Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms in the world. A preferred choice for many small and large businesses alike, Shopify has simplified setting up a virtual storefront and democratized the online marketplace in the process. 

Shopify allows you to leverage the internet to grow your business, that too without burning a hole in your pocket. If you don’t end up hiring a team of website developers or pay hefty site maintenance charges- Shopify is the smartest choice out there. 

Whether you are just starting your online retail journey or are a veteran who would rather spend their time on things like product design- Shopify is a promising one-stop solution with lots to choose from- 

• Native SEO tools that help your business improve its online presence and reach the right audience. 
• Shopify allows you to sell to wholesalers and supports drop shipping as well 
• Shopify provides an analytics dashboard that helps keep track of different metrics like total purchases and visitor demographics. 
• It generates insightful reports on sales, order, acquisition, and marketing to give you a better understanding of your business trajectory. 

Shopify offers many functionalities required to manage and scale an online business. However, we believe there is no standard set of functions or tools that are applicable to every e-commerce business. The one-size-fits-all theory might not work here.

The reason is that the requirements and needs vary from business to business depending on their annual sales. The objectives of a $1 million business would be different from that of $10M or $100M.

No wonder, the market offers jillions of Shopify apps. It’s no surprise. But here’s the catch. You will have to find the best Shopify apps that fulfill the requirements of your eCommerce store. 

But how?

What are Key Factors to Consider When Choosing a Best Shopify Apps:

As we stated, there is no one solution that works for all businesses. The key is to find the right fit for your business requirements. Here are some things to consider before you choose your Shopify Apps in 2024:

1. Reviews and Ratings:

One of the major benefits of using Shopify is the extensive Shopify Community. You can leverage it to find the best apps for the job. Users leave reviews and ratings on the Shopify app store, informing the other business owners of the benefits of using a certain app and its shortcomings as well.

2. Features: 

Shopify has a wide range of apps or extensions for different functions like managing returns or tracking shipping. You can pick the features that best suit your business needs to build a custom tech stack. It will help you automate some of your processes and support the team. 

3. Quick Installation: 

One of the many benefits of using Shopify is its ease of use. You can set up an account in a few clicks and the platform is highly adaptable. The tech stack you choose should not take away from this experience. Choose a tech stack that is easy to use and quick to install so you can continue having a hassle-free experience on Shopify. 

4. Trial Experience:

Most of the Shopify apps offer a free trial. As a business owner, you can take advantage of this and make your decisions based on your trial experience. It will help you decide whether the apps you choose meet your requirements and fulfill their purpose.  Even for apps that do not offer a free trial, a demo can help you make up your mind.

5. Integration Capabilities with the Store:

Your tech stack acts as an extension to Shopify features and hence should have deep integrations with the platform. This enables your team to access customer data or perform order actions without having to toggle between multiple windows and go through a tedious process to perform simple tasks. 

Still confused? Don’t worry. 

We contacted 20+ customers of Richpanel who use both Shopify as well as Shopify Plus platforms to run their eCommerce businesses that generated between $10M and $100M in annual sales.

But we didn’t stop there! We even interviewed  50+ such businesses using Shopify apps to procure solid, reliable information. As we mentioned earlier, after all the interviews, discussions, and research, we finally curated our listicle. 

Here are the best Shopify apps for eCommerce stores with annual sales above $10M:

1. Richpanel
2. Tidio
3. Aircall
4. Returnly
5. Loop Returns
6. Aftership
7. Recharge
8. Bold Subscription
9. Yotpo
10. Okendo
11. Notify Visitors
12. Attentive
13. Klaviyo
14. Referralcandy
15. Omnisend
16. Growave

Best Shopify Apps for Customer Service

Shopify offers many features that help enhance the user experience. It is fast, secure, and mobile-friendly- offering a seamless experience on different devices. However, there is room for improvement when it comes to handling customer communications and support functions. With added features like live chat, and a centralized communication hub you can streamline your CS operations.

What’s better? Most of these customer service extensions also double as a customer CRM allowing you to utilize the customer data on your Shopify store to gain insights into your customers and offer personalized support service. Here are the top customer service apps for Shopify: 

1. Richpanel

Why hire more agents when a product can easily help your customers troubleshoot their problems? Richpanel lets you resolve up to 50% of customer support issues without having to involve an agent for every single process. By cutting down the overall customer support costs, Richpanel removes another roadblock, letting you scale up your eCommerce business. 

Richpanel is easily one of the best Shopify apps and customer service platforms that you can find on the Shopify app store and that's primarily because of its robust solutions and features:

Review: 5.0 ⭐ (100+ Reviews on Shopify Store)

Self-Service Software

A personalized self-service experience is what modern customers prefer. Gone are the days when self-service meant FAQs and long knowledge-based articles. The self-service software of Richpanel focuses on issue resolution. It helps you pull out the most relevant information and scenarios as per the customer journey stage and order status.

Help Desk & Ticket Management

Richpanel also offers you an intuitive help desk ticketing solution that helps bring together customer channels, actions, and eCommerce data under a single dashboard.  Save common replies and automate responses, view customer profiles, and track order actions via the internal ticketing system. You can provide an omnichannel messaging experience to your customers, be it through Whatsapp, live chat, Instagram, Facebook, etc., and still handle them all in one place.

Live Chat and Messaging

Being one of the best live chat software for eCommerce sites, Richpanel helps you proactively support visitors and customers. Personalize interactions by segregating customers and visitors. Collect crucial data accordingly and set reply time expectations aided by task bots.

Richpanel-Zendesk Integration

Integrate Richpanel's intelligent Customer Service Platform with Zendesk. You can offer mobile and web support via Richpanel and simultaneously sync the issues and knowledge base in Richpanel with your Zendesk dashboard. The issues will then be reviewed and processed as Zendesk tickets. 

In short, the front end that your customers see is Richpanel’s, meanwhile, the agent console is Zendesk’s.

Related Read: Zendesk Alternatives & Competitors

2. Tidio 

Tidio is a customer support software that primarily acts as helpdesk support and streamlines customer experience across all channels. It has various features like live chat and chatbots that help the support team answer queries and problems efficiently. Here are some of its key features: 

Key features: 

• Pre-chat surveys help you collect customer information and provide more customer context to your agents. 
• You can set up automated responses for redundant queries. These responses can include links, articles, and short messages as well. 
• A customizable live chat widget where you can change colors, buttons, and display options. 
• Allows you to perform automation actions based on triggers like the number of page visits and time spent on a single page. 
• Chatbots reduce response time through automation. 

3. Aircall: 

Integrate and connect with your business tools using the cloud-based call center software of Aircall. The app lets you integrate with all the popular CRM and helpdesk tools to help in the seamless functioning of the customer support system. 

Access the Shopify app from a desktop or a mobile, add numbers from 100+ countries, and draw insightful conclusions from real-time analytics.

Key Features:

• Virtual Call Center: Get all the numbers and user information from a single place, no matter where their location is.
• Interactive Voice Response: Set up an intelligent directory that will automatically guide callers to their corresponding team on the very first try.
• Extensions: Provide a personalized 3-digit extension to every individual on the team for effective conversation with colleagues.
• Real-time Modifications: Add users or new numbers with just a single click.
• Ring Groups: Route your calls to teams who handle specific locations, languages, or any such traits as and when the situation demands so.
• One-click Set Up: Activate integrations via the admin dashboard in a single click. Learn more on How to Setup Ecommerce Call Center

Related Read:

1. Best Shopify Helpdesk Apps for Ecommerce Store
2. Shopify Live Chat Apps
3. Shopify Black Friday Tips & Strategies

Best Return Apps for Shopify: 

For any online store, the returns process can be complex and tedious. However, an exchange request is an opportunity to turn a bad shopping experience into a positive one. A good return app helps manage the returns efficiently, giving you a chance to make a good impression on your customer and increasing brand loyalty. Here are the best return apps for Shopify: 

1. Returnly 

Returnly is a post-purchase payment platform that lets brands facilitate smooth return processes. With such a Shopify app in place, you can enable customers to buy using their return credit even before the original item is shipped back. This process can help increase customer loyalty.

Key Features

• Automated Returns: Automate the return and refund processes and facilitate a painless return experience for your customers.
• Instant Exchanges:  Let your customers get their desired item before they return the original one. Payment processes are carried out by the platform on behalf of the customers.
• Tracking: Keep your customers up to speed with the order and return tracking experience through real-time updates and SMS alerts.
• CSAT and Analytics: Efficiently capture customer feedback on return experiences.

2. Loop Returns

Loop returns is a unique exchange-first returns platform that helps eCommerce businesses manage their customer returns. It makes it easier for customers to find the right products and increases a customer’s brand loyalty leading to a higher lifetime value and more referrals. Here are some of its key features: 

Key Features

• Provides bonus credits and lucrative shipping fees that encourage users to exchange products. 
• Links with logistics to provide business and user insights. 
• Native customers return through the portal for a better customer experience
• Enforces your returns and exchange policy and automatically approves or rejects requests based on it. 

3. AfterShip

Aftership is a shipment tracking solution that aims to improve the post-purchase experience by adding another level of transparency in the order delivery process. It is 

Key Features

• Automatically import your tracking numbers from Shopify

• Allows you to automatically insert a tracking link to your Shopify store’s order confirmation and order history page. 
• Allows you to automatically generate a customizable tracking page for each shipment
• Automated alerts and notifications for changes in order status
• Schedule delivery SMS based on your customer's timezone

Read More: Best Shopify Returns App

Best Subscription Apps for Shopify: 

Having repeat customers and generating recurring revenue is the only way for an eCommerce business to scale. The fastest way for a business to achieve this is to promote a subscription model is one of the most popular eCommerce business models. It helps promote brand loyalty and generate recurring revenue. Here are some of the most popular subscription apps for Shopify: 

1. Recharge

Manage your subscription business easily with the help of Recharge, a leading subscription management platform. Grow your subscriber count to an impressive number using the suite of reliable features the Shopify app offers you.

Key Features

• Theme Engine: Provide a better customer portal experience. An extensively customized UI will let customers handle various aspects of their subscription with ease.
• Enhanced Analytics: Visualize data and get a detailed analysis of the key performance indicators.
• One-time Products: Enable customers to add a one-time product so that your customers can easily include the particular product in their future subscription orders.
• Workflow: Convert shoppers into your subscribers using Recharge Workflows. Make the most of discounted first orders, free trials, and sample products to woo your shoppers.
• Integrations: Employ supportive integrations to connect to third-party apps to simplify and enhance functionalities.

2. Bold SubScription

Bold is Shopify’s official subscription app. It is Shopify plus certified and helps high-revenue businesses implement their business model. It delivers highly customizable subscription tools for Shopify merchants. Here are some of its features: 

Key Features

• Product Options features help upsell products and increase revenue
• Tiered pricing for subscription models on your online store
• A recurring invoicing option that automates the billing process
• Set up customized pricing for membership models
  

Shopify Apps for Reviews Management

With increasing competition online, reviews are one of the quickest and most effective ways of promoting trust amongst your customers. A good review system helps your customers to engage with you, and build a better relationship with your brand. It also helps promote sales as it provides credibility to your business:

1. Yotpo 

Amp up your business growth supported by the Shopify app, Yotpo which is a great eCommerce marketing platform. Yotpo provides you with a suite of tools to help you manage customer reviews, visual marketing, loyalty, referral, and SMS marketing. Monitor, control, and place customer content at key conversion points with the AI-powered solutions of Yotpo.

Key Features:

• Reviews and Ratings: Drive sales through custom content. Collect and leverage reviews and ratings with the help of in-mail technology.
• SMS marketing: Target and engage an extensively segmented audience with highly personalized SMS and MMS messages that make use of advanced automated flows.
• Loyalty and Referrals: Engage existing customers and procure prospects by creating highly personalized solutions or choosing powerful pre-built campaigns for rewards and referral programs.
• Visual UGC: Display photos, videos, or even reviews of customers across your site to boost product discovery and brand engagement.

Read More: Manage Yotpo reviews directly from Richpanel

2. Okendo 

Okendo is a customer marketing platform built exclusively for Shopify users. It allows business owners to manage all kinds of customer-generated content ranging from ratings, and reviews, to questions and comments. Here are some of its salient features: 

Key Features

• Provides key data and insight points on each customer 
• Allows you to track the review for each product on your store
• Allows you to generate automated review request emails
• Syndicates all the reviews from different sources 

Learn More: Best Shopify Review Apps to Manage Product Reviews

Best Shopify Apps for Sales & Marketing

Shopify has basic reporting capabilities and analytics tools which help you monitor different metrics and gain some insights into your customers and business. However, a good sales and marketing app can enhance this functionality by allowing you to run targetted ads and promotion campaigns for your intended audience: 

1. NotifyVisitors

NotifyVisitors offers marketing automation tools such as email marketing app, sms marketing app, pop-ups  and many more apps for Shopify stores. These tools allow you to send automated campaigns that can be customized for better branding. Moreover, these tools can be seamlessly integrated to offer an omnichannel experience. By implementing these tools you can attract , engage and retain new and existing customers. 

Key Features include:

• Drag and drop editor to customize your email templates
• A/B testing to find the best variation to work with.
• Email and SMS integration to quickly capture customers’ attention.
• In-depth analytics to keep track of performance.
• Segmentation to target your audience in a better way.

2. Attentive

Attentive is a Shopify app that provides personalized mobile messaging solutions for e-commerce brands. Leverage the patent-pending solutions of the platform to curate and manage a list of mobile subscribers. With this Shopify app, you can send automated messages to each one of your subscribers based on real-time data.

Key Features

• Dual Collection Signup Units: By using the mentioned feature, you can simultaneously collect two crucial sets of data about your customers; email addresses and phone numbers.
• Integrated Reporting and Analytics: Measure and analyze important customer data based on real-time reporting.
• Robust Segmentation: Segment your customers as per the real-time data and optimize the campaigns powered by time zone targeting capabilities.
• Triggered Messages: Reach out to your subscribers automatically with engaging messages triggered by their behavior.
• Seamless Integrations: Attentive lets you integrate painlessly with reliable platforms like other e-commerce platforms, email service providers, help desks, and many more.

3. Klaviyo 

Essentially an email marketing platform, Klaviyo delivers personalized experiences across various marketing channels like SMS, in-app notifications, and the web. Klaviyo claims that around 67 brands move to their platform every day. Well, when that's considered Klaviyo is indeed one of the best Shopify apps available.

Key Features:

• Forms and Personalization: Carry out personalized conversations and information exchange with customers using the eCommerce sign-up and pop-up forms.
• Customer Profiles: Procure crucial customer/subscriber information in a single view.
• Segmentation: Update customer segments automatically.
• Data Science: Save time by using predictive analytics powered by data science.
• Automation: Automate prospect or customer communications by employing customer lifetime value, lifecycle stage, etc. 

4. ReferralCandy

ReferralCandy helps Shopify and Shopify Plus stores to create and automate customer referral campaigns and attract new customers, increase sales and grow their brand through word of mouth. Provide customers with a personal reward link that they can share with their friends to promote the brand. 

Key Features:

• Automated customer rewards: Choose from discount coupons, percentage discounts or even cash and custom rewards! 
• Post-purchase popups and emails: Recruit existing customers to the referral program.
• Referral fraud management: Identify and review customers with suspicious transactions.
• Customizations: customize landing pages and emails with logos, images, and brand colors usinge the theme editor—no developer help is needed.
• Localization: Display your copy in up to 12 languages.
• Integrations: Create  referral campaigns with MailChimp and Klaviyo email flows and newsletters.
• Pay per performance: works on a commision model. Referralcandy doesn’t get paid until you make referral sales.

5. Omnisend 

Omnisend is a marketing automation tool that lets you build your subscriber list and send emails, text messages, and push notifications, all from a single platform.

Key Features

• Drag-and-drop Email & Form Builders: Easily create professional-looking emails and interactive signup forms
• Pre-built Automation Workflows: Send emails & SMS on autopilot
• Audience Segmentation: Tailor your messages to specific customer group
• Seamless Integration With Shopify: One-click connect your store and start sending
• 24/7 Customer Support: Support is easily accessible and available round the clock
• Integrations with Shopify, other Ecommerce Tools and signup forms are seamless.

6. Growave 

Growave is a marketing platform that helps businesses reach, engage, and convert their customers. The app offers tools, such as Reviews, Wishlists, Q&A, Loyalty and Referral, Social login, Instagram galleries, etc. The app is multifunctional, making it a great platform for online store conversions and sales. It is as much as six times more cost-effective than any of the alternatives on the market.

Key Features

• Rich functionality: The app offers multiple features, such as Loyalty and Rewards, Reviews, Q&A, Wishlists, Referral programs, Social Login, and Instagram galleries.
• Full customization: Easily customizable from the app’s dashboard itself or with the help of their responsive customer support.
• Easy setup and use: The setup process is intuitive and it is very easy to move to Growave. The UI helps further navigate the app without any hiccups.
• Integrations: Seamlessly integrates with tools such as PushOwl, Klaviyo, Omnisend, and more.

Best Shopify Apps for Order Management

Whether it is for retail therapy or an everyday necessity, the joy of receiving the message- “Your order has been shipped” is unparalleled. Shipping and tracking apps help improve your post-sales experience and add a level of transparency that promotes customer loyalty: ‍

1. ShipStation

Shipstation is a shipping software that helps you import, manage, and ship orders. Shipstation is a platform that is particularly suitable for merchants employing multiple selling channels. The Shopify app integrates with more than 150 online marketplaces in order to provide an effortless experience. 

Key Features

• Order Management: Automate and sync orders across sources and track them at each and every stage of the shipping process from all the selling channels used.
• Shipping: Simplify your shipping experience. Generate discounted shipping labels, get the best rate, print labels or create multiple labels within no time, for all of your orders.
• Branding: From customized shipping labels to returns portal to tracking page, the branded shipping of Shipstation lets you personalize the delivery experience of your customers.
• Inventory Management: Monitor, track, and manage your inventory, be it from a remote location or the warehouse.

2. NetSuite

NetSuite is a unified business and order management suite that is extremely popular for its cloud ERP solutions. Apart from ERP solutions the platform also offers CRM, Human Capital Management, accounting solutions, etc. NetSuite is ideal for small and mid-size businesses and aids them to optimize financial operations, managing customer relationships, and reducing IT costs.

Key Features

• ERP
• Financial Management: Make quick and smart decisions by employing financial management combined with built-in business intelligence.
• Order Management: Speed up the order-to-cash procedures by connecting sales and finance to pricing, return management, etc.
• Supply Chain Management: Structure, establish, and execute supply chain management plans via a single collaborative platform.
• Procurement: Optimize the procure-to-pay processes for cost certainty.
• CRM
• Customer Portal: Deliver customized and interactive services to your customers through this portal.
• Website Search Engine Optimization: Create search-engine-friendly pages to get high rankings.

3. QuickBooks Commerce

QuickBooks Commerce helps you manage inventory and orders for your eCommerce store. It helps you track your inventory across different warehouses and optimize the selling and restocking process. Here are some of its best features: 

Key Features: 

• Interactive dashboard that allows you to create and manage orders, monitor inventory, and contact customers and suppliers
• Allows you to track pack sizes, batches, and expiry dates
• Automatically updates product listings, orders, and customer data
• Allows you to link to invoices with credit card payments

Read More: How to Choose Best OMS Software for Ecommerce

FAQ on Best Shopify Apps

1. How to Install Shopify Apps

• Login to your admin account on Shopify
• Search for your desired app in the app store
• Click “Add App” on the app listing page
• Click “install app” in your Shopify admin

2. What are the most common Shopify apps to Use?

The most common shopify apps to use are- ecommerce helpdesk, returns management app, CRM software, review management app, and subscription management app.  

3. How to find out what apps a Shopify store is using

You can check the source code for the website for snippets, or you can use a third-party plugin to find out what apps a Shopify store is using.

Shopify is a leading eCommerce platform that addresses the majority of problems faced by eCommerce vendors. It has a wide range of extensions that add to Shopify’s functionality and make it highly customizable. You can pick and choose the apps and tools that best suit your business model and utilize them to bring out the best your Shopify store has to offer. With the addition of the right returns, order management, or even sales tools, your Shopify store can scale faster and drive in more revenue. 

Building your Tech stack? Book a demo or create free account with Richpanel today!