41 Best Shopify plugins to enhance your store's functionality
Instant Team
41 Best Shopify plugins to enhance your store's functionality
You’ve created a fantastic Shopify store, but your sales aren't where you'd like them. Getting visitors to your store isn’t the problem. There’s plenty of traffic coming your way. But no matter how many tweaks you make, you can’t seem to increase your conversion rate. You may benefit from Shopify conversion rate optimization plugins if this scenario sounds familiar. This article will introduce you to the best Shopify plugins to help you achieve your goals.
Instant’s Shopify landing page builder is a valuable tool for helping readers achieve their objectives, such as finding the best Shopify plugins and apps to enhance their Shopify store. Avoid technical jargon and focus on the benefits of their goals.
Table of Contents
What are Shopify plugins?
Shopify plugins are software add-ons you can install on your Shopify store to enhance its capabilities. Think of them as extra tools that help you customize your online store and add new features built into Shopify's default setup. These plugins can:
Improve customer satisfaction
Boost sales
Collect leads and much more
Depending on what you need for your business. With over 7,360 plugins on the Shopify App Store, picking the right ones can feel overwhelming. It helps to start by:
Identifying your goals.
What do you want the plugin to do for you?
Check the features it offers.
See what other users are saying to ensure it’s a good fit.
If you’re wondering whether plugins and add-ons are the same thing, they are. These terms are used interchangeably, and they both refer to extensions that can be developed by:
Third-party companies
Software developers
Individuals
Do you need plugins for Shopify?
Shopify store plugins are often considered unnecessary, but they can help improve your site and its performance. At its core, Shopify is designed to be powerful out of the box. It can handle much of what you need to run your online store without extra help. Technically, you don’t need plugins. But here's the thing:
Plugins can take your store to the next level.
Think of plugins as little boosters that extend your store's capabilities.
They don’t fix limitations so much as they add new, exciting features.
Want to improve your mobile app’s functionality? A plugin can help with that.
Want your buyers to have access to extra features without bouncing to another app or website? That’s where plugins shine.
While your Shopify store might be doing fine, plugins can enhance the user experience by making things more accessible, efficient, and impressive. They’re all about giving your customers more power and options, which is why they’re essential if you want to up your game.
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Benefits of using Shopify plugins and apps
1. Enhanced functionality: Level up your Shopify store
Shopify plugins allow you to add new features and functionalities to your store without extensive coding. Whether you need:
Product filter
Loyalty program
Live chat feature
Plugins can help you customize your store to meet specific business needs. This flexibility enables you to create a tailored shopping experience for your customers and address their unique requirements.
2. Improved user experience: Optimize the customer journey
Many plugins are designed to enhance the user experience. Plugins that optimize your store's SEO can help attract more traffic, while those that manage customer reviews can build trust and credibility. Choosing the right plugins can streamline shopping, reduce cart abandonment, and increase conversion rates.
3. Time and cost efficiency: Save resources with Shopify plugins
Developing custom features from scratch can be time-consuming and costly. Shopify plugins provide ready-made solutions that can be installed quickly and easily.
This saves you development time and reduces costs for hiring developers for custom solutions. You can focus more on running your business than getting bogged down in technical details.
4. Scalability: Find the right plugins for your growing business
As your business grows, your needs may change. Shopify's extensive library of plugins—over
7360 options. You can easily find tools that scale with your business. There’s likely a plugin available to support your growth whether you need to:
Add new payment options
Expand your marketing capabilities
Enhance customer service
5. Seamless integration: Make Shopify plugins work for your business
Many Shopify plugins integrate seamlessly with existing systems and tools, allowing you to connect your store with:
Email marketing services
CRM systems
Social media platforms
This integration helps streamline operations, making managing your business easier and engaging with customers across multiple channels.
6. Analytics and insights: Track and optimize your store's performance
Plugins can provide valuable analytics and insights into customer behavior and store performance. You can:
Track sales
Monitor traffic
Analyze customer interactions
Using these tools. This data is crucial for making informed marketing strategies and inventory management decisions.
7. Ongoing support and updates: Rely on Shopify plugins for your business
Most reputable plugins come with ongoing support and regular updates, ensuring they remain compatible with the latest Shopify features and security standards. This support can be invaluable, especially for businesses that may not have in-house technical expertise.
Fully customizable, no-code Shopify page design with Instant’s drag-and-drop builder.
Instant is a user-friendly Shopify landing page builder that allows eCommerce teams and agencies to create fully customizable and advanced pages without any coding knowledge. With its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, users can quickly design and publish:
High-converting landing pages
Product detail pages
Sections
Instant also offers seamless integration with Figma and other eCommerce tools, making it a versatile choice for enhancing online store performance and increasing conversions.
Try Instant's Shopify landing page builder today!
What is the difference between a plugin and an extension?
In technical terms, plugins are executable object codes that can be integrated into an existing software application. They are standalone modules that provide specific features or functionalities, allowing the host application to perform additional tasks without altering its core structure. For example, in a content management system like WordPress, plugins can add features like:
SEO tools
Social media sharing
eCommerce capabilities
Extensions are typically source code that modifies or enhances an application's functionality. They are often smaller in scope compared to plugins and may provide additional features or tools that integrate with the software's existing functionalities. Web browsers like:
Chrome
Firefox
Commonly use extensions to add new features, such as ad blockers or password managers.
What apps should I have on my Shopify store? 41 best Shopify plugins
1. Instant: Build Shopify landing pages fast
Instant is a user-friendly Shopify landing page builder that allows eCommerce teams and agencies to create fully customizable and advanced pages without any coding knowledge. With its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, users can quickly design and publish:
High-converting landing pages
Product detail pages
Sections
Instant also offers seamless integration with Figma and other eCommerce tools, making it a versatile choice for enhancing online store performance and increasing conversions.
Try Instant's Shopify landing page builder today!
2. Plug in SEO: Improve your store’s SEO performance
When you have a website, you must ensure it appears in search results so people can find your products. That’s why you need Shopify SEO extensions, like Plug in SEO, that help your products appear in relevant search results.
Plug-in SEO enables you to improve your SEO rankings. You can check your site’s current SEO performance and fix and optimize it. This SEO app helps you:
Create SEO-optimized titles and meta descriptions
Optimize headings, image alt tags, and file names
Fix 404 broken links
Optimize blog content
3. SEO booster: Monitor your SEO performance
SEO isn’t a once-and-done process. You need to monitor your progress to ensure you’re driving results continually. If you’re looking to monitor your SEO traffic and performance to make improvements, SEO Booster is the plugin for you.
This plugin helps you monitor your SEO campaign performance and detect errors to improve your ranking in search results. Some great features include:
No coding
Insights on your SEO score
Auto-management of your SEO Keyword integration
4. Voyager upsell & cross-sell: Improve your AOV with smart shopping
If you want your audience to buy more products, Voyager Upsell is one of your business's best Shopify eCommerce plugins. This plugin tracks what people add to their carts to target shoppers with relevant products at checkout and on places like your homepage.
You can also offer bundles for specific products. It allows you to choose where you want to make special offers to help you boost sales in the best way possible for your business. This smart shopping lets you upsell your audience with more products and increase your average order value. The best part? You can get started and set up this plugin in 30 seconds.
5. Free shipping bar: Promote your free shipping goals
Free Shipping Bar is one of the best Shopify eCommerce plugins for businesses that offer free shipping to shoppers who spend a designated amount of money. With this plugin, you can promote your free shipping offer with progressive messages. These messages let users know how far they must go until they reach the threshold. It helps you increase sales and get more people to add products to their carts. This plugin also lets you display different free shipping offers depending on:
Pages visited
Time
Devices
Users’ locations
You can also add background images to your progress bar to customize the experience, like promoting free shipping during the holidays. This tool is great because it helps you track the performance of each shipping bar to see what shipping goals generate the most sales for your business.
6. Return magic: Simplify your return process
When you sell your products, you’ll have people who aren’t happy, didn’t get the right size, or didn’t like the product. They’ll want to return it. You need one of the most important Shopify eCommerce extensions:
Return Magic
Return Magic enables you to make your returns easy for your shoppers. With this plugin, you can set up a branded portal to automate cash refunds, gift card refunds, and more. You can provide your audience with multiple refund options.
This plugin enables you to autogenerate labels for returns, making the return process smooth and easy. Return Magic does not deliver automatic refunds; you still have control over approving someone’s return!
7. ReferralCandy: Boost sales with referrals
ReferralCandy is one of the best Shopify plugins for increasing referrals and sales. This plugin is great for customizing the look and feel of your referral program. You can design pop-ups to referral pages to fit your brand.
Shopify will launch and run your referral plan for you. As your referral program runs, you can track its performance. You get an overview of who referred who, shares, and sales for your business. This Shopify extension allows you to customize your reward, too. You can offer a special gift or coupon — the choice is yours.
8. Back in stock: Recover sales from lost customers
When you’re selling many products, items are bound to go out of stock. Wouldn’t it be great if, when you replenish my stock, I could let shoppers know? With the Back In Stock plugin, you can! This plugin is one of the most efficient Shopify extensions for your business. You can create a program to send automated emails or SMS texts to people who sign up for them.
When your product returns to stock, they’ll get a message and can go by it. Create a custom theme for your back-in-stock emails to create a branded personalization message. This plugin only takes five minutes to install, and you don’t need to know coding to implement it.
9. Judge.me: Collect customer reviews
Did you know that 92% of people trust recommendations over a brand? Reviews play a fundamental role in helping you earn more sales for your business. This Shopify add-on enables you to collect more reviews for your business. This plugin enables your audience to review your products directly in their email.
They can submit photos and videos in their reviews, too. Judge.me enables your reviews to appear in multiple places. Your stars can appear in:
Google Search (through rich snippets)
Google Shopping
Facebook
And more
The best part? You don’t need to lift a finger. The plugin will install for you and import your existing reviews. It’s a great plugin to increase your social proof and earn more sales for your business.
10. Wishlist plus: Let customers save products for later
Wishlist Plus is the last of the Shopify eCommerce plugins we’ll cover. Wish lists are a fundamental part of the shopping experience. People may not be ready to buy, but adding a product to a wishlist can lead to more sales later.
With Wishlist Plus, you can enable shoppers to create a wishlist. This tool allows users to create a full-featured wishlist that doesn’t require a user login. These lists are mobile-friendly, too. You can send these shoppers personalized emails and social campaigns based on their wish lists to help encourage sales. You can also customize your messages to make them more personal for your audience.
11. AVADA SEO image optimizer: Optimize your images for SEO
If you want your eCommerce site to appear in search results, you must follow SEO best practices to help it rank. A critical component of successful SEO is ensuring your images are optimized for search engines. With Avada SEO Image Optimizer, you can optimize images properly. This app is great because it enables you to:
Optimize your image
ALT tags to rank in search results
Optimize image file sizes to keep your site from slowing down
Import page structured data
Optimize meta tags
12. Product reviews: Add a review section to your product pages
Shopify’s solution for displaying product reviews is simple to install and use. Customer reviews have a huge influence on your sales. According to research by Spiegel Online, the likelihood of a product being sold increases by 270% when it has five or more reviews. While some people may like added features, such as the ability to prompt customer reviews with an automatic email, this is a no-brainer for most users.
13. Product filter & search: Help customers find what they’re looking for
Filter and search plugins make finding what they want easier for your customers. This enables you to set up filters within your product collections so customers can browse by category or enter a search term. Making it easier to find something reduces Friction on your website, a key part of running any successful business.
14. Trusted site (McAfee): Build trust with security badges
One of the most common causes of basket abandonment is a lack of trust in the website. A recent survey by Baymard found that 19% of people who had abandoned an online purchase did so because they did not trust the website.
Cutting your abandonment rate by nearly 1/5 would represent a huge increase in sales. Your customers want to know they can browse your store and buy things safely. You receive a secure certification badge to display by downloading the Trusted Site Shopify plugin. The badge will make my visitors feel safe, increasing your sales.
15. Yandex: Analyze your traffic and performance
Yandex is a relatively new option from the Shopify app store. It provides real-time traffic and performance analytics, as well as session replays. That means you discover what is happening in your Shopify store and why.
16. Simply cost: Get insights into your profits
This plugin tracks your total business profits automatically and provides monthly reports that include both one-off expenses and advertising spending.
That means you can market your products with Facebook or Google without worrying about your bottom line. The advantage of a more in-depth analytics platform like Simply Cost is that it allows you to see which of your products are the most profitable (rather than just the best-selling).
17. PageSpeed monitor: Keep track of your store speed
Time and time again, studies have shown that loading speed affects your sales. This free and simple Shopify plugin monitors your page speed hourly by piggybacking on Google’s free page speed analyzer once it has gathered your scores.
The plugin creates dashboard elements directly within your Shopify interface. You can also set up alerts for your mobile phone or email to get notified if your page speed drops below a particular level.
18. Syncee: Manage your product supply information
This plugin provides a simple way to manage your products and prices, combining all of your supply information in a single system. Syncee has an in-app database of suppliers that you can browse for new products to add to your store. It also allows you to upload products from your own data feeds, making it easier to update your stock list.
19. AfterShip: Keep customers updated on their purchases
Aftership provides your customers with a way to track the items they buy from your store. By engaging your customers after the purchase, you improve their overall experience and make it much more likely that they will buy from you again. The plugin gives customers an estimated delivery time and sends automatic notifications when their purchase arrives.
20. Stock sync inventory update: Automate your inventory updates
Stocksync stock management plugin Stocksync helps you manage your inventory. If your store sells products from some suppliers, you need a Shopify plugin to help you manage them. This allows you to set pricing rules, integrate multiple file formats and data feeds, and manage your vendors and suppliers.
21. Pre-order now: Allow customers to order out-of-stock items
Pre-order Now automatically changes the buttons on your product pages when you run out of stock. It allows customers to pre-order items that would otherwise be unavailable. It also adds a useful badge to out-of-stock and coming-soon products.
22. Easy-ship: Simplify your shipping process
Most Shopify stores sell physical objects. The problem is that every purchase has to be packed, shipped, and delivered, increasing costs for both the seller and the buyer. Easyship is a user-friendly shipping app with discounted shipping for over 100 companies (including FedEx and UPS). You can also create workflows to decide which company ships which product (depending on weight, size, or location). That way, you can automate the process and keep your costs down.
23. GemPages: Create custom landing pages
You’ll have full control over SEO & a bunch of social proof elements to improve brand presence and gain customers’ trust. You can boost your sales with:
Cross-sells & up-sells
Countdown timers
Pop-ups
Many other features
A/B Testing & Google Analytics integrated into GemPages are beneficial for tracking your store’s performance.
24. Blog Studio: Manage your blog
Content marketing allows you to build a search engine presence and connect with your customers differently. You can also develop a referral network by arranging guest posts with affiliate websites, which can bring extra traffic to your site. Blog Studio makes starting and managing a blog easier.
25. EU cookie bar: Comply with cookie laws
EU legislation requires that every website asks its users for permission to create cookies as they browse. The EU Cookie Bar Shopify Plugin provides a free opt-in bar to make it easy for stores to comply with this. Helpfully, you can target particular geographical regions so only EU visitors can see the bar.
26. Whatsapp chat + abandoned cart: Recover abandoned carts with WhatsApp
The Whatsapp Shopify plugin creates a live chat button that customers can use to contact you. They can message you if they have questions or can’t find what they want.
Once they initiate a conversation or order, you can contact them with order confirmation messages and delivery notifications. You can even send recovery messages when someone abandons a purchase.
27. Smart SEO: Automate your SEO
This plugin automates the metadata and alt tags that make your Shopify store visible to search engines. Although manually adding these elements to your site is relatively simple, this tool will save you time at a reasonable price.
28. Google shopping & ads: Increase your store’s visibility
This Shopify plugin allows you to manage your Google Search ads and make your Shopify products visible across Google’s advertising network. It also allows you to integrate your Google Shopping and Shopify data to track sales and marketing costs across both platforms.
29. Rise: Build a customer loyalty program
Rise allows you to create loyalty programs, increasing the average lifetime value for your customers. Your loyalty programs are administered in the form of store credit, which your customers can also purchase as gift cards.
30. PageFly: Create custom Shopify page designs
Designing and customizing your store with Shopify’s themes and customization tools is not straightforward. Sticking to Shopify’s built-in page editing also limits you to certain styles.
A user-friendly page builder like Pagefly allows you to create and incorporate any page into your Shopify store. It is a reasonably priced alternative to apps like Shogun and GemPages.
31. Refersion: Manage your affiliate marketing program
Refersion is one of the most popular Shopify Plugins for businesses that want to use influencer marketing. The plugin helps you recruit, track, and pay your chosen influencers and even track the performance of your campaigns.
32. Growave: A customer engagement platform
This Shopify plugin is an all-in-one customer engagement platform that combines many features from other options. Growave provides a range of notifications, emails, and widgets to add to the customer journey.
These can be combined with customer loyalty and referral programs, improving brand strength, customer retention, and acquisition. In addition to all these on-page features, the plugin also helps you gather customer reviews.
33. Sixads: Grow your store’s traffic with Ad exchanges
Sixads is a platform that allows any store to exchange ads with other users. The ads are displayed in a partner products widget that can be tailored to match your store’s appearance.
The plugin also allows you to manage your Google and Facebook ads. Effectively using this plugin requires skill, and it won’t suit everyone. If used correctly, it can help you grow and diversify your traffic.
34. Infinite options: Add custom product options
Some products require more personalization or choice than Shopify allows in standard themes. Infinite Options is a Shopify plugin enabling you to add extra choices and personalize your product pages. It also gives you several different ways of presenting these options, such as:
Radio buttons
Checkboxes
Number inputs
35. Store locator: Help customers find your physical store
Brick-and-click is the most common form of retail. It combines eCommerce with real physical stores, allowing customers to buy online or in person. Store Locator adds clear directions (or maps) to your real-world store so customers can find the nearest location.
36. Loox: Collect and display customer photo reviews
If you want to show your reviews more sophisticatedly, Loox allows you to display HD galleries of former customers. You can share the reviews in:
Social media posts
Galleries
Pop-ups
The great thing about user-generated content (UGC) like this is that it is regularly updated and requires no extra effort on your part.
37. Easy contact form: Create a custom contact form
A custom contact form might seem unnecessary, but it can impact your customers' feelings. As Chip and Dan Heath show in The Power of Moments, the things that stick in our minds tend to be unusually good (or bad) experiences. Making the extra effort to be available when it matters can make a big difference to your customer experience.
38. Edit order: Allow customers to edit their orders
Sometimes, customers change their mind. Other times, they simply type the wrong address or choose the wrong size and color. For Shopify store owners, that means finding and canceling the order and creating a new one. Most stores don’t let customers amend an order once it has been confirmed.
The Edit Order plugin removes all this stress by allowing store owners to change an order if it hasn’t been shipped easily. You can adjust the:
Shipping details
Billing address
Product options
Giving your customers the chance to change their order reduces Friction and makes it more likely that they will buy something in the first place.
39. PickStory, bundles upsell: Increase sales with product bundles
Given the high costs associated with obtaining new customers, selling more to your existing customers is a great way to increase your store’s revenue rapidly. PickyStory helps you improve your average order value by displaying tailored product bundles and deals to your customers at key points on their journey through your store. Choose from a wide variety of:
Deals
Add optional discounts
Simply drag and drop the widgets onto your pages. No code is required.
40. Candy rack, one-click upsell: Boost sales with smart upsell offers
Candy Rack creates attractive pop-ups with suggested items for your customers to add to their baskets. The plugin makes suggestions based on your customers’ choices and uses an in-built AI algorithm. That way, someone shopping for tech gadgets might be offered a warranty, while a customer looking for shoes might be offered socks.
41. ProMap ‑ store locator: Help your customers find your physical locations
If you’re a Shopify website owner with both physical locations and a Shopify page—you’ll need ProMap to connect the two. This Shopify extension creates and adds a map of your store’s locations to your website.
Customers can search for the closest store by putting in their address. Once they’ve found it, they can see crucial information like your hours of operation and how to get in touch. Make it easy for customers to interact with your physical stores and online presence. It’s a great way to boost sales.
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Calculating the ROI for your Shopify plugins
Shopify plugins and apps come with a price tag, and just like any other business expense, you'll want to ensure they're worth it. The ROI of these tools will help you understand how much value they bring to your store. The higher the ROI, the better. This means the app or plugin is helping you generate more revenue (or save on costs) than you spent on it.
To calculate the ROI for your Shopify plugins or apps, you'll compare the increase in revenue the plugin brings with the cost of the plugin itself. Essentially, you’re asking, Is this tool helping me make more money than I spent on it? Here’s a simple example to break it down. Let’s say you install a marketing plugin that costs you $3,000, and as a result, your store generates an additional $4,500 in revenue. To calculate your ROI:
Subtract the cost of the plugin from the revenue it helped generate:
$4,500 - $3,000 = $1,500 (your net gain)
Divide that net gain by the initial cost:
$1,500 ÷ $3,000 = 0.5 (or 50%)
Your ROI is 50%. In other words, you earned 50 cents in profit for every dollar spent.
The time factor
One key thing to remember is that time affects ROI. A 50% ROI achieved in one year is more valuable than a 70% ROI spread over three years. In eCommerce, timing can be tricky, especially when it's hard to attribute an increase in sales to a new plugin directly.
How to attribute ROI accurately
Ensuring the ROI you calculate reflects the plugin's impact is essential. Here’s how you can fine-tune your measurement:
Monitor conversion rate
After installing a plugin, check your conversion rate (the percentage of visitors who purchase). You can track this in Shopify’s analytics dashboard. If your conversion rate increases after using the plugin, that’s a sign it may be contributing to more sales.
Compare conversion data
You can further refine this by setting up an experiment. Most plugins allow you to target specific pages or even particular days of the week. Compare the conversion rates from when the plugin is active versus when it’s not. This will help you isolate the plugin's impact more accurately.
Check the behavior section
For more detailed insights, visit your store's reports' Behavior section. This section will show how visitors interact with your site and give you a clearer picture of any changes in customer behavior due to the plugin.
By tracking these metrics carefully, you'll get a more accurate picture of whether a Shopify plugin gives you a solid return on investment.
Choosing the best Shopify plugins for your store
Identify your app's requirements before shopping for Shopify plugins
Understanding your store's needs is crucial before exploring the best Shopify plugins. For starters, what specific support does your store need?
Are you looking for:
Product filter
Loyalty program
Chat feature
Something else
Analyze where customers drop off in their journey to determine which plugins could effectively address these pain points.
Focus on user experience
Not all Shopify plugins are created equally. Some may help improve your Shopify store’s conversion rate, while others could do more harm than good. Research how potential plugins can enhance the end-user experience.
Opting for a free or paid plugin should positively affect users' interactions with your store. A plugin that complicates the user journey or adds unnecessary steps can be detrimental.
Evaluate the developers of Shopify plugins
Once you find a few promising Shopify plugins, look into their developers. Choose plugins developed by reputable and experienced teams. Reliable developers are more likely to provide:
Ongoing support
Updates
Security
Which are essential for maintaining the integrity of your store.
Check reviews and ratings
Even if a plugin comes from a trusted developer, it’s wise to read user reviews and ratings. This feedback can offer insights into the plugins:
Performance
Reliability
Potential issues other users have faced
Consider scalability
When looking for the best Shopify plugins for your store, research the scalability of your options. As your store grows, you want to ensure that the plugins can handle increased traffic and functionality without compromising performance.
Assess cost
Budget is a critical factor. Determine how much you will spend on plugins and whether the costs align with your budget constraints. Sometimes, you may need to prioritize features based on your financial limits.
Ensure security
Evaluate the security features of any plugin you plan to add. Users must feel secure when interacting with your store, especially when providing personal information. Look for plugins that comply with security standards and best practices.
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Shopify Web
Shopify Customization
Custom Shopify Themes
Free Ecommerce Templates
Optimize your Shopify store for conversions without breaking the bank with Instant's Shopify landing page builder
Instant is a user-friendly Shopify landing page builder that allows eCommerce teams and agencies to create fully customizable and advanced pages without any coding knowledge. With its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, users can quickly design and publish:
High-converting landing pages
Product detail pages
Sections
Instant also offers seamless integration with Figma and other eCommerce tools, making it a versatile choice for enhancing online store performance and increasing conversions.
Try Instant's Shopify landing page builder today!
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