What is the Shopify App Store?

Launched in 2006, Shopify is an online platform that helps businesses build online stores, sell on social media channels, and sync real time store inventory to online sales. Shopify is used by millions of companies from individual artists, to small businesses, to some of the largest companies in both e-commerce and traditional retail. Shopify can be used as an inventory management system that syncs products across many sales channels, or just as a simple webstore builder for a handful of products. However you use Shopify, something worth looking into is the Shopify App Store.

From Shopify’s own blog, “launched in 2009, the first iteration of the Shopify App Store had less than a dozen apps, many of which ended in ‘-ify’ to match Shopify’s name.” Continuing, “from 100 apps in 2013 to over 2,000 apps today [2018], the Shopify App Store and its corresponding ecosystem of developers has become critical to solving the increasingly complex problems of Shopify merchants. The marketplace has become so popular over the years, that in 2017 it was one of the top five most frequently-viewed pages in all of Shopify, including the merchant admin.”

But what exactly is the Shopify App Store? Exactly that. It is an app store that Shopify merchants can use to find features to add to their websites or commerce offerings. Just as you can download apps to your iPhone, if you are a merchant on Shopify’s platform, you can download apps to your website. Just as iPhone apps increase the functionality of your smartphone, Shopify apps add functionality to your store.

Shopify apps can be for any number of categories. You can download apps for website design, marketing, customer support, new sales channels, logistics solutions, or even dropshipping automations. Now that the app store is well into its development, there is an app for just about anything you may need for your business.

If you’re a brand that sells products into a large number of stores, while also selling exclusive products on your website, you can download a store locator app to guide customers to where they can find your products in person. If you have your own delivery fleet, there are route planning apps to help you seamlessly connect your drivers to an app that will automatically route the most efficient delivery route for them to deliver. Need an app to help customers rent time at your yoga studio? Shopify can help. If you want to have your designs automatically print to a t-shirt and ship to a customer after a transaction, there is an app for that.

While there are plenty of free apps, some apps do require a subscription. This charge is automatically bundled into your monthly payment to Shopify, so there is no need to worry about keeping track of different times to pay different developers. Shopify also offers a “Built by Shopify” category for apps that have been built by the company itself.

New apps are onboarded often, and there are a lot already to search through. Even if you don’t have a Shopify account, you can still browse through the Shopify App Store to get inspiration before you launch an online store. Shopify apps help your online store reach new levels of functionality, allowing you to expand your businesses’ offering to customers. By searching the store, you can even get new ideas for where you want to take your business, by seeing what is already possible.