How to Choose Shopify Apps for Your Startup Business?

Summary

Ecommerce businesses are dime a dozen nowadays. The competition is so intense that attracting and engaging with a target audience also becomes a challenging job. And not to mention, the most challenging part – customer retention. 

To overcome the many hurdles that the eCommerce sector brings forth, there’s only one option for you – build a unique brand and deliver an unmatched customer experience. While Shopify helps you attain both, best Shopify apps accelerate and intensify the process a bit more for you. 

In this blog post, we will learn in detail what Shopify app store is and what the applications have to offer in building unique user experiences. You will also be able to decide when you need to avail of Shopify app development services should you want to create custom applications for your store. 

So without further ado, let’s get started!

What is Shopify App Store?

Shopify App Store is a dedicated marketplace to find both paid and free applications that can be used to build highly engaging and intuitive Shopify stores. There’s a plethora of applications that you can choose from and extend your Shopify online store’s functionality. 

At the same time, you have to be cautious and understand your requirements as there are plenty of applications available on Shopify app store. If none of them matches your unique requirements, you also have the option to build app for Shopify store and meet your requirements. 

When you develop the application, you also have the option to keep it private only for your store or choose to make it public and let others leverage its capabilities.

Why Shopify Apps?

Unlike other eCommerce platforms, Shopify comes with a plethora of ready-to-use and built-in features that makes setting up and running an online store an easy feat. You don’t have to take care of hosting yourself and can get started as quickly as you want. 

However, for businesses that want to do more than just the ordinary, Shopify presents them with this flexibility through top apps for Shopify. These applications are approved by Shopify, and thus, abides by all security, safety, and legal guidelines laid out by Shopify. 

Therefore, you can trust and use these Shopify applications to extend your app’s features and elevate its user experience. 

With best apps for Shopify store, you can do a number of things as mentioned below: 

• Inventory management 
• Streamline shipping 
• Manage loyalty programs 
• Return and restock apps 
• Manage sales 
• Improve SEO capabilities 

Notable Benefits of Using Shopify Apps 

• Ease of Use: While Shopify itself presents an easy interface for you to work with, there are ways for you to improve this experience further. You can use an app for Shopify store and create a smooth interface that facilitates seamless management of your online store. 

• Customizability: Since Shopify is a proprietary software and takes care of the hosting itself, the level of customizability with respect to other platforms is quite limited. You get to use the out-of-the-box features and can’t personalise much. However, Shopify apps help ease this problem to some extent. So, if you want to stand apart from the crowd, you can choose to custom build apps for Shopify store. 

• Personalized Marketing: Some Shopify applications let you gain insights on sales data, market statistics, make predictions, and custom-create marketing strategies that can help your business grow intensively. 
• Improved Analytics: With Shopify apps in place, you can get more insights on how your online store is performing and make informed decisions. Be it for planning a marketing campaign or improvising your sales strategy, these analytics Shopify applications can prove to be beneficial for you. 

What are the Different Types of Shopify Applications?

There can be numerous categories and types of Shopify applications. A few notable ones are: 

• SEO Apps: These apps help optimize your app’s organic reach and boost search engine ranking. 

• Marketing Apps: Such applications help promote your product seamlessly across various channels, lead successful marketing campaigns, and track outcomes. 

• Product Rating and Reviews: By integrating such apps, you will be able to show reviews from various sources seamlessly at a place on your online store. 
• Dropshipping: Leverage the capabilities of dropshipping Shopify applications to dropship products directly to customers and save yourself from the hassles of managing a warehouse or inventory. It is highly used by startups.
• Inventory Management: Managing and organizing your inventory can’t get easier. All you have to do is integrate a relevant inventory app from Shopify store and you can automate various tasks and set reminders to replenish inventory, and more.

How to Pick the Best Shopify App for Your Business?

As evident, most popular Shopify apps come with a myriad of benefits. However, the abundance of such applications also makes the job difficult for you as you are spoilt for choice which one to choose and which one to not. 

Here, let us guide you on how to pick the best Shopify apps for small businesses, medium businesses, and large-scale businesses. 

• Analyze Your Requirements: Firstly, you must define your objectives and analyze your project requirements. Ask yourself questions like ‘what features do you need?’, ‘Are you able to solve the problem/ pain point without using the application’, ‘What kind of problem are you trying to solve with the app?’. 

  Once you have enough clarity on these aspects, you will be able to tell which type of apps and which app categories to explore. Then, you can move forward to the next step and start looking for a relevant application.

• Search for Apps in Shopify Store: Browse to Shopify App Store and look for applications that can serve your purpose. You will find multiple applications segregated based on categories such as sales channel, store design, store management, orders and shipping, marketing and conversion, selling products, finding products, and so on.You can also find the trending and popular apps, check their features, language support, etc. and decide.

• Check App Reviews: You have multiple options to check reviews of a particular Shopify app. Whether you check from the Shopify App Store page or from a blog or YouTube video, it is entirely up to you. But, make sure to read and compare the reviews before settling for an app. 

• Estimate Price Rates: The Shopify App Store approves of three plan rates – Free, Paid, and a one-time fee. If you are a startup with limited resources and financial budget, you can get started with a free Shopify plan and upgrade to a paid plan when your business scales up. You can also explore various premium plans and even connect with the app developer/ publisher to get it at discounted rates, if applicable. 

• Decide: Right from Shopify security apps to marketing and sales apps, there’s a range of applications you will find in the Shopify app store. However, there are chances that the customization you are looking for is lacking.So, you need to decide whether the available Shopify apps can give you the desired results or not. If not, you can get a custom-one developed according to your business requirements. However, you may have to consider Shopify app development cost as that’s an added expense on your part.

Conclusion

Choosing a Shopify application or multiple Shopify apps can be a tedious job, especially if you have a large and complex store. But, it doesn’t have to be! You can start by defining your objectives and analyzing your requirements and then pick the essential apps for Shopify store as per your need. 

However, if you feel none of it is serving your unique purpose, you can always reach out to a reputed Shopify development company and seek assistance in developing a custom Shopify app. Regardless of your choice, you have to make sure that the end-user experience is seamless so you can convert and venture profitably! 

If you are looking to avail Shopify development services, then BiztechCS is a reputable name that might cross your mind. We have 17+ years of experience in eCommerce development and can help you rise up to the challenges you might face doing online business.