September 2015 Edition: Top Free Shopify Apps September 15, 2015 19:00

Shopify has a number of free apps that you can use to enhance your online store. In our previous post about top free Shopify apps, we looked at apps for enhancing your receipts, including product reviews, printing orders, managing email newsletters, and more.

In this month’s edition of top free Shopify Apps, we will go over how to create a simple coupon pop up for your store, have a page on your store with your social media streams, enable targeted marketing within your store, and manage shipping information.

Better Coupon Box

Better Coupon Box includes a pop-up coupon box on your store when a customer visits your store for the first time. The pop-up box is responsive and will display the coupon code when customers follow your social profiles (currently supported platforms are Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram) or submit their email to your email list.

Here’s a video by Better Coupon Box that gives a quick introduction to the app:

Take a look at this demo Shopify store to see how the pop-up box displays the coupons.

In order to start using the app, you first have to set up a discount code through your Shopify dashboard. You can set up a discount code for your store through the “Discounts” in the admin sidebar.

Create discount code in Shopify

You have a number of options to set up the code – limited number of times it is used, duration when it can be used, and discount type (dollar value, percentage discount or free shipping).

After you install the app, go to the Settings page to include a subject and message for the pop up box, fill in the coupon code you created, and add links to the social profiles you want customers to follow. Once all that is done, you can activate your pop up box.

Better Coupon Box pop up (Source)

You can also translate the default text areas in the pop-up box in case your store is in a language different than English. You can also choose to display the pop up on the second page of a customer’s visit, or not display it automatically where customers have to click on the button to open the pop up.

By default, the Better Coupon Box pop-up has a standard theme, but you can upgrade the theme through a paid version.

The pop-up box through the Better Coupon Box app is a simple and free way to promote your discounts on your Shopify store without using any code.

Social Media Stream

Social Media Stream allows you to create a page or add a widget on your Shopify store that imports and displays posts from your social accounts.

This can create an interactive and visually-rich page on your store that is updated automatically through your social posts or hashtags you wish to display. If you are already active on any of the social profiles, the app helps create updated content that is displayed on your store site, which can improve your SEO.

Once you install the app, you can:

• pick all the social media profiles or hashtags you wish to display,
• select whether you want the stream to display on a full page or as a widget, and
• select layout and design options like displaying the stream as a grid, a 3D Cube, or a slideshow.

Here’s a quick tutorial video by Social Media Stream on how to set up the app for your store:

Currently, the app supports Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and Tumblr.

LimeSpot eCommerce Intelligence

LimeSpot eCommerce Intelligence helps you target products to customers already on your store site. The app creates “Recommendation Boxes” on your store that can display a selection of products.

The boxes can have:

• Related Products – based on products related to ones in the cart or on current page
• Popular Products – based on most number of views
• Recently Viewed Products – based on the customers history
• Trending Products – based on popularity of products outside of your store
• Top Picks – based on Facebook history once a user logs in through Facebook

Take a look at the demo store set up by LimeSpot that displays the recommendation boxes.

These boxes can not only increase your sales, but also create a better user experience. For example, by displaying recently viewed items that a customer can easily go back to, your store becomes easier to navigate.

Aftership

AfterShip is a powerful tool to manage and automate shipping notifications to your customers. The free version of the app allows you to view status of all your shipments in one place.

You can filter shipments by date ranges, current status (in transit, delivered, etc.), shipping vendors, and destinations.

Overview of all shipments (Source)

You can also add a shipment tracking area directly on your store where customers can input their tracking number. This will automatically identify the courier of the tracking number and show a rich display of the status of their shipment. Customers can also track shipments in their order history page.

Display tracking details (Source)

The app can track shipments from more than 200 vendors worldwide. Take a look at all the vendors and see an example of tracking on the AfterShip site.

An upgrade to the Premium version gives you the option to automate sending notifications to customers each time there is a change in the status of their shipment. For example, once a package is in transit, out for delivery, and delivered.

Here’s a quick video by AfterShip about the app:

Free Shopify Apps

There are a number of free Shopify apps that you can use to add value and create a better user experience for your customers and yourself.

Have you tried any of the above apps? Tell us about your experience in the comments below.

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