Larry VanDenHandel on October 29, 2019
E-commerce has never been easier especially with the rise of platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento, and many others. Setting up an online store doesn’t need any programming expertise or know-how.
But the ease of setting up an online store doesn’t equate to profitability. It’s only the start. Good thing there are various e-commerce apps that can help increase sales and revenue — which we’ll be covering in this article.
First off, we’re going to start with Lootly. Lootly is an incentive marketing platform that helps brands grow their revenue and boost sales through a loyalty and rewards program. Using a loyalty program encourages consumers to buy again and share their experiences with others.
Source: Lootly
Running a loyalty program has lots of benefits. The primary goal of platforms like Lootly is to retain customers. Marketing to existing customers is typically 5 to 25 times cheaper than acquiring new ones. There’s also a 60% to 70% success selling rate when you’re selling to loyal customers.
Source: Lootly Points & Rewards
With Lootly, you can launch your own program in less than 5 minutes without breaking a sweat. It’s a complete loyalty marketing platform that’s incredibly easy to install.
Lootly’s Features Include:
Source: Lootly Pricing
Lootly has 3 basic plans that include unlimited orders and customers. There’s no contract as plans are month-to-month. The best part is, Lootly offers 1-click integration for most e-commerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, and WooCommerce.
TrustSpot, trusted by more than 21,000 brands, is a platform that lets you collect reviews from customers, feature the reviews on your site, and much more.
Source: TrustSpot
The reason why you need TrustSpot to collect reviews is really simple — customer reviews have a lot of influence over the purchasing decisions of prospects, potentially turning them into buyers. Even negative reviews, when handled correctly, bring in more good than bad.
Source: TrustSpot Collect Product Reviews
TrustSpot’s Features Include:
Source: TrustSpot Pricing
Fortunately, TrustSpot isn’t as expensive as you think. Even with the most basic plan — the “Growth” plan — you’ll have features worth more than your money. You also won’t have to worry about the integrations since TrustSpot offers 1-click integrations with most e-commerce and social platforms.
Next on the list is Sumo, a toolset of marketing solution that promises to double your ROI. It has lots of features designed to drive conversions, increase traffic on the site, and even generate social engagement.
Source: Sumo
Sumo is live on more than 500,000 websites. It has plugins for WordPress, Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento and integrates nicely with other marketing tools like HubSpot, MailChimp, Klaviyo, and others.
Sumo’s Features Include:
Source: Sumo Pricing
Sumo has a free plan with a serious punch of features. It has all the must-haves to grow your email list and boost conversion. The downsides with the free plan are the withholding of the advanced features that are only offered in the “Pro” version as well as Sumo branding on the pop-ups.
Though TrustPulse sounds a bit like TrustSpot, they’re not really related. TrustPulse is a social proof app that shows real user activity on the site. You must’ve noticed already those notifications on some sites that show you who just bought what on the store.
Source: TrustPulse
TrustPulse works by leveraging the power of social proof to increase conversions by up to 15%. All you have to do is choose a trigger for the notifications, customize them, and target the right audience.
TrustPulse’s Features Include:
Source: TrustPulse Pricing
Like Sumo, TrustPulse has a free plan which generates 500 sessions per month with instant access to all features. You can also specify how many sessions you have per month and check the available pricing plans.
TrustPulse works with the most popular platforms like Shopify, WordPress, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Squarespace, and many more. As long as you can add custom JavaScript on the site pages, you’re good to go.
Klaviyo is a robust growth marketing platform that features marketing automation and a revenue-driving email platform. They’re particularly known for their email services.
Email marketing is very important in terms of boosting conversion. When used properly, email marketing can bring in a 4,000% ROI.
Klaviyo is an advanced platform with lots of powerful features and functionalities. For example, you can segment your list based on different factors like behavior, open rates, location, and others. The downside is, Klaviyo can get really complicated fast.
Klaviyo’s Features Include:
Source: Klaviyo Pricing
Klaviyo is available on most platforms — Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, WooCommerce, and others. In terms of pricing, Klaviyo has a free plan which includes up to 250 contacts. As you get more contacts, you’ll have to upgrade and might cost you a bit. But as your store grows in conversion and revenue, it’s all going to be worth it.
LiveChat is a customer service platform with live support dedicated to e-commerce and customer care. It’s an application that lets visitors on your store have a live chat with your customer support.
Source: LiveChat
Having live chat on your website can drive 3 to 5 times more conversions and deliver up to 6,000% ROI. Live chat can be effective in generating leads as well.
LiveChat’s Features Include:
LiveChat has competitive pricing compared to its peers. Also, it’s available on a lot of e-commerce platforms including Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, WooCommerce, Wix, OpenCart, and 30+ more.
Boost Sales by Beeketing is a smart app that would surely boost your conversion rates by upselling and cross-selling using machine learning technology. Their “Beeketing Artificial Intelligence” would automatically show offers and suggestions to the users based on their browsing behaviors and order history.
Upselling at the cart page brings in a 5% to 10% conversion on average. With Boost Sales, your customers will see recommendations when they reach the checkout page of your store, and the app will suggest products they might want to add to their cart.
Boost Sales’s Features Include:
And the best part is, their starting price is only $30/month. Unfortunately, Boost Sales is only available on Shopify and WordPress as of now. However, they have plans to add Weebly and BigCommerce in the future.
Unlike the ones mentioned above, One Click Social Login is a simple app developed by Dev Cloud to make your customers’ lives easier. The app allows users to sign up and sign in using social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
You may be wondering how this app could boost conversions on your site. The answer is one word — convenience. Did you know there’s a chance that 54% of users may leave a website rather than completing an individual registration form? That’s according to a survey by Blue Research.
That’s why large brands allow social login or social sign-on on their sites.
The caveat is, One Click Social Login is only available on Shopify and BigCommerce. However, if you’re on Magento or WooCommerce or another platform, don’t panic. There are lots of alternatives you can find in each of their marketplaces.
Plug In SEO is a Shopify app that helps identify SEO problems in your store so you can fix and improve them. SEO is important so you’ll get higher searchability on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
Although some people think that SEO isn’t important for e-commerce websites, practicing proper SEO on your site could bring in a 2.5% conversion rate. That means, for every 1,000 visitors on your site, 25 to 30 of them would move towards a purchase because of your SEO strategy.
However, Plug In SEO isn’t magic. It doesn’t automatically put your site on the first page of Google. However, using this app would reveal important things you should fix on site. You can also optimize your shop with the use of power SEO features like broken link fixing, keyword targeting, and more.
Plug In SEO’s Features Include:
Plug In SEO has a free and plus plan. The sad part is that the app is only available on Shopify. But rest assured that you’ll be able to find other alternatives on the e-commerce platform you’re using.
Lastly, Affirm is a financial lender that allows customers to buy on your site and pay over time. Merchants using Affirm are seeing a 20% increase in conversion and an 87% increase in AOV (Average Order Value).
If you’re selling products with low retail values, Affirm may not be for you. It makes more sense for stores that sell pricier products like gadgets, jewelry, and others to use an installment payment option for their customers.
Affirm is available on most popular e-commerce platforms including BigCommerce, Magento, Oracle Commerce, Shopify, WooCommerce, and more.
There are lots of e-commerce apps out there. On Shopify alone, there are about 1,700 of them. A lot of these apps could help you boost conversions on your store and increase revenue. Some of the apps mentioned above have alternatives. Make sure you research and find out which options work best for you.
Larry is the Co-Founder & CTO of Lootly.
Whether you are looking to acquire new customers, increase customer loyalty, or drive
new DTC subscriptions, Lootly’s retail loyalty program software can help growing B2B, B2C, and D2C businesses.