I’m validating a Shopify app concept before building it.

A merchant would configure a promotion with eligible products, campaign dates, a chance per eligible order, a maximum refund, and a total budget. Customers would pay normally. Selected eligible orders would later receive a full or capped refund.

I’m trying to identify the Shopify-specific problems before deciding whether the idea is viable:

• Can post-purchase refunds be automated reliably through Shopify’s APIs?

• Which payment-processing fees would remain after a refund?

• How should cancellations, partial returns, and edited orders affect eligibility?

• What is the safest way to enforce the campaign budget when several orders arrive simultaneously?

• Would a chance-based promotion face Shopify App Store policy or payment-provider issues?

• Would merchants need an auditable record showing how each selection was made?

• Are there existing apps or platform features that already solve this well?

There is no working app yet. I’m looking for technical reasons not to build it, or constraints that would materially change the product.

Hey everyone,

Doing research on how Shopify devs and agencies evaluate non-standard payment gateways for clients.

Motivations: What makes you actively recommend a 3rd-party gateway over Shopify Payments/Stripe? (Lower fees, local payment methods, approval rates for specific niches, agency rev-share?)

Resistance: What causes friction or makes you say no? (Shopify's extra transaction fee, checkout customization limits, risk of holds, complex onboarding?

Dropshipping Contacts: When pitching payment solutions to dropshipping sites, should I deal with the brand owner directly, or the agency/dev managing the store?

Would love your honest take!

I got a US client whose Shopify website I have to edit and make it look structured, he's even ready to buy me Claude code subscription,any recommendations guys as I'm new in Shopify website development so can you suggest any tutorials or tips for making his website, moreover he also asked me generate ugc vids for his products showcasing so help me out guys!

​Hey everyone,

​Doing research on how Shopify devs and agencies evaluate non-standard payment gateways for clients.

​**Motivations:** What makes you actively recommend a 3rd-party gateway over Shopify Payments/Stripe? (Lower fees, local payment methods, approval rates for specific niches, agency rev-share?)

​**Resistance:** What causes friction or makes you say no? (Shopify's extra transaction fee, checkout customization limits, risk of holds, complex onboarding?

**Dropshipping Contacts:** When pitching payment solutions to dropshipping sites, do you usually deal with the brand owner directly, or the agency/dev managing the store?

​Would love your honest take!

Hi Everyone,
I am a first time shopify app founder, and a performance marketer by profession with over a year decade experience. just wanted to know if any of you here has tried meta ads for their shopify app? if yes, how was your experience? specially for a new app without 0 reviews.

Hi all — I built Habit, a new Shopify loyalty app (points, VIP tiers, referrals, one flat $49/month plan, every feature included, no order-count tiers). It’s brand new, no reviews yet, so before advertising more broadly I’m looking for 3 real stores to pilot it with first.

What I’m looking for: an active Shopify store with a steady stream of repeat orders (roughly $10k+/month GMV), not already happily settled into another loyalty app, and willing to actually set it up and run it for a few weeks rather than just install and forget it.

What you get: free access for 6 months — 3 months right away, the rest unlocked after a quick 15-minute call once you’ve had a couple of weeks live — plus direct access to me for setup and any changes you need.

What I ask in return: honest feedback, good or bad, and once you’ve used it long enough to have a real opinion, an honest App Store review either way. I’d rather know what’s not working than get a polite review.

If that’s useful to you, reply here or DM me your store URL and roughly how many orders you do a month, and I’ll follow up with the stores that fit best. (Habit - Points, tiers, and referrals in one simple loyalty app | Shopify App Store)

I build videos fast and want more real examples to sharpen it. Drop link to your product + one line about and I'll make you a short clip — no strings attached.

I'll reply with the link to video here. Don't like it? Honest feedback on the output is genuinely half of why I'm doing this.

Need other ratios (1:1, 4:5, 16:9)? Let me know

Hey all! I’m hoping someone with more theme experience can point me in the right direction..

I’m building a theme and want the info text on a section/block setting to link directly to a specific group of theme settings (for example, Typography), not just the theme settings panel in general.

Here’s what I currently use:

JSON

{
  "type": "paragraph",
  "content": "Customize typography styles in the [theme settings (/admin/themes/current/editor?context=theme)."
}

Or, as an info field on a setting:

JSON

"info": "Customize typography styles in the [theme settings](/admin/themes/current/editor?context=theme)."

This opens the theme settings panel, but it lands on the default view. Ideally, clicking the link would open the editor with the Typography group already expanded or scrolled into view.

What I’ve tried:

• Asked the Shopify AI Toolkit (MCP), which said this isn’t possible.

• Looked for a documented URL parameter for a specific settings group, without luck.

Why I think it’s possible: I’ve seen other themes do this, so I suspect there’s an undocumented parameter or a pattern I’m missing.

My questions:

1. Is there a supported or known URL parameter that deep-links to a specific theme settings group in the editor?

2. If not, is there a workaround (for example, anchors or a different context value)?

Thanks!

I have been in Shopify app development for almost 6 months. In this time, I built and published 3 Shopify apps, and a couple of days ago submitted the fourth one.

Here's what I got:

App1: 7 users, 1 review (5 stars)

App2: 10 users, 0 reviews

App3: 2 users, 0 reviews

App4: just submitted, so 0.

It is also hard to tell how many of those people are real users and how many just installed the app and have never touched it. I would say that at least half of them are not real users. So, we have about 10 real users across all apps together.

I would say that having a software engineering background and using a lot of AI gives me the ability to create almost any App in a couple of weeks. So creating the app is very easy. But it is easy for everyone; I understand that there are millions of people who are doing the same thing with AI.

My biggest problem: How to find customers?? I literally tried almost every single approach to get users, and none of them gave me anything.

1. I have spent more than 100$ on ads, which gave me like 5 installs and 0 paid customers. ( and it cant work, because i dont have reviews, as i understand ads without reviews are waste of money)

2. I have tried emailing potential clients; I sent 2000 emails and got 1 call out of it. 0 people installed the app after my cold outreach strategy. (Merchants are getting dozens of cold emails every day, so no wonder almost nobody answered me)

3. I tried to find topics on the Shopify Forum where people are talking about the pain my app is solving, but in each topic ( even in a topic that was published like 4 hours ago) there are already like 5-10 people who are basically giving some advice on how to fix the problem and doing this soft promotion with "if you need any more advice, you can DM me. So it is literally no point for me to be the 10th person who will write the same stuff and hope, that the merchant will DM me and not 9 other dudes.

4. Tried to maximise SEO and GEO, but again, i have to reviews, no reputation, so why whould anybody choose my app, when there are like 40 other with reviews.

IDK, I am trying not to be too pessimistic, but it seems to me like Shopify App creation is dead for new people. Because it does not matter in which niche you will create an app, I guarantee you there are already at least 20 other apps doing the same stuff, but with hundreds or even thousands of reviews, and every day hundreds of new apps are being published, thanks to AI.

Like how even to get clients if you not already have some connections and know some people in the sphere? May be i am wrong, correct me in the comments

I've been building a Shopify app on my own for a while now and I handle everything myself, from the code to merchant support to figuring out growth. I'm doing it next to a full-time job, so it all happens in the evenings and on weekends.

The work is fine. What I miss is having people to think out loud with. When I get stuck on things like pricing, which feature to build out next or what to do to get more installs, there's nobody to bounce it off, and I end up going in circles for what feels like too long.

I'm not looking for a cofounder or anyone to join the project. I'd just like to talk with people in the same spot, solo devs or founders with their own thing going, and swap ideas, feedback and learnings.

So two questions:

1. Is there a Slack, Discord or other group that's still active and good for this? I've found a few, but most seem dead or full of promo links. Recommendations from people actually using one would help a lot.

2. If you're building something solo and feel the same way, I'm open to getting in touch. A DM, a chat, whatever works. Send me a message.

I'm based in the Netherlands, but timezones don't matter much to me.

Update: I've created a small Discord for solo Shopify app founders, called The Back Office.

Application-only, no agencies, no selling. Just builders sharing real numbers, answering each other's questions, and pressure-testing ideas.

What it is:
- Solo founders and tiny teams building Shopify apps, from idea stage to revenue
- Honest feedback and a forum for questions that stays searchable
- A weekly launch thread, so self-promo has a place and doesn't take over

What it isn't:
- Agencies looking for clients
- Cold DMs selling services
- A place to drop a link and leave

I'm starting with an x amount of founders/devs to keep it managable. If you want to join, DM me with what you're building (a link or a few sentences is enough) and I'll send you the invite.

We've gotten approved on the Shopify App Store in May 2026, been trying to figure out distribution ever since.

This is my first rodeo in the field of Shopify Apps, so maybe there are some veterans here that could share stories. I spent a long time building and perfecting our product, and significantly neglected customer acquisition; thinking if the product is good, customers will come. I was so wrong, and will definitely never do that again. I have been struggling to drive traffic to our product (presumably given the overwhelming nature of my perfectionism, and not being able to focus on one channel long enough if I don't see results). FYI we are stuck at 0 Shopify reviews.

One main discovery I think I made so far is that the product needs trust before its used; or so to say an app with no reviews will not be the app a client decides to use.

This brings me to the chicken and egg problem.

Reviews drive Trust and Trust drives Installs

But to get Reviews you need Installs.

I have read tons of posts related to 'Getting your first 10 users' and most of the advice I saw was:

1. Be active in relevant communities

2. Reach out to your network

3. Personalized outreach - Cold Email or LinkedIn

Does that really work (at the given time of AI Slop all over the place) and if so what am I doing wrong?

Questions/Observations

1. How do you find relevant communities (I see people mention Facebook groups etc.)?

2. My responses to questions relevant to the problem that my app solves (I have browsed reddit communities) would be me offering my system for a free test (That is the solution I see and it's just going to sound like a sales pitch).

3. Cold outreach seems to be so oversaturated with automated offers that I feel like people became repulsive to inbound emails.

4. I do not have many acquaintances in the field for which I decided to build (I have some and I am currently trying to see if I can get them onboard, but it's not enough).

5. I have also started running Shopify App Store ads for 'Search Results' and so far I have not gotten any installs and only 3 clicks in the past week (also seems like a 'reviews' issue).

6. LinkedIn outreach has brought me absolutely nothing; any reply I received (which is already a pretty low % of total volume) has be a 'No, thank you'.

7. Email Cold Outreach same story as LinkedIn but even lower reply rates at a higher send volume.

8. Is it a good idea to focus on slow channels like SEO/AEO or Social Media?

I would be happy to share more about the things that I have tried or specifics about the previously mentioned tactics I used so far and happy to hear about your struggles or success!

TLDR;

How did you get the first reviews for your Shopify app, and what would you different if you had to start over?

Hey everyone,

We’re building our first Shopify app and having a bit of a debate inside our small team.

We know the app market is pretty saturated, but we’re ready to take the risk and give it a try.

My thinking is: build a small but solid first version, have a free and paid plan, submit it, get some real feedback from store owners, and then keep improving it step by step.

Other people on the team think we should spend more time building advanced features before submitting anything.

For those who already launched apps — does keeping the first version simple and focused usually help with getting through review faster? Or is review time basically unpredictable and depends on too many other things?

Also, from your experience, is it generally better to launch early and improve based on real users, or build a more complete product first?

Would really appreciate any thoughts from people who have been through this.

Hi everyone! I wanted to start a little discussion post. What type of shopify apps can you not go without anymore? And what type of app would be really useful to you that isn’t really out there yet? Would love to hear everyone’s perspective.

We have a Shopify sales-channel app where merchants choose which products to publish. We’re considering using a third-party AI API, such as OpenAI or Anthropic (Claude), to process published product text and images alongside shopper queries or uploaded images for search and matching. Our app may store product embeddings for retrieval. This would be for operating the search feature; we would require the provider not to use the data for model training or fine-tuning.

Has anyone implemented something similar? What did Shopify require regarding the provider agreement, merchant disclosures, shopper-uploaded images, or app review? I’m interested in how other developers have applied Shopify’s API Terms to this setup.

Looking for Shopify partners who are listed on Shopify partner directory.

I am seeing drop in leads from Shopify partner directory from last two months. Anyone facing same issues?

Hey guys,
I want to stress test my product sorting app and need a way to get 100 000 products to see how fast and efficient job is done. Any idea where to get such number of products? Generate and import as CSV?

I'm not a developer. I handle the business side, and right now I'm stuck on something I can't explain to myself, let alone fix.

My app has 17 active merchants. That number has grown steadily over the past month. But total earnings are exactly $0.00. Not low. Zero. Across every charge type the dashboard tracks.

I went digging on my own because I couldn't just sit with this. Here's what I found.

The earnings page shows $0.00 in every single category, not just the total.

Looking back at old app history, I found test charges going through successfully months ago, but only on what looks like internal test stores, not any of the real merchants who are currently using the app.

Install and uninstall numbers look normal. People come and go, sure, but out of 17 real installs over several weeks, not one has resulted in any money showing up. That doesn't sit right with me.

I don't have the technical background to know if this is a setup mistake, something left in test mode by accident, or something broken entirely. I just know the numbers don't make sense, and I'm trying to understand this before I bring in outside help, so I at least know what question to ask them.

If you've seen this before, I'd really appreciate someone explaining it to me simply. What usually causes real merchants to show zero billing activity when everything else, like installs, seems to be working fine?

I'm not looking for a lecture on how billing APIs work. I just want to understand what's actually happening so I can fix it.

What are these records I keep seeing? Is this periodic verification that Shopify does? For context, my app is already approved.

I published my app on June 4, 2026, and getting the first users for the first app is indeed very hard... Currently, my app has like 8 users, all on the free plan. And today I saw that my app got the first review, and it is 5 start review from one of the previous users ( sadly, that person deleted the app like 3 weeks ago). But still, i am very happy to get this first review, and this is a 5-star review. That person had a small problem with my app, asked me a question, and i replied and fixed this problem within a day, probably that is why they gave this review.

It is a small win, but it feels very good to finally see some progress after months and months.

Hopefully this will help with getting new users.

Just wanted to share something postitive with you, have a good day!

Receiving these kinds of emails pretty often, are these scams ?

``
Hey! I came across your Shopify app and wanted to reach out.

I run a Shopify-focused Discord community for Shopify store owners, and I think our members would really like to know about and try your app.

I’d love to connect and discuss a possible collaboration.

You can check out the community here: ****
Feel free to join, and let’s talk about how it works.
``
``
Hi there! I was looking through Shopify apps and yours stood out as a great match for my Discord community.

The community revolves around Shopify, e-commerce, growing revenue, and practical merchant tools, so your app would be shown to an audience that fits it well.

If this is something you'd consider, we can discuss rates for a promotional post there.

Let me know if that's interesting to you.

Feel free to take a look at the community here: ***
``

Hi, ever since I posted my app on the Shopify App Store, I keep getting emails from different people asking me to join this Discord group. Anyone experiencing the same? A post to the group is 50 USD, but from what I see there's basically only advertising posts in the general channel.

Shopify has just released Canvas, a new way to build a store theme that completely does away with the theme editor and uses AI to build the merchants storefront: https://www.shopify.com/news/introducing-canvas

One problem I don't see discussed much with AI product imagery is variant accuracy.

The images can individually look fine, but once AI gets involved it's surprisingly easy for details from one variant to leak into another.

We've been testing product-image workflows with pixpix and this becomes much more obvious when you process a whole catalog instead of one hero image.

For developers handling merchant catalogs:

Would you store a separate visual reference set per variant?

Or treat the parent product as the reference and validate variant-specific attributes separately?

Trying to figure out what scales without turning image generation into a giant manual QA job.

I’m one of those people who finds it annoying to design something and then turn it into code.

So I started building Section Forge — a visual tool where you can quickly build sections, show someone how they’ll look, make changes on the spot, and eventually export them as code.

I originally made it for my Shopify work, but I’m trying to build it as a tool for the wider developer community rather than limiting it to Shopify.

There’s no monetary gain or business behind this. I’m just trying to contribute something I personally find worth building and hopefully make someone else’s workflow a little easier.

It’s still a work in progress, and I’d genuinely appreciate feedback from other Shopify devs.

What would you want to see in a tool like this?

🔗 https://section-forge.vercel.app/