As amazing and transformative as Shopify can be for your eCommerce business, adding the right plugins to the platform can turn your store from functional to absolutely exceptional.
Take it from agile startups, multi-marker scale-ups and agencies. One thing they’ve all learnt? Your tech stack matters. With the right apps, you’re not just solving problems, you’re unlocking business growth.
Here are the top 10 pulgins an expert Shopify agency in London would recommend to their clients for performance, scalability, and that seamless experience your customers will love.
1. Klaviyo: Smarter Emails & SMS Journeys
This plugin has set the gold standard for email and SMS marketing on Shopify, acknowledged and trusted across the industry. With it, you can build smooth, automated customer journeys using real-time data. Abandoned cart flows, post-purchase emails, welcome series and winback campaigns — all of these will become child’s play. Plus, you’ll be able to include powerful segmentation and A/B testing in your strategy, delivering messaging that actually resonates with each customer.
Pro tip: Integrate Klavyo with Meta and Google Ads, and you’ll built highly targeted custom audiences. For DTC brands in the UK, such a combination can be a game-changer for retargeting and customer retention.
2. Rewind: Backup, Restore, Protect
Mistakes happen, and thinking you’ll never make any is downright silly. It’s only human. That’s why you need a plugin like Rewind to make sure these natural mishaps don’t cost you. The plugin will automatically back up your store’s critical data on a daily basis, including products, themes, orders, blog posts, and more. So, if a coding error occurs, an app fails, or the intern makes a mistake, you can restore all that’s important for your site in minutes.
Pro tip: If your store undergoes frequent updates, seasonal launches, or custom development work, Rewind will become your Shopify’s safety net.
3. Judge.me: Let Your Customers Do the Talking
Here’s the harsh truth: customers won’t trust you. They’ll trust other customers. Judge.me will help build a strong relationship with your audience by collecting and displaying authentic reviews, star ratings, and photo and video content. Customisable, lightweight, and built to perform fast on mobile, your credibility and conversions will simply skyrocket.
Pro tip: Match the review widget styling to your brand’s typography and colours for a polished look that integrates naturally with your product pages.
4. Go Global With Translate & Adapt
Are you planning to expand into new markets? Well, then, you’ll need some serious translation work. Shopify has a native app that lets you translate your site into multiple languages and localise content per region. It’s a simple yet powerful way to cater to international audiences while maintaining a cohesive brand voice (don’t forget how important that is!).
Pro tip: If you’re a UK brand selling across Europe, Translate & Adapt will help you meet the local language expectations post-Brexit without the need for complex workarounds.
5. Boost AI Search: Let Customers Find What Matters
There’s another unwritten rule in the industry: if customers can’t find it, they won’t buy it. Therefore, you need Boost to enhance your store’s search and navigation with predictive search, smart filters, and merchandising tools. The plugin is great because it learns from customer behaviour and shows the most relevant products first, which, in turn, drives UX and conversion rates.
Pro tip: This one is particularly effective for large inventories or fashion, beauty and homeware brands with layered collections. A clear navigation experience reduces bounce rates and keeps customers engaged.
6. Trust Yotpo for Loyalty, Referrals & SMS
Loyalty should feel rewarding, not clunky. Yotpo‘s all-in-one platform lets you build loyalty programmes, run refer-a-friend campaigns, and send personalised SMS messages to build trust and strong relationships with your customers. The plugin comes with robust analytics and a clean interface, which keeps customers coming back for more.
Agencies love it because its loyalty system integrates easily with your marketing tools like Klavyo and Shopify POS, so you can run consistent campaigns online and in-store.
7. Shogun for Beautiful Page Building
Missing some spice on your landing pages? Shogun has you covered. It helps your marketing team design stunning landing pages, product showcases, and content-rich layouts. All of this without writing a single line of code! It’s a super-easy drag-and-drop builder that includes powerful elements like image sliders, countdown timers, and custom forms.
Pro tip: Use Shogun to quickly test new landing pages for product launches, influencer campaigns, and seasonal sales. And if you’re an agile brand that needs design freedom without development delays, it’s simply made for you.
8. Loop Returns: Making It Easy for Everyone
Customers love returns, but we know they can be a pain for you. Loop, though, makes it easy, giving your users a clean self-serve portal, where they can request exchanges or refunds, while also offering them incentives like store credit. On your business side, it allows you to automate approvals, restocking, and customer communications, saving your team time and reducing churn.
Consumers do expect a smooth, transparent return process. And Loop gives you just that, helping you meet this standard while protecting your margins through smart exchanges.
9. Subscription Management Sorted, With Recharge
If your business thrives on repeat purchases, Recharge is your go-to plugin for your Shopify store. You get a powered flexible subscription model with options for frequence, custom bundles, and pause/skipping deliveries. By introducing it to your system, youé allowing your customers to manage their plans through a branded portal reducing support tickets and improving satisfaction.
Pro tip: Recharge is particularly good for coffee, supplements, grooming, wellness, and pet supply brands. With it subscription revenue becomes predictabel, loyal, and so much easier to scale!
10. Plug in SEO: Your On-Page Optimisation Tool
Get Plug in SEO, and it will audit your store and give you clear, actionable recommendations to improve site visibility, from title tags and meta descriptions to broken links and annoying speed issues. It’s a super accessible tool regardless of whether you’re new to SEO or just need to refine a mature content strategy.
Pro tip: Combine Plug in SEO with regular blogging and internal linking strategies for strong organic traffic growth. This will be especially valuable for your business if you’re trying to reduce reliance on paid ads.
Maximise Your Store’s Potential
You may have thought that a strong Shopify store means a good theme and great products, but that’s simply not enough. You need a well-curated toolkit of apps that power your growth behind the scenes at all times.
So, make sure you have these 10 plugins integrated and enjoy results across marketing, operations, UX, and SEO. Your band will thank you.