Business

Best Apps to Use to Aid Your E-Commerce Business

Published

6 years ago

September 11, 2020

So, you want to launch an ecommerce business on Shopify. What do you need to do so? Beyond Shopify’s basic offerings to build a site, there are also thousands of apps on the Shopify App Store that can help ecommerce entrepreneurs maximize their use of the site.

Just ask Steve Tan, an ecommerce entrepreneur himself. After years of teaching himself how to build a successful ecommerce business, he and his brother launched LeapVista, an online set of educational courses intended to help aspiring entrepreneurs learn everything they need to about launching successful online or drop shipping businesses. From his own experience on Shopify, he’s learned which apps help the most for new businesses, and shared with us just which those are and how to use them.

“Apps can supercharge your store, helping you to get new customers through sales, marketing, social media, and otherwise,” said Tan. “The following apps are the ones that we use to supercharge our stores to get the most sales. Simply press ‘get,’ approve some permissions, and the apps will be installed within a few quick seconds.”

BEST Currency Converter.

First, make sure that your company is set up for global purchases if you’re appealing to a worldwide market. This ensures it’s as seamless as possible. “If someone is purchasing from the UK for example, it’s imperative that they can see what your product will cost in British pounds,” Tan explained. “This currency converter provides all pricing information in their native currency, and automatically detects from an IP address to do so.” In other words, the customer doesn’t have to first select their currency and change it. It does so automatically.

There’s a free version available that provides up to five currencies, which is more than enough to get you started. If necessary, the elite version has over 160 currencies.

HelpCenter – Professional FAQ Page

Customers prefer to see an FAQ page to get quick information on any questions that they may have. Without it, their lingering questions may be a reason that they don’t move forward with buying. “The HelpCenter app creates a professional and user-friendly FAQ page that drops down according to question, and groups by types of questions, such as ‘Shipping’ or ‘Payment’,” explained Tan.

This is a great way to add all relevant information to the website without overloading the website with too much text. “This helps the customer to complete the sales cycle more quickly, getting their answers immediately answered so they can move forward with a purchase without having to email your team first.”

FOMO – Social Proof Marketing

Yes, FOMO in this app name does refer to “Fear Of Missing Out.” This Shopify app shows the potential customer that someone just bought an item from your store while they’re perusing. A notification will appear in the bottom left corner saying, “Someone from (city) just bought (this product).” This sense of FOMO contributes to some urgency.

This app isn’t free, and costs $30 on the most basic plan. But, it can be quite powerful in providing social proof. “Evan and I use FOMO in all of our stores because we’ve seen such incredible conversion rates,” said Tan.

Personalizer – Target Recommendations by Limespot

“Limespot isn’t exactly an upselling app, but it shows potential customers suggestions such as ‘frequently bought together,’ or a prompt that says ‘would you like to add to cart?’ when they’re checking out,” Tan explained. It also provides a “You May Like” banner with other product suggestions related to the product they were initially viewing or that they had added to their cart.

Better yet, it’s free — and it drives sales to your store. “After a certain amount of sales have been generated, it starts charging a rate,” said Tan. “But I always say that it’s worth it because you always make money back.”

Loox Reviews – Photo Reviews

Reviews establish more trust and sense of security with your customers, so Loox is recommended as a way to display them (especially the reviews that include photos of your product!). “This is a great way to showcase your happy customers and what they’ll get from buying from you,” said Tan. “You can also consolidate all of your customer reviews on one page.” Buyers will want to see these reviews to further convince them of their urge to purchase. It’s how you help to alleviate any of their concerns about the quality of your product, and reinforce their decision to buy. Good reviews provide the social proof necessary to help the customers complete the sales cycle.

Having your reviews on a dedicated page on your Shopify site also shows up on Google searches, which helps for your company’s credibility. The price is $9.99/month.

Quantity Breaks

What to encourage your customers to buy more? Quantity Breaks creates discounts when customers buy in bulk quantities automatically. “It rewards your customers for spending more in your store, which encourages them to complete large purchases,” said Tan. It provides a table on the checkout page that shows the discount per number of units purchased (i.e. 3 units, 5% off, 30 units, 30% off).

SMSBump

When a potential customer abandons their cart, this Shopify app can send them an SMS that reminds them that they still have items in their cart or provide discounts. Both of these ‘bumps’ are helpful in encouraging the customer to complete their purchase. The Tans refer to this app as an “absolute must have” because of their success with it.

Each of these apps can boost a potential customer’s chance of purchasing and make your Shopify site look more professional and appealing. Try them and see how they work for you.

Business

Ipsos Helps Brands Understand How They Get Customer Experience Wrong & Why It’s Costing Them Millions

Published

4 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Matthew Wiles

For brands looking to succeed in the modern business ecosystem, the customer experience (CX) is not something companies can afford to ignore. CX is a direct driver of revenue, loyalty, and growth for organizations.

Ipsos, one of the world’s leading market research firms, helps brands understand that failing to focus on the customer experience can lead to lost sales, which in turn can translate to not only millions in lost revenue but also lost trust and credibility in the market.

How brands still get CX wrong

“The customer decision and desire to do business with brands directly affect the bottom line,” says Brad Christian, Chief Commercial Officer at Ipsos – Experience Practice.

Customer experience may sound like a simple concept, but many brands still get it wrong. CX goes beyond surveys and feedback. Leaders who fail to connect feedback in a meaningful way to goals such as retention, repeat visits or purchases, advocacy, and operational performance fail to deliver on their service promises. The emotional and functional disconnect can spell trouble for brands. The most polished advertising campaigns cannot make up for a frustrating customer interaction or a promise that a business cannot fulfill.

According to Ipsos’s internal research, many customers today see service as too automated and impersonal. More than half report that their experience is worse than promised.

These findings don’t just result in disappointed buyers. They result in lost customers, negative feedback, and a long-term impact on the business as a whole.

“Brands have to manage the entire customer experience across each and every touchpoint,” explains Christian.

Poor CX can be expensive

Executives can often underestimate how expensive a history of poor CX can be. Global losses can reach into the billions while leaders wonder what went wrong. In an age of rapid social media communication, a single negative interaction can spell disaster for a company, leading to reduced customer spending or the entire loss of its most loyal customers.

Those losses are not just reflected in lost revenue, however. Customer acquisition and marketing dollars can also be lost as companies continue to spend money trying to retain their customer base, often skipping right over the experience part of retention.

Poor customer experience can be a deep operating problem that creates a domino effect, decimating businesses from the inside out. These poor experiences can impact not only present and future customer acquisition but also business leaders and employees.

CX matters more in today’s business landscape

The customer experience has always mattered, but it may matter more to brands trying to make it in a modern, ultra-competitive, digitally-driven business landscape. Good experiences encourage repeat purchases, boost loyalty, and increase the likelihood that customers will go online and recommend a brand to others.

“Customer experience isn’t an isolated function,” says Christian. “It’s ‌part of a larger system that ensures that brands measure and manage customer experience data and then act on that data to drive action where customer experience gaps exist.”

Brands also have to seek to understand today’s customers, who expect experiences that are seamless, authentic, and relevant. As more and more companies hop on the automation train, they will want to reassure their customers that the human element that many people consider important still exists.

At Ipsos, six drivers of strong customer relationships form the bedrock of the company’s CX platform, something that they refer to as the “Forces of CX”: certainty, fair treatment, control, status, belonging, and enjoyment.

Customers want to feel that if they have an issue with a brand, it will be handled and that their concerns will be understood. They don’t want the customer experience to feel like a battleground; they want it to feel fair and human.

“Customer experience isn’t just a nicer experience,” says Christian. “It ties directly to specific financial outcomes, whether that be increased sales, greater market share, or stronger brand loyalty.”

How Ipsos helps businesses deliver customer experiences that matter

Ipsos turns customer feedback into reliable, actionable, decision-ready information. The company goes beyond simple satisfaction metrics and implements voice-of-the-customer programs, journey analytics, relationship feedback, and quality research.

“Brands don’t just need data,” Christian says. “They need measurements as to how they are delivering on their brand promise and predictive modeling to tie financial performance measures to those measures to help them determine where to invest to maximize the customer experience and understand what financial impact those investments might deliver for the business.”

Ipsos measures the interactions that matter ‌most and shows brands how each interaction can affect retention, share of spend, and efficiency. For brands that are trying to reduce the guesswork behind CX, Ipsos helps them move beyond cosmetic fixes to achieve real, meaningful change.

Customer expectations can shift on a dime, influenced by society, social media, and even changing trends. Ipsos helps brands meet those rapidly changing customer expectations with hard evidence and comprehensive metrics.

Today’s brands need to understand how to get the customer experience right. Ipsos has the insights needed to drive home the deep importance of CX in today’s marketplace.