Why optimise with plugins on Shopify?
The first step to launching a store on Shopify, is to buy your Domain name. Since shopify includes hosting and SSL in its monthly plan, your initial set up is complete once you buy the domain and link it to your shopify account.
Next, you need to set up the base layout of your store by installing a theme – it could be a Free Theme or a Premium One based on your budget and your affinity for better UX.
After that, comes the major task of optimising your site for your visitors, like
– improving SEO on the site
– monitoring many instrumental site metrics
– collecting user data
– showing them offers
– interacting with them via live chat
– stopping cart abandonment
– directing marketing campaigns to them outside of the store as well
While Shopify offers very few freebies, especially in the themes department, it does have a few good free plugins that can help you optimise your site to a great extent. The freebase is again limited compared to Woocommerce, but the one thing with Shopify is, the quality of plugins is quite good, and there are very few that slow your site down, or have adverse affects.
However, that being said, you must keep in mind that More does not mean Better, and that using any more than a maximum of 10 plugins, can slow your site down a lot leading to higher Bounce Rate and lower Conversions
KIT
KIT is an artificial-intelligence enabled virtual employee, that helps streamline your marketing campaigns, by setting them up automatically, with just the target and budget to be input by you.
It works while you sleep, and runs targeted ads on Facebook and Instagram to help drive traffic to your store.
BENCHMARK HERO
Benchmark Hero is an SEO Audit app, that runs through your site, and lets you know what is working, and areas of improvement in your site.
Since SEO is of paramount importance to drive organic traffic to your site, Benchmark Hero is a must-have in your shopify dashboard
COMPASS
Compass helps you analyse 30+ business e-commerce metrics to help you understand which aspects of your overall business offering you need to improve.
For example, if your Cart Abandonment Rate is high, you could easily introduce an offer to help customers make the purchase.
PUSHOWL
Pushowl is an app of immense value, as it lets you with the big plaguing issue of Cart Abandonment.
Pushowl helps you automate push notifications with offers, information, or anything else you need, to prod the customer towards a purchase by re-igniting his or her intent.
TIDIO CHAT
Tidio helps you set up chatbots on your website to address customer questions and grievances 24×7.
It integrates any incoming queries with your frontend, where in you can remotely be on-call for your customer at any time of the day or night without being logged on to your shopify admin panel.
PRIVY
Privy is the best email marketing tool for shopify, period.
With Privy, you can customise and design exit-intent, pop-ups, newsletter sign-ups, etc. anywhere on your site, to capture user data.
It even integrates with Mailchimp to give you better email marketing options available.
Oberlo
Oberlo is shopify’s drop-shipping app.
It helps small businesses and drop-shipping stores to import products directly from places like China via marketplaces like Aliexpress, directly into their store.
The shipping information can also be put in the app, and the item gets shipped by the supplier.
ORDER PRINTER
Order Printer helps you print out invoices for your orders, and mail them to your customers. Labels, packing slips, etc. can also be template-d and printed as per necessity.
There is also the option to add your store logo in the invoice, and customise it.
UPSELL & CROSS-SELL
This app from Recom.ai helps you automate product recommendations to customers based on their history; and it is a great way to increase the cart size and average cart value.
This also adds a more customised and relevant experience for the user.
FORM BUILDER
Form Builder is the perfect app to insert a Custom Enquiry or a Book Consultation type form for your site.
It has customisable fields, and also integrated with Mailchimp or Klaviyo to help your email marketing needs, and build your mailing list.
Happy Building!
Do let us know if we can help, or if you have any questions. We are happy to help!
If you are looking for custom services, do check out our Services tab for solutions. We have tailor made long-term offerings for start-ups, personal projects, SMEs and brands; as well as standalone deployments.