Shopify App Usage Study: What 475 Live Stores Actually Run (October 2026)

This is a first-hand count, not a summary of other articles. For each store we saved the homepage and, for 451 of them, one product page, then looked for the app blocks, theme extension files and scripts that each of 30 apps leaves in a store's HTML. In this post a store "ran" an app when we detected it in that HTML. Below you will find the key results, the full method and its limits, counts for every app and category, what stores do with their carts, shipping messages and themes, and a short script you can run on any store yourself.

What Did the Study Find? Key Results

• 450 of 475 stores (94.7%) ran at least one of the 30 tracked apps, and 25 ran none. A store ran 2.60 tracked apps on average (median 3, maximum 8), counting Rebuy once.
• Klaviyo was the most common tracked app by a wide margin: 395 stores (83.2%). The next four were Rebuy Personalization Engine (123), Okendo Reviews (119), Yotpo Product Reviews (115) and Recharge Subscriptions (112).
• Reviews, upsells and subscriptions lead the categories after email. 291 stores (61.3%) ran at least one of the 4 tracked review apps, 161 stores (33.9%) at least one of the 4 tracked upsell and cross-sell apps, and 137 stores (28.8%) at least one of the 3 tracked subscription apps.
• Cart-drawer markup is common; tracked drawer apps are not. 243 stores (51.2%) have cart-drawer markup or a drawer setting in the theme; 48 (10.1%) ran at least one of the 5 tracked cart drawer rows (four apps plus Rebuy Smart Cart theme code); 276 (58.1%) have one or the other and 15 (3.2%) have both.
• Bundle apps are rare here. 24 stores (5.1%) ran at least one of the 6 tracked bundle and frequently bought together apps, and no single one of the six ran on more than 7 stores.
• Free-shipping messages are common. 251 stores (52.8%) show free-shipping or free-delivery text above the main content of the homepage, and 191 (40.2%) name a money threshold. Across the 165 stores showing dollar amounts in the US market, the median threshold is $75.
• Product-page signals (on 451 stores with a product page): sticky add-to-cart markup on 98 (21.7%), an express checkout button on 83 (18.4%) and a Shop Pay Installments banner on 96 (21.3%).

How We Checked 475 Shopify Stores: Method, Sample and Limits

A Shopify app usage study counts which apps a set of live stores load on their storefront. Ours is a storefront scan: we read the HTML that a visitor's browser receives, not any store's admin, so we can only count what leaves a trace on the page.

The sample: 475 hand-picked stores in 10 verticals

The sample is a hand-picked list of well-known direct-to-consumer brands, not a random draw from Shopify's millions of stores, and it skews to larger brands that run many apps. Percentages describe these 475 stores only. Do not read 83.2% as "the share of all Shopify stores that use Klaviyo".

What a storefront scan cannot see

• Checkout, post-purchase pages, Shopify Functions, admin-only features and anything injected purely on the client leave no trace in the HTML. AfterSell's post-purchase offers, Rebuy's checkout features, Recharge and Skio customer portals and Klaviyo flows are all invisible to this check.
• An app that is installed but switched off in the theme leaves no block or extension file, so it is not counted.
• Theme-integrated installs, web-pixel-only installs and apps present only as a style block have no vendor file to find, so they are not counted (for example some Skio plan pickers, Selleasy or Nosto web pixels and a Recharge style block).
• A signal shows an app is installed and loading (or, for 2 stores counted for Rebuy, enabled as an app block) on October 11, 2026. It does not show how the merchant uses it, what it earns, or whether it works. Usage is not performance: "many stores run X" is not evidence that X converts.
• The speed of a store is out of scope: this study counts what stores load. For how to test whether an app slows a store, see does a cart drawer app slow down your Shopify store.

How accurate is the detection?

After the first pass, four independent verifiers re-read the saved HTML with their own code, and two also re-fetched a few live pages. In two audit samples of 15 stores each (two of the 30 were the later-excluded domains) they found no false detections (40 and 32 detections checked) and a few misses, and we fixed the ones our own rules should have caught. After the fixes, 3 of 78 store-and-app pairs in those two samples are still missed (3.8%): a theme-integrated Skio plan picker, a Recharge style block with no script, and Yotpo markup that could belong to either Yotpo product. We chose not to count them, and the limits above say so. That is the miss rate in two 15-store samples, not an estimate for all 475, and it is why we call every count a lower bound.

The audit also changed the numbers before publication: two non-storefront domains were removed, Rebuy's Smart Cart row was recognised as part of the single Rebuy listing, and inline script loaders were added as a signal. Reading ScriptTags mattered too: for Recharge Subscriptions, 76 of its 112 stores had a ScriptTag as their only signal, and for Rebuy Personalization Engine 27 of 123. A check that looked only at theme app extensions would have missed those stores.

Which Shopify Apps Do the Most Stores Run? All 30 Tracked Apps

Stores are counted out of 475. "Stores" is the number of stores with at least one confirmed signal for that app; "Share" is that number divided by 475, left blank (–) for apps on fewer than 5 stores, where a rate would suggest more precision than the data has. Each app links to its Shopify App Store listing.

Counts are lower bounds. A few rows need a note:

• Rebuy Smart Cart (theme code) (31 stores) is not a separate app. Smart Cart is part of the single Rebuy listing, so this row is a subset of the Rebuy Personalization Engine row, and tracked apps per store count Rebuy once. It counts stores whose theme carries live Smart Cart code. Rebuy's help says a new Smart Cart stays inactive until it is switched on in the Rebuy admin, so read the row as "Smart Cart code in the theme", not "ran Smart Cart".
• Yotpo Product Reviews and Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals overlap on 55 stores, so never add them together as "Yotpo stores". Yotpo's shared widget loader serves both products, so stores with only that loader are counted for neither.
• UpCart Cart Drawer, AfterSell and Quick Announcement Bar: on October 11, 2026 their App Store listings said "This app is not currently available on the Shopify App Store" (checked from two networks). Stores that installed them earlier still load them. UpCart and AfterSell are both Rokt listings. We do not call any of the three delisted or discontinued; check the listing before installing.

What Did We Find in Each App Category?

Each tracked app sits in one primary category. Apps with a second function (for example UpCart, which is a cart drawer and an upsell tool) are counted in one roll-up only, so every category total below is a floor for its function.

Which verticals ran which kinds of apps?

Each cell is the number of stores in that vertical that ran at least one of the tracked apps in that category, with the share of the vertical in brackets. The number after each category is how many apps we tracked in it.

Email and SMS: Klaviyo is on most stores in every vertical

Klaviyo is the one tracked email and SMS app. It ran on 395 of 475 stores (83.2%), the highest count of any tracked app. By vertical it ranged from 32 of 45 (71.1%) in apparel and fashion to 45 of 47 (95.7%) in supplements and wellness. A Klaviyo signal shows the app is installed and loading on the storefront; it does not show which channels a store sends on.

Reviews: Okendo, Yotpo and Judge.me lead

291 stores (61.3%) ran at least one of the 4 tracked review apps. Okendo Reviews ran on 119 stores (25.1%), Yotpo Product Reviews on 115 stores (24.2%), Judge.me Product Reviews on 57 stores (12.0%) and Loox reviews on 9 stores (1.9%). Review apps were most often detected in fitness, sports and outdoor (32 of 39, 82.1%) and least often in coffee and tea (18 of 48, 37.5%). Yotpo Product Reviews was strongest in beauty and skincare (21 of 48, 43.8%); Judge.me was strongest in fitness, sports and outdoor (10 of 39, 25.6%).

Yotpo Product Reviews is a lower bound. We did not count a store from Yotpo widget markup alone, because Yotpo's loyalty product-points widget produces the same markup. For a ranked buyer's guide, see our best Shopify review apps.

Subscriptions: Recharge leads, and the gap between verticals is wide

137 stores (28.8%) ran at least one of the 3 tracked subscription apps: Recharge Subscriptions on 112 stores (23.6%), Skio Subscriptions on 20 stores (4.2%) and Appstle Subscriptions on 6 stores (1.3%). The gap between verticals is the widest of any category in the study: 29 (61.7%) of supplements and wellness stores, 27 (56.3%) of coffee and tea, 25 (52.1%) of beauty and skincare and 24 (48.0%) of food, snacks and beverages, against 2 (4.4%) in apparel and fashion and 2 (4.3%) in jewelry and accessories.

Skio's count is a lower bound: some stores use a theme-integrated plan picker that has no vendor file for us to find. See our best Shopify subscription apps for how the apps compare.

Loyalty and referrals: Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals and Smile.io

100 stores (21.1%) ran at least one of the 2 tracked loyalty and referrals apps: Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals on 78 stores (16.4%) and Smile.io on 23 stores (4.8%). Beauty and skincare stood out: 21 of 48 (43.8%) of its stores ran at least one of the two, and 19 of 48 (39.6%) ran Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals. More on this category in our best Shopify loyalty apps guide.

Upsell and cross-sell: Rebuy Personalization Engine is the largest tracked name

161 stores (33.9%) ran at least one of the 4 tracked upsell and cross-sell apps. Rebuy Personalization Engine ran on 123 stores (25.9%), Nosto on 16 stores (3.4%), Selleasy (Logbase) on 15 stores (3.2%) and AfterSell on 13 stores (2.7%). The roll-up was highest in supplements and wellness (23 of 47, 48.9%) and lowest in apparel and fashion (11 of 45, 24.4%). Rebuy followed the same pattern: 19 of 47 (40.4%) in supplements and wellness against 4 of 45 in apparel and fashion. Nosto went the other way: 6 of its 16 stores were apparel and fashion brands (13.3% of that vertical), and none were in supplements and wellness.

AfterSell's value is mostly post-purchase, which a storefront scan cannot see, so its count is a floor. For a ranked comparison, see the best Shopify upsell apps.

Cart drawers: Rebuy Smart Cart code, UpCart and Slide Cart

48 stores (10.1%) ran at least one of the 5 tracked cart drawer rows (four apps and Rebuy Smart Cart theme code). By row: Rebuy Smart Cart (theme code) on 31 stores (6.5%), UpCart Cart Drawer on 11 stores (2.3%), Slide Cart (slidecarthq) on 5 stores (1.1%), Essent Cart Drawer Cart Upsell on 2 stores and Monster Cart Upsell+ Free Gift on 1 store. The roll-up was highest in supplements and wellness (8 of 47, 17.0%) and food, snacks and beverages (8 of 50, 16.0%), and no apparel and fashion store had any of the five (0 of 45, 0.0%).

Far more stores have cart-drawer markup in the theme (243, next section) than ran a tracked cart drawer app or Smart Cart code (48), and 228 of those 243 ran none of the five. On those stores the drawer may be built into the theme or come from an app outside the 30. The Smart Cart figure is theme code, not proof Smart Cart was live. Background: what a cart drawer is and our best Shopify cart drawer apps.

Bundles and frequently bought together

24 stores (5.1%) ran at least one of the 6 tracked bundle and frequently bought together apps: Simple Bundles & Kits on 7 stores (1.5%), Easy Bundle Builder (Skai Lama) on 6 stores (1.3%), Fast Bundle on 5 stores (1.1%), Kaching Bundles on 3 stores, AOV.ai Bundles Quantity Breaks on 2 stores and Frequently Bought Together (Code Black Belt) on 2 stores. Food, snacks and beverages was the highest vertical (5 of 50, 10.0%); no coffee and tea store ran any of the six (0 of 48, 0.0%). Bundles built into a theme or with custom code leave no vendor file, so they are not in these counts. For choosing between tools, see the best Shopify bundle apps.

Free gift apps: concentrated in beauty and baby

60 stores (12.6%) ran at least one of the 3 tracked free gift apps: EG Auto Add to Cart (free gift) on 37 stores (7.8%), BOGOS free gift (Secomapp) on 18 stores (3.8%) and Monk free gift with purchase on 5 stores (1.1%). Beauty and skincare was highest (17 of 48, 35.4%), then baby, kids and toys (11 of 47, 23.4%); coffee and tea was lowest (2 of 48, 4.2%). EG Auto Add to Cart alone ran on 11 of 48 (22.9%) beauty and skincare stores. Setting one up? See how to add a free gift with purchase on Shopify.

Countdown timers and announcement bars

31 stores (6.5%) ran at least one of the 2 tracked countdown and announcement bar apps: Essential Countdown Timer Bar on 16 stores (3.4%) and Quick Announcement Bar on 16 stores (3.4%). Jewelry and accessories was highest (6 of 47, 12.8%). Compare that with the 251 stores whose homepage carries free-shipping text before the main content (next section): most such messages come from somewhere other than these two apps, such as the theme, another app or custom code. See countdown timers for cart sales for how stores use them.

What Do Real Shopify Stores Do? Cart, Free Shipping, Themes and Checkout Buttons

Do most stores use a cart drawer or a cart page?

243 of 475 stores (51.2%) carry native cart-drawer markup or a drawer setting in their theme. 48 (10.1%) had a tracked cart drawer app or Rebuy Smart Cart theme code, and 15 (3.2%) have both. Together, 276 stores (58.1%) have a native drawer or a tracked drawer app.

The rest of the native cart types we could identify were notification or popup carts on 18 stores and page carts on 13. For 201 stores we could not tell the cart type from the homepage HTML, so this study makes no claim about how many stores still use a cart page. For the trade-offs, see cart drawer vs cart page.

How common are free-shipping messages and thresholds?

251 of 475 stores (52.8%) show free-shipping or free-delivery text in the part of the homepage before the main content (announcement bar, header, menus or a theme cart drawer rendered there). 191 (40.2%) tie that message to a money threshold. By vertical, the message was most common in beauty and skincare (31 of 48, 64.6%) and least common in food, snacks and beverages (21 of 50, 42.0%).

For the 165 stores that rendered the US market and printed a dollar threshold, the median was $75, the quartiles were $50 and $124.5, and the range ran from $25 to $300. The figure uses the first threshold-bearing free-shipping phrase on each store. Amounts in pounds, Australian or Canadian dollars and rupees are grouped by their own currency and left out of the dollar statistics. If you are setting a threshold, $75 is the middle of this sample, not a recommendation; our guide to a free shipping bar in the cart drawer covers how to choose one.

Cart and shipping signals by vertical

Sticky add-to-cart, express checkout buttons and Shop Pay Installments

These signals come from the product page, so the denominator is the 451 stores that had one. Sticky add-to-cart markup was on 98 (21.7%); it was most common in beauty and skincare (14 of 46, 30.4%) and least common in coffee and tea (4 of 44, 9.1%). A dynamic checkout or express button element was on 83 (18.4%), from 16 of 42 pet supplies stores (38.1%) to 4 of 55 home and decor stores (7.3%). A Shop Pay Installments banner was on 96 (21.3%), most often in fitness, sports and outdoor (16 of 38, 42.1%).

The express button count is the element on the product page. It says nothing about express payment options in the cart or at checkout, which this scan cannot see. See our guide to express checkout buttons in the cart drawer.

Which Shopify themes do these stores run?

471 of 475 stores (99.2%) expose a Shopify theme object, and 446 (93.9%) report a theme name. Of those 446, 78 (17.5%, or 16.4% of all 475) run a free Shopify theme such as Dawn or Horizon. The most common theme names were Dawn (47 stores), Horizon (18), Prestige (18), Broadcast (16), Impact (9), Impulse (9), Symmetry (8) and Pipeline (7); Focal, Palo Alto and Themekit template theme had 6 each.

How to Use These Benchmarks (and How Not To)

• Compare your vertical, not the all-store number. At least one of the 3 tracked subscription apps ran on 61.7% of supplements and wellness stores and 4.4% of apparel and fashion stores; the 28.8% overall figure describes neither.
• Read counts as "what is common", not "what works". Nothing in this study links an app to conversion, revenue or order value.
• Check the stores you compete with. The script below lists the app blocks, extensions and script hosts any store loads on its homepage and first product page.

How to Reproduce This Check on Any Shopify Store

You need two pages per store and a way to read their HTML. Do it by hand with View Source, or run the short script below (Python 3, standard library only).

1. Fetch two pages. The homepage with ?country=US, and the first product listed at /products.json?limit=1 (then /products/<handle>?country=US).
2. Look for three kinds of signal. App block comments (BEGIN app block: shopify://apps/<handle>/blocks/…), theme extension files (cdn.shopify.com/extensions/<id>/<name>-<version>/assets/…), and vendor hosts in script, stylesheet and preload URLs, in the ScriptTag list Shopify adds to the page, and in inline loaders.
3. Match each handle to an app. Open the App Store listing or the vendor's docs and confirm that the handle, extension name or host belongs to that app. Do not match on keywords.
4. Count each app once per store, record the date, and state your denominator.

import json, re, sys, urllib.request

UA = "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/130.0.0.0 Safari/537.36"
BLOCK = re.compile(r"BEGIN app block: shopify://apps/([a-z0-9][a-z0-9_-]*)/blocks/([A-Za-z0-9_-]+)/")
EXT = re.compile(r"/extensions/[0-9a-f-]{36}/([A-Za-z0-9_.-]+?)-\d[\w.]*/assets/")
SRC = re.compile(r"<script\b[^>]*?\ssrc=[\"']([^\"']+)[\"']", re.I)

def get(url):
    req = urllib.request.Request(url, headers={"User-Agent": UA})
    with urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=15) as r:
        return r.read().decode("utf-8", "replace")

def signals(html):
    hosts = {s.split("/")[2] for s in SRC.findall(html) if s.startswith(("http", "//"))}
    return sorted({b for b, _ in BLOCK.findall(html)}), sorted(set(EXT.findall(html))), sorted(hosts)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    domain = sys.argv[1]
    products = json.loads(get(f"https://{domain}/products.json?limit=1"))["products"]
    pages = {"home": f"https://{domain}/?country=US"}
    if products:
        pages["product"] = f"https://{domain}/products/{products[0]['handle']}?country=US"
    for name, url in pages.items():
        blocks, exts, hosts = signals(get(url))
        print(f"{name}\n  app blocks: {blocks}\n  extensions: {exts}\n  script hosts: {hosts}")

Run it as python3 -I check_store.py example.com. It prints the app block handles, extension names and script hosts it finds on the homepage and the first product page. It is a simplified version of our check: the study also read stylesheet and preload links, ScriptTag lists and inline loaders, and matched every handle against a mapping we confirmed for each of the 30 apps.

Be polite when you scan more than a few stores: no more than 4 requests at a time, a normal browser User-Agent and a 15-second timeout, which is what our own scan used (with one retry per request). Stores that password-protect their storefront or block automated requests will not return a usable page.

Related Oxify Guides

• Best Shopify cart drawer apps and cart drawer vs cart page
• Best Shopify upsell apps and best Shopify bundle apps
• Best Shopify review apps, best Shopify subscription apps and best Shopify loyalty apps
• Does a cart drawer app slow down your Shopify store?

Vertical guides: our guides for beauty and skincare, coffee and tea, pet stores and supplement brands use their own earlier scans with different samples, so their numbers differ from the ones here. Do not mix the two sets.

Frequently Asked Questions