The Shopify App Store has thousands of apps, and many stores have too many of them. Each one costs money and load time. Five types of apps reliably bring in revenue: reviews, search and filters, bundles, subscriptions and loyalty programs. Three of them are available for free directly from Shopify.
The five apps
1. Reviews
Customers trust other customers more than they trust you. A review app automatically collects reviews after a purchase, ideally with photos, and shows them on the product page and in Google with stars. Our tip: Judge.me, a good free version, fast and clean in the theme.
2. Search and filters
People who search want to buy. If they find nothing, they're gone. With filters for size, color or material and synonyms in search, they find their product in seconds. Our tip: Search & Discovery by Shopify, free. Enough for most stores.
3. Bundles
Sets sell more than single items, and the cart grows. A starter set, a gift set, a “complete look”. Our tip: Shopify Bundles, free, with clean inventory tracking for every single item.
4. Subscriptions
For anything that gets reordered regularly: coffee, cosmetics, pet food, supplements. One purchase turns into a customer who buys every month. Our tip: Shopify Subscriptions, free. For more features, there are specialized apps.
5. Loyalty program
Points for purchases, reviews and referrals. Worth it if customers could buy from you more often than they do today. Our tip: Smile.io or Joy, both with an entry-level plan.
What didn't make the list
- Pop-ups with countdowns and “Only 2 left in stock”. Works briefly, costs trust in the long run. And if it isn't true, it's a risk of a legal warning (Abmahnung) in Germany.
- “Someone in Berlin just bought” notifications. Customers have seen these a hundred times and don't believe them anymore.
- Page builder apps. They slow the store down. Whatever modern themes can't do, we'd rather build as a custom module.
- Email apps. They matter, but Shopify itself is enough to get started. More on that in part 1 of the series.
The rule: every app has to pay for itself in revenue. Check every three months which ones you actually use, and uninstall the rest.
FAQ
How many apps are too many? There's no fixed number. But every app that loads code into the theme slows it down. If your store is slow, apps are the first place to look.
Do apps leave leftovers in the theme? Often, yes. When you uninstall, code sometimes stays behind and keeps loading. Someone should check and clean it up after removal.
Free or paid app? What Shopify offers itself is free and usually lean. Paid apps are worth it if they move a lever much more than the free version.
Do you set up apps? Yes. Selection, setup, adapting to your design and cleaning up old apps are all part of what we do.