The Best Online Storefront Apps That Work with Your Shopify Site: Integrate and Automate for eCommerce Success

Once upon a time, you had to visit a brick-and-mortar store to purchase items or order them sight unseen through a printed catalog. Today, that’s not the case. You can buy anything online, from clothing to cars, and everything in between. The world of eCommerce is a juggernaut and growing larger by the minute.

That massive growth offers aspiring entrepreneurs and solopreneurs unique opportunities. It’s easier than ever to identify a niche, source products, and then create an online store to cater to customers. With platforms like Shopify out there, you don’t even have to worry about the costs and time required to build your eCommerce site. Most online stores can be up and running in a matter of days.

The problem is that having a Shopify store stocked with in-demand products isn’t enough to achieve success. That’s because Shopify is great as a backend, but it leaves a lot to be desired in terms of storefront usability and accessibility. Thankfully, you’re not stuck with Shopify’s basic offering. You can integrate a wide range of storefront apps into your eCommerce store to bring in additional functionality, features, and even branding and user experience (UX) elements.  

The state of online shopping

eCommerce is not new. It dates back to 1979 when Michael Aldrich connected a TV to a computer through a phone line and made it possible to transmit payment data. Boston Compute Exchange became the first eCommerce company in 1982. Book Stacks Unlimited began as a BBS (bulletin board system) and grew into one of the first eCommerce pioneers by 1992. However, that initial growth was slow, and the DotCom bust of the late 1990s did the industry no good.

eCommerce grew steadily after that point, but it took the advent of platforms like PayPal, Etsy, eBay, and Amazon to normalize it.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, eCommerce got a major boost that never faded. eMarketer expects eCommerce to account for 21.2% of all retail sales by 2024. Forbes puts that growth at 24%. The US is the second-largest eCommerce market in the world. China is the largest and saw over $3 trillion in sales in 2022, with that number growing exponentially in 2023 and predicted to continue doing so in the future.

Here are a few additional eCommerce statistics that highlight just how prominent eCommerce has become in the 21^st century:

• eCommerce sales accounted for 15.6% of all retail sales in the US in Q3 2023.

• According to the US Department of Commerce, eCommerce retail sales for Q3 2023 were 7.6% higher than in Q3 2022, compared to a 2.3% annual increase in offline retail sales during the same period.

• By 2024, 42.9% of all eCommerce sales will occur through smartphones or tablets.

• Social commerce, a subset of eCommerce, is set to triple by 2025.

• Consumers are increasingly demanding that product descriptions, product reviews, and content revolving around the checkout process be in their own languages.

The eCommerce world continues to grow at a staggering pace, but to keep up with it and ensure that you’re able to not just reach potential customers, but get them to convert, you need the right tools. For Shopify-based businesses, that means using the right storefront apps.

What to look for

There are several ways to start online storefront businesses and several tools available today to help with them. The apps available will make it easy for you to get things done. While they’re listed as Online Storefront Apps, they’re apps that are designed to work with your storefront and make your job that much easier.

Check out tools that help with things like:

• Managing inventory

• Managing and processing payments

• Handling tasks and integrations (Zapier)

• Invoicing and billing

• Expense tracking

• One-click features

• Themes and templates to set up your site

• The entire customer buying journey

In the list below, we’ve included an array of apps that can help with different areas of your eCommerce, from solutions like Zapier to automate tasks and integrations to drop shipping options that help you source suppliers and find products to import for your own Shopify store.

Take the time to compare the features and see how they can help improve your Shopify eCommerce store and then choose the ones that you like best. While we’ve covered a few of the top apps here, you’ll also find thousands of other apps and tools that can help you improve your eCommerce operations.

If you want an integration that takes a lot of the work off your hands, ask how our virtual receptionists can act as the face of your Shopify store to help with customer questions through live website chat and other services while also taking control of your mission-critical services so that you can focus your efforts on your business.

Now, back to the apps.

Zapier

Zapier is a great tool that you'll see on a lot of our lists around here. That's because it's a versatile solution that can assist with automating tasks between all of the other tools and apps you use. With this tool, you can create "Zaps," which trigger certain tasks and events. In the case of your Shopify store, you can trigger a welcome email to send when someone signs up for an account for the first time, for example.

Zapier can link your Shopify store to MailChimp, Gmail, or even your ActiveCampaign marketing platform so that you can automate lead generation and other tasks to help streamline efforts while you’re taking care of the rest of your business. If you want, create Zaps that notify you directly every time a sale is made, a customer is created, or something needs your attention.

Plus, Zapier offers free solutions, and the paid plans start at just $19.99 per month if you want something more.

Plug in SEO

This tool is all about SEO and making sure that people can find your shop organically and based on keyword searches. When you install the app, it will start to automatically detect all of the different SEO elements on your store, from blog content to keywords, site speed, and even broken links. You won’t have to do the work yourself anymore, which means you can spend more time on other things.

Plug in SEO sends email alerts whenever you have an issue with SEO and gives you free instructions on how to fix things, too. It can even help you make improvements to increase traffic and so much more. It's essentially an app that will take SEO off your hands and it's got all the features and tools that you need without a huge cost.

In fact, Plug in SEO is a free app with basic scanning features, and if you upgrade to the premium version, it’ll only cost you $29.99 to $79.99 a month.

PushOwl

If you're tired of cart abandonment, PushOwl is a tool that needs to be on your list. Abandoned carts are one place where businesses are missing out when it comes to big potential, and it's important to maximize your marketing efforts there however you can. With this tool, you'll be able to encourage customers to come back to their carts and finish their transactions.

PushOwl works by sending tailored reminders and campaigns to your customers and potential customers. It also sends review notifications and lets you know which pushes were effective so that you can track your success. You can even start using it for free, with up to 500 impressions included. If you like it, it’s only $19 per month to get a paid plan. If you want to look into a better way to get customers back, cart abandonment should be on your marketing agenda.

Form Builder

Those who are building a Shopify store will need people to fill out forms for shipping and billing, among other things. The good news is that in addition to the features included with the website, tools like Form Builder exist. This tool allows you to create unique forms for your customers that are easy to fill and even include auto-fill features. You can let people place custom orders, make donations, and more.

FormBuilder is a one-click install and it’s easy to get started. Plus, you don’t have to be a coder to create professional, beautiful forms that will keep your customers engaged and remind them that you’re trying to help them. When you make things easy, people will have fewer reasons to reconsider or stall on their purchase. You’ll be able to get more leads and conversions with this tool because you can create the perfect custom shopping experience and more.

FormBuilder has a basic plan that starts free, but it’s somewhat limited on features. If you want to make sure that you have all the features, you can pay $30 per person per year.

GetSocial

Social selling is set to become one of the hottest eCommerce trends in the coming years. You must have the tools implemented to handle that growth. GetSocial is a powerful app designed for sharing and analytics. You can add social sharing buttons throughout your store and then track shares and referrals over time.

The app also lets you track shares per device, the percentage of shares per platform, and more. It’s a must-have tool for any eCommerce store operator who wants to capitalize on emerging trends and ensure that their visitors can recommend products to their friends, family, and connections with a minimum of hassle and fuss.

It’s $9 per month, but it comes with a 14-day free trial so you can put the app through its paces.

Printful

Printful is an online printing service that will allow you to create custom creations without spending a fortune on setting up your own print shop. You can create an account and then design and sell things like mugs, t-shirts, posters, and other custom items. It's great because you don't have to set up your own inventory and you can quickly process transactions without having to worry about handling product.

When using Printful, the app will take all orders and process them immediately, acting as the face of your business. It allows you to sell items without having to be involved in the production process, which can be expensive for printing and customization. While the app is free to install, you’ll be charged a small processing fee for each order that you take. There is also a paid version, but pricing is only available by quote. Note that you’ll get 30% off if you’re a Printful Growth member.

SMSBump

Increasingly, consumers are turning to their smartphones and tablets to browse and buy from eCommerce stores. That means SMS marketing is a critical consideration and can give you the ability to score sales within seconds when your customer clicks the link in an SMS message and then buys. SMSBump helps you automate that process to capitalize on current trends and catch consumers where they live – their smartphones.

SMSBump allows you to create SMS and MMS content for your marketing campaigns, track customers, send notifications about abandoned carts, and even reactivate customers who’ve disappeared on you. You can also track conversions and segment your audience with the app’s in-depth analytics.

Best of all? You can try it out for free. If you want access to more features, it’s $19 per month.

Honorable Mentions

Although we don’t have the time or space to cover them all in-depth, you can also check out the apps below for more tools to assist with your Shopify store. Whether they’re online storefront apps, marketing apps, communication apps, or anything else, they can help you improve your business and build your online store a lot quicker than you could on your own.

1.    Google Channel

2.    Shopify Email

3.    Adroll

4.    VideoWise

5.    Outfy

6.    PayWhrl

7.    Instafeed

8.    ReferralCandy

9.    Shopify Local Delivery

10.  Smile.io

11.  PixPix

12.  Gameball

13.  Loop

14.  Refersion

Integrate with Smith.ai to give your storefront the professional face itdeserves

With the right storefront apps, you can conquer the many challenges that come with eCommerce. From creating brand ambassadors to reminding customers about abandoned shopping carts, there’s an app for just about anything. That includes building brand recognition.

As your store becomes better and better known, you can expect an influx of communications. Phone calls and emails from prospective or existing customers must be answered promptly, or you risk them going elsewhere and damaging your brand. Of course, every second you spend on the phone or replying to an emailis one less second you can spend doing other important things. Smith.ai’s virtual receptionists can help.

Our team of professional virtual receptionists provides your eCommerce business with a human touch, and we do that 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That’s a critical consideration when it comes to operating a global eCommerce business. Of course, we can do a lot more, including handling email and SMS follow-up, bilingual answering, warm phone transfers, and more.

Ready to take the next step? Get in touch with us by emailing hello@smith.ai or calling (650) 709-2975. You can also go ahead and schedule a free live consultation to learn more about our services and how Smith.ai can help you build a thriving eCommerce business.