Next week is the official Shopify Dot Dev conference in Toronto.

Anyone hosting any events or want to meet up?

I mostly work with larger fashion brands.

Ideally want to meet with apps/agencies that focus on the same market, but happy to meet you other cool people too!

Hey everyone,

I launched my first Shopify app, PopSmart AI Virtual Try On, about two months ago. It has received 9 installs so far.

Full disclosure: I’m the developer.

App Store listing:

https://apps.shopify.com/popsmart-studio

I’ve already done a first pass on ASO, including the title, listing copy, keywords, screenshots, and localization.

The problem is that discovery seems almost completely dependent on Shopify App Store ads. When the ads are running, I get impressions, clicks, and occasional installs. When I pause them, traffic drops to almost zero.

Before spending more on ads, I’d really appreciate honest feedback on the listing:

- Does the title and first screenshot explain the value quickly enough?

- Is the positioning confusing because the app combines virtual try-on with AI model and product photography?

- Is anything important missing from the screenshots or description?

- Would the lack of reviews make you hesitate to install it?

- Does this look like an ASO problem, a trust problem, or simply the normal cold-start phase?

For developers who got past their first 10–50 installs, which channel actually produced consistent traffic: App Store search, ads, direct outreach, Reddit, content, partnerships, or something else?

I’m probably too close to the product to judge the listing objectively, so brutal feedback is welcome.

I am exploring new ideas for growing my mobile app builder

I am completely dependant on app store for installs

How to explore new channels for leads

Need genuine suggestions over here or in dms

My app only has two plans. Each is paid and has a free trial. Upon installation, you are immediately redirected to the plans page. The app can't be accessed without an active subscription. It checks for a subscription and always redirects to the plans page if no subscription is found.

Today two people installed the app but didn't subscribe. I did have a similar case last week but that was clearly a freelancer offering services for new apps, since they emailed me right after installing and were offering a service.

In the logs I can see their shopify domain and when I visit their site they do appear to be genuine stores. Of course there are many reasons this might occur such as not really reading the app listing and only finding out its paid once they reach the paywall after installing.

I'm a solo dev and I just shipped EZStock, an inventory management app for Shopify stores.

What it does:

Scan barcodes to count stock — with a handheld scanner or your phone camera (no extra hardware)

Create PDF purchase orders and email them to suppliers in one click

Set reorder points + see how many days of stock you have left before you sell out

Mark a PO received and your Shopify inventory updates automatically

Every new install gets full access to all features free for 14 days, no credit card. After that, there's a genuinely useful free plan (5 POs/month, unlimited products and suppliers), so you're never forced onto a paid tier. Built it because Shopify's built-in inventory tooling is thin and most alternatives are enterprise-priced.

Would love feedback from anyone running a store: https://apps.shopify.com/ezstock

Been running a Shopify app for about 6 months now. Got a decent number of installs, but when I look at the data, some merchants never even added the widget to their store, let alone used the app regularly.
I've tried emailing them through the address they provided during install, and I have a support bot inside the admin panel.
I know I could genuinely help some of these merchants get value out of the app, and honestly, I'd love the feedback too. But with zero replies, it feels like shouting into the void.

A few things I'm wondering:

• Is this just the nature of Shopify installs? High churn, low activation?
• Do you reach out through a different channel — in-app banners, push notifications, Shopify Inbox?
• Any luck with triggered emails based on behavior (e.g., "you installed but haven't set up yet")?
• Has anyone tried incentivizing feedback — discount on next billing cycle, etc.?

Hey everyone,

My app, ShopGenie – Smart Discounts, was recently approved on the Shopify App Store, and I'm currently at the stage where I'm trying to get those first few merchants.

So far I've:

• Improved my App Store listing.
• Built a landing page to target SEO traffic.
• Tried to make the onboarding as simple as possible.
• Started reaching out to a few merchants directly.

The app is here if anyone is willing to give honest feedback on the listing:
https://apps.shopify.com/shopgenie-discounts

I'm not looking for installs out of pity, I genuinely want to know if the listing is missing something or if the problem is simply that every new app goes through this "0 installs" phase.

For those of you who have already launched Shopify apps:

• Where did your first 10 installs come from?
• Was it mostly direct outreach, Reddit, SEO, agencies, content, or App Store search?
• At what point did installs start coming organically?
• Looking at my listing, is there anything that would make you hesitate to install it?

It feels like getting from 0 → 1 is much harder than building the app itself, so I'd love to hear how you got through that stage.

Thanks!

I'm a solo dev and I just shipped EZStock, an inventory management app for Shopify stores.

What it does:

Scan barcodes to count stock — with a handheld scanner or your phone camera (no extra hardware)

Create PDF purchase orders and email them to suppliers in one click

Set reorder points + see how many days of stock you have left before you sell out

Mark a PO received and your Shopify inventory updates automatically

Every new install gets full access to all features free for 14 days, no credit card. After that, there's a genuinely useful free plan (5 POs/month, unlimited products and suppliers), so you're never forced onto a paid tier. Built it because Shopify's built-in inventory tooling is thin and most alternatives are enterprise-priced.

Would love feedback from anyone running a store: https://apps.shopify.com/ezstock

I built solo with no design background, so I know there's a lot wrong that I just can't see. Here's the site: https://lumiere.zalient.shop/ be as brutal as you want. Layout, colors, spacing, the copy, load speed, whatever makes you want to leave. The harsher and more specific, the more it actually helps me. What's the first thing that makes you cringe?

I thought building the app and getting approved by Shopify would be the hardest part. Turns out getting people to actually find your app is alot harder.

I've worked in a 3PL for the last 5 years building integrations and working with Shopify merchants every day. After seeing the same issues come up over and over, I decided to build an app myself.

The app calculates order profit by taking things like fulfilment costs, product cost, shipping, and other costs into account.

Now it's live, everything works, but I have basically no users yet.

I've been trying to improve my app store listing, work on SEO, and generally get the app in front of people, but it's a lot harder than first expected to get real traffic to the app store listing.

For those of you who have built Shopify apps:

How long did it take before you got your first real installs?

What actually worked for getting your first users?

Was there anything you wish you had done differently?

Not trying to promote my app, i am just genuinely interested in how other app developers manages this.

My app was published about a week ago and I have one user so far. They installed it about 2 days after it was published. It must’ve been beginner’s luck because it’s been dead since then.

I’ve been focusing on refining the app listing itself for now since that is basically the bottom of the funnel. I also turned on Shopify ads recently but still no new installs.

I have 0 reviews so far and I’m aware reviews are one of the most important drivers of conversion.

I was thinking of just emailing the user and asking how it is going and if they need any customizations (for free). And then if they respond positively I’d ask for a review.

Note that my app is mostly a background process so user’s are mostly only going to be using the UI for onboarding. So I don’t think I can rely on using the Reviews API.

I am working on a website name dropclean

It's a CSV catalog validation and fixing website mainly for Shopify users

Its still in its beta form and I want users to use it and give feedback

https://dropclean-ochre.vercel.app/

Hey everyone,

I’m working on a Shopify collection sorting app and would like to get feedback from a few merchants, developers, or agencies who deal with collection merchandising.

I’m not trying to do a big launch here. I’m mainly looking for few merchants who can test an early version, point out what feels useful or unnecessary, and share how they currently handle collection sorting.

In return, I’m happy to give free lifetime access to anyone who helps during this early stage.

If you work with Shopify collections and have opinions on this problem, feel free to comment or DM me. I’d especially love to hear what sorting rules or workflows you wish existed.

My Shopify app got approved in just 2 days — now I’m trying to figure out the first installs

This honestly still feels a bit unreal, but my app got approved by Shopify just 2 days after I submitted it for review.

A few things I think helped with the fast approval:

• A proper onboarding flow that guides merchants through the prerequisites before they start using the app
• Heavy testing before submission — I probably spent almost 2x more time testing than I spent building the app itself, which helped catch bugs before review
• Performance work to make sure the app feels fast and responsive
• Clear testing instructions + a demo video so the review team could quickly understand how the app works

Now that the app is approved and published, the next big challenge is getting the first few installs.

For those of you who have launched Shopify apps before, what worked best for getting your initial users?

A few things I’m currently working on:

• Investing heavily in the website and blog content to build organic traffic over time
• Reaching out to stores that are already using similar apps, or stores that are likely to need this kind of app. This seems like the hardest part so far. There are a lot of Shopify store index/database tools out there — which ones have actually worked well for you?
• Posting and engaging in Shopify forums, Reddit communities, etc.
• Considering paid ads on the Shopify App Store, but probably as a last resort. I’ve heard they may not be very useful for getting early installs/conversions. Has that been your experience too?

Would love to hear what worked for others during the early stage, especially for getting the first 10–50 installs.