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For ecommerce brands, one of the main questions many ask as they get started is this: What are the best Shopify apps to use in 2022 for ecommerce?
The fact is, there are a wealth of quality Shopify apps that you can use. I can’t say that this list is an exhaustive one by any means. But this should help you get clarity on great apps that can help your store function well.
After working with multiple 7 and 8 figure brands, we've learned what apps work and what don't work for each individual brand. What we’ve found, though, is that there are some staple apps that should be used above all other apps. I’ll share the list with you, and you can go ahead and check out the ones you’re most interested in.
This guide should give you not only a clear picture of why we love specific Shopify apps, but also how it can improve the customer experience. We will show you examples of how we use specific apps so you can have an easier time setting up these apps in your store. You'll also learn about pricing so there aren't any surprises.
At ACTIV, we’ve placed our bets on Shopify. There are plenty of other horses in the race such as Woocommerce, Bigcommerce and Magento. But Shopify is superior even if you are just starting out in the ecommerce space or generating $800,000 a month.
Depending on your brand size, you may find that other platforms are a better solution. But for most brands doing less than 30M a year, Shopify is a great solution.
There are a few reasons that stand out why Shopify reigns above the rest of other platforms:
Since joining the Klaviyo wagon back in 2018, we haven’t looked back. We encourage all our brands to use Klaviyo, as it’s the best platform for ecommerce brands (hands down). With plenty of data points to utilize coming from it’s deep integration with Shopify, Klaviyo is a no-brainer.
Why is Klaviyo the best email marketing solution for ecommerce businesses? Well, it comes down to a few things (and a lot more that there isn’t enough time to mention).
With the ability to A/B test and set up flows that make sense based on a user’s action(s), you will find that you will get so much clarity from the flows that you can set up.
Having the ability to customize your campaigns and build templates that work for your ecommerce brand is important. If you’re not sending out regular campaigns to your email list, you are limiting the effectiveness of your long-term health of your list. Klaviyo makes this easy, and gives you the ability to customize your emails that fits your branding.
With a high reputation score, the deliverability of Klaviyo is valuable and important. This means more emails get into your subscribers’ inboxes and gives you more opportunities to sell your products.
We’ve been amazed by the support that Klaviyo has given us and our founders. As you’ll see in the next section, we are not loyal to one tool. But when one tool continues to step up in how they bring value, it makes zero sense to move to another option. The support team at Klaviyo is second to none.
Klaviyo email starts out at only $20, and then goes up from there. We’ve included a couple of examples of the pricing below, but you can expect to be able to send unlimited emails until you reach about 50,000 subscribers. After that, you can still expect to send out 10 emails per month for every one subscriber that you have (so, 100,000 subscribers = 1M emails). If you’re just getting started as a brand, you can expect to pay between $20 (300 subscribers) and $200 (11k subscribers) as you grow. If you implement the flows that were shared above, you should be able to get a good return from your subscribers as well.
The SMS marketing plan is an additional feature which starts out at $5 per month (51-150 subscribers & 450 messages), and scales from there. You can check out the examples of some pricing below to get a picture of cost. You should expect to pay between $20-$150 per month if you’re making less than $3M in revenue as an ecommerce brand.
Get started here.
Can I share a confession with you? We had been die-hard YOTPO promoters for a very long time. We had a long list of brands we work with who all used YOTPO.
At the beginning of the e-commerce boom, it was the best solution. The reason for this is simple: it had a Google certification that other review apps did not. We could push reviews to Google Shopping ads, which helped us get higher CTRs and higher conversion rates.
But now the floodgates have opened, and other review platforms have the same exact ability.
So, what makes Okendo different? One of the differences between YOTPO and Okendo is that you can integrate review flows within Klaviyo at a lot less cost.
Okendo doesn’t do-long term contracts, and their pricing is more reasonable. But here is why Okendo wins in the battle of Okendo vs YOTPO:
Examples:
The pricing is more reasonable for early-stage ecommerce brands (and even bigger ones too).
It's a no-brainer for brands to move over to Okendo. I will note that if you need Google Seller Ratings, Okendo does charge extra $149. But no matter what, the cost is still lower.
Learn more about Okendo here.
It seems unfair to not list Triple Whale at the top of this article. Since they've launched, the analytics & attribution world in ecommerce completely changed.
Here are some of the reasons why we have every brand we work with to get on Triple Whale:
Since setting up Triple Whale, we've found the data comes in clear. Also, all stakeholders are able to access information quickly and efficiently.
Pricing begins at $100 a month for the analytics tool, and $300 per month to use the attribution tool.
You can find out more about pricing here.
One of the most important lessons our team has learned as we have scaled ecommerce brands is that you can’t be married to one tool or solution. Zipify is a prime example of this.
We have seen one of the best returns through utilizing this Shopify app, and you can see the numbers from one of our stores below.
If you’re not offering a one-click upsell in your store, you are missing out on major revenues and profits. When setting up a store with a variation of products, I would recommend setting up Zipify as one of the first apps.
With Zipify, we have generated over $14,000 in additional revenue through a simple upsell. This is revenue that would not be there if an upsell offer was not in place. Zipify also gives you the ability to create a beautiful user experience. We haven’t had an upsell app that had such strong results across the board.
Zipify makes it very easy to build your offer within your Shopify store as well. With a simple template, you can add all the information step by step and your upsell will be up and running in no time.
They’ve got a pretty detailed pricing model. They charge you a baseline fee of either $24.99, or the applicable scaling fee that is based on how much they’ve made you in extra revenue. It is actually pretty excellent and worth the investment.
Learn more about Zipify here.
Rebuy is your go-to app when trying to increase revenue per recipient for your store. Whether it’s their one-of-a-kind smart cart or personalized product recommendation widgets, they have what you need to increase AOV for your store.
Our favorite feature is their smart cart. With plenty of customizations, the ability to convert one-time buyers to subscribers and personalized product recommendations, this app is a no-brainer to any brand big or small.
Learn more about Rebuy here.
Shogun is a landing page builder that can help you test angles and offers for your brand. This is helpful for early-stage ecommerce brands that know they have a few solid products. If you want to increase the conversion rate for those specific products, Shogun is for you.
With Shogun, you can build your page to reflect the branding of your site. You can rapidly A/B test headlines, buy boxes, and other sections on your product pages to work to get the optimal add to cart and conversion rates.
The platform is intuitive, easy to use, and will give you a better advantage to converting visitors if they’re coming from a landing page that is speaking to them.
With a large library of templates and the ability to make customizations, Shogun has the capability to integrate with Shopify very well. Due to this, we like to use it with our early-stage partnerships. When you need to test quickly to ensure profitability, a tool like Shogun will help out quite a bit.
By utilizing Shogun, we have seen a 30%+ lift in conversion rates for many of our brands due to the ability to rapidly test and find out what is working and what’s not working.
Shogun has plans that range from $39-$999 per month. For most ecommerce brands, the Build ($39/mo) plan should work great to start. Most brands that are doing less than 10M in revenue are on the Measure plan, which is $99/mo.
For full pricing information, check out the full list here.
Smartrr and Skio are the Shopify apps of choice when it comes to subscriptions. For smaller brands, Smartrr is a good choice. Their plans start off at $99/month and their flexibility for subscriptions is great.
The founder of Skio comes from Hulu and has in depth knowledge of how subscriptions work.
Skio starts out at a higher price point ($500/mo) but it is a tool trusted by many DTC darlings such as Muddy Bites, Doe Lashes, and many others.
They've thought of pretty much everything when it comes to subscriptions.
If you're a brand that has more than 1,000 subscribers, we highly recommend Skio.
Move over Zendesk; there’s a new king in town and it’s called Gorgias. Even though we don’t run customer service for our partnerships, we know how essential it is to have a best-in-class customer service experience for customers. The ecommerce space is fraught with bad characters - stores that don’t respond or don’t get back to their customers in a timely fashion (or ever).
We also get that it can get overwhelming for ecommerce founders to do it all. If you’re running the ads, product development, and quality assurance, as well as the customer service (along with everything else), you’ll go crazy trying to keep track of it all.
Gorgias makes it so easy by keeping everything in the same spot.
There is not another tool that makes it so easy to navigate customer service in a centralized way. It also has excellent integrations with Okendo (the review app).
For the pricing, you’ll find that Zendesk is competitive but can be expensive depending on how many users you have. Zendesk charges per user, while Gorgias charges per ticket.
To estimate how many tickets your store normally will have, just take 2-10% of your orders per month. Most early-stage brands will be in the first few tiers of Gorgias:
Learn more about Gorgias here.
Wish you could get in the head of your customer? It’s no neural link… but it’s the next closest thing and that is KnoCommerce.
KnoCommerce is a customer survey platform built for eCommerce brands. Collect specific customer insights to help you better understand your audience, how they engage with your brand and how to evolve your brand over time.
When you reach the plan page, enter code: ACTIV and select the "Analyst" plan for $10 off the monthly cost!
The best Shopify apps for ecommerce in 2022 will be different depending on your business needs. But we’ve compiled a list of the top tools to help you get started. Getting started with email marketing and setting up your store? Maybe you're trying to increase average cart value or build subscriptions. These are some of the most promising Shopify applications to give your store an edge over competitors this year.
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