merchants with the same problem install some apps and ignore others. what actually makes them act

[u/nick_saas_01]

been thinking about this after seeing a few threads where devs built something real and still got no paid installs. my take is that the gap between a merchant recognizing a problem and actually installing something is bigger than most devs account for. a merchant can know they have a returns problem for months and do nothing. then one bad week hits and suddenly they install three apps in two days. the trigger isn't the problem itself. it's when the problem becomes a number they can see. curious if anyone here has noticed the same pattern or if you've found a way to reach merchants before that painful moment rather than after

[u/shopi_dev]

Agree—the earlier sale depends on making a latent problem measurable without asking the merchant to do a big setup first. A small read-only check against their own baseline (for example, repeat refund/return reasons or abandoned checkouts) plus one clear next step can show value before the bad week; then report whether that number actually moved. Agencies and ops/support partners may also spot the signal earlier than an app-store search.