12 Must Have Shopify Apps for 2021

One of our favorite things about Shopify is its versatility. What makes it so versatile? Its apps.

Shopify apps are third-party plugins you can install on your online store to add functionality. If there’s a function you can dream up, there’s likely a Shopify app that can make it happen (and if there’s not, we can build one).

Our team has rigorously researched hundreds of apps from the Shopify app store and measured their performance on dozens of client websites. From eCommerce to email marketing and beyond, here are 12 Shopify apps that will help you sell more and run your business more efficiently in 2020.

1. Findify – Search, Personalization & Merchandising

Findify guides your shoppers to find the products they are looking for, utilizing advanced AI to help merchants increase revenue, improve UX, and boost conversion by up to 29%.

Trusted by more than 1,800 retailers worldwide, Findify puts the products shoppers are most likely to buy, right in front of them. This is done by using personalization to individually rank the order each shopper sees the products, based on their personal behavior – no matter if they search, browse collections, or act on product recommendations. Findify solutions are also proven to streamline operations behind the scenes, freeing up resources and eradicating tedious and repetitive merchandising tasks.

2. Klaviyo - ESP for Shopify

Klaviyo is an outstanding tool for growing your revenue through email marketing. It integrates the actions users take on your website with email automation to send campaigns for abandoned carts, new subscribers, customer win-backs, and more.

For Parkfield clients using Klaviyo, email marketing consistently contributes between 15 and 20% of total monthly revenues.

3. Privy - List growth / Pop-ups - for Shopify

Privy is an exit-intent popup app that helps you gain more subscribers and pushes customers to close the sale before clicking away from your store. It integrates seamlessly with Klaviyo to keep your subscribers and campaign data synced.

Here’s an example of how you might use these two apps in tandem: the user arrives on your site and places an item in their shopping cart, but gets distracted and begins to click away before completing their purchase. You can use Privy to trigger an exit intent popup offering 20% off when they input their email address, then use Klaviyo to send an abandoned cart sequence reminding them to use their discount to complete the sale. Cha-ching!

4. ReCharge Payments - Subscription system for Shopify

One of the biggest challenges new clients have when they come to Parkfield is finding a way to manage subscription-based purchases that’s both convenient for the customer and efficient for the merchant. Subscriptions by ReCharge handles this beautifully.

With ReCharge, you can easily add subscription or auto-refill options to your existing products. The app orchestrates payment and order fulfillment, including configurable delivery and cut-off dates, inventory forecasting, and order management.

5. Okendo - Customer Reviews for Shopfiy

Okendo enables fast-growing consumer brands like Knix, SKIMS and Zitsticka to capture and showcase high-impact social proof including product ratings & reviews, UGC, and Q&A.  

Research shows that shoppers who interact with UGC are 97% more likely to buy than those that don’t. In fact, 64% of consumers will actively seek out customer reviews & UGC before even making a purchasing decision.

With Okendo, brands can integrate their reviews & UGC into their marketing strategy and channels to drive more website traffic, build consumer trust, and increase sales at every touchpoint. 

6. Loyalty Lion - Customer retention / Loyalty & Rewards

It’s a well-documented phenomenon that 20% of your customers typically account for 80% of your sales. This is brand loyalty in action, and the most successful eCommerce merchants harness it to their advantage.

Use Loyalty Lionto reward your most loyal customers and keep them coming back. Swell enables VIP customer tiers that create exclusivity, referral programs that promote social sharing and targeted content for high-value customers, all things that help drive your average lifetime value upward.

7. Gorgias - the helpdesk built for e-commerce

Gorgias is a software built to transform customer support from a cost center to a profit generator. Gorgias software integrates with Shopify, Magento & BigCommerce to help over 5,000 merchants streamline their support in one place, including phone, sms email, chat, Facebook & Instagram (including Instagram DM's). Gorgias is built on machine learning to help automate repetitive inquiries and drive retention, efficiency and conversion.  

Gorgias works with global brands such as Steve Madden, Princess Polly, and Good American. Unlike most helpdesks, Gorgias offers unlimited seats, features and stores out of the box. Additionally, Gorgias has over 40 app integrations with partners such as Klaviyo, Okendo, Recharge and more. Managing all support channels and functions in one place has guaranteed teams a great way to save time and money.

8. Refersion - Affiliate Marketing Software for Shopify

Ambassadors, influencers, affiliates, and even customers can help grow your business when given the right tools and motivation. Refersion is an all-in-one platform that manages, tracks, and helps grow partner and affiliate marketing programs with real-time tracking, unlimited offers, unique commission structures, and easy integrations.

9. Postscript - SMS messaging

is the leading SMS platform for brands on Shopify and Shopify Plus. Thousands of growing merchants use Postscript to manage their SMS marketing strategy, due to their robust, trusted, and easy to implement integration with Shopify, their pre-built automation templates, and compliant list growth tools. It only takes 5 minutes to onboard and activate this high ROI marketing channel.

10. Spently  

Spently powers your most opened emails every time a customer takes an action, such as your Order Confirmation, Shipping Update, Abandoned Checkout, and Account Welcome. With Spently you can ensure that these most opened emails are on brand, driving a repeat purchase, and backed up by analytics.

Parkfield clients love Spently as not everyone opts in to receive marketing but with Spently you can still drive a repeat purchase, answer common questions to reduce support debt, all with transactional emails you have to send.  The average Spently user sees a 15% lift in sales and as part of Parkfield's partnership with Spently you can try it free for 30 days!

11. Recart

Recart is the leading Messenger marketing platform, helping 150,000+ innovative ecommerce brands to drive 5-15% additional revenue through a new communication channel, Facebook Messenger.

Using Recart, marketers can grow their email, SMS, and Messenger lists 20x faster and cheaper, create personalized, conversational Messenger flows for every stage of the customer journey: abandoned cart, receipts, shipping notifications, product recommendations, one-off promotions with almost 100% open and 30%+ engagement rates. Be part of the 150,000 innovative brands that saw 61x average return on their investment.

12. Loop Returns

Ecommerce brands see between 20% - 40% of all revenue returned by customers, and 67% of shoppers check a return policy before making a purchase. How you build your return process has become a vital piece of the customer experience.

Loop is the customer experienced focused returns solution for scaling Shopify brands. They pioneered the online exchange experience so that your customers can shop confidently and always find a product they love. By leading more customers to exchange, you will retain more revenue and customers and lose fewer dollars to refunds. If you are thinking about your returns process as a cost center you are thinking about it wrong.