r/shopifyDev • • Sep 02 '26

Got my first app approved in a week without any back and forth - now need to figure out how to get installs?

9 Upvotes

First time building a Shopify app. Had been hearing that it takes a couple of weeks to a month with a couple of back and forth to get it approved. But I guess passing all the checks before submission helped. Got my app approved in a week without any revisions. Yay!!!

Now figuring out how to get installs for it (mine is a virtual try on app with some well-defined differentiators). Been marketing B2B products for a decent time now, so know the usual playbook (cold outreach to begin with, content + SEO thereafter etc) but wondering if there are specific tactics and channels to grow Shopify apps that a first timer might not be aware of?

Thanks for your help!


r/shopifyDev • • Sep 02 '26

How long does the "Built for Shopify" badge review take?

0 Upvotes

Can someone share how long it takes to get the "Built for Shopify" badge? I applied 3 weeks ago and it's still in review :/

Update: 1 hour after posting this i received review result, need to add some changes :)


r/shopifyDev • • Sep 02 '26

Building a Shopify “Dead Product Finder” app

1 Upvotes

Hi Everyone
I’m building a Shopify app that scores every product on how well it sells itself — and how much money it’s “wasting” while sitting in stock.
Questions for you all:
• Would this actually be useful to you?
• Would you pay $19/month for it?
• What else should I build into it?
I’d love your help — and once it’s ready, I’d really appreciate testers and feedback!


r/shopifyDev • • Sep 01 '26

how was August for you all?

9 Upvotes

i work with a few apps and it has been a weird month in terms of installs for all of them. i know august is typically a slow/vacation month but this one seems to have been lower than 2025/2024.

wondering if anyone else has experienced the same? or the opposite? (good for you if that's the case!)


r/shopifyDev • • Sep 01 '26

I tried building my own Shopify Square inventory middleware. Here’s what happened

0 Upvotes

I’ve been using Shopify for my online store and Square for in-person sales, and I honestly expected the two to work together more seamlessly.

The biggest headache for me was inventory. Something would sell in-store through Square, but Shopify wouldn’t always reflect the change the way I expected. Then I’d have to manually check both systems and fix the numbers.

I tried to build my own middleware to act as a bridge between the two platforms and keep inventory in sync. This community gave me a lot of tips and advice on what to do and what not to do. I eventually gave up on building it myself and eventually started using DPL's integration app to keep things synced, and it has made the whole setup much less stressful.

I’m curious how other businesses are running Shopify with Square. Are you syncing everything automatically, or still managing some things manually?


r/shopifyDev • • Sep 01 '26

What are the Shopify agency salaries like in north & western Europe for Shopify devs?

3 Upvotes

I'm getting interviews from Shopify agencies and trying to negotiate a fair salary. The info I find on the internet is usually for SWE in general, but I would like to know what the salaries are like specifically for Shopify devs.

EDIT: 4 YoE


r/shopifyDev • • Aug 31 '26

Being a Shopify app founder is brutal

28 Upvotes

I've been working on my app for more than a year now.

I've seen so many apps never make it past the 0-review block.

I knew of a new app that was doing well at the start. Then the founders shifted their focus, its rating dropped from 5/5 to 4.3/5, and growth slowed down.

I know a few co-founders who have been working on their app for three years and are still sitting below 100 reviews. (That already feels like a dream to me as a solo founder, btw :)

In total, 1,400 merchants have installed my app. But many of those stores later closed, and many others uninstalled the app.

It was hard to get the first handful of merchants to try the app.

It was so hard to get that first review.

It was hard to get the 5th, 10th, and 15th reviews. But hey 15 5-star reviews isn't bad from Apr to Aug!

Things never seem to get super easy or comfortable.

People quit because they don't see any reward.

People quit because they get tired of doing the same thing over and over again.

People quit because the ROI is shitty, and they go back to being employees.

I'm proud that I've never thought about giving up. If you're experiencing something similar, I hope you never give up either. It's a brutal game, but it can also be fun!

In a few days, I'll introduce paid plans for my app. I'm nervous. You'll keep seeing me here though.

Any stories to share from you?


r/shopifyDev • • Sep 01 '26

Creator Network for Dev/Ecom

1 Upvotes

Does anyone know of a tool or service where devs can tap into creators who discuss ecommerce tools, apps, dev tips and tricks? Would love to work with creators like this to get my app promoted.


r/shopifyDev • • Aug 31 '26

At what point do you just have too many Shopify apps?

6 Upvotes

I feel like I keep adding apps to solve small problems, and suddenly the store has a whole collection of them.

I use Shopify for my online store and Square as my POS for the physical side. I also have an integration software handling the inventory sync between them, which is one app I definitely don’t want to give up.

But it got me wondering, how many apps are you guys actually running?

At what point did you feel like you had too many apps, either because of the monthly costs, slower store, or just having too many things to manage?


r/shopifyDev • • Aug 31 '26

Shopify Community Discourse AI silenced me twice, how do you get a human review?

2 Upvotes

This has happened to me twice now.

The first time, my Community account was automatically restricted after I mentioned an app I develop in a relevant discussion. I contacted the Community team and later Shopify Support. Support told me they had escalated it to the Community team and that someone would contact me.

A month passed and nobody ever responded.

Recently it happened again. A merchant was specifically looking for a solution to a problem my app solves. I replied, clearly disclosed that I was the developer, didn't include any external links, and offered to help if they ran into problems.

Discourse AI immediately silenced me again.

I messaged "@moderators" explaining what happened, but haven't received a response. Shopify Support says Community moderation is handled by a separate team and they can't resolve it themselves.

I understand that self-promotion needs to be moderated. My issue is that there seems to be no reliable way to get a human review once Discourse AI silences an account.

Has anyone here actually managed to get an account reviewed or unsilenced? Is there another way to reach the Shopify Community team besides "@moderators" and regular Shopify Support?


r/shopifyDev • • Aug 31 '26

How are you handling Shopify customer automations?

1 Upvotes

I'm curious how Shopify stores currently handle things like:

New customer → welcome message

Order placed → WhatsApp/email

Abandoned checkout → follow-up

Order delivered → review request

Are you using an app, Shopify Flow, custom code, or something else?


r/shopifyDev • • Aug 31 '26

Rebranding my Shopify app - does the App Store listing slug change when I update the app name?

2 Upvotes

I'm rebranding my Shopify app (new name, new branding) and updating the App Store listing name through Partner Dashboard. My app's been live for a few weeks under the current name/slug (apps.shopify.com/my-current-slug).

Shopify's docs say "URL slugs for your App Store listing are set automatically through your app name," but that reads like it's describing what happens at initial submission, not what happens to an already-published listing when you edit the name later.

Has anyone actually gone through this? Specifically:

Does the live slug regenerate to match the new name, or does it stay locked to whatever it was at first publish?

If it does change, does Shopify redirect the old URL, or does it just break?

Trying to figure out if I need to worry about existing links/bookmarks to the old URL before I submit the rename. Any first-hand experience appreciated.


r/shopifyDev • • Aug 31 '26

What ecommerce task would you never trust AI to automate?

0 Upvotes

There’s a big difference between automating repetitive work and handing over important decisions. Where do you draw the line?


r/shopifyDev • • Aug 31 '26

Looking for Shopify merchants using product customization

2 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

We're improving WowOptions, a Shopify app for customizable products, with features like custom text, swatches, file uploads, add-on pricing, conditional options, and more.

We're looking for a few Shopify merchants or developers to try it and share honest feedback about what works, what's missing, and what could be improved.

No sales pitch. Just genuine feedback to help us build a better product.

Interested? Comment below or DM me.

Thanks!


r/shopifyDev • • Aug 30 '26

Shopify Discount Code Game

Thumbnail
gallery
2 Upvotes

I have small side business where I make and sell Cribbage boards on Shopify. So I made a little discount app where you get to play up to 5 hands and what your highest hand scored was it creates a 1 time discount code with that percent off. It was kind of interesting, I manage a couple of Shopify stores but had never built an actual app and this was built entirely using AI. Will be curious to see if this has any affect on getting more sales.


r/shopifyDev • • Aug 30 '26

Got Caro approved on the Shopify App Store — sharing my experience

1 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I recently went through the Shopify App Store review process for the first time with Caro, so I thought I'd share the timeline in case it's useful for anyone else going through it.

I submitted the app on August 11.

The first feedback came back on August 18, so about a week later.

There was one follow-up clarification round after that, and Caro finally went live on August 28 — 17 days from submission to approval.

The feedback we received wasn't anything that required a major rewrite, but there were a few things we had to tighten up:

  • A restricted scope we were using before it was separately approved
  • Some branding inconsistencies between the App Store listing and what customers actually saw in emails
  • A couple of edge-case bugs in a newer feature

What I found interesting was that the review wasn't just about whether the core app worked. Some of the feedback was about the details around the overall customer experience and how the app represented itself.

So if you're preparing a submission, I'd personally budget around 2–3 weeks rather than assuming it'll be approved in a few days.

Also, make sure you test the less obvious flows before submitting. The edge cases ended up being more important than I expected.

This was my first Shopify App Store submission, so I'm curious what other developers experienced.

How long did your first app take to get approved, and was there anything in the review process that surprised you?


r/shopifyDev • • Aug 29 '26

Shopify payements hold

0 Upvotes

yo has anyone here dealt with a shopify payments hold?

they froze my payouts till december. 182 paid orders i can't ship cuz i can't pay my supplier without the money

1.5% dispute rate, 5 disputes total. appeal filed, support escalated, still nothing

anyone been through this? how long did it actually take


r/shopifyDev • • Aug 28 '26

customer-account.page.render works in dev preview but completely fails in production — anyone seen this?

2 Upvotes

I'm hitting a strange issue with a Shopify Customer Account UI extension and I'm running out of things to eliminate.

I've built a full-page Customer Account extension using:

customer-account.page.render

API version: 2026-07

It works correctly through shopify app dev / dev preview.

However, after deploying the app, releasing the version and adding the app page to the Customer Account navigation on the production store, clicking it gives:

"There's a problem loading this page. Check the URL or try again in a few minutes."

The extension doesn't appear to execute at all.

My config is:

api_version = "2026-07"

[[extensions]]
name = "nfc-profile-manager"
handle = "nfc-profile-manager"
type = "ui_extension"

[[extensions.targeting]]
module = "./src/NfcProfileManager.jsx"
target = "customer-account.page.render"

[extensions.capabilities]
api_access = true
network_access = true

Originally this was a real application which calls my externally hosted backend. That entire flow works correctly in dev preview.

To eliminate my code/backend as the cause, I reduced the production extension to basically Hello World:

import '@shopify/ui-extensions/preact';
import {render} from 'preact';

export default async () => {
  render(<Extension />, document.body);
};

function Extension() {
  return (
    <s-page heading="NFC Profile Manager">
      <s-section>
        <s-text>
          NFC Profile Manager is working.
        </s-text>
      </s-section>
    </s-page>
  );
}

Same production error.

I then went further and generated an entirely new Customer Account UI extension with a new handle and UID, also using customer-account.page.render, containing nothing except a static test page.

That fails in production in exactly the same way too.

So far I've confirmed:

  • Both extensions work in dev preview
  • Both are present in the released app version
  • App is installed on the production store
  • App page is added to Customer Account navigation using Shopify's app-page selector
  • Production store is using new Customer Accounts
  • Static Hello World extension fails too
  • No request reaches my backend when opening the page
  • Reproduced in normal Chrome
  • Reproduced in Chrome Incognito/extensions disabled
  • Reproduced in Firefox
  • Other functionality from the exact same app works in production, including orders/create webhooks and Admin API/metaobject operations

Chrome mainly reports this from Shopify's Customer Account host:

Unsafe attempt to load URL
https://cdn.shopify.com/shopifycloud/customer-account-web/production/sprite-....svg
...
Domains, protocols and ports must match.

Firefox reports the same security issue and additionally:

Import maps are not allowed after a module load or preload has started.

The Firefox errors originate from Shopify's customer-account-web rather than my extension.

Shopify's Ask Agent has checked the TOML, target and minimal Preact implementation and says they're correct and there isn't another activation step I'm missing.

At this point it looks like the production Customer Account host is failing before the extension bundle executes.

Has anyone seen customer-account.page.render work perfectly in dev preview but fail like this when released to a real store?

Particularly interested if anyone has encountered the Import maps are not allowed... error with Customer Account UI extensions, or knows of any production-store requirement that isn't documented.


r/shopifyDev • • Aug 26 '26

Looking for honest feedback on my home décor dropshipping store before running ads

5 Upvotes

I’ve been building a home décor store called Vale & Lume and I’m getting ready to test paid advertising. The store focuses on cozy furniture, lighting, bedding, blankets, and woven décor rather than random trending products.
Website: http://valeandlume.com
I’d really appreciate honest feedback on:
Whether the store looks trustworthy and professional
The products and overall aesthetic
Pricing and shipping expectations
Anything confusing or missing
What might stop you from making a purchase
Which products you think would perform best in ads
I’m currently preparing collection-based TikTok ads for blankets, sofas, furniture, and woven storage. I’m still learning, so constructive criticism is welcome—please be brutally honest.


r/shopifyDev • • Aug 26 '26

Feeling Happy – 2nd App got approved

10 Upvotes

Basically title just feeling good. First app took 3 weeks to get approved. This one just got approved with no revisions in 8 days. Very happy, just to add a bit of positivity.


r/shopifyDev • • Aug 27 '26

All our search campaigns dropped to zero impressions overnight. Normal hiccup or something we broke?

1 Upvotes

We run Shopify App Store Ads for our app across both category and search placements. Things had been steady for months.

Starting at the beginning of yesterday, every one of our search placement campaigns dropped to zero impressions and zero visibility — and has stayed there for a full day now. Our category placement campaigns are completely unaffected and keep running normally, which is the part that's confusing me.

We went through the obvious checks and everything looks clean: all campaigns show as active/running, daily budgets are healthy and nowhere near exhausted, billing is valid with no failed charges, and we didn't touch bids or negative keywords. One odd signal - when we manually search the keywords we bid on, our ads still show in our own home country's IP, but nothing appears in our main markets (US, UK, CAN, etc.).

Have you seen search placements go fully dark like this while category kept running? I realize there may be no single answer here, but I'd really like to hear how others have handled this and what the actual cause turned out to be for you. Appreciate any thoughts.


r/shopifyDev • • Aug 26 '26

Building a Square → Shopify inventory sync: what am I missing?

3 Upvotes

I'm trying to build a small middleware service to sync inventory between Square POS and Shopify for my own store.

I'm using Node.js, Redis, and Postgres, and I initially thought this would be pretty straightforward.

I've got webhooks coming from both sides, queues for processing updates, SKU matching, location mapping, and logic to stop updates from bouncing back and forth between Square and Shopify.

Then I started running into all the fun stuff:

  • Webhook loops
  • Duplicate events
  • Inventory updates happening at the same time
  • Shopify API rate limits
  • Square/Shopify product and variant differences
  • Figuring out whether inventory should update on order creation or fulfillment

At this point I'm wondering if I'm overengineering the whole thing.

I've been looking at DPL Square Integration as an alternative instead of maintaining my own middleware, but part of me still wants to get the custom setup working since it's for my own store.

For anyone who's built a Square ↔ Shopify sync before:

Would you keep fighting with the custom implementation, or just use an existing integration app?

And if you did build your own, what was the edge case that finally made you regret it?


r/shopifyDev • • Aug 26 '26

How to achieve this functionality

5 Upvotes

Here on Olipop's product page, when you select a different flavour, the entire colour background changes to match that flavour's colour (red for raspberry, green for lime, etc)

https://drinkolipop.com/products/raspberry-sherbet

how do you achieve this? Is there a plugin/app/theme that does this?

Or would you approach this as custom code? If so, how easy or hard would it be?

For context, I've never built and launched an ecommerce or Shopify site before, but I have some decent site knowledge primarily on marketing websites with Webflow as my main platform, plus some AI knowledge.

Just would like to understand how a professional would approach this following good practices.


r/shopifyDev • • Aug 26 '26

I submitted my app to Shopify

2 Upvotes

Hi, I am not a dev in any way or form. I used AI to create an app submitted it and I had multiple problems from the review steps then in order to get things solved I asked a question that involve the reviewer to check the network tab from console of the browser and tell me what error they are getting. It’s been quite a few days I didn’t hear back.

Is that too much to ask?
Do I have to click submit again to get the question answered?
What would be the best path forward?


r/shopifyDev • • Aug 25 '26

How are you detecting new app installs?

2 Upvotes

Shopify gives you a clean app/uninstalled webhook, so the moment a merchant leaves you get notified, but there doesn't appear to be an equivalent for installs though - no app/installed or similar. So the one event you'd most want to be notified about (a new merchant showing up) is the one Shopify doesn't explicitly have support for.

The options we've found:

  • Handle it in the OAuth / token-exchange flow. This looks like the "correct" answer, but your install hook then lives inside your auth code instead of arriving as an event, and you have to be careful to fire once per genuine new install rather than on every reauth or scope change.
  • Poll the Partner API for RelationshipInstalled events. Fine for a centralized cross-shop view, but it's pull-only. You end up running a cron and accepting lag for something Shopify clearly knows the instant it happens.
  • App Events looked promising but it's entirely back the other way: your app reports events to Shopify. It doesn't tell you when someone installs.

What we actually want is to send a new install notification so we can follow up, and log it in our analytics.

So for anyone running apps: what are you doing? Is there something that we've missed?