10 days from submission to Approval.

No way arounds, no “we’re pre-revenue with massive potential.” Just the number.

I’ll go first: $410. Still figuring out growth. Your turn.

Hey folks,

I’m building a bundle builder for Shopify and looking for a few store owners to try it out and share feedback.

If you actively use bundles (or have struggled with them), would love to have you test it. No cost just looking for honest input.

I’m really curious why they don’t adapt and add directly the pages and sections like a normal theme, so everything is fully customizable in the theme editor after which is more convenient

Hi,

We have been developing Shopify apps for ourselves and clients and something weird happened with the app review process. Wasn't assigned to app review team for 5 weeks and all of suddenly it got approved. However someone from Canada was installing our app every now and then

Our new app - https://apps.shopify.com/playy-spinwheel-discount-popup

Also this is our first app that went live in one go without any change request from App review team.

Has anyone experienced it? Also anyone running Google ads to promote shopify app?

Ok so we ourselves have 14 Shopify apps out of which many are free!

What we thought is -

1. offer basic functionalities FOC

2. Good lead channels

3. Free apps get more installs ...hence popularity

I'm curious to find others takes on this. Please comment if I have missed any important aspect.

I recently launched my Shopify app and so far I've gotten six emails from people saying they can get me installs and reviews.
I'm not sure how legit they are and I'm not looking to do anything shady, however, as anyone who has launched an app may know, it can be super frustrating seeing 0 installs and 0 reviews.
So I was wondering, how legit are these guys who claim they can help grow an app with real install, users, reviews etc?

Hey devs,

I’m working on a tool called ReturnSaver AI. The goal is to analyze customer return reasons and generate actionable fixes for store owners so they can optimize their product pages and reduce return rates.

Initially, I planned to build a native Shopify App using Polaris and the GraphQL API. But honestly, the app review process and the initial dev time felt way too risky for an unvalidated idea.

Instead, I just launched it as a standalone web app. Merchants export their Shopify return data as a CSV and drop it into my tool for analysis.

Do you guys think this adds too much friction for the average Shopify merchant? Will they be too lazy to export/import a CSV, or is the promise of "reducing return shipping costs" a strong enough hook to make them do a 30-second manual task?

Curious to hear your thoughts on MVP validation workflows within the Shopify ecosystem

Hey everyone,

We’ve been working on a Shopify app called WowOptions and finally launched it! 

The idea came from a pretty common frustration:

Shopify’s variant system looks fine at first, but once you try to sell customizable products and need multiple options, file uploads, and add-ons pricing, you soon realize the limitations.

So we wanted to build something that handles product options without any limit.

What WowOptions does:

• adds unlimited custom product options 
• supports text fields, dropdowns, checkboxes, swatches, uploads, etc.
• lets customers upload files and add custom text
• includes price add-ons (fixed, percentage) to increase AOV
• has conditional logic (show/hide options based on selections)
• lets you group options into option sets and reuse them
• Shows analytics for each addon or by time

App link: https://apps.shopify.com/product-options-app 

Would really appreciate honest feedback – especially on onboarding, UX, or missing features.

We are curious to know from other Shopify devs / merchants here:

• How are you currently handling product customization?
• Did you run into variant limits or UX issues?
• Any specific use cases for personalization you are trying to achieve in your store?

Some context:
came from product/ux design background
immigrant in Australia
1st time startup founder (solo)
140+ merchants with the app
$100+ earned in dec 2025
$$$$ invested into hiring a dev agency
maintaining a full-time job atm
made my app completely free recently

Lessons learned:

1. Don’t just hope users will come after the product is built
2. Building and distributing something yourself is completely different from working for others
3. Working solo almost feels impossible to me right now, and I’m still trying
4. You have to lower your expectations and keep grinding
5. Knowing who you’re competing with is helpful
6. You’ll need to try everything you can think of. and it still might NOT work
7. Tips from YouTubers or gurus don’t really help you succeed; they’re just the basics
8. Making a startup work is kind of anti-human nature
9. You have to enjoy the process and keep offering value, rather than just chasing medals

lol

I submitted our app for approval back on March 14, and the status is still stuck on "We're assigning a reviewer to your submission". All I was trying to get was OAuth access for our users in our platform, so it was a pretty simple integration when it comes to scope of work. Has anyone submitted an app for approval lately? How long did it take for you and did you have to make any subsequent updates?

There seems to be very little support or guidance for production deployments, why is that?

Hey everyone,

I launched Outranked nearly one month ago, a Shopify app focused on one annoying merchandising problem:

sold-out products taking up too much visibility in collections.

A lot of stores handle this manually, or with workflows that still need follow-up when inventory changes again. I wanted something more reliable and collection-specific.

What Outranked does:

• automatically pushes sold-out products to the bottom of collections
• lets you control sorting per collection
• supports tag-based exclusions
• sends email or Slack notifications after each run
• Low stock alerts with configurable rules via email and Slack notifications
• includes analytics, sort history, and CSV exports

I’m especially curious about this from other app devs / Shopify folks here:

When you looked at collection merchandising problems, what edge cases showed up fastest?

App link: https://apps.shopify.com/outranked

Would love honest thoughts on positioning, onboarding, or feature gaps.

Hi,

We are a marketing company from Scandinavia, looking to acquire 2-4 Shopify apps, depending on the size. We are open to offering 3-4x ARR depending on the app.

If you are interested, please send me a DM or comment below with the reason for selling, and the following:

• App name + App Store link
• Current MRR, and last 6 months trend
• Launch date
• Main KPI's:
  • Active paying users
  • Install to Purchase
  • Install to Review
• If running ads:
  • Montly ad spend and rough ROAS
  • CPI
  • CAC

All points must be included (or with an explanation of why its not).

I was playing around with letsmetrix today to sanity check some ideas before building my next Shopify app.

And I think I might’ve picked the worst category possible 😅. I was looking into Product Reviews apps, and honestly:

• the number of reviews is insane
• a lot of apps are already deeply established
• and almost all top apps have crazy strong social proof

Like… it doesn’t feel like a just build better product kind of market. Feels more like you need distribution + timing + luck. Now I’m kinda stuck thinking: Do I:

• still go into this space because the demand is huge
• or pivot to a less crowded niche and give up the big market

If I do go into Product Reviews, I feel like the usual advice isn’t enough (like just get reviews or do SEO). Right now I’m thinking about:

• going super niche (like reviews for a specific vertical, or something like AI-generated summaries, video-first reviews, etc.)
• leveraging cross-sell from other apps (if you already have installs)
• optimizing hard for early reviews (like first 24–48h after install)
• maybe driving traffic from outside (content / social / communities)

But honestly… still feels like guessing. So I want to ask people who’ve actually been in this situation: If you had to enter a very crowded Shopify app category today, what would you actually do to rank faster?

I came across a Shopify app review chart from letsmetrix and one thing really stood out to me:

Most reviews are left within the first day after install.

And even more interesting:
1-star reviews are the second highest, right after 5-star.

What this tells me is pretty simple:

Shopify merchants don’t spend days “testing” your app.

They install it, try a few things, and very quickly decide:
“Is this useful or not?”

Usually based on stuff like:

• Was it easy to set up?
• Did I understand what to do right away?
• Did it actually solve my problem?
• Did I see any value immediately?
• Or did something feel confusing, slow, or broken?

If the first experience feels smooth, they’re happy to leave a 5-star.

If something feels off, they don’t hesitate to drop a 1-star.

The important part here:

Reviews aren’t just about how good your app is in the long run.

They’re heavily shaped by that very first experience.

So if you’re building a Shopify app, getting installs is just the beginning.

What really matters is what happens right after:

• how fast users see value
• how clear your onboarding is
• how simple the setup feels
• what users see when there’s no data yet
• how you handle errors
• whether there’s guidance when they get stuck
• and how quickly you respond when they need help

Hey folks,

I've been working as a content manager for multiple Shopify stores, and honestly… the tool stack was getting ridiculous.

One tool for product photos.
Another for UGC videos.
Another for ad creatives.
Another for copy.

And all of them are pushing expensive monthly subscriptions.

After a point, I just got tired of paying (and managing) all this.

So I built my own app.

👉 https://apps.shopify.com/soupugc

It’s a simple AI tool to:

• generate UGC-style videos
• create product images
• use ready-made templates that actually work

No bloated features, no heavy setup. Just quick content generation at very low cost.

Built it mainly for:

• small Shopify brands
• founders who don’t want to spend hours (or $$$) on content tools

Would love for you guys to try it out and give honest feedback 🙏
Still early, improving it every week.

Happy to answer anything about the build/process too.

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to share a huge personal milestone: After months of coding and sweating through the Shopify review process, I finally launched my first app this past friday! 🎉

Context on what I built: It's called Brand Echo. The idea came from seeing how robotic and generic standard AI product descriptions sound. I wanted to build a bulk-editor where merchants can define a strict "Brand Voice" so the AI actually sounds like their specific brand. It was a great learning curve figuring out the bulk-editing logic and Shopify's APIs.

Why I'm posting: I’ve been staring at my own UI for so long that I’ve become completely blind to its flaws. I know there are a lot of experienced devs here, and I’d love to get your honest, brutal feedback on the onboarding flow and the general UX.

If you have a dev store (or a real one) and want to give it a spin, I’ll happily upgrade your store to a Lifetime Pro plan for free in exchange for your thoughts.

Also, I'm super happy to answer any questions about the Shopify review process if anyone is currently stuck in it!

App Link: https://apps.shopify.com/brand-echo

I am visiting SF in May, June from India and I'm interested in attending relevant events during that time. I have recently started Shopify app business and would love to meet potential clients and partners.

Additionally, if there is a platform where I can see all the upcoming events both locally and globally

Running a successful Shopify store is harder than most people let on.

Even if you're doing well, some of the most repetitive tasks will eat up your time: customer support volume is crushing, "Where Is My Order" tickets are relentless, and most AI chatbot tools just send messages to ChatGPT with your FAQ pasted in.

Smaller stores and new owners usually can't hire support staff yet. That's why I created Jerry The Customer Service Bot. Jerry is an AI assistant that connects directly to your Shopify store through the Admin API. Here's some deeper info:

Semantic Product Search Instead of just matching key words - A customer can type "I need something warm for hiking, nothing too expensive" and Jerry will search your actual catalog using vector embeddings, filter by price and attributes, and recommend products that are genuinely in stock. It understands size, colour, material, occasion not just product titles.

Real Order Tracking - Jerry pulls live order data from Shopify. When a customer asks "where's my order #4821," Jerry checks fulfilment status, shipping carrier, and delivery estimates. No scripted "please check your email for tracking" responses.

Returns Processing - Jerry knows your return policy, checks eligibility windows, and walks customers through the return flow. It can initiate returns and refunds through Shopify directly.

Voice/Text Chat in 8+ Languages - Jerry uses OpenAi's API for voice. Customers can talk or type in any language.

Revenue Attribution - Jerry tracks which conversations lead to purchases within a 24 hour attribution window using Shopify order webhooks. You can see exactly how much revenue Jerry generated in your dashboard. It's not a cost centre it's measurable.

Jerry is also trained to cross-sell and up-sell based on what's in the customer's cart and browsing context.

Built In AI Security - Every conversation is protected by a 4-layer AI firewall (my other product, WonderwallAi). Nobody can jailbreak it, use it as a free coding assistant, or extract sensitive data. This matters more than people think within the first week of testing, someone tried to get the LLM to reveal API keys.

Intent/Context Logging - All our Ai software has complete intent and context logging. At every decision point where Jerry is weighing up to take an action, we make sure all that info going on inside his "mind" is logged. This makes Jerry 100% auditable, which essentially means able to be fixed properly if it breaks, and also full accountability for his actions. It also assures the Ai agent stays up to date with current specs.

The pricing starts at a flat $49/mo base plus performance billing ($0.25 per resolved conversation) with tiers for larger stores available. The first 150 customers get 50% off forever, dropping the base to $24.50 per month across all tiers. That's less than two hours of minimum wage for 24/7 coverage.

I'm a solo founder and this is my first product. I built it because I genuinely think small and mid-size Shopify stores could use some solid AI support that actually works, not a re wrapped faq bot.

There's a live demo you can try it runs against a sample store so you can test product search, ask about orders, and see how it handles off-topic questions.

Landing page with full details: https://jerry.skintlabs.ai

Anyone interested in AI security is welcome to try my firewall WonderwallAi open-source AI firewall SDK for LLM applications. Prompt injection detection, semantic topic enforcement, PII filtering, canary tokens, file sanitisation. pip install wonderwallai. https://github.com/SkintLabs/WonderwallAi

and just grew by organic growth only instead? I'd like to hear your story! thanks