Buying clothing, jewelry, accessories, and beauty products online is a harrowing experience at the best of times. The industry can’t agree on standard sizing. Colors are altered by screen settings. And, texture, weight, and draping are very difficult experiences to replicate in a photograph.
It’s no surprise that the return rate for the apparel industry is a baffling 40%—that’s 10% higher than the average across all ecommerce industries. The return rate for online apparel stores is also twice that of their brick and mortar counterparts.
While the basic rules and best practices for running an ecommerce store are roughly the same regardless of industry or product, fashion stores have their own set of unique needs and challenges.
Luckily, the Shopify App Store, replete with handy add-ons for your ecommerce store, has oodles of options for fashion businesses: apps that visually convey your products in the best way, apps that alleviate sizing challenges, and apps that help you sell more.
These are our picks for the 19 best Shopify Apps for fashion stores based on uniqueness and top user ratings:
UGC, reviews, and social proof
Fashion is fickle. Trendsetters rush to the next new thing like kittens to shiny objects, and the masses follow. You already have a lot of work ahead of you, staying ahead of trends, maintaining a strong brand voice, and marketing your designs in a really crowded space. Unload some of that burden onto your fans. Lend your brand some cred by giving user-generated content and reviews a prominent spot on your site.
1. Social Photos
Showing your product on other body types is a great way to help sell products: customers can get a better idea of how the garment would fit their own body. Aggregate UGC Instagram photos using a hashtag, and import them into a mini gallery on your product pages.
Cost: $10-50/month
See it in action: Hello Hazel on Shopify
2. Yotpo Reviews
70% of customers consult reviews before buying products and 63% are more likely to purchase from a site with reviews. Yotpo brings customer feedback directly to your product pages. Other features include social sharing, the ability to turn reviews into ads, and offer coupon codes as incentive for completing a review.
Cost: free (paid options)
See it in action: Jana Reinhardt on Shopify
3. Loox Visual Reviews
Collect and add customer photo reviews to product pages. This app combines the functions of Social Photos and Yotpo in one app.
Cost: from $4.99/month
See it in action: Neon Moon on Shopify
4. Pixel Shop
While this app offers similar functionality to Social Photos, it has the added benefit of a built in bank of influencers. Set up influencer marketing campaigns easily by connecting with Pixel Shop’s network.
Cost: $49–$299/month
Sizing and fit:
To minimize returns, apparel merchants should create a size chart, add fit notes to each product page, and provide model’s height and size for comparison. Even with the most carefully detailed size information, not every size 8 is created equal. You’re inevitably going to see a large number of orders returned due to fit issues. These apps allow customers a virtual try-on experience, in lieu of the real thing.
5. Ring Sizer
This app offers a no-print guide to finding your ring size, and is an essential app for fine or custom jewelry.
Cost: free
6. Virtusize
Similar to Style Key, Virtusize is an extension of your sizing information, providing personalized recommendations to customers. With this app, customers can compare your products’ sizing to the best fitting items in their own closets. The Virtusize button appears prominently on each product page.
Cost: $30/month
See it in action: Bushbuck Outdoors on Shopify
7. Jewelfie
Allow customers to virtually try on jewelry by uploading photos of themselves. Jewelfie adds a “Try” button next to the “Buy” button on product pages. Customers can compare different looks within the app.
Cost: $99/month, 15-day free trial
8. Make-up Magic Mirror
This app is the Jewlfie equivalent for cosmetics stores—customers can “try on” makeup shades before buying.
Cost: free-$129/month
9. Returns Manager
Improve the headache of the inevitable return process for customers, and save your staff time. Returns Manager puts the ownership of the return in the hands of the customer, and the app sends automatic updates throughout the process. The customer facing returns page is customizable to integrate seamlessly with the design of your site.
Cost: $19.99/month, 30-day free trial
See it in action: Beau & Arrow on Shopify
"(Returns Manager) takes all the pain out of organizing, tracking, and following up on returns. A really professional and slick app, with a really easy to use back end that can be customized in so many different ways." — Parisi Jewellery
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Galleries and look books:
How your product is photographed and presented is important for any ecommerce business. It’s especially critical for fashion. Be sure to offer a mix of on-white photographs to show detail and texture and lifestyle images to show length, scale, and styling ideas.
10. Foursixty
This app super-powers your Instagram feed, turning it into an ever-updating shoppable gallery, embedded in your Shopify store. What makes Foursixty stand out from the others with the same functionality is its ability to be highly customized to the design of your shop—fonts, colors, and more. Other features include analytics and content scheduling.
Cost: $50-$300/month
See it in action: Olive & Piper on Shopify
"Foursixty has been a fantastic app for us. Getting user generated content onto our product pages as well as the standalone gallery have provided content that our customers really value and has definitely increased conversion rates." — Ridge Wallet
11. Shop by Instagram
While this app has fewer features and customizations than Foursixty, at a fraction of the price, it’s a great option for stores on a budget.
Cost: free-$15/month
See it in action: Nobu Yoga on Shopify
12. Lookbook
As its name suggests, this app turns your lifestyle shots into a magazine-style lookbook. This is an excellent way to launch new collections (especially if your images tell a story) and showcase your catalog to wholesale clients. “Markers” link featured items directly to product pages.
Cost: $29/month, 7-day free trial
See it in action: Ella May on Shopify
Fulfillment:
These apps are designed for the hands-off ecommerce entrepreneur. They are print and dropship companies that integrate with Shopify through handy apps. Your designs are printed on apparel or turned into jewellery, then shipped directly to your customers.
13. Printful
Printful prints your designs on t-shirts, totes, hats, canvases and lifestyle accessories.
Cost: custom—contact the app developer for details
Sales channels:
With Shopify you already know that you can sell anywhere—online, in a store, from a van, and on multiple social channels. Two of these channels are ideal for fashion businesses:
14. Pinterest
Sell directly to your followers with Buyable Pins—allow them to buy your products without leaving Pinterest.
Cost: free
15. Wanelo
Get access to the network’s millions of active users, and sell to them directly with the Wanelo integration.
Cost: 15% commission on all fulfilled orders
See it in action: The Rage on Wanelo
“The credibility that we have built through Wanelo has been one that’s been hard for us to recreate elsewhere. Our numbers literally jumped by 50% the first year we had a presence on Wanelo. The second year it increased by 30% and has remained consistent.” — Laci Bonner, The Rage
Other helpful apps:
16. Swatches
This app turns Shopify color variants into visual swatches. You can even create image swatches to show color variants on the texture of the product.
Cost: $7/month, free 7-day trial
See it in action: J. Markell on Shopify
"We've been using this app for 9 months now and with analytics and heat mapping software, we've seen that Swatches are by far the most utilized part of the site. They're increasing on-page engagement, time on site, and customer experience. Also, the support has continued to be well above the norm." – Subplot Studio
27. Product Recommendation
Increase average order value by recommending similar products. Customers see related products on product pages and in the cart, based on shopping behaviors and your store’s sales history.
Cost: Free + 4% of extra sales generated by the app, 15-day free trial
See it in action: Green Clothing Co. on Shopify
18. Smile.io
Increase repeat purchases by an average of 20% by rewarding customers through a points-based loyalty program. Offer points to customers for leaving reviews, sharing on social, or referring friends. Points can be redeemed towards future purchases.
Cost: Free (upgrade to plans from $59/month up to enterprise solutions)
See it in action: Tiger's Eye on Shopify
"Not only is this a great app that offers many ways for my customers to earn rewards (on the free plan!), the support was phenomenal." — Spctcl
19. Collection Filter
Allow customers to filter products within a collection by colour, style, size or any other option. The app remembers customers’ choices as they move from collection to collection.
Cost: From $3.99/month
See it in action: Airy Mary on Shopify
What apps can’t you live without? Share your favorite Shopify Apps for fashion stores in the comments below.