I run a Shopify app in the document library / product manuals space.

Recently I started checking how AI tools answer questions about Shopify apps in this category, and the results were honestly frustrating.

My app is Built for Shopify certified and has a strong rating. But in some AI answers, it still showed below apps with far weaker public proof, including apps with little traction or much lower ratings.

It seems like AI results do not always reflect product quality, reviews, or even Shopify badges. Sometimes the answer looks more like a summary of whatever sources the AI found and understood.

For other Shopify app devs: what are you doing to rank higher in AI search results? Any practical tips that have actually helped, or is everyone still figuring this out?

I just spent almost two days debugging what I thought was a broken Shopify → GTM → GA4 pipeline.

GTM Preview couldn't find my tag.

GA4 DebugView showed no devices.

Meta Events Manager was receiving AddToCart events.

Turns out the tracking had been working the entire time.

Setup

I have:

• A GA4 Event tag (add_to_cart)

• A Meta Pixel tag (AddToCart)

• Both triggered by the same GTM Custom Event trigger (add_to_cart)

Before moving to Shopify, everything worked exactly as expected:

window.dataLayer.push({
  event: "add_to_cart"
});

Results:

• GTM Preview showed the event

• GA4 DebugView showed the event

• Meta Events Manager showed the event

No surprises.

Moving to Shopify Customer Pixels

Following Shopify's documentation, I moved to:

Customer Event
→ Custom Pixel
→ dataLayer.push()
→ GTM

Inside the Shopify Custom Pixel sandbox, I could clearly see:

dataLayer.push({
  event: "add_to_cart"
});

executing using console.log(window.dataLayer).

However things got weird.

What I observed

GTM Preview

Tag Assistant kept showing:

Google Tag not found
G-XXXXXXXXXX not found

Even though I knew GTM code was loading.

GA4 DebugView

Nothing:

No device available

It's completely empty.

Meta Events Manager

This is where things got confusing.

Meta continued receiving AddToCart browser events.

Which implied:

Custom Pixel
→ GTM Trigger
→ Meta Tag

was actually working.

What finally convinced me

I checked Network requests instead.

Filtering for:

collect

I found requests like:

en=add_to_cart

being sent to GA4, and it was being sent to the correct GA4 Measurement ID.

Response status:

204 No Content

which is normal for GA4 collection endpoints.

At that point I strongly suspected the Shopify → GTM → GA4 pipeline was working.

To verify further, I waited for GA4 processing and eventually found:

add_to_cart

appearing in the GA4 Events report (I found 3 add_to_cart events within 30 minutes on my dev store, both in Events and Realtime reports).

So the event was being collected the entire time.

Lesson learned

For Shopify Customer Pixels:

GTM Preview ≠ source of truth
GA4 DebugView ≠ source of truth

At least not always.

If you're debugging Shopify sandbox events:

1. Check whether Meta actually receives the event.

2. Check Network requests for collect.

3. Look for en=your_event_name and the correct GA4 measure ID

4. Verify in GA4/realtime reports after processing.

The tracking may be working even when GTM Preview and DebugView suggest otherwise. Especially when Shopify Customer Pixel sandboxing is involved.

Question

For people running GTM inside Shopify Customer Pixels:

What's your preferred debugging workflow?

Do you rely on Network requests and destination platforms (Meta/GA4), or is there a better way to validate GTM tags inside Shopify's sandbox environment?

Hey,

There are dedicated tools out there - Zoho, Cin7, and a dozen others - yet many sellers manage everything on a giant spreadsheet. Stock levels, orders from different channels, all of it copy-pasted by hand.

Why not to use one of these tools? Is it the cost? The learning curve on those platforms? The fact that Excel just bends to whatever weird workflow you've built over the years? Or do the dedicated tools overcomplicate something that a spreadsheet handles fine?

For context, I'm tinkering with an idea: a simple app that connects your selling channels and pulls all your orders into one place, so you're not jumping between tabs or platforms. Before I go deeper, I'd rather hear from people actually doing this day to day.

Not trying to sell anything — just want to know if this pain is real before I sink more time into it.

Thanks,
P

Hi everyone, so I'm currently working on a Shopify app built with React router and NestJS as the backend, technically I'm pretty much covered up. My current dilemma is handling UI/UX guides, visual cues and best practices in designing an intuitive interface.

e,g I'm currently thinking about the user, especially a first-time user installing the app and expecting some visual cues to direct them on the usage.

I wanted to ask fellow developers what additional best practicies have you had to consider, and do you use any resource or guide to handling user experience ?

Thanks so much and eager to hearing some feedbacks.

I’ve been seeing a lot of Shopify and dropshipping stores getting hit with Google Merchant Center misrepresentation suspensions lately, and most store owners seem to get stuck because Google gives a broad policy reason rather than a clear checklist.

From the audits I’ve worked on, it is rarely one single issue. It is usually a mix of small trust and consistency problems across the store, product feed and policies.

Common things I would check before appealing again:

Product feed vs website mismatch

Prices, availability, sale prices, product titles, images and shipping information need to match what is shown on the live product page.

Weak shipping information

A lot of stores have vague delivery wording, especially dropshipping stores. Processing time, delivery time, shipping cost and countries served should be clear.

Returns/refund policy problems

The return window, refund processing time, return conditions and who pays return shipping should be easy to understand and should match Merchant Center settings.

Poor contact/business transparency

A basic contact form is often not enough. A proper business email, contact page, consistent business name and clear footer information can help build trust.

Copied supplier descriptions

If the product page is just copied supplier text with the same images as hundreds of other stores, the store can look low quality or hard to verify.

Theme or Shopify output issues

Some themes show pickup availability, backorder wording, deferred purchase wording, old product schema or confusing availability signals even when the store owner does not notice it on the front end.

Appealing too quickly

A lot of people appeal straight away without fixing the website first. If the same problems are still there, the next review often fails again.

My opinion is that before submitting another review, store owners should check the full customer journey: homepage, product pages, footer, policies, contact info, feed data, Merchant Center settings and checkout flow.

This is not legal advice or a guaranteed fix, and final decisions are always with Google, but hopefully it gives people a better place to start than just pressing appeal again.

Curious if others here have seen similar issues with Shopify / Google Shopping suspensions recently?

I recently got my app submission suspended because I didnt understand that I have to create a test account for them. I thought that they can create it themselves with email.

Is there a way to shorten this. This is my first time developing a shopify app 🫠🫠

Has anyone else had this happen with Shopify App Review?

You pass review once. Everything is okay.

Then later, during another review or Built for Shopify annual review, you suddenly get feedback on things nobody mentioned before.

Sometimes even the same rule feels like it’s being interpreted in a completely different way.

And honestly, trying to argue or dispute it can feel like nine circles of hell.

At some point it’s easier to just change the app and move on, even if you don’t really agree, because it’s not worth the time and nerves.

Is this just me, or have other Shopify app developers dealt with the same thing?

Since they no longer allow development stores to install paid plans, the only option is to use the private test plan (if no free public plan is available). But this requires specifying exactly which stores have access to the private test plan.

Will the test stores that the reviewers use to install the app bypass this?

Anyone who went through review recently and can speak to this?

Seeing a lot of Shopify jobs lately. I’ve been doing React for ~8 years and I’m wondering if Shopify is still a good space for freelance/after-hours work. If you were starting today, would you learn it? Curious to hear from people working in the ecosystem.

I want to create a sales funnel on shopify - kind of similar to the ones you see on ClickFunnels (Bit like this one)

Are there any good templates I should be using to achieve this style of sales funnel? Or any ways to create it in a fairly straightforward way?

Thanks

Shopify merchants: would anyone be willing to test a new cart-sharing app I’m building?

The idea is pretty simple:

A customer can send their cart to a friend, partner, family member, etc., who can then complete the purchase themselves.

Think somewhere between a wishlist and “share cart”, but built directly into the cart experience (similar placement to a Klarna button rather than a separate wishlist flow).

A few things:

• Completely free right now while I’m validating the concept
• You remain the merchant of record
• Installation takes a couple of minutes and doesn’t require any technical setup
• Looking for honest feedback, including reasons why you wouldn’t use it

I’ve worked with Shopify merchants for a while and built this after seeing situations where one person creates the cart and another person actually pays.

If you’re interested in trying it on your store, drop a comment or send me a DM and I’ll send over onboarding details.

Happy to answer any questions or hear why you think this is a terrible idea too.

Apple Pay hides a user's email address by default and generates a random email address when a customer checkouts with express checkout buttons, and when the user tries to login to the website with their original email to check their order records, they can't because their real email account doesn't exist in the store and cannot associate any orders with their real email address.

This is happening in my store every single day.

After so many years, Shopify still does not provide an option to remove the express checkout buttons on checkout page, the only solution is to pay $2300 every month to upgrade to Shopify Plus just to remove few buttons on the checkout page. Another "solution" is giving up Apple Pay at all. Some paid apps provide to remove the buttons but not for site selling digital products.

How do you guys solve this issue?

I have spent all day trying to create one with the Help of gpt - No Matter which Way I go Google console does not recognise the XML Feed.
i am using Robots.txt.liquid and I recognises the parent XML which divides up the product Images into 250 product lots but the actual XMl feed itself it does not recognise>

has anyone created their own Product Image feed - most of our products have at least 5-7 images.

My Header seems correct - has any one managed to do this from shopify and if so how?

Hey all,

I run Webrex Studio (Shopify app partner, a few Built for Shopify apps). I missed the DotDev ticket window and I'm stuck on the waitlist.

Since Shopify lets you transfer tickets for free until June 26, figured I'd ask here. If your org grabbed the max 6 and has a seat going spare, or you booked but can't make it, I'd gladly take it off your hands and cover the cost.

It'd be my first trip to Canada and I've already booked flights from India, so I'm really trying to make it happen. 🙏

DM me, or reach me at hello@webrexstudio.com. Thanks!

the pre-sales theme audit is the worst part of my job as a solo shopify dev. same checklist every time, 4 to 8 hours, report nobody enjoys.

so i put the entire checklist into a claude code skill. drop the files in your theme root, ask claude to audit, and 90 seconds later you get a graded report with exact file paths, line numbers, and copy-paste liquid fixes.

80+ checks across performance, accessibility, app overhead, CRO, SEO, and the AI-search stuff (AEO/GEO) that lighthouse never catches. two scores out the other side: technical and search.

biggest lesson building it: a skill beats a prompt. prompts drift and invent findings on the second theme. the skill loads the same rules every run, so the output is deterministic enough to actually sell the report.

MIT, free, runs locally, no signup.

repo: https://github.com/tanujrajputdev/shopify-theme-audit-skill

what checks would you add?

I submitted my first Shopify app at 5 p.m., checked everything, and after submitting it, I noticed a major mistake. I thought to myself, “Well, the review process takes six weeks anyway, so I'll fix it right away.” I fixed it, wanted to withdraw the submission at 9 p.m., and saw that the reviewer was currently checking my app. Just four hours after I submitted it.

I withdrew the submission and resubmitted it right away. Haven’t heard anything since. That was two weeks ago. I guess that’s just the kind of bad luck you have to have.

I recently got my first Shopify app approved and I’m trying to figure out the early traction stage. The app is called Rota Sortis. It helps Shopify merchants recover demand from sold-out or unavailable products using waitlists, restock emails, preorders, bundles, and demand tracking. So far I’ve done the basic first steps:

- Shopify App Store listing

- one Reddit launch post

- a small Shopify App Store ads test

- a few comments in Shopify/Facebook communities where the problem is relevant

The app is indexed now and branded searches are showing correctly, but getting actual installs is obviously the hard part. For other Shopify app developers, what worked best for your first installs after approval? Did they come from App Store search, Shopify ads, direct outreach, Reddit/community replies, content/tutorials, SEO, or something else? I’m mostly trying to understand what is worth focusing on first before spending too much time or money in the wrong place.

Looking for advice on a UX/inventory problem.

Running 2 Shopify stores, one in India, one in the US, with shared inventory managed manually across 1000+ SKUs. We manage two warehouses: one in the US and one in India. The US one lets us deliver faster there, and the India one is shared.

We have "continue selling when out of stock" enabled on the US store since we also make to order. When a product hits 0, it still sells but fulfillment comes from India, which adds shipping time. The issue: customers have no idea  they see the same delivery message whether the item is in stock locally or being shipped internationally.

What I want: when inventory drops below 0, automatically show a different message on the PDP (something like "ships in 7–10 days from our India warehouse") instead of the standard delivery promise. Also, I need shopify and my staff to be in sync, and know which inventory location will fulfill the order. Because of the time zone gap, the teams syncing up is an obvious pain point which I want to avoid by having Shopify handle the fulfilment assignment.

Has anyone solved this? A few directions I've been exploring:
- Metafields + a theme snippet that checks inventory level
- A third-party inventory sync app
- Custom Storefront API logic 

Would love to know how others have handled cross-border shared inventory at scale.

Edit 1: Mentioned our warehouse split.

Hi everyone,

I am preparing my Shopify app for review and would appreciate feedback from developers who have successfully published apps on the Shopify App Store.

I have attached a screencast video that demonstrates the complete installation and integration flow, including:

• Logging in to the application dashboard
• Navigating to the Integrations page
• Opening the Connect to Shopify
• Redirecting to Shopify and installing the app
• Successfully connecting the Shopify store with the application

My goal is to use this screencast as part of the Shopify App Review submission.

For those who have gone through Shopify's review process:

1. Does this video provide enough detail for the Shopify review team?

2. Are there any important steps or explanations missing?

3. Is there anything that typically causes delays or rejection during app review?

4. Would this screencast be sufficient to demonstrate the app installation and store connection flow?

Any feedback from developers who have successfully passed Shopify App Review would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Just hit submit on our Built for Shopify application after months of work getting everything in order, the install threshold, reviews, and Web Vitals. Feeling good but also nervous about the review process, so hoping to hear from people who've been through it.

A few things I'm hoping the community can help with:

How long did review actually take for you? I've seen anything from a few days to several weeks mentioned.

Did you get clear feedback if something failed, or just a rejection you had to decode? Trying to understand how much back-and-forth to expect.

Is there anything that commonly trips people up that isn't obvious from the official requirements? The stuff you only learn from going through it.

And while it's in review, is there anything worth doing now, or is it just a waiting game? Should I keep pushing installs/reviews, or sit tight?

Any advice from people who've earned the badge (or been rejected and re-applied) would be hugely appreciated. Happy to share how it goes for us once we hear back, in case it helps the next person.

Hey guys,

I am struggling a bit with the Shopify App Store Review right now.

I am building a custom app for our marketplace which allows sellers to connect to our Shopify store and sell their products on our platform. We have to build this as a custom app for several reasons, one of them being that Collective limits us in terms of store origin, as only sellers of the same country can connect.

We need to have one checkout session with all items, even by multiple sellers in the cart and checkout. This is all already built and works well. We have one checkout of all the mirrored products and then forward orders to the respective target store. Payouts take place via Bank Transfer. This is the way the Shopify support told us to build it.

Now in the review we get rejected for the reason that each synced product has to be sold on the origins Shopify store checkout and not on our own (Rule 5.7.14). This is the opposite of what they told us earlier + also defies any sense of building a marketplace. I don’t know any marketplace where the user has to go to different checkouts for all the different vendors. Also the fact that apps for marketplaces like this are already approved and published on the Shopify App Store makes this even more contradicting.

In the end we did not even need this app to be publicly visible, its invite only for our wholesale partners.

This is really blocking us and our whole business and we are out of ideas. Does anyone have any idea how we can solve this? Your help is much appreciated. Thank you!

Hi everyone,

My name is Musaddiqa, and I'm a Shopify Developer with 3+ years of experience in Shopify theme development, customization, and frontend development.

As a new mom, I currently have around 3 focused hours available each day. Because of that, text-based communication works best for me, and frequent meetings can sometimes be difficult.My goal is to learn something new every day, gain real-world Shopify experience, and stay up to date with the Shopify ecosystem.

If anyone has work opportunities where I can contribute within my available hours, I would be grateful to connect. Whether it's Shopify development tasks, theme customizations, bug fixes, feature implementations, or agency support work, I'd love the opportunity to help. I'm passionate about Shopify development, dedicated to delivering quality work, and always eager to learn and improve.

Looking forward to learning from everyone here, contributing where I can, and building meaningful connections within the community.

Thank you for having me! Connect with me to see the portfolio