8 Shopify Plugins That Help Run Your Ecommerce Business
Apps make the world go ‘round. They fill your phone, web browser, desktop, and now, your ecommerce store. Plugins allow your team to work smarter, rather than harder, on common processes like email marketing and shipping calculations.
Here is the Electric Enjin-approved list of Shopify apps that will enhance your online store’s performance.
If you’re capturing emails for newsletters or building out your email marketing sequence:
Privy is the best app for “jump-starting ecommerce business growth,” as they put it. This app allows you to build branded pop-ups to capture emails for first time shoppers, recover lost carts through smart email sequences, and it even measures how much money it has saved your business. One of our favorite features is how Privy randomly generates coupon codes and will pull in promotions to increase conversions and order value. It also has a great drag and drop builder for emails.
If you’re creating marketing emails and you want to create a powerful customizable sequence:
Klaviyo is not just another email tool. It’s a deeper integration with your ecommerce platform and with that deeper connection, it gathers valuable insights on the user journey. With the information Klaviyo captures, you then use the app to build a “flow” or email sequence that relies on that data. Klaviyo uses machine learning to continuously grow smarter and, in turn, work harder for your business. A feature that we love is that it dynamically pulls products into emails to improve click-throughs and conversions, making a very unique and actionable user experience.
If you still prefer Mailchimp and want to connect your accounts:
Connect your Shopify store to your Mailchimp audience in less than 60 seconds with ShopSync. This app is easy to use and gets the job done when you want to sync store data and email lists, as well as set up trigger-automated emails for cart abandonment or to ask customers for reviews.
If your shipping is advanced and you need to call in reinforcements:
Intuitive Shipping does it all. This app is especially useful if your website carries products from multiple brands, has a massive catalog, or uses multiple package types because it generates accurate quotes for different package requirements. Whether you need to split packages on weight or quantity, or because products are shipping from different locations, Intuitive Shipping figures out the logistics at checkout. If you need to restrict shipping to PO boxes (it's a real issue!) you can use set up rules to do that with Intuitive Shipping.
If you want to increase cart value and cross-sell products:
Also Bought is a great cross-selling app to use on your ecommerce website because it not only improves customer experience, but it increases average cart value and makes your more money! What can be better than that? While it allows for manual selection of recommended items, it can also automate the entire process – so you have the choice of complete control, or letting the AI do it’s thing. The app’s AI has been trained by over 500 million orders and 40 million products to create the best possible cross-selling experience. Shopify has a default AI cross-selling tool, but it takes a long time to learn about your users and will lack the robust customization features that Also Bought offers.
If you want to step up your site search game:
Smart Search & Instant Search not only makes searching for products a breeze for shoppers, but it also cross-sells right in the search results panel. The search functionality is incredibly powerful. We really like how this app has real-time catalog synchronization, which is a game-changer for large product catalogs. Smart Search & Instant Search also has the capabilities to add unlimited filters and keywords and to track search analytics. This allows you to create new filters whenever you want, making the search experience very personal to the content on your website and your consumers’ shopping habits.
If you want to collect product reviews:
There are two shining stars in the category of review apps: Stamped and Yotpo. Both are very powerful and allow you to monitor product reviews, as well as collect user-generated content and referrals from shoppers. Having a review plugin on your ecommerce website is essential, as it improves your reputability and directly affects conversion on the product detail page. The biggest difference between the two apps is the price. Stamped offers a succession of free or basic ($15) to enterprise ($199). Yotpo only offers free or enterprise as options, and you must contact them to receive a quote.
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About Aniel Samaroo
Aniel brings more than a decade of agency experience managing the digital creative for clients ranging from Dove to TreSemme to Helmann’s and beyond. At Electric Enjin, he oversees the agency work flow on a day-to-day basis, certifying that key milestones and long range goals are met, and that the high design and development standards our clients expect are maintained.
