The new year is just around the corner! For sure, you’re all set with your Shopify store plans for the year and how you’ll grow your eCommerce store in 2022.But you can’t do it all alone. You’ll need tools to help you out. And so, we’ve put together a list of 14 best Shopify apps to help take your store to new heights.

Best Shopify apps to increase sales in the new year

1. Outfy - Automate social media

For online store marketers, managing and keeping all platforms up to date is a huge task – one that can eat up all their hours. Imagine you plan an impromptu flash sale and have to publish announcements on all your social media platforms. If you have to share updates on all your platforms manually, it can consume a lot of your time. Plus, there are more chances of errors and mistakes if you do it manually.That’s why you need Outfy – the app helps automate social media posts, promotes posts, as well as creates engaging content. With the app, you can create GIFs, videos, collages, and sale promotions. The app helps ease your social media tasks, so you can utilize that time to focus on more strategic matters.

2. Smile - Rewards & loyalty

75% of consumers favor brands that offer rewards to their customers. And 64% of brands say their loyalty program is the best way to engage their customers. So, if you don’t have an engaging rewards program, you’d be missing out on a key asset that helps engage customers. Rewards programs have many benefits:

• They help you retain customers
• You can ensure customers buy more from your site
• Increase revenue and profits
• Boost customer engagement
• Enhance your overall marketing strategy

To run a successful loyalty program, you’ll need to set up an app like Smile.io - one of the best Shopify apps. The app helps you set up a rewards program, referral program, VIP program, among others. What is more, the app has advanced features such as – it allows you to customize the rewards page, integrates easily with other Shopify apps, etc.

3. Junip - reviews & ratings

95% of customers read reviews before buying products online. Reviews and ratings are social proof that, when used by online stores, have a huge impact on the customers’ psychology. When customers read positive reviews and see high ratings on products, they are able to make purchase decisions easily. But gathering reviews and ratings doesn’t have to be a manual process. With the help of a good reviews and ratings app, you can make it a part of your customer journey. Junip is one such app, designed to help brands gather more reviews and increase sales.

4. ReConvert - upsell and cross-sell

When customers walk into physical stores, 8 times out of 10, the salesperson tries to sell more or something of a higher value to them. The result: the customer ends up buying more and going home with a product that is more valuable.Shoppers visiting your site can have the same experience. Just because yours is an online store, doesn’t mean it’s not possible to upsell or cross-sell to customers. There’s an app designed to help you do this - ReConvert.Here’s how the app can help you:

• ReConvert helps upsell and cross-sell on the thank you page
• Displays pop-ups with offers and discounts
• Captures customers’ birthdays to engage them through promotions
• Enables customers to reorder with an incentive

5. Back in Stock - Restock Alerts

It’s quite a disappointment for customers when they see products out of stock. When shoppers see products stocked out, they simply leave. Unless, you care to offer them to be notified. By having a ‘notify me’ button on your out-of-stock product pages, you can improve your chances of bringing back shoppers and making sales. That’s where the Back in Stock - Restock Alert app can help you. One of the best Shopify back in stock apps, it can help you increase Shopify sales in 2022.Here’s what the app can do for you:

• The app enables shoppers to subscribe for restock alerts via SMS, web push, email, and Facebook Messenger
• Send automated back-in-stock alerts via different channels when products get restocked
• Segment customers as well as let them subscribe to alerts for specific combinations - for example, color, size, style, etc.

6. Postscript - SMS marketing

Five and a half billion people use mobile phones across the world! Almost all your customers use mobile phones. With an open rate of 98%, you don’t want to miss out on all that you can do through SMS marketing.That’s where you can use Postscript – the SMS marketing app will help you grow your Shopify store:

• Build your SMS subscriber list
• Automate text messaging
• Create customer segments
• Enable one-on-one text message conversations
• Manage SMS marketing campaigns, and more.

7. Gorgias - customer support

Unlike a brick and mortar store where customers can walk in and get their queries answered in person, online stores depend on communication tools for customer support. The efficiency of your customer support service performance can make or break your business. 84% of consumers said that customer service is a key factor that helps them decide whether to buy or not to buy a product from a site. But fret not, you can install an all-in-one customer support app like Gorgias on your Shopify store.

• The app connects all communication channels - Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and more, so you can provide customer support through all channels
• Responds to customers on live chat instantly, reduces customer support time
• Sets up automated responses and reduces ticket backlog
• Performs tasks related to repeat orders, cancellation, refund, etc.

8. Dialogue AI Personalization

Customer Experience (CX) isn’t a buzzword for nothing. According to a study by Gartner, 85% of consumers feel they do not experience good CX. One advice by experts is that enterprises that have lost the personal touch in the rush to digital transformation must change their CX as they head into the next year. For eCommerce stores to bring in that human-to-human connection on their sites, they need a highly intelligent tool like Dialogue.This AI app helps Shopify stores bring in personalization, generates product recommendations, upsells and cross-sells. It’s an automated conversion tool that helps increase sales and provide a memorable shopping experience to customers.

9. Pre-order Today

We’re moving into a new year. Most often, brands have new collections and product launches planned for the new year. Shoppers too, look forward to new collections from their favorite brands. To get a headstart on the sales of your new products and collections, you can set up a pre-order strategy. It is when you can sell products that are yet to be launched in your Shopify store.Not just new products, shoppers can place orders for products that are out-of-stock, coming soon, or sold out. Pre-order Today app makes pre-order strategies a breeze for your Shopify store and can help you increase sales.Here’ what the Pre-order Today can do for you:

• Replace the ‘Add to Cart’ button with ‘Pre Order’ for coming soon and sold-out products
• Help you capture purchase intent of shoppers
• Enable you to sell more coming-soon and stocked-out items
• It performs tasks such as product tagging, pre-order badges, discounts, etc., so you don’t have to do anything manually

10. AfterShip - track and notify

Once an order is placed, customers like to know their order status regularly - at times, almost everyday. And it’s natural - customers would want to know where their purchase is, when it will reach them, etc.And that’s why a good order tracking app is a must for Shopify stores. It has several benefits as well, such as,

• It saves support time and money that you’d spend on hiring resources
• It helps build customers’ trust in your brand
• Helps you offer good customer experience

One of the best order tracking apps for Shopify stores is AfterShip. Here are its key features:

• Sets up an order tracking page on your Shopify site
• Allows customization of the page
• Helps boost sales with emails and SMS
• Improves on-time delivery rate
• Allows multiple shipping options
• Helps you analyze and take action

11. MLV Auto Currency Switcher

If your Shopify store sells to customers in different countries, one of the most important tools that your site requires is a currency convertor. If your customers are spread across different countries, you can make their shopping experience easy and quick with the help of a currency converter app like – MLV Auto Currency Switcher. One of the best Shopify apps to increase sales on your Shopify store, here’s how it can help you:

• Easily add new currencies
• Convert currency automatically based on customer location
• Reduce customer frustration, improve shopping time and enhance experience

12. Form Builder

Imagine this – you set up a blog, a newsletter, a back in stock notify me button, etc. on your Shopify store. You think your marketing plan is spot on. Until… It's time for your site visitors to share their contact details. You forgot to set up forms that would gather their contact details. But you need not worry, when you have a powerful app like Form Builder installed on your Shopify site. Here are a few of Form Builder’s features.

• Allows unlimited number of forms
• Mobile responsive forms
• Customized 'thank you' message for customers who submit forms
• Integrates form information with mailing tools

13. TxtCart

48% of consumers prefer to receive brand updates through SMS, and 98% of SMSes get opened. With such a high open rate, you do not want to miss out on the efficient and powerful communication platform. Chances are, most of your customers are already using this platform. So, if you haven’t set up an SMS strategy, you’re missing out on key opportunities to engage your customers and grow your Shopify store.One of the best Shopify apps to help you set up your SMS marketing is TxtCart.The app helps:

• Recover abandoned carts with human and automation-driven SMS marketing
• Send targeted messages and strike a conversation with a consumer to understand them better with the help of eCommerce agents
• Engage customers and nudge them towards conversions
• Respond to customers instantly though automated responses
• Enables two-way communication with your customers

14. Loyalty Rewards & Referrals

81% of customers say joining loyalty programs makes them buy more from brands. But loyalty programs are easier said than done. If you’ve ever tried to run a loyalty program on your Shopify store, you’ll know.While starting a program is easy, keeping it going and making it a success is quite a challenge. But, when all your competitor sites are running rewards and loyalty programs, you can’t afford to ignore it.After all, it helps you provide value to your customers on a repeat basis. It helps you make your customers feel special and build long-term relationships with them.That is why you must install Loyalty Rewards & Referrals on your Shopify store.The app makes it easy for Shopify stores to:

• Set up loyalty programs within minutes
• Acquire new customers via an in-built refer-a-friend feature
• Has several advanced features, such as, it leverages social media by rewarding followers and likes
• Customize to match your branding, personalized email notifications
• Provides insightful data that can help you improve your program

Ready to grow your business in 2022 with these Shopify apps?

We’ve shared a selection of some of the best Shopify apps to increase sales. The selection covers various different needs of your online store. But there’s no reason why you should not explore other apps. Choose apps based on your Shopify store’s needs. Another thing to keep in mind is – don’t install all the apps at once. Try these apps one at a time so that you don’t feel overwhelmed.