too – so it’s ideal for AliExpress dropshipping operations.
Key features:
Your store’s design is your first impression on 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 PageFly to create beautiful, optimized pages in a matter of minutes!
Rating: 4.9/5
Pricing: free; paid plan starts at $24/mo.
Developer: PageFly
PageFly is an unrivalled page builder for Shopify stores: it allows you to create pages of any purpose and complexity: from landing and home pages to product, collection, and password pages. It’s also fully compatible with Shopify themes and comes with in-built SEO and speed optimization.
Key features:
Customer experience is a primary competitive differentiator for your store; it can prompt a shopper to place another order on your website or never return to it again. Customer support is a vital part of customer experience – and you can excel at it with the HelpCenter Shopify app.
Rating: 4.7/5
Pricing: free (10 tickets/mo.); $8/mo. (50 tickets/mo.); $45/mo. (300 tickets/mo.); $100/mo. (1,000 tickets/mo.)
Free trial: 15 days
Developer: Shark Byte, Inc.
HelpCenter is a Shopify app must-have for any store owner that cares about the customer experience. It offers a robust toolkit with all the ingredients for an excellent CX: the live chat, chatbot, FAQ builder, contact form, and ticketing system. It’s also easy to use and affordable, especially for new businesses.
Key features:
Shopify apps are here to help you create a better e-commerce store with all the features you and your customers may need. However, you should opt only for the best Shopify applications to avoid problems with performance, functionality, and load speed.
The best way to see if an app lives up to your expectations is to take it on a test drive. Check out the demo store and use that free trial to try the app in the field conditions if you’re considering a paid one.
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer here. To increase your online store’s sales, you have to consider multiple aspects of marketing and customer experience and see which strategy will pay off the best.
For some businesses, honing their email marketing strategy with Klaviyo is the best solution to boost sales. For others, recovering abandoned carts is a better way to go.
You can also look into Shopify apps like Wiser, AVADA Boost Sales 14 in 1, and SMART Bundle Upsell. They are designed to help you personalize the shopping experience, upsell and cross-sell.
Three to five is the optimal number of app installs for a Shopify store. That’s because the more apps you install, the more likely they will slow down your website – and that’s not great for the user experience.
Make sure to test your store’s load speed every time you add a new application; their impact can differ. You can consult our comprehensive Shopify store speed optimization guide for more information.
In our opinion, Spocket is a must-have app for Shopify dropshipping business. It’ll help you find products from vendors all over the world and add them to your store in a couple of clicks. Other noteworthy dropshipping Shopify apps are Printful for print-on-demand businesses and Oberlo for Aliexpress dropshipping.
CEO at DigitalSuits
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