For mission-led brands, scaling is about more than profit. Here are the apps that can help you do more, with less.
As a brand looking to be a force for good, pushing for positive change in the world, you’ve got a lot to think about.
You need to be constantly assessing (and reassessing) the way you approach your mission, staying true to your core values. But you also need to make sure your business is progressing in its own right, as an ecommerce enterprise.
Profit may not be the driving motivational force of your business — but in order for your mission to continue, you need to factor in financial viability. Ultimately, if you want to keep making a difference, you need to keep making a profit!
As a “for good” brand, chances are you’ll need your resources to be working hard for you. You might be operating with a light team — and wearing a few hats yourself to keep your overheads manageable.
So it’s of paramount importance that you think tactically and strategically about the third-party assistance you seek, especially in terms of the apps you deploy across your store.
By nailing your Shopify app tech stack, you have the opportunity to leverage a powerful suite of additional functionality, elevating and enhancing the platform’s core offering.
Ready to supercharge your growth and operate in the most effective and efficient way possible?
This guide is here to help.
1. The Best Shopify Apps for Customer Acquisition
As the saying goes, if you build it, they will come. But will they?
When running an online store, it’s not enough to hit launch, sit back and wait for conversions to fall into your lap. The marketplace is crowded and the hustle is real.
A customer acquisition strategy is essential if you want to actively drive traffic that reliably converts to your store.
It can be a fairly significant investment, typically costing much more than retention. So it’s important to get your approach here right from the outset.
It’s important to work with carefully selected, tried and trusted apps that can help you get the very best results and return.
Why is customer acquisition so important for mission-led brands?
Customer acquisition is, of course, essential for any brand: to make a sale, you need to attract a customer. The balance that needs to be stuck between acquisition and retention will vary from brand to brand, sector to sector.
But we’d argue that customer acquisition is especially important for mission-led brands. Here’s why.
You have a story to tell, and values to share. As a mission-driven brand, you need a solid starting customer base which you can tell this story to. You’re looking to inspire, inform and invest customers in your cause. It’s key to getting your message across to as many people as possible.
In short, customer acquisition is not just about sales, it’s about maximizing education around your cause.
Shopify Chat
When a first-time visitor lands on your website, conversion is the name of the game. Getting this initial sale across the line paves the way for future success.
After that very first purchase, a customer has a 27% chance of returning to your store. That percentage is not to be sniffed at, but if you can get the same customer to return and make a second (or even third) purchase they have a 54% chance of making another purchase beyond that.
Shopify Chat is a free sales channel that helps you turn those early visitors into paying customers — boosting the chance of them returning by as much as 82%.
Shoppers who speak with a brand are more likely to make a purchase, and Shopify Chat makes this incredibly easy for everyone involved. The app is free, so there’s no barrier for you to start experimenting.
Back In Stock
One of the main reasons that would-be customers fail to make a purchase is that their desired item isn’t in stock at the time of their site visit. Unfortunately, this is often enough to send them bouncing. Our modern demand for instant gratification means this experience may lead them to form a negative impression of your brand.
But with alerts from Back In Stock, you don’t have to lose these customers. This helpful app enables you to send “back in stock” notifications across email, SMS, Push or Messenger.
Introducing the option to get a notification of this kind does more than just win back a lost sale — it reduces some of the disappointment they may have been feeling, showing them you care about their experience.
Why do we love this app for mission-led brands? We know that in many instances, a more ethical, less-intensive supply chain will mean that stock levels can sometimes be unpredictable. If you’re working with small scale or artisan production, lead times may well vary.
And if you’re selling more unusual or unique items, chances are your customers won’t be finding them with a competitor in the interim, so Back In Stock makes a lot of sense for brands in this space.
GoodCarts
The only thing better than gaining new customers? Gaining new customers for free! When it comes to acquisition, GoodCarts enables mission-led brands to team up and win. Here’s the premise — seamlessly share digital coupons with shoppers from other “shop for good” stores in the GoodCarts community.
Everyone wins. Brands help each other grow, with reciprocal cross-promotion, and customers are introduced to new brands and businesses that are relevant to the shopping preferences they’ve already expressed through past purchases.
ROI is the kicker when it comes to customer acquisition. Traditionally, it’s a costly business, with many businesses choosing to invest more effort and energy into their retention strategy as a result.
But as previously mentioned, as a mission-led brand, you want to be getting your story and cause out to as many new people as possible.
Well, there’s no better ROI than profit gained as a result of zero upfront costs. Better yet, GoodCarts is completely free and offers access to a wealth of perfectly targeted new customers. What are you waiting for?
2. The Best Shopify Apps for Customer Conversion
So now that you’ve aced your customer acquisition strategy and are starting to see good levels of traffic, how do you start translating that movement into sales?
Store visitors are wonderful, but you need to see real sales as a result of this interest. This is where the fine art of customer conversion steps in.
Again, as a “shop for good” brand, the chances are high that the thought of making a difference is what gets you out of bed in the morning. But sales across the line are the key to this, and essential for your ongoing success. So however mercenary it feels, you need to get ruthless about optimizing your conversion rates.
Third-party help and insight can really help you gain traction in this field. It’s understandably a core focus for the Shopify app community, and the space is rich with ideas, techniques and promises.
Because of this, it’s all the more important to approach your selection with care and consideration, thinking about the best fit for your own unique business and brand.
Why is customer conversion so important for mission-led brands?
Ultimately, the more successful your business is, the more good you’re doing — the greater your reach and the bigger your impact.
You’re a mission-driven brand and more sales means more lives touched by the work that you do — whether it’s more work for the communities who manufacture your products, or more donations towards the causes you support.
Your brand needs to be able to sustain itself comfortably so that you can focus on making the biggest and best impact possible. So hearing that “new order placed” alert should be a top priority.
Okendo
Social proof has always been an important part of the decision to make a purchase. We are community-minded creatures, and we like to follow where we see others lead. For these reasons, reviews (and other forms of user-generated content such as product photographs and video demonstrations) are powerfully persuasive.
We love Okendo for its sheer functionality. When it comes to leveraging the power of reviews on your store, you need to be focused on optimizing two areas: review generation, and display.
Okendo makes both a breeze, opening up great channels of communication for successfully requesting reviews from your customers, and then allowing you to sprinkle them effectively across your store, to help instill the most confidence in browsing shoppers.
As a mission-led brand, your customers are likely to hold products to a higher standard and have more questions about their quality — they want to be making an ethical purchase, but not at the expense of its suitability. Okendo offers great insight into your customers on an individual level, assisting with personalized messaging. Their integration with Klaviyo means that this can be put to great use — personalized promotional mailings enjoy a 29% increase in unique open rates, and a 41% boost to click-throughs.
ReCharge
One of the best ways to guarantee a conversion? Automate it! Subscriptions are rapidly increasing in popularity and can offer a very reliable source of steady, predictable revenue.
Customers also benefit from the “set it and forget it” convenience of the model, which probably accounts for its huge increase over the last few years, as we all look for ways to streamline our busy lives. In fact, recent research found that 71% of adults across 12 countries have subscribed to repeat product services, with 74% believing that in the future, people will subscribe to even more services and own fewer physical goods.
When it comes to making subscription services easily accessible for your Shopify store, ReCharge is right up there with the front runners. With quick deployment and turnkey solutions, ReCharge enables you to get up and running with subscriptions quickly. Their analytics dashboard gives you some really powerful insight into your customer behavior, too.
Klevu
There are some sales that you simply shouldn’t be missing out on when it comes to conversion. Among these are sales that should be arising from the search-led journeys undertaken by your store visitors.
The act of interacting with your on-site search engine indicates a very high intent to make a purchase — your customer has a specific item in mind, assumes you sell it and is actively making efforts to locate it. It’s small wonder that on-site searchers are more than 200% more likely to convert!
With this in mind, exceptional product discovery should be a core consideration for your mission-driven ecommerce store. Klevu offers a smart suite of functionality that’s AI-fueled and constantly self-learning. Store owners have the chance to leverage the intelligence Klevu gathers to automate their merchandising, category pages and much more.
Additionally, insight into the search terms your customers use can be really beneficial — you can learn about the products they assume you stock and sharpen up your SEO and AdWords campaigns by taking your lead from their own phrasing.
If you’re looking to get the right product in front of the right person, at the right time, Klevu offers huge potential — we’d recommend booking a demo to find out how they could help your store.
3. The Best Shopify Apps for Customer Retention
Once you’ve attracted your customers and got that all-important first sale across the line, it’s time to switch into retention mode. Keeping customers loyal is accepted to be one of the most cost-effective ways of driving future revenue. 82% of companies agree that retention is cheaper than acquisition.
So while — as we’ve discussed — it’s still very important to invest in gaining those new customers, it’s essential to make sure that once you have won them, they’re incentivized to stick around!
Why is customer retention so important for mission-led brands?
As a mission-led brand, you need to make the very best use of your resources. Not only is retention typically cheaper than paid acquisition, returning customers also display lots of beneficial behaviors that can bring a boost to business such as higher AOV and a decrease in purchase latency (i.e. shorter gaps between purchases.)
Another big benefit of investing in keeping your customers around? Retained customers are loyal customers, and loyal customers are better brand advocates! As a brand built on conveying a strong message and “for good” values, these are exactly the kind of champions you need to spread your story further.
Loyalty Lion
Loyalty Lion has definitely earned its strong reputation in the Shopify space. This app comes with all the features you need to easily design and A/B test a fully customized loyalty program that will connect and accelerate your existing marketing efforts.
Running a loyalty program is an increasingly important (even expected) tactic within the ecommerce space, with 75% of consumers reporting to favor companies that offer rewards.
Loyalty Lion is a great option for time-poor ethical brands who are looking to get a solution in place quickly, and who might have less access to technical expertise. Their platform enables you to build a fully-customized, customer loyalty program right out of the box, and they have a generous free plan offering that includes up to 800 orders per month and unlimited loyalty program members.
Change Commerce
Cause marketing is having something of a moment. People’s desire to buy from brands that align with their values and support causes that they care about has never been higher — arguably accelerated by the recent pandemic.
Change Commerce offers a powerful suite of features to help you leverage people’s desire for their purchases to do good. The basic concept is they shop, and you donate on their behalf.
Effectively, you’re reallocating marketing budget — instead of spending money on expensive ad campaigns, simply let your customers know that you’ll be donating to a good cause on their behalf, and watch your lifetime value, conversion rate and AOV skyrocket!
The really nice thing about Change Commerce is that it’s a fully end-to-end managed process. Law and regulations surrounding donation can be complex, especially in countries like the USA where requirements can vary state by state. Change Commerce handles that side of the process completely so you can focus on what you do best — telling your brand’s story and motivating your customers to help you do more good in the world.
1 Product 1 Tree
A great way to keep customers loyal is to get them more emotionally invested in your brand. Making them feel positive emotions in relation to the purchase that they make adds up to a win for everyone involved. An app like 1 Product 1 Tree can help add real shine and “feel good” factor to their shopping experience.
The app helps foster close customer relationships by engaging them in a post-purchase experience, as a ‘tree-gift’ email is sent to each customer purchasing your product. They can also get detailed information on the tree that’s been planted in their name and are invited to leave a testimonial at the time that the tree is gifted etc.
So not only are you helping the planet, reducing your carbon footprint and giving back as a brand, you’re also watering the roots of your customer base — setting a strong foundation for future retention.
4. The Best Apps for Saving You Time
Automating the grunt work of modern ecommerce should be a no-brainer. In this day and age and with the advent of powerful, affordable automation technology, this category of third-party assistance frees you up to pay attention to the more important, exciting and challenging areas of your business.
Why is saving time so important for mission-led brands?
As a mission-led brand, your time is incredibly valuable. All ecommerce business owners are busy and want to make the best use of their time, but for mission-driven brands, it’s vital that you’re investing your energies effectively so you can make the biggest impact.
You may be responsible for several different roles within your business, especially if you’re just starting up. Should this be the case, carefully selected automation and time-saving applications can play the role of the team members you may not quite have the budget to hire just yet.
Ablestar Bulk Product Editor
Manually updating your products within the Shopify admin can be painful — and a huge time suck. As soon as you start to look at changes to any significant number of products, even applying a simple change like “add a tag to all products under $10” can take hours of your precious time.
This Bulk Product Editor app makes the process of applying these bulk changes simple and effective. What’s really nice about the app is the ability to view your changes in real-time. You can also schedule edits — which, as you can imagine, is immensely helpful for getting sales launched!
There are many different ways to leverage this smart app’s functionality, from search and replacing in product descriptions and titles, through to the mass updating of Google Shopping fields.
Explore Ablestar Bulk Product Editor
Sufio
Invoicing isn’t a topic to get many hearts racing. But take a look at the way Sufio handles things and you might just find yourself won over.
Not only does it enable brands to create beautiful, on-brand paperwork from professionally designed templates that really elevate the experience of billing, it also automates the whole invoicing process, saving you hours of manual work.
Sufio’s software can also ensure compliance in many countries if you’re selling crossborder. Additionally, they can handle other official documentation for you — allowing you to easily create and send credit or delivery notes, packing slips, quotes and estimates to your customers.
Rewind Backups
The most tedious work of all is work you’ve already done and didn’t need to do again. Did you know that Shopify doesn’t back up your store data? If something wipes you out, you’re back to square one, jumping through every hoop all over again to get your store back to the way you wanted it.
Rewind Backups automatically backs up your store every day. They bill their service as “like having a magic undo button”, and it’s the perfect description. We all make mistakes at times, and having Rewind keeping a watchful eye over things means that when a slip up inevitably happens, you’re not going to lose out on sales from unexpected downtime as you scramble to get back up and running.
Explore Rewind Backups
5. The Best Apps For Customer Service
Customer service has been an important aspect of commerce since the earliest marketplaces and street stalls.
And with so much choice and competition in the online space, and your competitors just a click away, it’s never been more vital for ecommerce brands to maintain an exemplary reputation in this field.
By creating great customer relationships that endure, you can maximize your lasting impression on their loyalty and support.
Why is customer service so important for mission-led brands?
If customer service is important for brands in a general sense, it’s even more crucial for mission-led brands. Accountability and transparency are the cornerstones of your reputation, and customers will demand more of brands in this space.
As well as being held to higher standards, customers are likely to have more questions, as they’re concerned with making good, conscious purchasing decisions. This means they might request more information about products and services, so good channels of communication are essential.
Klaviyo
It’s said that email marketing generates $38 for every $1 spent, which amounts to an astonishing 3800% ROI. When it comes to communicating with your customers, Klaviyo offers much more than the power of email, also empowering you to leverage SMS and forms to keep connected to your audience.
Klaviyo is a very intuitive solution — no coding is required and it’s quick and easy to set up solid, segmented email flows that keep a clear line of communication open to your customers.
Klaviyo has many integrations with other leading apps, meaning that data can be shared across to sharpen up and personalize your messaging. A great example of this is the recent Okendo integration, which means social proof can be easily applied to your emails.
If you’re looking for a great way to keep in touch with your customers en mass, while keeping things feeling empathetic and personal, Klaviyo is well worth exploring.
Gorgias
Of course, sometimes you’ll need to connect with customers on a much more personal level. In these instances, you’ll want a solution such as Gorgias to bring your customer service into one coherent, centralized space.
Gorgias is incredibly user friendly. And in addition to improving your overall customer service experience (reduce response time by 43%), this app can also automate 40% of your customer service tickets by responding to common questions with intelligent, personalized messages.
Gorgias stands out as a result of its highly specialized integration with Shopify and Shopify Plus. As a merchant, you can see order details for a customer then refund, cancel or duplicate orders, all without leaving the help desk app.
Trackiest
Take away the worry from a large part of your customers’ purchase journey by providing next-level tracking support for their deliveries. Not only will this help boost their impression of their experience with your brand, you’ll also save yourself a heap of customer service requests, by putting the power and visibility into their hands.
We like Trackiest as a shipping tracker — it’s highly customizable and also offers great translation capabilities, meaning if you’re selling cross-border (and who isn’t in the world of ecommerce!) then you’re covered.
You’re On a Mission — Don’t Go Alone
At GoodCarts, we’re deeply invested in helping brands who are trying to make a difference.
The difference that a well-considered Shopify app stack can make for a store is immeasurable — from conversion rate through to AOV and LTV, these apps represent the specialist knowledge of thousands of experienced professionals who are well versed in the Shopify space.
For mission-driven brands to see the success they so richly deserve, help from these external sources is all but essential
Signing up with the experts doesn’t need to mean a departure from your mission focus. Finding third-party assistance from providers that align with your own values via free resources such as the MindfulCommerce Directory is a great way to find alignment. These kinds of collaborations can be especially powerful.
Ultimately, when it comes to seeking and giving help in the ethical ecommerce space, we’re greater than the sum of our parts.
If you’re looking to connect your brand to the wider community, making mutually beneficial alliances and helping to further other good causes in addition to your own, GoodCarts’ free cross-promotional platform can help you get off to the best possible start.
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