by Andrew Reed, on May 25, 2021 9:00:00 AM
Managing your ecommerce business can be tricky. Thankfully Shopify offers thousands of apps to expand your site’s functionality and streamline your business.
We took the time to research and compile what we think the best, free shopify apps are for improving the basic functions of any online business, helping you increase sales and getting some of your valuable time back.
This app is everything you need to organize leads, track customers, and nurture your customer relationships, 100% free.
The HubSpot Shopify app brings captured data from your shopify store into HubSpot and then segments it based on orders and shopping patterns.
You can track customer engagement and create groups to receive automated emails based on loyalty, cart abandonment, or recent purchases. You can even set it up to email customers that haven’t returned to your site in awhile, enticing them to make a purchase with discounts and promotions.
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Popular Review:
“Shopify reports all sales and analytics to HubSpot for easy report generating. Every sale is entered in one of our Lists on HubSpot and creates a contact profile which makes it easy to add people to Email Lists and Workflows. Plus we were able to set up abandoned cart emails that are automatic, new customer emails that we can include CTAs or discounts on, and re-engagement emails for customers we haven't heard from in a while.”
Oberlo
Whether you need a supplier for your new business idea, or want to add to your website's current inventory, you are going to want to check out dropshipping app Oberlo.
It hosts a marketplace of products that will easily import into your ecommerce site. Just put the product on your webpage and once a customer places an order on your site, you can fulfill it through your chosen supplier on Oberlo.
They will ship the product to your customers for you, so no need to worry to set up your own shipping or fulfillment plan.
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And if you're new to drop shipping, the app also offers 101 courses to help you get up to speed.
Popular Reviews:
“It’s the best dropshipping app feature out there. The UI is easy to use, large quality product selection and smart ordering system. 5 stars.”
“The app works great and is very reliable. Fast and easy setup. Support is very nice as well. Will recommend this.”
Studies show that well over 80% of people incorporate reviews into their buying decision and even trust them as much as they trust their friends.
Adding review spaces on your product page is an important part of building customer loyalty and engagement, and the Product Reviews app adds a customizable review feature to all your products.
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This provides a way for your customers to engage with you, build a relationship, and even offer helpful feedback, as well as encouraging others to make purchases.
Popular Reviews:
“This is the best app I have used to manage customer reviews. It is very customizable with a ton of options. I love the customer service. They are lightning fast with any questions I have and provide great support when needed. I highly recommend it.”
“This app is TOP NOTCH!! love it, simple and clean and the SUPPORT is 10000% on point! responsive and FIXES any issues I've had! HIGHLY RECOMMENED and you can't beat free”
Jebbit creates product quizzes for customers to engage with as they browse your ecommerce store, helping them find the products that are the best fit for their needs and leading them through their shopping journey.
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These quizzes also are omnichannel, meaning they can be launched over social media, email, text message, and wherever your business may exist.
Popular Reviews:
“I used this app to make a really nice looking quiz, it was easy to do and looked professional. On the occasions where I struggled and needed help, I used the online chat to ask questions, where I had very quick and helpful replies from a friendly person. I very much recommend Jebbit, I'm glad I chose it over some other quiz platforms I was considering!”
“We started using this app to help us build sales, better understand our customers and build out marketing segments. Additionally, we had some difficulties with the platform and Maryetta was able to help so swiftly it was some of the best customer service I've received. Also Trevor was so helpful in reaching out to help me learn more about Jebbit's abilities and how we can best leverage the platform for our business.”
Master ecommerce SEO with this simple and free Shopify app. SEO-plug in will help build your store’s organic traffic by offering suggestions to better optimize your site.
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Check your website speed, update your image alt-texts, and learn what keywords to focus on to help you score better with Google and similar search engines.
Popular Reviews:
“Have been using this app for over a year now, it helps us to keep up with our SEO. Helpful to small businesses who manage everything on their own. Fast and efficient customer service!”
“I am new to this app but so far I am very impressed. Very responsive customer service and I finally feel like I have some help with a complicated element that cannot be ignored - SEO. Thank you so much.”
Free shipping bar is a great tool to help boost your average cart values and conversion rates by offering free shipping to customers.
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Customers love free shipping, and it has slowly become a standard for any kind of retail shopping. If that's not something possible with your budget, FSB creates incentives for shoppers to increase their cart value in order to earn free shipping.
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Popular Reveiws:
“The app works great for our website. I like how it shows the shopping cart value required to get free shipping. Very easy to use.”
“Simple and excellent! Very good job. This is great for people who aren't very familiar with website designs or figuring out stuff like this.”
Having a straightforward and stress free return policy is a key component of building customer loyalty. Customers will always be more likely to make a purchase if they can return it hassle-free.
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AfterShip Returns Center offers you just that. This app will automatically send customers looking to return an item a printing label and return instructions. Set up your own custom return policy for customers to take advantage of. You can even customize it to offer customers store credit for the item, ensuring their return business.
Popular Reviews:
“Great app and even better customer service. The support staff are very responsive and go above and beyond to assist with and solve any issues you might have. Highly recommend.”
“A super easy and quick way to semi-automate your returns. I wish it would adjust your stock levels when someone submits for an exchange rather than having it done manually.”
Imagine all those times you’ve walked into a new and interesting store and wanted to try something on or ask some questions about the products, only to be met with poor service—or worse—there is no one there to answer your questions.
This is the experience your ecommerce store will provide to your online customers without an effective chat bot.
Chatbots are your 24/7 online sales reps and an important part of improving the customer experience on your ecommerce site.
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Tidio gives you the ability to live chat and answer customer questions directly on your site, or set up one of dozens of bot templates to check inventory, answer questions, and track down abandoned carts when you aren’t available.
Popular Reviews:
“Great free plan! Really awesome to be able to use this for up to 3 operators completely for free. Thank you!”
“Great job everyone ! it works perfectly and the back office team answers really fast ! 5 star rating for this app!”
Smile.io is a top-rated rewards program app that allows customers to earn loyalty points by creating a customer account, placing an order, making a referral, leaving reviews, and much more.
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These points build a relationship with your customer as they work towards deals and discounts while continuing to convert on products and boost your marketing efforts.
Popular Reviews:
“Smile is such an integral part of our business. We are thrilled to offer such a robust loyalty system to our customers and they love it too! Thank you!”
“Their Customer service is amazing, today Larry was super helpful and sent me a lot of resources to check.”
Wrapping Up
Shiopify is one of the best ways to get your ecommerce store off the ground, and taking advantage of their marketplace will have a huge impact on the efficiency of your business.
These apps come totally free of charge, so take the time to check them out to see if they can offer a solution to your online business.
