So, you’ve decided to use Shopify to build your e-commerce website, and you’ve chosen a beautiful Shopify theme to give your online shop an attractive aesthetic. What’s next? Get your Shopify site set up on the right foot by adding the best plugins for marketing, analytics, security, and more. The Shopify App Store is filled with plugins for every kind of e-commerce business owner who wants to find success – but how do you know what plugins you need and which ones you can leave behind?
How to Find the Right Shopify Plugins for Your Site
With so many options for Shopify plugins, you might need some help narrowing them. Here’s how to find the best Shopify plugins for your store.
Understand What Shopify Already Offers
Screenshot via Shopify
Shopify comes with a lot of features already, so some available plugins are redundant in the features they offer. Sure, they could add a little more functionality or aesthetics to built-in functions, but are those changes worth a potential uptick in load times or unsightly theme conflicts like some plugins can add?
When possible, stick with Shopify’s base features. The platform gives you everything you need to get started with online sales, including inventory and sales analytics, built-in SEO, multiple payment options, a drag-and-drop store builder, and shipping calculation tools.
Plan Your Site First
Now, think about everything you want to add to your website to make it look and function the way you want it to. Do you want a chat function? Maybe you want your customers to be able to track their orders through your site. Will a bulk editing tool for products help you get everything set up faster?
And if you’re not sure what you want or should have, the Shopify Community can be your best resource. Use it to network with other Shopify users to learn more about plugins that work well for them and ones you might want to consider based on your store’s needs.
Browse the Shopify App Store
Screenshot via Shopify
The Shopify App Store is all you need to find the plugins you’re looking for. Although many developers offer downloads from their websites, their plugins are probably available on the Shopify App Store, too, keeping everything together in one convenient spot.
The store is incredibly simple to browse and find what you need by category, like Productivity and Customer Support. You can also get a good idea of features you may want that you hadn’t thought of before when you dig through all the plugins it has to offer.
Look for Plugins That Offer Multiple Features
Plugins can slow down your site because they add code. The more code you add, the higher the chances of slow load times, lagging navigation, and a negative user experience.
That’s when having a plugin that rolls several features into one might help. Rather than add several different plugins to your site, you can add one with multiple features, lowering the risk that plugins will conflict with each other and bog down your website.
Take Advantage of Free Trials
Many paid plugins for Shopify come with free trials to let you test them for at least one or two weeks. If one doesn’t have a trial advertised, you can contact the developer to see if one is available. Trials are beneficial for you to see if a plugin might impact your site’s look or functionality negatively. You can also use the trial to see if the plugin includes features that you already have somewhere else.
3 of the Best Shopify Plugins for Any Ecommerce Site
In addition to our Share Buttons for Shopify, a simple-to-install plugin that enables one-click sharing to all of your visitors’ favorite social media platforms, we love the following Shopify plugins that just about any e-commerce business owner can benefit from:
Candy Rack
Screenshot via Shopify
Upselling to your customers works. Candy Rack helps you do it with its all-in-one solution for cross-promoting and upselling based on what your customers already love. The plugin adds attractive popups that add value to your customers’ shopping experience. You can also create bundles, offer free gifts, and let Candy Rack suggest other stuff that might entice people to buy while they’re on your site.
Judge.me
Screenshot via Shopify
Customer reviews are an absolute must for any e-commerce site. That’s where Judge.me comes in. There are multiple plugins for Shopify that add a feature for customers to leave reviews. But Judge.me makes it incredibly convenient for customers to leave reviews by allowing them to do so right through their email.
Customers also have the option of adding photos and videos to their reviews, which can increase their helpfulness to other customers. With Judge.me, you can also import reviews from other sites and display your reviews on Google Shopping, Facebook, and other places where your ideal customers hang out.
Sales Rocket
Screenshot via Shopify
Sales Rocket is a bunch of plugins in one that targets everything from reducing abandoned carts to triggering sales with inventory countdowns and sales timers. Everything this plugin includes is designed to help you boost sales from your store without you doing extra marketing to make it happen.
Ready to get more exposure for your Shopify store and sell more products? Install our share buttons for Shopify. They’re simple to install (in just minutes!), and they make it easy for your visitors and customers to share their favorite products with their friends and family on social media with just one click. Best of all, they’re totally free to use. With our share buttons for Shopify, you can start growing your audience effortlessly!
