Should a Shopify store chase more visitors, or stop losing the orders it nearly has? On Shopify, plugins are called apps, and if your customers sign in before buying, the Ecto app for keeping Shopify carts across devices is a simple way to hold on to those nearly won orders. The other eight apps here move upstream from the cart through WhatsApp automation, product display, reviews, tested pages and on-site search, then on to qualified traffic with the SEO Alpin plugin for Shopify SEO.
Here are the 9 best Shopify plugins to increase ecommerce sales in 2026:
- Ecto (formerly Casper): Carts kept across devices
- Kanal: Revenue tracked per WhatsApp automation
- Variantify: Each variant as its own collection card
- Trustap Reviews: Existing reviews imported by CSV
- Experaise CRO: Pages tested 50/50 on purchases
- Shopify Search & Discovery: Free filters and boosts
- SEO Alpin: Speed, images and technical SEO
- Verity Score: Orders traced back to AI assistants
- SEO Alpin Backlinks: Backlinks ordered inside Shopify
Which Shopify app should you install first to increase sales?
Install Ecto first if your customers sign in before buying, then choose by leak: Kanal for revenue tracked per WhatsApp automation, Variantify for colors hidden in collections, Trustap Reviews for a CSV of past reviews waiting to be shown, Experaise CRO for a redesign you want tested, and the free Shopify Search & Discovery for on-site search. Once those leaks are handled, add SEO Alpin for Google, Verity Score for AI assistants and SEO Alpin Backlinks for links from other websites.
Why add apps to a Shopify store to increase sales?
Apps are worth paying for when they plug a specific leak, and those leaks show up most clearly from the cart upstream:
- A cart left on a phone and missing on the laptop
- A buyer who left without paying and never came back
- The right color or size hidden behind one thumbnail
- A product page with no proof from earlier buyers
- A home or collection page that sends visitors away
- An on-site search that misses the product
- Too few qualified visitors arriving in the first place
Extra traffic only multiplies the losses of a leaking store, so I fix the leaks first and go after new visitors afterward.
The 9 best Shopify apps for more ecommerce sales in 2026
This ranking starts at the cart with Ecto and Kanal, moves upstream to what shoppers see before adding a product with Variantify, Trustap Reviews, Experaise CRO and Shopify Search & Discovery, then ends on SEO Alpin, on Verity Score and on SEO Alpin Backlinks, which bring visitors in rather than convert them.
1. Ecto (formerly Casper): keep each signed-in customer’s cart on every device
Ecto, called Casper until its rename, holds a signed-in customer’s cart for up to 90 days, against the two weeks Shopify’s cookie policy lists for its cart cookie. That gap matters for anyone who compares for a while before paying.
A customer who fills a cart on a phone at lunch and sits down at a laptop that evening finds it waiting, because Ecto syncs the cart across every device where they sign in.
Here are the pros and cons of Ecto:
| Pros | Cons |
| Cart history shows buying intent | Guest carts are not synced |
| Nothing new for the shopper to click | Free plan covers test stores only |
| Draft orders from bulky saved carts | Little effect if few customers sign in |
My take on Ecto: the app only pays off if shoppers stay signed in, and Shopify’s customer accounts help, since sign-in sessions can last up to 365 days. I would check how many of your orders come from signed-in customers before paying for it.
2. Kanal: see the revenue behind each WhatsApp automation
Kanal tracks the revenue of every WhatsApp automation and campaign down to the order, in one dashboard. Since October 28, 2026, Shopify Messaging has offered its own WhatsApp automations for abandoned browsing, carts and checkouts, billed per message, so the case for Kanal rests on that reporting and on what its higher plans add.
Kanal has one clear limit for American stores: Meta does not deliver marketing template messages to US +1 numbers, so cart reminders and campaigns never reach those buyers. Order confirmations and shipping updates still get through.
Here are the pros and cons of Kanal:
| Pros | Cons |
| Revenue per automation shown | No marketing messages to US numbers |
| Chat widget and shared inbox from Pro | Template messages billed by Meta |
| AI agent, A/B tests, Klaviyo on Scale | WhatsApp opt-in needed for marketing |
My take on Kanal: I would choose it for the reporting and the inbox rather than for a WhatsApp reminder alone, which Shopify now covers. Its natural audience is a store selling mainly outside the United States, to buyers who already use WhatsApp every day.
3. Variantify: decide which color shoppers see first in a collection
Which color should a shopper see first when a product comes in twelve? Variantify lets you reorder or shuffle variants inside a collection by drag and drop, so that choice stays with you rather than with a default thumbnail.
Variantify can do that because each color, size or other option appears as its own card, while the product behind it stays a single product in your catalog.
Here are the pros and cons of Variantify:
| Pros | Cons |
| Cards on the homepage and in search too | App embed to switch on in your theme |
| Custom titles and hover images | 30-collection cap on the Pro plan |
| Sold-out variants can be hidden | Interface in English only |
My take on Variantify: the gain is largest where the variant is the buying decision, as with clothing colors, fabric patterns or furniture finishes. I would switch it on for the best-selling collection first and compare clicks on those cards against the old layout.
4. Trustap Reviews: move your reviews over when you change platform
Trustap Reviews takes the reviews a brand earned on its previous platform and brings them over in bulk through a CSV file, which it validates automatically. A move to Shopify then doesn’t have to mean product pages with nothing to show a first-time buyer.
Trustap Reviews displays each product’s average rating and review count on its page, where that buyer is making up their mind.
Here are the pros and cons of Trustap Reviews:
| Pros | Cons |
| Carousel with customer photos | CSV export to prepare first |
| Star filter on the full breakdown | Won’t ask past buyers for feedback |
| One dashboard for every review | Single paid plan, nothing free |
My take on Trustap Reviews: the import is the reason to choose it, so the app makes little sense for a store with nothing to bring over. Import only reviews real customers wrote, because invented ones cost more trust than an empty page.
5. Experaise CRO: test a generated page against the current one on purchases
Experaise CRO can split your traffic 50/50 between a page it generated and the current one for at least 14 days, then compare the two on purchases. The pages under test come from the app itself, which creates four kinds of page in your store’s style: homepage, collection, product and header.
Experaise CRO was still under review for the App Store when I wrote this, so check whether it is listed before planning around it.
Here are the pros and cons of Experaise CRO:
| Pros | Cons |
| Trial credits enough to create a store | 14 days minimum per test |
| 30 credits cover three creations | No free plan after the trial |
| Nothing live until you click publish | Block rework costs 1 credit |
My take on Experaise CRO: a test that lasts at least 14 days suits a page with steady traffic, so I would try it first on the page that already gets the most visits. It fits a store whose pages look generic next to its products.
6. Shopify Search & Discovery: tune your store search and filters for free
Shopify Search & Discovery is the free app Shopify provides for the moment a shopper types a product name or narrows a collection. Search & Discovery lets you set up custom filters, boost chosen products for specific search terms, and add related and complementary products to product pages, with analytics on how search performs.
Merchant opinions on Shopify Search & Discovery are sharply divided: it held 2.6 out of 5 across 514 App Store reviews on November 3, 2026. Recent one-star reviews report searches returning hundreds of unrelated products, lost SKU search and synonym groups that disappeared, and Shopify’s help pages set a ceiling of 25 filters per store.
Here are the pros and cons of Shopify Search & Discovery:
| Pros | Cons |
| Free and built by Shopify | Complaints about off-target results |
| Custom filters for shoppers | Maximum of 25 filters per store |
| Related products on product pages | Merchants report lost synonym groups |
My take on Shopify Search & Discovery: it costs nothing and reaches shoppers who already know what they want. Before relying on it, I would run ten real searches, including top sellers and SKUs, and consider a paid search app if those results disappoint.
7. SEO Alpin: speed up your pages and lighten your product images
SEO Alpin compresses your product images in bulk at no cost and without using AI credits, and its free plan also includes speed optimization tools. Heavy images are the first thing I would check on a slow product page.
SEO Alpin also brings Google Search Console and GA4 data into Shopify, which shows the searches that lead to each page, so you can judge whether the page answers them.
Here are the pros and cons of SEO Alpin:
| Pros | Cons |
| Broken links and duplicates detected | Effect builds over several months |
| Cannibalized pages flagged | 50 monthly AI credits on Free |
| AI meta tags and alt text, on credits | Keyword volumes start on Pro |
My take on SEO Alpin: image compression on the free plan gives a store a low-risk first step, and the Search Console reports then show which product pages deserve more work. Google traffic grows slowly, but it keeps arriving without a fee per click.
8. Verity Score: trace orders back to the AI assistants that sent them
Verity Score tracks the visits AI assistants send to your store and, when the data allows, the orders that follow, so you can judge that channel on sales rather than on screenshots of chat answers.
Verity Score also lists the buyer questions your product pages leave open and proposes fixes you preview and approve, and eligible fixes can be restored for up to 30 days.
Here are the pros and cons of Verity Score:
| Pros | Cons |
| Buyer prompts tracked every day | Some theme fixes stay manual |
| Articles written for buyer questions | Free plan covers ChatGPT only |
| Three AIs per prompt from Essential | Only 10 monthly action credits on Free |
My take on Verity Score: the free plan is enough to learn whether ChatGPT mentions you, since it tracks three buyer prompts a day. If those answers and the traced orders look promising, a paid tier becomes an easier decision.
9. SEO Alpin Backlinks: order links from other sites inside Shopify
SEO Alpin Backlinks lets you order links from other websites to your store’s pages without leaving the Shopify admin, which makes it the traffic lever at the far end of this path.
SEO Alpin Backlinks then tracks each order until its link goes live, so you can see what your monthly budget has bought.
Here are the pros and cons of SEO Alpin Backlinks:
| Pros | Cons |
| Three link budget tiers to choose from | No direct effect on conversion |
| 25 questions tracked in AI answers | App Store listing in French for now |
| Sources cited by AI assistants listed | Listing shows no free plan or trial |
My take on SEO Alpin Backlinks: it suits a store that has plugged its leaks and now wants other sites pointing to its best pages. Links take months to show an effect, so I would judge it over several billing cycles rather than one.
FAQ on Shopify apps that increase sales
Which Shopify apps really increase sales?
The ones that fix a leak you can see in your own numbers, and no app can guarantee a set percentage. Apps close to the order, such as Ecto, Kanal and Variantify, can usually be judged within weeks, while SEO Alpin and SEO Alpin Backlinks pay off over months. Treat any lift quoted in an app’s marketing as that publisher’s claim until your own figures confirm it.
How can you reduce abandoned carts on Shopify?
Fix the causes before sending reminders: Baymard Institute’s 70% abandonment figure is an average of 50 studies, and among US shoppers who left for a reason other than “just browsing”, 40% blamed extra costs and 18% a required account. Shopify Messaging then handles basic reminders, Kanal adds revenue per automation on WhatsApp, and Ecto keeps carts for customers who choose to sign in. Keep guest checkout open, because forcing an account would feed that 18%.
Does a Shopify cart carry over from one device to another?
Not by default, going by Shopify’s documentation in November 2026: its cookie policy lists a cookie named cart, stored on the visitor’s device, and its developer docs use that cookie to identify the cart. Its help page on customer accounts doesn’t mention carts at all. Ecto adds that behavior for logged-in customers, while guests stay tied to the browser they used.
Can Shopify apps slow down a store?
They can, because an app may load code on your pages, and what each one loads matters more than how many you have installed. Test your main pages with Google PageSpeed Insights before and after each install, and remove any app you no longer use. SEO Alpin offsets part of that weight on its free plan by compressing images in bulk.
How much do these Shopify apps cost each month?
SEO Alpin, Verity Score and Shopify Search & Discovery start free, and Kanal has a free demo plan. On November 3, 2026, the first paid tiers on the App Store were $9.99 for Variantify, $15 for Ecto ($35 on Shopify Plus), $19.99 for Trustap Reviews and SEO Alpin, $39 for Verity Score, $50 for SEO Alpin Backlinks and $89 for Kanal. Experaise CRO sits apart, at $30 per 30 days according to its publisher.
How do you know whether an app is really bringing in sales?
Compare one number before and after over a similar period, and avoid launching two changes in the same week, or you won’t know which one did what. Kanal reports revenue per automation, Verity Score follows orders after AI visits when the data allows, and Experaise CRO runs a split test. The split test gives the cleanest answer, because both versions face the same shoppers over the same days.
Conclusion on Shopify plugins that increase ecommerce sales
With about 70% of carts abandoned on Baymard’s average, the sales I would chase first are already sitting in a cart. Ecto and Kanal work on those, while Variantify, Trustap Reviews and Experaise CRO improve what shoppers see, with free Shopify Search & Discovery helping them find it. SEO Alpin, Verity Score then SEO Alpin Backlinks feed a store that now keeps more of the visitors it wins.
