Getting started on Shopify - 14 must have apps
As of 5th April, 2022, the Shopify App Store has 6977 apps listed.
As a new store owner it can be overwhelming to figure out where to get started.
However it doesn't need to be that way.
Here's a list of essential apps your store needs to get started in the right way.
All tools below are listed in a priority of 1-5 with 1 - Must have to 5 - Optional Extra
1. Google Analytics
Priority: 1
Purpose: Track customer visits and measure effectiveness of different channels
Pricing: Free
Tasks:
Sign up for Google Analytics
Install Universal Analytics
Install Google Analytics 4
Test an end to end checkout process for UA
Test an end to end checkout process for GA4
You can't optimize what you don't measure. While Shopify provides some basic analytics they aren't enough and you would want to dig deeper.
Get your developers to install both GA4 and Universal Analytics. These are the two versions of Google Analytics that are available right now with GA4 becoming the defacto standard from next July onwards.
A couple of caveats, GA4 through Shopify still doesn't support seeing check out events.
There are a few work arounds like: https://intigress.com/blog/digital-marketing/add-ga4-to-shopify that mention ways of doing this. It's worth sharing with your developers and seeing if that's something they can do.
2. Google Channel
Priority: 1
Purpose: Sending the correct product information to Google is super important to leverage any of their shopping advertising implementations
Pricing: Free
Tasks:
Set up Google Channel on Shopify (Guide)
Shopify has set up an official channel with Google. It let's you get a direct connection to Google Merchant Center and Google Ads from the Shopify.
It's the smoothest way to make sure you don't have to keep jumping between screens all the time.
Note - Make sure you verify your website on all your google properties as needed. Your developers should be able to help you out with this.
3. Facebook Channel
Priority: 1
Purpose: Sending conversions and product data to Facebook is becoming increasingly important. With their recent focus on introducing in-app shopping via Instagram and Facebook Shops this is going to only increase
Pricing: Free
Tasks:
Set up Facebook Channel on Shopify (Guide)
Ensure that Facebook Pixel is set up and receiving events on
Test an end to end checkout process to make sure you are getting the right events in
Shopify has set up an official channel with Facebook as well. It let's you send a direct feed of product data to Facebook's Business Manager
It's also one of the easiest ways to make sure that Facebook is getting your conversion data to optimize marketing.
There is some debate around whether Facebook picks up all the data correctly this way however to start off it's good enough.
4. Microsoft Clarity
Priority: 2
Purpose: While something like Google analytics will be able to tell you about where people came from or which pages they visited it can't tell you what they are doing on the website. That's where Microsoft Clarity steps in.
Pricing: Free
Tasks:
Sign up for Microsoft Clarity
Install Microsoft Clarity using the guide here
Knowing where your customers are getting stuck can be one of the best super powers you have as an online brand.
It leads to insights like
"Oh, that button is too small"
"Why do customers keep scrolling on that page"
"Dang, they have to use 4 clicks to add bundles"
5. Bento
Priority: 1
Purpose: You need to capture the customers that come to your store and then engage with them. Bento is a full fledged marketing automation tool that let's you track and engage with visitors.
Pricing: 30 day trial and then starts at 30 USD/Month. Trust me when I say it's worth the price.
Website: https://www.bentonow.com
Tasks:
Sign up for an account
Connect Bento to Shopify using these instructions
Jump on the Bento Discord server and have Jesse (the founder) help you get set up right
If you have the bandwidth turn on Bento Chat to provide live chat support to clients (Optional)
Automations to set up
Pop up to capture emails
Set up a Welcome flow - 3 emails explaining to people what the brand is and benefits
Create a post-purchase flow
Thank you for buying the first time
Thanks again for trusting us
A reminder email if they haven't bought in a while
Abandoned cart series of emails
Discuss with the founder (Jesse) about how to have your invoice emails and order confirmation emails go through Bento as well (For later once the store is purring along)
Marketing automations are powerful as they help you make money when you sleep. Bento's extremely powerful for this and gives you incredibly accurate data and personalization capabilities.
It's got great deliverability and a founder and team who really care hence it's a better option than the Klaviyo and Mailchimp that most agencies choose as the easier option.
Future reading - Eventually you will want to incorporate everything this guide has laid out.
6. GoAffPro
Priority: 4
Purpose: Once you have people buying your product one of the best ways to super charge things is having affiliates and influencers market your product. However the challenge is how to manage all those influencers or affiliates. GoAffPro makes that ridiculously simple.
Pricing: Free and then 24 USD/Month
Website: https://goaffpro.com/
Tasks:
Install GoAffPro with Shopify using their app
Customize Affiliate program with the correct percentage to give affiliates and groups
Influencers have a massive impact on what people buy. Hence having some kind of influencer/affiliate program becomes important once you scale. So why not choose one that's easy to manage?
7. PointsKit
Priority: 5
Purpose: You want to reward people with store cash or free gifts when they refer people to your store. Point's Kit is by the same dev as GoAffPro and should be as solid
Pricing: Currently Free, could become paid in the future
Website: Shopify App Page
Tasks:
Install PointsKit from Shopify App Store
Customize Dashboard
Setting up a reward points program is one of the easiest ways to make customers feel happy. It isn't always a slam dunk though so make sure you consider it's implications and the maintenance involved.
Another note is that the support from the GoAffPro team while competent can be a bit slow. If you want faster support other more expensive options might be what you need.
8. ReBuy
Priority: 3
Purpose: Once you have people buying from you, nudging them a bit to buy the bundle or cross selling the other products you have shouldn't be difficult. ReBuy knows that and makes that happen.
Pricing: Free then 4.99USD/Month + 0.09 US Cents/Order
Website: Rebuy (rebuyengine.com)
Tasks:
Install Rebuy App from Shopify App Store
Get developers to work with their team to get the pop-ups etc working right and looking like your store
Once you have a customers attention, you shouldn't let it go easily. Cross Selling and Up Selling is a powerful way of ensuring that you are able to increase your AOV through intelligent recommendations.
9. Judge.me
Priority: 2
Purpose: Everyone wants to know - "Does this product really work?". Judge.me allows you to answer that question easily
Pricing: 15 USD/Month
Website: https://judge.me/
Tasks:
Install Judge.Me Reviews app from Shopify App
Work with developers to add Review features and widgets to Product pages properly
Customize branding to be inline with store branding
Set up review reminders to get the maximum reviews
Syndicate reviews and submit to Google Shopping (Once set up and a few months in the future)
Customers will have an opinion about your product. Why not make it easy for them to leave reviews so that you can learn from their feedback and showcase their love in a way that benefits you?
Judge.me allows you to do exactly that in an easy manner.
10. AfterShip
Priority: 1
Purpose: People want to know where their orders are. Aftership is the best way to answer that.
Pricing: Starts at 11 USD/Month and scales well. Pro Tip - Pay the extra 10 USD/Month to have a custom sub-domain. It's worth it.
Website: https://www.aftership.com/
Tasks:
Set up App from Shopify App store
Customize branding of email being sent out
Select the correct statuses which customers are to be updated for
Customize tracking page to align with what your brand wants to say and cross sell
From the very first order, every merchant get's asked - "Where is my order? Has it shipped yet?" Aftership allows you to retain your and your customer's sanity by giving them a beautiful page to track their order and automated email notifications.
11. Seal Subscriptions
Priority: 3
Purpose: As a consumable product you hope to have repeat customers. Those who want to consume your product every day. Setting up subscriptions make sure they are never left wanting.
Pricing: Starts at 7.95 USD/Month and scales well
Website: https://www.sealsubscriptions.com/
Tasks:
Install app from Shopify App Store
Ask developers to make sure widget is working well
Create Subscription pricing
Make it easier for customers to buy from you repeatedly. Seal Subscriptions is one of the only ones I found that's got reasonable pricing, great reviews and fairly complete set of features.
12. Drop in Blog
Priority: 5
Purpose: As you grow your content game, your blog will become a powerful engine for your business. Drop in Blog is one of the easiest ways to get your Shopify Blog super charged.
Pricing: Starting at 24 USD/Month
Website: https://dropinblog.com/
Honestly, the Shopify Blog is a good place to start so this is really dependent on whether you need a super powered blog and how robust your content strategy is going to be.
13. Zoko
Priority: 2
Purpose: India lives through Whatsapp. Being where your customers are is always a good idea.
Pricing: Detailed pricing available here
Website: https://www.zoko.io/
Zoko has great reviews from D2C merchants that I've spoken to and is worth considering. Whatsapp is an intimate channel for customers so I would urge caution and restraint in using it but it's important to be active on it.
14. Unicommerce
Priority: 1
Purpose: Your warehouse needs a management system. You need to be able to tell Amazon and your website how much stock you have and whether you have shipped an order. This does it all.
Website: https://unicommerce.com/
This one needs some hand held set up and a custom quote for pricing so I would recommend you get on it immediately.
A major caveat with this list is that all stores work differently. So your list of apps might eventually look completely different. Make sure you know how these all work together and the overall customer journey is something you consider.
Other aspects such as SEO and Site Speed should be handled by your developers but in case they aren't it's something to look into.
Best of luck! e Commerce is an exciting journey to be on. Welcome to the roller coaster.
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