Shopify store optimization: the best apps to increase sales, plus speed and migration

Choosing the best Shopify apps to increase sales is the most direct lever available to any merchant. The right stack addresses trust on product pages, recovers abandoned carts, raises average order value, and keeps the storefront fast enough to convert the traffic you already have. This guide maps each app category to the funnel problem it solves, covers the store-speed fixes that move Core Web Vitals, and walks through a step-by-step path from Magento to Shopify so you keep your data and rankings in the process.

By Kanika Mathur, Head of Service Delivery

Reviewed by Resourcifi engineeringPublished Jan 17, 2026Updated Jan 17, 20268 min read

Ecommerce

Key takeaways

The short version

Reviews and social proof are the highest-impact app category for most stores, because shoppers trust products that other buyers have rated before they trust your copy.
Upsell, cross-sell, and bundles raise average order value, while email and SMS apps recover carts and bring buyers back, so most stores stack two or three categories rather than one.
Fewer apps usually means a faster store. Each app can add scripts that slow pages, so install for a clear job, measure the lift, and remove anything that does not pay for itself.
Speed is a ranking and conversion factor. Aim for the Core Web Vitals thresholds, lean on Shopify's image CDN and an optimized theme, and cut unused code.
Migration order matters. Shopify advises importing products first, then customers, then historical orders, and you must map old URLs to new ones with redirects to protect rankings.

Best Shopify apps to increase sales: category map

The best Shopify apps to increase sales fall into a handful of categories, each targeting a different drop-off in the funnel. Reviews and social proof address buyer hesitation on product pages. Upsell, cross-sell, and bundle apps raise average order value at cart and checkout. Email and SMS tools recover abandoned carts and win back lapsed buyers. Search and merchandising apps improve catalog discovery on larger stores. Speed apps trim JavaScript and lazy-load media so fewer visitors bounce before the page finishes loading. The table below maps each category to the conversion problem it fixes, so you can start with your actual gap rather than installing apps by guesswork.

Shopify app categories that influence sales
Category	What it does	Where it helps
Reviews and social proof	Collects and displays ratings, photos, and trust signals	Product pages where buyers hesitate
Upsell and bundles	Suggests add-ons, bundles, and post-purchase offers	Average order value at cart and checkout
Email and SMS	Automates cart recovery, welcome, and win-back flows	Bringing visitors and lapsed buyers back
Search and merchandising	Improves on-site search, filters, and recommendations	Catalog discovery on larger stores
Speed and performance	Trims scripts, lazy-loads media, monitors vitals	Load time, which affects every metric
Loyalty and referrals	Rewards repeat purchases and referrals	Retention and repeat order rate

Choosing apps is part of a wider platform decision. If you are still weighing carts, see our comparison of Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento, and our overview of AI use cases in ecommerce for where automation pays off.

How to choose and stack apps without slowing the store

Start with the single category that fixes your biggest current gap, then measure before you add the next. If shoppers bounce on product pages, add reviews. If carts are abandoned, add an email and SMS recovery flow. If average order value is low, add upsell and bundles. The discipline that separates fast stores from slow ones is restraint: every app you install can add JavaScript that the browser must download and run, so each one should earn its place with a measurable lift. Audit your apps on a schedule and uninstall anything that is not pulling its weight.

Hesitation on product pages: reviews and social proof first, since trust gates the add-to-cart.
Abandoned carts: email and SMS flows for recovery, welcome, and browse abandonment.
Low average order value: upsell, cross-sell, and bundle apps at cart and post-purchase.
Large catalog, weak discovery: search, filtering, and merchandising tools.

Store speed hacks that move Core Web Vitals

Speed is both a ranking signal and a concrete conversion lever. A joint Deloitte and Google study found that a 0.1-second improvement in mobile load time increased retail conversions by 8.4% and lifted average order value by 9.2% in the same session. ⁵ Google's Core Web Vitals give you measurable targets: Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint under 200 milliseconds, and Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1, each measured at the 75th percentile of real visits. Shopify gives you a strong head start with its image CDN, which automatically compresses images and serves WebP files roughly 25 to 34 percent smaller than comparable JPEG. The biggest gains come from using an optimized theme, removing apps and code you do not use, and keeping page templates lean.

2.5s

Largest Contentful Paint target at the 75th percentile for a good score.

Google, web.dev

8.4%

Retail conversion increase from a 0.1-second mobile speed improvement.

Deloitte / Google, 2020

0.1

Cumulative Layout Shift threshold for visual stability.

Google, web.dev

Use an optimized theme: Shopify's Online Store 2.0 and Horizon themes are built for performance.
Lean on the image CDN: it compresses and serves WebP automatically, so avoid uploading oversized files.
Cut unused apps and code: each feature can add scripts that lower performance.
Keep templates simple: avoid too many sections per page, and paginate long collections.

Performance work pays off across acquisition too. Our team's digital marketing guidance ties site speed to the cost of paid traffic, since faster pages convert more of the visitors you already pay for.

A step-by-step Magento to Shopify migration path

A clean migration moves your catalog, customers, and order history to Shopify without losing SEO value. Shopify's own guidance is to import in a specific order, products first, then customers, then historical orders, so records link correctly. Most teams use a bulk migration app such as Matrixify or Shopify's store importer to move data, then rebuild the theme and apps natively rather than copying the old design. The step that protects revenue is redirects: map every old Magento URL to its new Shopify equivalent with 301 redirects so search engines pass ranking signals to the new pages. The checklist below is the sequence we follow.

Audit and clean the Magento catalog, then back up everything before you touch it.
Export data to CSV: products, customers, orders, and collections.
Import in order: products first, then customers, then historical orders.
Rebuild natively: set up the theme, navigation, and apps on Shopify rather than porting old code.
Map redirects: create 301 redirects from old URLs to new ones to preserve rankings.
Test and verify: check data accuracy, checkout, payments, taxes, and shipping before launch.
Launch and monitor: point the domain, then watch traffic, errors, and search performance.

Migrations are where a build partner saves you weeks. See our ecommerce development services for how we handle data mapping, redirects, and theme rebuilds end to end.

Frequently asked

Shopify optimization questions

What are the best Shopify apps to increase sales?

There is no single best app, but the categories that move sales most reliably are reviews and social proof, upsell and cross-sell and bundles, email and SMS marketing, on-site search and merchandising, and speed tools. Reviews tend to be the highest-leverage first addition because they build trust on product pages. Most successful stores stack two or three categories rather than relying on one, and the right starting point is whichever category fixes your biggest current drop-off.

How many apps should a Shopify store have?

There is no fixed number, but fewer is usually better for speed. Every app can add scripts that the browser has to download and run, so each one should earn its place with a measurable lift. A practical approach is to install one app to fix a specific gap, measure the before and after, then decide whether to keep it. Audit your apps on a schedule and remove anything that is not pulling its weight.

How do I make my Shopify store load faster?

Start with the basics that move Core Web Vitals. Use an optimized theme such as Shopify Online Store 2.0 or Horizon, lean on the built-in image CDN that compresses and serves WebP automatically, and avoid uploading oversized images. Remove apps and code you do not need, since each feature can lower performance. Keep page templates simple by avoiding too many sections, and paginate long product collections so fewer items load at once.

What are good Core Web Vitals targets for a store?

Google defines good thresholds measured at the 75th percentile of real visits. Largest Contentful Paint should happen within 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint should stay under 200 milliseconds, and Cumulative Layout Shift should be 0.1 or less. Hitting these is linked to better rankings and higher conversion. Test your store with a real-user field tool rather than a single lab run, because field data reflects the devices and networks your shoppers actually use.

How do I migrate from Magento to Shopify?

Back up and audit your Magento data first, then export products, customers, and orders to CSV. Import them into Shopify in order, products first, then customers, then historical orders, so records link correctly. Many teams use a bulk migration app such as Matrixify or the Shopify store importer. Rebuild the theme and apps natively rather than copying the old design, and set up 301 redirects from old URLs to new ones to protect your rankings.

Will migrating to Shopify hurt my SEO rankings?

It does not have to, as long as you plan for it. The biggest risk is losing the link between old URLs and new ones, so map every old Magento URL to its Shopify equivalent and set up 301 redirects before launch. Keep page titles, meta descriptions, and key content intact where you can. After launch, submit an updated sitemap and monitor search performance for crawl errors so you can fix any broken paths quickly.

Kanika Mathur

Head of Service Delivery, Resourcifi

I am Kanika Mathur, Head of Service Delivery at Resourcifi. We help merchants pick the few apps that actually move revenue, tune storefront speed against Core Web Vitals, and run platform migrations without losing data or rankings. This checklist is the framework my teams have used on Shopify builds and migrations for clients since 2017.

Resourcifi on LinkedIn →

Sources

Shopify Help Center, Improving your online store performance (image CDN, apps, themes).
Google, Web Vitals (LCP, INP, and CLS thresholds).
Google, WebP, a new image format (file-size savings).
Shopify Help Center, Migrating to Shopify (import order, data, tools).
Deloitte / Google, Milliseconds Make Millions (2020): 0.1-second mobile speed improvement lifted retail conversions 8.4% and average order value 9.2%.