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The DTC stack in numbers

Living report — updated with every scan · last scan 2026-10-23

3,796

storefronts scanned

3,152

with a detected stack

110

tools tracked

11

verticals

5

median tools per store

49%

run 6+ tools

Adoption by layer — all 15 categories

LayerCoverageLeaderRunners-up
Ecommerce platforms 3,069 (97%) Shopify — 2,885 (92%) WooCommerce 94 · Adobe Commerce (Magento) 39 · Webflow Ecommerce 38
Shopify review apps 2,491 (79%) Yotpo — 2,014 (64%) Okendo 1,864 · Judge.me 655 · Junip 291
Email & SMS marketing 2,667 (85%) Klaviyo — 2,474 (78%) Attentive 480 · Postscript 252 · Omnisend 197
Subscription apps 482 (15%) Recharge — 110 (3%) Stay AI 99 · Skio 98 · Appstle Subscriptions 85
Loyalty & referral apps 380 (12%) Rivo — 131 (4%) Social Snowball 118 · LoyaltyLion 105 · Smile.io 53
Helpdesk & CX apps 812 (26%) Gorgias — 770 (24%) Tidio 43
Analytics & attribution 868 (28%) Triple Whale — 654 (21%) Northbeam 233 · Littledata 62
Upsell & checkout apps 644 (20%) Rebuy — 506 (16%) AfterSell 103 · Zipify OneClickUpsell 73
Page builder apps 393 (12%) PageFly — 211 (7%) Replo 109 · GemPages 99 · Shogun 16
Post-purchase & shipping 258 (8%) Loop Returns — 152 (5%) AfterShip 62 · Parcel Panel 31 · Loop Tracking (formerly Wonderment) 18
Popups & CRO 263 (8%) Octane AI — 162 (5%) Justuno 33 · OptiMonk 30 · Wisepops 29
Site search & merchandising 152 (5%) Boost AI Search — 130 (4%) Klevu 14 · Algolia 9
Translation apps 61 (2%) Weglot — 60 (2%) Transcy 1
Mobile app builders 35 (1%) Tapcart — 35 (1%)
Retention extras 500 (16%) Back in Stock — 274 (9%) Swym Wishlist Plus 169 · Rise.ai 144

Coverage = storefronts with at least one detected tool in the layer. Presence is strong evidence; absence proves nothing — server-side and custom-built tools are invisible to storefront detection.

Findings, dated

Email: the moat that doesn’t move

Klaviyo runs 78% of detected storefronts — measured four times across independently-built samples (76%, 82%, 81%, 79%). The dip located the edge: below the directory-indexed tier, the layer is genuinely contested.

Reviews: the App Store and the storefronts disagree

Judge.me owns the App Store’s best listing; Yotpo and Okendo own the deployed base (64% and 59%). Two real markets, one paradox — and the boundary between them is visible in our data.

Helpdesk: concentration without affection

Gorgias holds ~96% of detected helpdesk installs at a 4.2★ rating — the only layer where the near-monopolist is also the least-liked widely-adopted tool. Switching cost, quantified.

Loved is not the same as well-run

Joined against Newsweek’s Most Loved Pet Brands: correlation between consumer affection and stack depth is −0.05. The most-loved tier is the least tooled — its household names run brochure sites.

How to cite this

Cite as: "DTC Proof storefront detection, 2026-10-23, n=3,152 detected of 3,796 scanned." Section anchors are stable: #layers · #movement · #findings. Method and limits: methodology. The scan re-runs weekly; this page always shows the latest cycle. No vendor pays for placement, and rankings are computed from data.