A while back we wrote an article titled “6 Shopify Apps We Couldn’t Live Without” listing and describing crucial apps that we depend on so much, we wouldn’t be able to use the Shopify online e-commerce platform without them. That article did not cover the apps that we actually enjoy using or find strikingly remarkable and easy to use. Although Shopify is riddled with useless or non-functional apps, there are those that are surprisingly wonderful – so much so, that we cannot refrain from recognizing them. Here is a list of our favorite Shopify apps.
Conversio (formerly Receiptful)
This first app, Receipful, was actually the inspiration for writing this post in the first place. This app allows storeowners to create more aesthetically pleasing confirmation emails that can also include a referral program, automated recommendations and enticing coupon codes. Receiptly also provides analytic data showing open rates and click counts. The primary reason this app is so astounding stems from its ease of use and quickness to install. Coupon codes are automatically created for referrals (unlike ReferralCandy) and the platform offers many nice solution within one package.
Soundest
For years, our company always utilized Mailchimp for all email marketing strategies. That changed once we started relying on Shopify. Although solutions like Mailchimp and Constant Contact are far more sophisticated email marketing platforms than Soundest, there is one very attractive trait from the latter: Easy to use with Shopify. The Soundest email marketing app works perfectly as soon as it is installed. Soundest offers the core features needed to run any email marketing plan including pre-designed templates, automated campaigns, sign-up forms, cart recovery systems and much more. Our favorite feature is the ability to quickly add products from our store simply by using the in-store email builder.
Shippo
Shippo is an easy way to print shipping labels for orders. The app is compatible with all major carriers and will save shop owners quite a bit of time when dealing with shipping. Within the app, labels can be generated quickly by finding the order, but custom shipments can also be processed. One shining aspect of Shippo is how easy it is to get started. Before the age of Shippo, we only utilized UPS, but Shippo passes on their USPS bulk discount to app users which can result in 50 to 80% savings. The icing on the cake is Shippo’s highly responsive and attentive customer service. Although we didn’t need customer support, the Shippo team contacted us to learn about our experience and listened to our ideas for hopeful new features.
Email Offers
Email Offers by Bootstrap Heroes is not the prettiest app out there, but setting up is remarkably easy and we’ve witnessed highly effective engagement from our customers. The app allows you to create and customize emails for infrequent customers, inactive accounts, loyal customers and first-time shoppers with little effort. I really wish the programmers would add more features and continue developing the app since the potential for legendary status is in reach. For instance, Receiptly dynamically creates unique coupon codes in the Shopify system. If Email Offers did the same thing for their campaigns, this app would be a game changer for Shopify storeowners.
DeepMine
DeepMine By Ryan Alyea is a life saver for us since Shopify’s core environment has no intuitive reports manager or analytics panel (What’s up with that?). With Deepmine, users can easily view revenue based on dates, shipping charges, sales taxes and discount totals among other things. The app is easy to install and just works. DeepMine helps us sort and search through orders using a clean table and graph system that fosters the discovery of top products, variants, and options.
Conclusion
Are these the only Shopify apps that are easy to use? Of course not. As we encounter more easy-to-use app that become assets to our online business, we will add them to this list. If you have any recommendations, please contact Chris Mullen at chris[at]printkeg.com.
What constitutes an easy-to-use or user friendly Shopify app?
– Easy to install with no coding requirements from storeowner.
– Works as described without assistance.
– Requires absolutely no training or troubleshooting to use (hence “user friendliness”).
– Features are useful in a real e-commerce environment.
