Scaling DTC Brands With CRO 2.0 - Revenue, not just Conversions | Host of Customers Who Click 🎙️ (400,000+ downloads)
Stop treating Shopify apps like growth hacks. I audit multiple Shopify stores every week. The lowest I’ve seen recently? 40 apps. That’s not a growth stack - it’s dead weight. Here’s why: → Apps add technical bloat More apps = slower load times = worse UX. → Apps eat your margins $99/month doesn’t sound like much… Until you’ve got 10+ apps silently draining thousands per year. → Apps drain resources Installation takes 5 minutes. But the real process - researching, setting it up properly, integrating with your team - can take days. If there’s no clear strategy, those days are wasted. So how do you decide if an app is worth it? I use a similar prioritisation process to A/B testing: 1. Is this need backed by customer research? 2. Does the data support it? 3. Do we have a clear strategy for using it? 4. Do we have the resource to manage it long-term? 5. Do we already have something that does this? If you can’t tick those boxes, don’t install it. Every extra app chips away at speed, margin, and focus. Audit your stack like you’d audit your funnel - ruthlessly.
This is because most people don't understand their business or how to run different parts of their businesses effeciently. I honestly can't tell you how many brands we've worked with over the past 6 years where our own brand started way behind them and now has outgrown them with better scale and a smaller team. Apps are great IF you know what you're using them for and understand how to run a business. If you don't, then they are wasted.
I'm with you on this! I just thought "the lowest amount is 40? My clients have fewer than that." Lo and behold, the lowest of my clients is 55..... What would be your "Keep only these, get rid of the rest"-plugins? (maybe except logistics/shipping plugins)
The app audit question I always ask is simple: if this disappeared tomorrow, would your customers notice or care? If the answer is no, delete it immediately. Will Laurenson
Yeah, might as well focus on less apps but quality ones!
Absolutely, so many stores treat apps like magic bullets. Another angle I’ve seen: apps often overlap in functionality, creating hidden friction in analytics and reporting. A tight, well-audited stack not only saves margins and speed but also makes it way easier to optimize marketing campaigns because your data is cleaner.
Absolutely spot on... And let's not forget the residual code that potentially gets left behind even when removing/ uninstalling apps. It's so easy to get trigger-happy with app installations and not realise just how much bloat is being added behind the scenes, even if the app isn't in use.
So true. Most stores don’t realize their ‘growth stack’ is actually a drag stack.
40 🤯 The App Store is not a sweet shop! If anything, we sometimes lean too far the other way but at least we know exactly what we’re putting on and how to (completely) remove it should we ever need to
Shiny object syndrome at its finest
Google Ads | Pay-Per-Click Marketing Specialist
2moI feel like I tell people their plugins are slowing down their site and they look at me like i'm being so over the top but every single time we cull them down, page speed goes up, session time goes up, bounce rate drops, conv. rate goes up. The list goes on.