12 Shopify App Ideas for 2024: Level Up Your Shopify Game

Empowering businesses across 175 countries, the top Shopify apps address common merchant challenges, enabling them to serve a global customer base. Some of Shopify’s most captivating apps emerge as side projects of web developers seeking skill growth.

However, every Shopify developer starts at the app ideas phase, a demanding process involving assessing merchant pain points, analyzing the market, and brainstorming concepts.

If you’ve scoured the internet for new Shopify app ideas without success, don’t despair. The Shopify Apps Team recently identified significant obstacles faced by merchants and discussed innovative app ideas to solve these problems.

This article shares insights and suggests 12 ideas for creating Shopify apps that fill gaps in the existing solutions, considering what’s missing from the Shopify App Store.

What are the Criteria for Good Shopify App Ideas?

• Total Addressable Market (TAM): Estimate TAM meticulously through research, segment based on demographics, and assess market growth trends.

• Importance of the Problem: Prioritize understanding and quantifying user pain points, focusing on addressing significant inconveniences.

• Search Volume: Analyze user interest using keyword research tools, exploring alternative search methods.

• Other Marketing Opportunities: Identify marketing opportunities through influencer partnerships, content marketing, and platform integrations.

• Return on Investment (ROI): Quantify the app’s value proposition, consider monetization models, and ensure transparent communication for user adoption.

• Technically Simple: Initiate development with technical simplicity, starting with an MVP, and designing for scalability.

• Low Competition: Stand out with innovation, focusing on niche markets and differentiating from existing solutions.

• Low Support Demand: Design for intuitive use, include helpful features, and actively monitor user feedback for continuous improvement.

12 Shopify App Ideas in 2024

Warehouse Management Apps

Running a retail store involves dealing with the tricky task of managing and planning inventory. Creating simple apps, especially those that help organize a shop’s stock, can make budgeting and customer service easier. Online store owners often find inventory management to be a big challenge.

To handle picking and tracking orders in and out of the warehouse, you need a good warehouse management system. For Shopify store owners, a useful warehouse management app would be great.

Many Shopify merchants use the Quick Scan Shopify app to update and track inventory with a barcode scanner. But not everyone likes using barcode scanners.

There are shipping apps that handle large-scale order fulfillment, but they don’t offer many options for managing inventory. So, it’s a good Shopify app idea to think about providing merchants with a strong warehouse management app.

Market Research Apps

Business success hinges on effective market research. Shopify merchants can pinpoint the ideal products to sell by using a market research app, enabling them to make informed business decisions.

Unfortunately, the Shopify store lacks a straightforward market research application; instead, market research is only available as a sub-function in a few apps. Additionally, users have voiced concerns about the complexities of similar market research apps on the Shopify app store. Therefore, the key to outperforming the competition lies in creating a user-friendly market research app.

An easy-to-use market research app for Shopify would benefit everyone, especially merchants managing dropshipping and print-on-demand stores. These merchants are constantly researching the best products to feature in their stores.

Forum Apps

Imagine you’re a Shopify seller, and you want a way for your customers to talk with each other. A good choice for this is a forum.

Most sellers let people chat in groups on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and other social media. But having a forum right on your store makes it more private for visitors.

Moreover, having a real-time forum where customers can start discussions and leave comments isn’t possible on regular social media.

Right now, there are fewer than five forum apps on the Shopify App Store, so making a successful and affordable forum app is a good opportunity. Some of the existing apps are also a bit expensive. So, the goal is to create a forum app that doesn’t cost much for Shopify users.

Orders and Shipping Management Apps

In the realm of order fulfillment and navigating shipping details, web apps can be a game-changer for merchants. Innovative Shopify app ideas empower them to assess stock, sizes, weights, domestic and international rates, ensuring both convenience and profit are maximized.

In the era of widespread dropshipping, where items are sourced from third parties and shipped directly to customers, these functionalities become crucial. Imagine running an online store specializing in sci-fi movies and TV memorabilia, with growing international orders. The existing flat-rate shipping won’t suffice anymore.

Develop an app designed to aid merchants in calculating optimal shipping box sizes and identifying the most cost-effective rates for individual orders. This application should seamlessly integrate with both regional and international shipping carriers, catering specifically to Shopify merchants with a global presence.

Additionally, the app should offer integrations with popular shipping services, enhancing convenience by facilitating local pick-up points for a more efficient and flexible shipping experience.

Store Design Apps

Developing a visually appealing online store involves considering various structural factors, akin to designing an excellent startup app. Factors like compliance regulations, file type, size, and accessibility measures contribute to creating an inclusive ecommerce hub for all customers.

Design elements related to accessibility, such as proper color contrast and organizing on-page text for screen readers, are often overlooked by merchants. To address this, an automated app can be created to scan a store’s design for accessibility issues, including contrast, alt text, and other structural issues.

The app can then provide merchants with actionable steps to meet accessibility standards. Additionally, the app can perform regular scans over a year to stay updated with evolving online recommendations, expediting the process of enhancing accessibility for online retailers.

Cash On Delivery (COD) With OTP Apps

Cash on Delivery (COD) is a Shopify app idea for customers to buy things and pay when the products are delivered.

Even though Shopify has a COD app (Advanced Cash on Delivery), it’s only for merchants in India. So, creating a COD app for merchants in other countries or globally would be useful.

Many Shopify merchants are eager to get ahold of such an app as soon as it’s available. But, there’s a challenge with COD payments – some buyers are not real and can waste merchants’ time and resources.

To tackle this, it’s important to include a One-Time Password (OTP) feature in the COD app. With OTP, merchants can verify if the COD buyers are genuine before sending out the products.

All-in-One Social Media Sharing Apps

Sharing content on social media is crucial for store owners to reach potential buyers. Luckily, there are Shopify apps designed for sharing product pages on specific platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp.

However, there’s a gap because there’s hardly any app that combines all these social media platforms into one. Imagine a tool that lets you effortlessly share your published product pages on your Shopify store to various social media platforms all at once.

For a more comprehensive solution, an ideal all-in-one social media sharing app should not only integrate with relevant platforms but also enable users to promote their blog posts.

Instagram Shopify App

In 2024, one of the trending Shopify app ideas is the Shopify Instagram Feed. This innovative app is designed to seamlessly integrate Instagram content into Shopify stores, allowing merchants to showcase their products in a visually appealing way. With the Shopify Instagram Feed app, users can easily display their Instagram photos and videos directly on their storefront, enhancing the overall aesthetics and engagement of their online store.

By leveraging the power of social media, Shopify merchants can harness user-generated content and customer testimonials to build trust and credibility with their audience. The Shopify Instagram Feed app streamlines the process of curating and displaying Instagram content, offering customizable display options and layouts to suit the unique branding and style of each store.

Instagram Live Chat App

Store visitors and customers have various ways to contact store owners for inquiries. Common channels include email, contact forms, and live chat.

Considering Instagram’s popularity as a visual content-sharing platform, having an Instagram live chat app is beneficial for merchants. For store owners with a popular Instagram page, this app allows them to chat with customers via Instagram DMs directly from their Shopify store.

Shopify Wholesale Apps

In the realm of Shopify store ownership, incorporating a wholesale Shopify app idea proves pivotal for success and expansion. By embracing wholesale, store owners can access a broader customer base, particularly those seeking bulk purchases. This strategic move not only increases sales volume by catering to retailers and businesses but also fosters brand awareness and loyalty through partnerships with like-minded enterprises.

Key features to prioritize in a wholesale app include customizable pricing tiers, minimum order quantity and value settings, seamless integration with inventory management systems, automated order processing, and invoicing.

Additionally, offering exclusive discounts and promotions for wholesale customers, along with versatile support for various payment gateways, contributes to the overall effectiveness of the wholesale approach.

Abandoned Cart Apps

A lot of store owners face the issue of shopping cart abandonment—more than 70.19% of online shoppers abandon their carts. However, a helpful Shopify app can bring back a chunk of that lost money.

When making the app, think about whether you want one that does only cart recovery or both cart recovery and marketing. Also, figure out how you want to remind people about their forgotten carts—through emails, text messages, WhatsApp, pop-up messages, or other ways. Choose what works best for your customers.

And here’s the budget part—you can offer free trials or free plans. But if their store is growing, it might be better to charge for your app. Paid plans have advanced features like tracking what’s in the cart, targeting specific cart values, and making things more personal for your customers.

Loyalty and Rewards Apps

Shopify loyalty apps are designed to enhance customers’ experience by offering personalized rewards based on their preferences. These apps provide customers with an easy-to-use dashboard or account system to track their rewards, progress, and available incentives, creating a more enjoyable shopping experience. Redeeming loyalty rewards is straightforward, without complicated processes or restrictions, making it easy for customers to enjoy the benefits they’ve earned.

When creating loyalty apps, key factors include customizable rewards for sales, social interactions, and referrals. Special features like subscription plans and on-site reminders enhance the overall experience. Customizable themes ensure seamless integration with your client’s website. Crucial considerations also involve integration with other Shopify apps, user-friendliness for all levels, and a balanced price-to-quality ratio, with the option for a trial period for testing before commitment.

💡 Discover: Top 30+ Must-have Shopify Apps for 2024

Finance Management Apps

Being a business owner involves grappling with the complexities of managing finances, understanding revenues and costs, and navigating fees and taxes.

To alleviate this challenge, envision a Shopify app that brings top-notch financial services directly to merchants. Instead of relying on local branches, this app offers a subscription model, allowing business owners to access financial expertise at their fingertips.

For a reasonable monthly fee, they receive guidance on revenue and cost best practices, along with online tax services to optimize returns. This subscription-based model addresses significant pain points, providing lasting value and convenience by empowering merchants to proactively manage their organization’s finances and enhance profit margins.

Final Thoughts

We believe that this blog has served as a source of inspiration for web developers within the global community associated with Shopify. Our intent is to encourage the creation of innovative and widely adopted tools catering to the needs of merchants on a global scale.

Whether your focus is on supporting marketing initiatives, improving storefront design, or streamlining inventory and financial management processes, a profound understanding of the average merchant’s preferences is paramount. It is imperative to identify their challenges and devise solutions oriented toward efficiency and growth.

Having sown the seeds of a promising Shopify app idea, the subsequent step involves the development of what could potentially become a favored application among users. We eagerly anticipate witnessing its implementation and success.

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