Almost every brand we talk to asks some version of the same question: which Shopify apps do we actually need? The App Store has thousands, and most “best apps” lists are written by people who have never run a store.
So we put our answer in one place. The 1o8 Stack is the short list of Shopify tools our team uses on client stores, sorted by where your business is today.
Why we built it
- Same question, every call. New brands, growing brands and brands switching agencies all want to know what to install and in what order.
- Most stores overbuy. We regularly find stores paying for apps they set up once and never used. Every extra app adds cost and script weight to the site.
- Order matters more than the list. The right tool added too early is wasted spend. The same tool added at the right stage pays for itself.
How the Stack is organized
By stage, not by category. Start with stage one. Add the rest when the problem each tool solves actually shows up.
- Stage 1, just launched: your store, email and SMS, product reviews and live chat. That’s the whole list.
- Stage 2, growing: a real customer service inbox, heatmaps and session recordings, email deliverability and accessibility.
- Stage 3, scaling: attribution across ad channels and subscriptions.
- Selling B2B: identifying which companies visit your site.
Every tool on the page gets three lines: what it does, why we use it, and who should skip it. See the full list here.
Three things we see on almost every store
1. Flows before campaigns. On one apparel brand we run, three automated email flows (welcome, abandoned checkout and post-purchase) drove 54% of email revenue for the quarter. Most stores send campaigns first and build flows later. Flip it.
2. Every platform claims the same sale. Ad platforms and email tools each count the order as theirs. On one brand, the email dashboard showed over $600K for the quarter. Revenue actually attributed to email was about $95K. Pick one source of truth. We use Shopify for revenue and an attribution tool for channel ROAS.
3. Fewer apps, set up properly. A handful of tools configured well beats fifteen installed and half-used. If an app hasn’t earned its fee in the last 90 days, cut it.
How we pick what makes the list
- Our team uses it on real client stores, not just in a demo.
- It solves a problem most growing brands actually have.
- We’d recommend it even if we earned nothing from it.
- If it isn’t right for you yet, we say so.
A note on that third point: some tools on the Stack have referral programs, and Aalap Shah, 1o8’s founder, may earn a commission if you sign up through the links on that page. It never changes what you pay, and it doesn’t change what we recommend. That’s why every tool has a “skip if.” The full disclosure is on the Stack page.
Where to start
If you’re early, open the Stack and stop at stage one. If you’re further along, check stage two and three against what you’re running today and look for gaps and overlap.
And if you’d like a second set of eyes on your setup, we’re always happy to take a look and tell you where we’d start. Grab time with us here.
