With over 2.6 million U.S based stores, Shopify controls over 10% of the global ecommerce platform market.
Even more insightful is that the top 10% of successful Shopify app stores have an average conversion rate of 4.7%, with the highest conversion rate seen on Shopify being 8%.
Shopify apps, both free and paid, can give your ecommerce store a definitive edge over the competition when it comes to growing your list, nurturing prospects, and bagging more sales.
Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned ecommerce veteran, this guide will deliver you the top Shopify apps to increase sales and profits for your online shopping business.
Importance of Choosing the Right Shopify Apps
Using the right set of Shopify apps:
- Promotes the visibility and reach of your Shopify app store in cost-effective ways;
- Improves conversion rates, sales, and revenue;
- Enhances customer experience and their engagement with your brand and its online assets;
- Boosts customer retention through relevant and personalized journeys;
- Fosters relationship building and brand loyalty;
- Streamlines online store tasks, such as inventory management, order fulfillment, customer support, and more;
- Increases Customer LifeTime Value (CLTV), profitability, and Return over Investment (ROI).
Shopify apps deliver undeniable benefits in terms of data-driven decision-making through inputs and analytics, plus automation features to help make the most of these insights.
Without further ado, let’s take a quick look at the Shopify apps we promised to introduce you to:
10 Must-Have Shopify Apps of 2023 — A Quick Glance
| Shopify App Name | Description | Pricing |
| Sender | Email & SMS Marketing Automation for Shopify Stores | Free forever plan includes 2,500 subscribers & 15,000 emails/ mo + Unlimited popups, forms & email automation; Paid plans start from $8.33/mo for 2,500 contacts. |
| Printful | Print-on-Demand Shopify App | Free plan includes the design tools, automatic global order fulfillment and white label packing slips etc; Paid plan lets you use additional features such as added branding, custom packaging, and more. |
| B2B/Wholesale Solution | Wholesale Management App | Free plan is limited to use on development & partner test stores only; Paid plans start from $25/mo and include advanced features such as additional branding, unlimited quantity break, registration forms, and more. |
| Shopjar | Affiliate Program App | Free plan includes the design tools, automatic global order fulfillment and white label packing slips, etc; Paid plan lets you use additional features such as added branding, custom packaging, and more. |
| Retainful | Email Automation App | Free plan: Includes referral programs, landing pages & popups, unique referral links & more; Paid plan is $9/mo and in addition to free plan, features includes affiliate programs, unique links & coupons, affiliate portal & signup forms. |
| CJDropshipping | Dropshipping Service for Ecommerce Business | CJDropshipping’s Shopify app is free to install, but your fee will likely include a combination of product fees, warehousing fees, shipping & logistics fees, and more. |
| ShipStation | Shipping Automation for Shopify Stores | No free tier, only a 30-day free trial; Paid plans start from $9.99/mo and include up to 50 shipments, unlimited stores, and more. |
| SearchPie | SEO Shopify App for Ecommerce Stores | Free plan allows a max of 300 contacts, abandoned cart recovery, 1 automation and 500 emails/mo; Paid plan is $19/mo and includes a 14-day free trial, up to 2000 contacts, email marketing automation, up to 10 automation workflows, and unlimited email sends. |
| Rivo | Referrals App | Free plan includes up to 200 monthly orders, a points program, a referral program, and basic branding; Paid plans start from $49/mo and include up to 500 monthly orders, customizable reward emails, nudges (on-site pop-ups), and more. |
| Smile | Loyalty & Rewards Shopify App | Free plan includes SEO reports, bulk tagging, basic speed up, sitemap submission; Paid plans start from $39/mo (3-day FREE trial) and include SEO tags advance setup, broken links autopilot, sitemap auto-update, and more. |
Time to take a look at each of them in detail.
The 10 Best Shopify Apps of 2023
Here is the promised list of apps for your Shopify store (including the best free Shopify apps, too) that can help improve customer experiences, increase revenue and profit, and drive business growth.
1. Sender — Email & SMS Marketing Automation for Shopify Stores
Sender is an all-in-one, high-performance, email & SMS automation Shopify app for ecommerce stores that seek affordable solutions for their marketing needs.
- Email & SMS Automation
- Smart Segmentation
- High Inbox Deliverability
Sender is a free Shopify app that you can download as a plugin and install in no time from your Shopify admin dashboard.
Its rich library of email templates and simple drag-and-drop email builder make it easy for you to craft beautiful and high-converting email newsletters. Once you create one, effortlessly send the campaign or create triggered sequences with automation builder.
Design and deploy email signup forms and exit-intent popups quickly and easily to convert visitors into valuable leads and nurture them through personalized journeys with smart customer segmentation.
On top of that, with Sender, you can leverage omnichannel marketing since it offers SMS campaigns and automation, too.
Sender’s Key Features
- Email & SMS automation;
- Smart segmentation & personalization;
- High-converting popups & forms;
- Drag-and-drop email builder & premade templates;
- 24/7 LIVE customer support (even for the free tier).
Sender Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| User-friendly, wizard-led initial setup | Sender logo with a free plan |
| Generous free plan (likely the best free email marketing plan out there) | Sender logo with free plan |
| Unlimited email automation + LIVE chat support (including the free tier) |
Sender’s Plans & Pricing
| Free Forever plan | Standard plan | Professional plan | |
| Price | $0 | Starts from $8.33 (when billed yearly as $100) | Starts from $29.17 (when billed yearly as $350) |
| Target Audience | Businesses starting out | Growing online businesses | Advanced omnichannel features |
| Subscribers | Up to 2,500 | Up to 2,500 | Up to 2,500 |
| Emails/Month | Up to 15,000 | Up to 30,000 | Up to 60,000 |
| Email Automation | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Sender Branding | Contains Sender branding | White label | White label |
| SMS & MMS Messaging | – | Yes | Free SMS & MMS |
| Advanced Automation | – | – | Yes |
| 24/7 LIVE Chat Support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
If you’re looking to execute low-cost, high-impact marketing campaigns, Sender is a must-have Shopify app to always keep in your marketing arsenal.
Also read: How to Create Shopify Email Templates: Types, Examples & Tool
2. Printful — Print-on-Demand Shopify App
Printful is a print-on-demand app that lets you personalize and sell men’s and women’s apparel, footwear, bags, tech accessories, and more using a dropshipping model without having to manage any inventory or shipping.
- Fully Managed Dropshipping
- 330+ Personalized Products
- Custom Branding & Packaging
Printful offers a straightforward, fully managed, on-demand brand printing and shipping service where you can sell products through your online Shopify store without having to worry about product fulfillment and logistics.
When a customer places an order on your Shopify store integrated with the Printful application, order details are automatically captured and sent over to Printful, which then takes care of readying and delivering the personalized product order directly to the customer.
White label and sell over 330+ products, including men’s wear, women’s clothing, kids’ wear, travel bags, mobile accessories, hats, sports accessories, and home living decor items, the hassle-free way.
Printful’s Key Features
- Wide range of customizable products;
- Automated order fulfillment and shipping;
- Custom branding options and tools;
- No inventory management needed;
- No order minimums.
Printful Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Transparent pricing, including no upfront costs | Limited product range |
| Great range of design templates | Unsatisfactory customer support has been reported on a few occasions |
| Fast shipping | Occasional technical glitches during use |
Printful Pricing
| Free plan | Paid plan (additional features for extra fees) |
| Design toolset | Additional branding options |
| Automatic global order fulfillment | Custom pack-ins |
| White-label packing slips with your custom branding | Custom packaging |
| 24/7 customer support | Creative services like graphic design or photo and video shoots |
| Warehousing services for your non-Printful goodies |
Printful’s product pricing depends on the major factors below:
- Product being personalized;
- Quantity being ordered;
- Region or country the product needs to be shipped to.
Quite understandably, the pricing varies hugely.
On the product pricing side, they offer monthly and volume discount deals on one side to increase sales and generous sponsorships, referrals, and affiliate programs to support your business.
If you dream of offering a print-on-demand service as part of your ecommerce store services, Printful is the marketing app you need to consider trying out seriously.
3. B2B/Wholesale Solution
B2B/Wholesale Solution is a Shopify app that aims to make the lives of wholesale businesses easier by providing seamless and streamlined shopping experiences for their B2B clientele.
- All-in-one Wholesale Management Solution
- Custom Pricing
- Auto-tagging Customers & Orders
Use custom pricing to personalize pricing based on the buying habits or relationships that you have with each customer. If you set up a quantity or amount break, the price per item will decrease inversely as the quantity purchased increases. You can even add extra fees to cover specific services, including rush orders, special packaging, or even long-distance shipping.
B2B/Wholesale Solution also provides you with premade templates to register bulk dealers and businesses. Auto-tagging enables you to automatically assign tags to customers or orders based on pre-defined criteria that then allow you to apply correct pricing and rules to their orders.
You also have the option to set up special discount codes, buy one get one type offers, and more to improve engagement and boost sales.
B2B/Wholesale Solution Key Features
- Custom Pricing, Amount & Quantity Breaks;
- Wholesale Registration Form;
- Auto-tag Customers & Orders;
- Automate VAT & Tax Exemption;
- Discount Codes, BOGO Offers.
B2B/Wholesale Solution Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| User-friendly interface | Occasional setup glitches |
| Ready-to-use B2B selling features such as custom pricing and tax exemption on a case-to-case basis | Setting up becomes more cumbersome the more products you’ve got |
| Professional & responsive customer support | Some advanced features, such as bulk editing of pricing rules, are missing |
B2B/Wholesale Solution Pricing
| Free Forever plan | Paid plans (start from $25/month) |
| Fully featured. | Additional branding options |
| Limited for use on Development stores, partner test stores and Shopify free trials. | Create registration forms, Verify registration requests |
| UNLIMITED quantity break. | |
| Add custom notes, auto tag customers/order | |
| Tax-exempt |
Some of the most-wanted features, such as Custom Pricing, Discount Code & more, are only available in their $50/mo and up plans.
If you primarily deal with B2B sales and wholesale deals, B2B/Wholesale Solution is the one app you must give a shot.
4. Shopjar — Affiliate Program App
Shopjar is an easy-to-use Shopify app that helps ecommerce stores set up referral and affiliate marketing programs, manage influencers and product promoters, and more from a single dashboard.
- Referral & Affiliate Programs
- Influencer Management
- Multi-tiered Rewards
Shopjar helps you increase customer acquisition by designing referral and affiliate marketing programs on the one hand and managing influencer endorsements and product ambassadors on the other.
The referral and affiliate program can be uniquely structured in that they incentivize both the referrer and the referees for each successful referral, ensuring high customer engagement and better new customer conversion rates.
Shopjar’s integrated affiliate portal not only helps you monitor the performance of your affiliate partners, but it also provides a ready-made referral landing page that these partners can use to promote your business and its products.
Tracking and commission payments are automated to simplify affiliate management, and detailed reporting ensures complete transparency for your affiliates.
Shopjar’s Key Features
- Ready-made referral landing pages for effortless referrals;
- Automated commission tracking and payout system;
- Customized landing pages, popups, and affiliate signup forms;
- Comprehensive insights via a user-friendly dashboard;
- Seamless email integration for automated correspondence.
Shopjar’s Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Automated commission tracking & payout ensures transparency | Relatively newer, little-known app |
| Easy customization of referral & affiliate programs | There is a little learning curve to be able to use it |
| Multi-language support |
Shopjar’s Pricing
| Free plan | Paid plan |
| Referral program | Starts $9/mo |
| Unlimited referral members/orders/rewards | Includes features from the free plan |
| Landing pages & popups | Affiliate program |
| Unique referral links | Unlimited affiliate members/orders/rewards |
| Referral sales & analytics | Unique links & coupons |
| Affiliate Portal & Signup forms |
As it grows, your ecommerce store will likely run an affiliate program at some point, and when it does, Shopjar could come in real handy.
5. Retainful — Email Automation App
Retainful is the premier abandoned cart recovery solution for Shopify stores, designed to reclaim lost sales through email marketing automation. This powerful tool assists store owners in sending abandoned cart recovery emails, order follow-up emails, and more.
- Pre-built Automation Templates
- Custom Journey Builder
- Dynamic Coupon Codes
With an array of pre-built templates, Retainful enables swift campaign launches, including cart recovery, welcome emails, and others, to drive sales growth. Personalized campaigns enhance customer engagement, leading to increased revenue.
Leverage Retainful’s referral feature to transform existing customers into brand ambassadors, promoting word-of-mouth sales and acquiring new clients by offering enticing rewards. Both referrers and referees can earn benefits such as free shipping, percentage discounts, or fixed discounts.
The advanced dashboard in Retainful offers insightful analytics, allowing you to monitor the success of your ecommerce email marketing and referral campaigns with ease. Upgrade your business strategy with the professionalism and simplicity that Retainful provides.
Retainful’s Key Features
- Drag-and-drop email blocks for visually appealing designs;
- Unlimited abandoned cart recovery emails;
- Personalize emails with shortcodes;
- Automated stop on recovery email sending upon cart recovery;
- Custom automation journey builder.
Retainful’s Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| User-friendly app with rich automation features and prebuilt templates | Occasional email formatting and displaying glitches over different email providers |
| Ability to run referral programs | Severely limited free plan |
| Great customer support |
Retainful’s Pricing
| Free plan | Paid plan (STARTER) |
| Max of 300 contacts | 14 day free trial + Includes Free plan features |
| Abandoned cart recovery | Up to 2000 contacts |
| Up to 1 Email Automation Workflow (Cart recovery/post-purchase) | Extra $5 per 1000 additional contacts |
| 500 emails/mo | Email marketing automation (Order follow-ups, Thank you emails, Win back emails) |
| Up to 10 automation workflows | |
| Unlimited email sends | |
| Referral program | |
| Premium add-ons (WooCommerce) |
If email marketing and its automation are at the center of your overall marketing strategy, look no further than Retainful and its powerful capabilities.
6. CJDropshipping — Dropshipping Service for Ecommerce Business
CJDropshipping is a fulfillment and supply chain service that provides comprehensive services such as dropshipping, wholesale, and preorder inventory for sellers across a variety of platforms, including Shopify, eBay, WooCommerce, Etsy, and more.
- DIY Bundle Products Option
- Automatic Shipping Method Optimization
- Native Google Chrome Extension
CJDropshipping provides fulfillment for a variety of white-labeled products to Shopify ecommerce stores and supports them via inventory management, order management (including wholesale), warehousing, and even shipping.
Various categories, including computer & office supplies, shoes, bags, jewelry, women’s clothing, home improvement, and more, are covered for the entire life cycle from sourcing to end customer shipment.
CJDropshipping’s automatic listing feature enables sellers to automatically list its products on their respective online stores quickly and easily.
Sellers can also import product reviews to display UGC (user-generated content) and much-needed social proof to prospective customers.
CJDropshipping uses the power of big data analytics to analyze historical data and provide sellers with recommendations for trending products. This can significantly impact inventory levels, meeting consumer demand and avoiding wastage simultaneously.
CJdropshipping’s Key Features
- DIY Bundle products option;
- Easy product reviews import;
- End-to-end accountability from sourcing to end customer delivery;
- Automatic shipping method optimization;
- No minimum order.
CJdropshipping’s Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Global supply chain and warehouses across multiple countries | Communication and coordination with the customer support team is sometimes challenging |
| No setup fee, no monthly fee | Delivery times are a concern |
| No minimum order | Some customers have reported glitches that has caused out-of-stock items to get ordered |
CJdropshipping’s Pricing
CJDropshipping’s Shopify app is free to install, but your fee will likely include a combination of product fees, warehousing fees, shipping & logistics fees, and more.
Variable to pricing include:
- Item being dropshipped;
- Quantity;
- Destination it is being sent to.
Dropshipping is definitely not dead when done right. And if you see the value in offering it from your ecommerce storefront, CJDropshipping should be your first stop.
7. ShipStation — Shipping Automation for Shopify Stores
ShipStation is a shipping app and platform that helps Shopify store owners efficiently sync, manage, and ship their orders.
- Robust Order Management
- Discounted Shipping with Top Carriers
- Branded Tracking Page
ShipStation helps Shopify merchants handle everything from importing orders to managing shipping, printing discounted postage, and updating tracking information, efficiently and effectively.
It claims businesses can save up to 84% with cost-optimized shipping discounts from top carriers like UPS, USPS, and DHL Express.
In just a few clicks, connect your Shopify store with ShipStation, automating shipping workflows and syncing tracking information while getting your branded products out to customers with the best shipping services at the lowest prices you are likely ever to get.
ShipStation’s order management system is powerful in that it allows you to combine orders when there are multiple shipments for the same shipping address and split orders with items from different locations.
Branding services include placing your logo directly on shipping labels putting a personal touch to all deliveries, having your very own branded tracking page for customers to track their orders, branded packaging slips, and more.
ShipStation’s Key Features
- Powerful order management system;
- Discounted shipping options with top carriers;
- Branded order tracking page & returns portal;
- Sync with 100+ marketplaces;
- Branded SMS notifications.
ShipStation’s Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Save money through shipping discounts with top carriers | Occasional technical glitches (some customers reported this as showing up, especially for high-volume orders) |
| Save time from shipping workflow automation | No free plan |
| User-friendly to operate | Complaints about customer support |
ShipStation’s Pricing
| Free plan | Paid plans |
| No free tiers, only a 30 day free trial. | Start from $9.99/mo |
| Includes 50 shipments | |
| All selling channels (unlimited stores) | |
| 1 User | |
| Branded labels & Packing slips | |
| Email & community forum support |
Higher paid plans include more number of shipments, increased users, and LIVE chat support options.
The cost of shipping and the inefficiency of operating it without a plan can quickly drain your business’s resources. Consider ShipStation when you know you need a system to help you out.
8. SearchPie — SEO Shopify App for Ecommerce Stores
SearchPie is a powerful Search Engine Optimization (SEO) app for Shopify stores that help improve them get more organic traffic by improving their site speed and Google visibility, even if you’ve got no coding skills.
- On-Page SEO
- Technical SEO
- Page Speed Booster Service
SearchPie promises to improve the Google rankings of your ecommerce store by analyzing and optimizing both on-page and technical aspects of SEO while also providing advanced keyword research and page speed boost capabilities.
For on-page SEO enhancement, SearchPie allows bulk and individual editing of images, meta tags, URLs, and more. Under technical SEO optimization, you can create snippets and sitemaps that follow Google’s recommendations and leading practices, which in turn boosts the chances for high-priority crawling and faster indexing.
The keyword research module provides insights into the top, in-demand keywords so you are always optimizing your store, its messaging, and content always to reflect the latest search trends and customer interests.
Finally, SearchPie provides page speed improvements using a combination of image compression algorithms, pre-fetching URLs, and Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) to help reduce the overall loading times and improve the user browsing experience.
SearchPie’s Key Features
- On-page & Technical SEO;
- Keyword research & analytics;
- Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP);
- Instant page (pre-fetching URLs in the background);
- 24/7 LIVE chat support.
SearchPie’s Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Easy to setup | Users reported occasional erroneous overwrites or deletions |
| No code Shopify app, hence no technical expertise needed to operate | Paid plans are expensive |
| Quick and effective customer support |
SearchPie’s Pricing
| Free plan | Paid plans |
| SEO report | Start from $39/mo (3-day Free trial available) |
| SEO tags bulk update | SEO tags advance setup |
| Basic speed up | Broken links autopilot |
| Sitemap submission | Sitemap auto update |
| Live chat 24/7 | Google search console |
| JSON-LD |
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) and PageSpeed boost are available in the higher-paid plan costing $79/mo.
Organic SEO is far from dead. As a matter of fact, if using SearchPie, you could be one of the few ecommerce stores doing it right.
9. Rivo — Referrals App
Rivo is a Shopify-exclusive, fully customizable loyalty and referrals platform that offers to boost customer engagement, drive repeat purchases, increase customer lifetime value (LTV), and reduce advertising costs.
- Fully Customizable Loyalty & Referral Programs
- Developer Toolkit for Deep Customization
- 24/7 LIVE Chat Support
Rivo enables businesses and brands to create and customize their loyalty and rewards schemes with tailored, unique incentives that encourage their customers to buy more themselves while spreading the good word around.
Rivo has an open architecture capable of integrating with nearly endless other apps and software ecosystems, ensuring your entire Shopify store operates as one cohesive solution.
Set up an exclusive and easy-to-redeem points program that drives recurring sales with incentive-based perks, exclusive deals, and other customizable rewards.
Design referral programs with unique, easy-to-share referral codes. You can also create VIP tiers to keep your best customers with you at all times by offering special VIP-exclusive perks that can be won through arriving at custom action tiers.
Looking for a fully bespoke solution? Rivo offers you a developer toolkit so you can create your own features and customizations on top of what already exists.
Rivo’s Key Features
- Points-based rewards programs;
- Unique referral codes with real-time updated data;
- Customizable rewards and incentives;
- VIP perks and action-based tiers;
- 24/7 LIVE chat support.
Rivo’s Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Smooth onboarding experience | Occasionally reported as buggy |
| Developer toolkit for deep customization of features and app | Some advanced features, such as combined codes, allowed by Shopify, are not supported by the platform |
| Incredibly responsive customer care | A bit pricey |
Rivo’s Pricing
| Free plan | Paid plans |
| Up to 150 monthly orders | Start from $49/mo and includes a free 3-day trial |
| Loyalty & rewards program | 500 monthly orders |
| Referrals program | Advanced rewards |
| Unlimited members | Loyalty page builder |
| Prompts (popups) | |
| 1 Integration |
Rivo is a great option to try when you need your existing customers to do you a favor and tell others how much they love your product and business.
10. Smile — Loyalty & Rewards Shopify App
Smile is a no-code Shopify app platform that lets you create your own loyalty, referral, and VIP rewards programs to turn one-time customers into repeat buyers.
- Loyalty & Rewards Programs
- Custom Branding
- Auto-translate to One of Six Languages
Use Smile to increase customer lifetime value (LTV) and reduce customer acquisition costs (CAC) while boosting profitability and returns of investment (ROI).
Make your loyalty and rewards programs available to multi-lingual audience sets by using the auto-translate feature to tune in to one of the 6 preset languages – English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), and Chinese (Simplified).
Design custom points-based systems to reward your customers for reaching different milestones, including account creation, social sharing, purchases, birthdays, social follows, API usage, and just about anything.
Businesses can customize the rewards launcher, panel, and emails to match their look, feel, and branding. Integrate Smile with your favorite email, reviews, and customer service apps to remind customers of their points balances and share referral links with gentle nudges to boost response rates and participation.
Smile’s Key Features
- Custom loyalty & rewards programs;
- Milestone-based VIP tiers;
- Mobile-friendly experiences;
- On-site reminders called ‘nudges’;
- Easy to use rewards admin panel.
Smile’s Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Easy to connect and start using | Expensive pricing tiers |
| Highly customizable | Limited functionality on the free tier |
| Integrates with most major Shopify apps | Limited reporting & analytics |
Smile’s Pricing
| Free plan | Paid plans |
| Up to 200 monthly orders | Start from $49/mo |
| Points program | Up to 500 monthly orders |
| Referral program | All Free features |
| Basic branding | Advanced branding |
| Default reward emails | Customizable reward emails |
| Analytics overview | Nudges (on-site popups) |
| 2 app integrations (e.g., Klaviyo) |
Your happiest customers are your newest customers. Smile is the way to go if you’re planning to go all the way in to manage a loyalty and rewards program for them.
Conclusion: The Best Shopify Apps
As the world of ecommerce continues to grow at a rapid pace, Shopify as a platform and its apps store its rich ecosystem of Shopify plugins remain at the forefront of this growth.
Choosing the right Shopify app will need a crucial look at factors including but not limited to:
- Your core business goals;
- Compatibility with other existing Shopify apps, store theme, and design;
- Shopify app’s functionalities;
- Easy of daily use;
- App’s integration capabilities;
- Affordability, and more.
In this article, we rounded up a few of the top Shopify apps we hope will help you create a profitable dent in the competitive online marketplace. While the contenders we covered here might show great promise, it’s important to remember that the best apps for Shopify stores will vary depending on your industry, business model, and target audience. It’s always a good idea to thoroughly research and test any app before integrating it into your Shopify store.
Also read:
