Shopify Apps to Increase Sales: What to Install First

By Milan Dhameliya · · 8 min read

Choose sales apps around a specific buying obstacle, compare Shopify's native options, and test variants, discounts, cart behavior, and fulfillment before launch.

The Shopify apps to increase sales worth considering first are Search & Discovery for product discovery and add-ons, Shopify Bundles for fixed sets, Judge.me for customer reviews, and Shopify Messaging or Klaviyo for follow-up marketing. Choose the one that addresses an observed buying obstacle, check what your store already provides, and test a complete order before expanding the setup.

You do not need to install this whole shortlist. If customers cannot find a compatible accessory, a loyalty program is the wrong first purchase. If the accessory is unavailable, a more prominent recommendation will not solve the underlying problem. The useful question is what a shopper should be able to do after the installation that they cannot do reliably today.

A shortlist with a reason to choose—and a reason to wait

Use these as candidates for evaluation, not promises of a sales increase. Features below come from the linked Shopify documentation and app listings; the selection and testing advice is my recommendation.

Search & Discovery: help shoppers find the right item

Start here when customers miss useful accessories or need better product recommendations. Shopify distinguishes complementary products, which go with the item being viewed, from related products, which can offer alternatives. Its recommendation documentation explains the setup and display requirements.

Open Apps > Search & Discovery > Product recommendations > Add recommendations. Select the main product, choose the recommendations, and save. Then open Online Store > Edit theme > Products, select the relevant template, and add the complementary products block in a compatible theme. Saving the selection in the app alone does not establish the storefront placement.

Wait if your product information does not explain compatibility. A shopper choosing a coffee dripper needs to know which mug it fits; putting two product cards together cannot supply that missing answer.

Shopify Bundles: sell a defined set

Consider Shopify Bundles when the offer is a fixed set or multipack. Shopify documents it as a free first-party app available on all Shopify plans. Start at Apps > Bundles > Create bundle, choose the component products, and complete the product details. New bundles begin as drafts; check status and sales-channel publication before promoting them.

The Shopify Bundles guide explains an operational catch: changing a component's price does not automatically update the bundle price. Assign someone to maintain both. Also inspect the resulting order because component SKUs, rather than the bundle SKU, appear in order processing.

Skip this app for a build-your-own assortment without checking alternatives. Shopify's bundle compatibility guide directs mix-and-match needs to third-party options and lists purchase options, including subscriptions, as incompatible with its documented bundle model. A subscription gift set needs a separate compatibility review.

Judge.me: collect and display product feedback

Judge.me is a candidate when you have customers whose product experiences would help the next buyer. Its Shopify App Store listing describes automated review requests, photo and video reviews, and storefront widgets. Evaluate the collection process and display together.

Before switching review apps, request a sample export and test how existing reviews map to products. Check a product with several reviews and one with none. Ask who will handle customer questions and moderation. Do not add a second reviews app just because a different widget looks better; first establish whether the current tool can deliver the required layout.

Shopify Messaging or Klaviyo: give follow-up marketing an owner

Evaluate Shopify Messaging, formerly Shopify Email, for campaigns and supported automations managed in Shopify. It is available on Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus, and requires Shopify Network Intelligence. Check its current requirements before enabling it.

Compare Klaviyo when your team has a defined need for its segmentation, integrations, or automated workflows. Its listing describes those capabilities; it does not establish that your store needs them. Write one audience rule and one message sequence you cannot currently run, then ask the vendor to demonstrate that exact requirement.

Keep your existing platform if it already serves those needs. For any change, nominate one system to send each sequence and check recipient eligibility, suppression, timing, and what happens after a purchase. Check channel availability for your business and recipient countries separately; availability of the app does not establish availability of every messaging channel.

Shopify Inbox: answer the question blocking a purchase

Shopify Inbox supports customer conversations with staff and an optional automated agent. Consider it when presale questions repeatedly arrive too late to help the shopper. Decide who maintains the answers and who takes over a conversation that needs judgment.

Before adding chat, read the last set of product questions your team received. If everyone asks whether a mug is dishwasher-safe, improve the product page as well. Test the answer against the manufacturer's actual care instructions. Skip automated answers for facts your team has not verified.

Put one mug and one dripper through the proposed setup

Consider an illustrative outdoor-coffee store selling a mug and a compatible dripper. This is a test scenario, not a client case study. The merchant wants more shoppers to discover the pairing. There are two different offers to evaluate.

For an optional accessory, recommend the dripper on the mug page. For a packaged coffee kit, create a bundle with a clear contents list and its own price. Decide which offer you mean before comparing apps: the choice changes the product page, discount configuration, inventory checks, and warehouse handover.

For complementary recommendations, Shopify requires stock above zero, an active product, and Online Store publication; an item already in the visitor's cart is also excluded. Test the recommendation with an empty cart and again with the dripper already added: its disappearance can be correct behavior, so a screenshot of the second state is not proof that the app failed.

For a bundle, check the actual discount target. Shopify says product-specific discounts must include the parent bundle product; selecting only its components does not apply the discount to the bundle. Record the intended offer before testing so the person reviewing checkout knows which result is correct.

Now give whoever implements the change this acceptance list:

Use a controlled test order and coordinate with fulfillment so test goods do not ship. Keep the order reference, selected variants, screenshots, and expected result together. Repeat the purchase on mobile and verify that overlapping chat, review, or offer widgets leave the variant selector and checkout control usable.

Check what the installation changes beyond the widget

Before adding anything, inventory the installed tools under Settings > Apps. Give each customer-facing job one named owner: reviews, recommendations, cart offers, chat, or marketing follow-up. Two tools can coexist, but their responsibilities should be explicit.

Shopify's theme integration guide distinguishes app blocks, app embeds, and apps that add code. In the theme editor, inspect Add block > Apps for placement and App embeds for enabled overlays or background features. Ask the developer which integration the proposed app uses.

A theme preview is useful for reviewing layout. Do not assume it isolates every app setting: confirm the scope of discounts, messages, and other store-level changes with the app provider before experimenting. Shopify also notes that apps need reactivation when you change the published theme, so repeat the customer-task check after a theme switch.

Keep an exit plan. Shopify's uninstall guidance advises saving needed data and checking additional removal steps. External subscriptions require separate cancellation. Our app-removal guide explains why removing an installation and cleaning up everything it changed are different tasks.

If the requirement is internal routing or staff notifications, first review our guide to Shopify Flow and custom-app boundaries. A storefront sales widget should not become the default purchase for an operations problem.

Give the app a keep-or-remove decision

Before launch, write a small decision record: the observed obstacle, the proposed change, the pages and shoppers affected, the person responsible, and the result that would justify keeping it. Save a baseline using the same metric definition you will use afterward.

For the mug example, I would examine how often eligible orders include the dripper, alongside completed orders, discounts, returns, and contribution after the relevant costs. This is a suggested evaluation method, not a claim that the app will improve those measures. An app-attributed sale is not, by itself, evidence that the sale would otherwise have been lost.

Allow enough observations to make the comparison useful. If traffic is sparse, say the outcome is inconclusive. If your campaign, product prices, and traffic sources all changed during the trial, do not give the app sole credit for the result. Keep the operational pass/fail checks separate from the commercial evaluation.

Check the catalog before paying to promote more of it. Our free Shopify store scanner can flag public catalog issues such as sold-out products and duplicate descriptions. It cannot inspect your private app settings, orders, or marketing attribution; use its findings as a starting point for catalog review.

Bring the acceptance list to a vendor or developer before installation. If the difficult part is coordinating the theme, app, discount, and fulfillment behavior, our Shopify implementation services can help define and test that work. The deliverable should include a working purchase journey, a named owner, and a clear way to remove the change if it does not earn its place.