Running an online store can be tough. From managing products to marketing and customer service, it feels like there’s always something to do. Luckily, there are apps designed to make things easier. In 2023, some apps stand out for helping eCommerce businesses succeed. Whether you need help with marketing, customer engagement, or streamlining operations, these 10 apps have got you covered.
Key Takeaways
- Shopify is a versatile platform that helps you set up and manage your online store with ease.
- Klaviyo enhances your email marketing campaigns, making customer engagement more effective.
- Tapcart turns your Shopify store into a mobile app without any coding skills required.
- Octane AI helps you create chatbots and quizzes to engage with your customers better.
- Stamped allows you to collect and display customer reviews, boosting your store’s credibility.
Shopify
Shopify is a top choice for building eCommerce websites, whether you’re selling online or in-person. It’s easy to set up and offers all the tools you need to get started quickly. With millions of stores built using Shopify, it’s a trusted platform for small businesses.
One of the standout features of Shopify is its extensive app store. If a feature isn’t built into Shopify, you can find an extension, plug-in, or service that does it. However, adding lots of apps can quickly increase your monthly fees.
Shopify also integrates with Zapier, allowing you to automate tasks like adding new customers to your email marketing list or tracking orders with a project management tool. This makes it easier to manage your store and keep everything running smoothly.
Pricing
Shopify offers a free 3-day trial, and paid plans start from $39/month. The Basic Shopify plan includes unlimited products and charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Easy to set up
- Extensive app store
- Integrates with Zapier
Cons:
- Can be expensive with many apps
Shopify’s intuitive web app ensures you won’t get lost, even if you’ve never built a website before. Everything is clearly labeled, and the help docs are comprehensive.
AI Features
Shopify is adding AI features like Magic, which can generate text for product descriptions and analyze sales data to make suggestions. These features are still in early access but show promise for enhancing the user experience.
Klaviyo
Klaviyo is a must-have email marketing app for eCommerce stores of all sizes, including small businesses. The app allows you to segment customers into specific lists and create email marketing campaigns. Email marketing flows are triggered by events, which can be pulled from Shopify, such as cart abandoners or first-time purchasers, or from one of the 300 platforms that integrate with the app. You can also create and send SMS campaigns through the platform.
Key Features
- Segment customers into lists
- Create email marketing campaigns and flows
- Send emails based on customer behaviors
- Integrates with over 300 tools & apps
- Customizable email templates
Why You Need It
Improved customer retention: Re-engage past purchasers with discounts, offers, product releases, and more!
Pricing
Klaviyo’s pricing is based on how many contacts you have. For the first 250 contacts, it’s completely free.
Klaviyo is a powerful tool that helps you learn, manage, and exceed at email marketing for the digital and eCommerce world.
Tapcart
Tapcart is a powerful tool that lets you turn your Shopify store into a mobile app without any coding. Using Tapcart’s drag-and-drop builder, you can design your app easily. You can send unlimited push notifications to your app users, directing them to a special landing page with one-click checkout. All your efforts are tracked in an analytics dashboard, so you can see how well your app is doing.
Key Features
- No code app creation
- Performance analytics dashboard
- Unlimited (free) push-notifications
- Dedicated account manager
Why You Need It
Lowered acquisition costs: it’s FREE to send out push notifications.
Pricing
Tapcart’s pricing starts at $300 per month after the 14-day free trial.
The Tappy Awards recognizes the best in development, design, and innovation in the Tapcart and Shopify ecosystem.
In-app transactions are growing every year, and mobile now accounts for more than 50% of online transactions in most regions. The rise of app adoption is due to the superior experience it offers, such as a mobile-first interface, fast loading, secure checkout, and easy access from the home screen. Tapcart helps you tap into this growing trend and boost your eCommerce success.
Octane AI
Octane AI is a Shopify app that allows you to easily create product quizzes for your site. It’s user-friendly, and you can showcase your quiz directly on your eCommerce website, boosting your customer’s engagement with your brand. The best part? When a customer completes your quiz, you collect this data and can use it to segment customers based on their preferences and ultimately send them more targeted content! You can integrate Octane AI directly with your ESP, and create dynamic content for different customer segments.
Key Features
- Build interactive quizzes right on your website
- Capture zero-party data
- Segment customers based on their preferences
Why You Need It
Increased conversion rates: Not only has the customer already expressed interest in your store, but you also now have data on what products in specific they are interested in. Use this information to send targeted emails, text messages, & more!
Pricing
Octane AI’s pricing plans start at $50 per month and increases depending on your revenue. You also get a 14-day free trial.
Stamped
Stamped is a powerful app designed to help eCommerce businesses collect and showcase customer reviews, ratings, photos, and videos. It’s perfect for small businesses looking to leverage high-converting product reviews to boost revenue.
Key Features
- Reviews Display: Collect and show video, photo, and written reviews with a one to five-point scale rating system. Stamped automates the collection, moderation, and analysis of reviews, allowing you to highlight them on designated pages.
- Visual Marketing: Use photo and video reviews in your ads, social media pages, and other marketing channels to enhance your visual marketing strategy.
- Google Integration: Stamped integrates with Google, enabling you to add rich snippets to your reviews, which helps you rank higher on Google Seller & Product Ratings.
Why You Need It
Stamped helps you leverage the power of User-Generated Content (UGC) and positive customer reviews to build trust with customers. The app lets you showcase social proof to boost conversions and foster engagement while improving your SEO efforts.
Consider tracking conversions from your customer reviews and adding the data to your eCommerce dashboard templates.
Pricing
- Lite: Free with a maximum of 50 orders per month.
- Basic: $23/month
- Premium: $59/month
- Business: $149/month
PushOwl
PushOwl is a web push notification app designed to enhance your eCommerce marketing strategies. It helps you reach out to potential customers with personalized messages, driving engagement and conversions.
Key Features
- One-click native opt-in: Visitors can subscribe to your push notifications instantly.
- Campaign Creator: Quickly create engaging web push campaigns.
- Automated push notifications: Recover abandoned carts with ease.
- Customer insights: Understand interests and behaviors to personalize marketing.
- Performance tracking: Improve your content and strategy based on data.
Pricing
- Starter: Free
- Business: $19 to $57/month
- Enterprise: $79 to $599/month
PushOwl offers a powerful way to convert passive visitors into loyal customers, amplifying your existing marketing efforts.
Returnly
With the average ecommerce return rate hovering between 20-30 percent, online sellers need to make the return process as smooth, seamless, and painless as possible for their customers. Enter Returnly, an app that specializes in making returns as hassle-free as possible. It provides a seamless and customer-friendly experience for managing product returns and exchanges, ultimately enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Key features:
- Instant store credit: Returnly offers a feature that allows customers to initiate returns and receive instant store credit even before returning the product. This provides a hassle-free experience for customers, as they can use the credit to make new purchases immediately, boosting customer satisfaction and encouraging repeat business.
- Automated returns management: Returnly automates the return process by generating return labels, tracking shipments, and updating customers throughout the journey. This eliminates manual tasks for sellers, reduces operational overhead, and enhances efficiency in managing returns and exchanges.
- Customizable return policies: With Returnly, ecommerce sellers can customize their return policies according to their business needs. This includes setting return timeframes, specifying return eligibility criteria, and defining refund or exchange options. The flexibility in tailoring return policies helps sellers balance customer satisfaction and revenue.
- Tracking and analytics: Returnly sends customers SMS alerts and tracking details such as estimated delivery dates. The platform tracks return analytics, including customer satisfaction, qualitative feedback, and user engagement and behavior.
Returnly supercharges the return and refund process for your business and customers. It helps reduce costs, make the return process efficient, and improve customer experience and satisfaction.
Price:
- Monthly Plan
- Premium (Annual) Plan
- Returnly Premium (Annual) Add-On Features
- Returnly Custom Plans
Refersion
Refersion is a powerful tool for managing, tracking, and growing affiliate programs. It’s perfect for eCommerce business owners, affiliate marketers, influencers, and brand ambassadors who want to run an affiliate marketing program.
Key Features
- Affiliate discovery: Refersion offers a keyword-based search tool to quickly find potential affiliates within the platform’s database.
- On-time payments: Refersion provides advanced commission calculations and commissions by SKU or product. It offers multiple payment options, including automated direct payments, conversion approvals, and payment scheduling.
- Attribution and first-party tracking options: The platform offers first-party tracking for privacy change compliance. You can create referral links with the shop’s domain.
- Campaigns and management: The platform automates product feed information and helps you create custom campaigns and monitor key performance metrics seamlessly.
Why You Need It
Refersion brings order to running and managing an affiliate marketing program. It helps ensure accurate affiliate tracking, prevent fraud, streamline running your affiliate program, and optimize your program’s profitability.
Price
- Professional: $119/month
- Business: $299/month
- Enterprise: Get a quote
Refersion is essential for any eCommerce business looking to leverage affiliate marketing to boost sales and grow their brand. With its robust features and user-friendly interface, it simplifies the complex process of managing affiliates and tracking performance.
Refersion also supports tracking the performance of your affiliate links in your Facebook ads for eCommerce and other channels. This makes it a versatile tool for any business looking to expand its reach and improve its marketing efforts.
Vista Social
Vista Social is a top player in social media management. It helps eCommerce brands build a strong online presence across social media, review sites, and online communities.
Who Is It For?
Vista Social is perfect for any eCommerce business looking to boost brand awareness and customer loyalty on social media. It’s also great for small brands that sell directly through their social media pages.
Key Features
- Automated post scheduler: Create an automated social media calendar to maximize your content’s visibility.
- Wide range of network support: Works with social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, as well as review sites like Trustpilot, Yelp, and TripAdvisor.
- AI-powered tools: Speed up content creation with an in-app AI assistant that helps you produce engaging social media posts in bulk.
- Smart content curation: Fill your content queue with sourced material from RSS feeds, news sites, and other social media profiles.
Why You Need It
Vista Social offers a powerful set of features that outshine even the most expensive social media management tools. Despite its robust capabilities, it provides affordable and flexible pricing plans.
Price
- Pro: $15/month
- Pro+: $25/month
- Custom: Contact for a quote
Polymer
Polymer is a powerful Business Intelligence (BI) platform designed to be a single source of truth for your team. It simplifies data management, including collection, integration, analysis, and visualization.
Key Features
- AI-powered recommendations: Instantly convert raw data into readable, dynamic visualizations.
- Seamless data integrations: Connect with various data sources like Zendesk, Shopify, Airtable, Google Sheets, and Facebook Ads.
- Easy-to-use dashboard editor: Customize your dashboard with elements like bar charts, ROI calculators, scorecards, and heatmaps.
- Different collaboration options: Add team members to your workspace, embed dashboards on your website, or share a direct link.
Why You Need It
Polymer helps your organization with data analysis and research. It allows you to solve specific problems, evaluate performance, optimize strategies, manage risks, and test hypotheses.
Price
- Starter: $20/month
- Pro: $40/month
- Enterprise: $500/month
Start using Polymer right now. Free for 7 days. See for yourself how fast and easy it is to uncover profitable insights hidden in your data.
Polymer is ideal for marketing and sales executives, small businesses, data scientists, and anyone who needs to turn raw data into actionable insights. Its interface is designed for users of all tech skill levels to create visualizations and reports effortlessly.
Conclusion
In conclusion, navigating the eCommerce landscape can be daunting, but the right tools can make all the difference. The apps we’ve highlighted in this article are designed to simplify various aspects of running an online store, from marketing and customer engagement to inventory management and analytics. By integrating these top 10 eCommerce apps into your business strategy, you can streamline operations, boost sales, and enhance customer satisfaction. Remember, the key to eCommerce success lies in leveraging technology to meet your business needs and exceed customer expectations. So, take the leap and explore these apps to give your online store the competitive edge it deserves in 2023.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Shopify and how does it help my eCommerce store?
Shopify is an all-in-one eCommerce platform that allows you to create, customize, and manage your online store. It offers a user-friendly interface, secure payment options, inventory management, and marketing tools to help you run and grow your business.
How can Klaviyo improve my email marketing?
Klaviyo is an email marketing tool designed for eCommerce businesses. It helps you create personalized email campaigns, automate marketing workflows, and analyze customer data to improve engagement and sales.
What does Tapcart do for my online store?
Tapcart allows you to turn your Shopify store into a mobile app without any coding. You can use its drag-and-drop builder to design your app, send unlimited push notifications, and track performance with its analytics dashboard.
How can Octane AI benefit my customer interactions?
Octane AI is a chatbot and automation tool that helps you engage with customers through Facebook Messenger and SMS. It can answer customer questions, recommend products, and send personalized messages, improving customer experience and sales.
What is Stamped and why do I need it?
Stamped is a review and rating app for eCommerce stores. It allows customers to leave reviews and ratings on your products, which can increase trust and credibility, ultimately boosting sales.
How does PushOwl help with customer engagement?
PushOwl is a push notification app for eCommerce stores. It allows you to send timely and relevant notifications to your customers, such as promotions or order updates, helping to increase engagement and drive sales.