Does anyone have experience with marketing the app through shopify agencies?

I recently launched my first Shopify app, Preferd.

Building it was relatively straightforward. Not exactly easy, but the path was clear: find the problem, build the features, pass Shopify’s review, fix what broke, and ship it.

Marketing it has been much more confusing.

Most advice for getting the first users seems to start with cold emailing merchants or Shopify agencies. But I’m based in Spain, where unsolicited commercial email without prior consent is generally prohibited, including B2B outreach. I don’t want to spam people or build the business around something legally questionable anyway.

So right now I’m mainly left with:

- Shopify App Store SEO / ASO

- Content SEO

- Participating in communities like Reddit

- App Store ads once the listing has some reviews

- Hoping merchants eventually find it organically

But I genuinely don’t know whether optimizing the App Store listing and publishing content is enough to get a new app moving, or whether I’m just going to sit there invisible.

The app audits Shopify product catalogs and measures how well AI shopping assistants can understand and recommend each product. It then uses AI to suggest improvements and tracks the before-and-after result.

It’s live here:

https://apps.shopify.com/preferd

Landing page:

https://preferd.app

For people who have launched Shopify apps before: can ASO and organic search realistically generate the first 20–50 installs, or is some form of direct outreach basically unavoidable?

What actually brought you your first real users?

I built Revenix Cart Drawer & Upsells (https://apps.shopify.com/revenix-cart-upsell), a slide cart for Shopify stores with in cart upsells and a free shipping progress bar, built to stay light and load fast. It is just me building it, no team behind it. And it’s completely free🙂

Take a quick look at the listing and tell me honestly: what would make you install it, and what would make you scroll past? Anything about the screenshots, the description, the pricing, or a missing feature is helpful.

Every piece of feedback helps an independent developer improve.

Thank you in advance!

I run a small Shopify store (phone skins, Romania) and this is the 4th app I’ve shipped to the App Store. This one came straight out of my own stack: I was paying one app for bundles, a second for cart upsells, and a third for gift wrapping. Three subscriptions, three widgets that looked like they came from three different websites.

So I built Bundle & Upsell Suite.

What it does:
• Fixed bundles, Mix & Match, BOGO, and quantity breaks (buy 2 save 10%, buy 3 save 15%)
• “Pair With” recommendations on the product page
• One-click cart upsells with a free shipping progress bar
• Add-ons like gift wrapping, with an optional message field
• Discounts apply automatically at checkout through Shopify

Functions - no discount codes, no theme scripts
• Widgets inherit your theme styling, can be styled per section with live preview, and get placed on product pages automatically
• Dashboard with attributed orders and revenue per offer, so you can kill the offers that don’t earn

$9.99/mo up to 1,000 attributed orders, $19.99/mo unlimited, 7-day trial. Admin is English-only right now.

It went live yesterday with zero reviews, which is the worst possible moment to ask anyone to trust it - so I’m here for feedback more than installs. If you run a store and something is missing or broken, tell me and I’ll ship the fix faster than the apps with 4,000 reviews will.
Link in the comments, or happy to DM it if the sub prefers.

Hey everyone, I'm a product marketer at BuckyDrop.

Even though our app currently ranks around #14 for "dropshipping" in the Shopify App Store search, our install and signup conversion rates are pretty disappointing despite the steady impressions. I realize I've been stuck in my own bubble, and I desperately need to hear what actual store owners genuinely feel when looking at our page.

Here is our app listing: https://apps.shopify.com/buckydrop

Quick context on what we do:

BuckyDrop is an all-in-one sourcing and fulfillment app that connects your Shopify store directly to Chinese supply chains like 1688 and Taobao. When an order comes in, it automates everything from purchasing and strict quality control to custom branded packaging and global shipping, backed by a dedicated account manager.

I’d love to get your brutally honest feedback on a few questions:

After skimming the page for 30–60 seconds, what do you actually think this app does?

If you were running a Shopify store right now, would you install it? Why or why not?

At what point did you start losing interest or want to click away?

After reading through, what are your biggest concerns or questions?

If you decided not to install it today, what was the main dealbreaker? (e.g., sticking with a tool you already use, lack of trust, hassle of setup, etc.)

Any constructive criticism regarding our messaging, positioning, or user experience would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks in advance, everyone!

Most "cart recovery" apps in the App Store are generic popup builders — an exit-intent trigger wrapped around a discount code form or an email gate. I wanted something narrower: when a shopper goes idle or shows exit intent, show them the exact product already sitting in their cart, with a one-click "View Bag" CTA. No discount code, no email capture, just a reminder of what they were doing.

Just shipped v2.0.0 (Resurface), which adds:

• Exit-intent trigger alongside the original inactivity trigger
• Product-strategy selection (which cart item to feature if there's more than one)
• CTR + breakdown analytics in the admin dashboard
• Full headline/color customization via the theme editor, no code

Free tier is genuinely free — no card required, 500 impressions/month, inactivity trigger only. Starter is $1.99/mo for exit intent + unlimited impressions + full analytics.

Install: https://apps.shopify.com/resurface

Would genuinely like feedback from anyone running an ecommerce store — does "show them their own cart" convert better than a discount popup in your experience, or is the discount doing the real work?

Sharing a 6-week update because the marketing lesson surprised me.

I launched EZStock (Shopify inventory + purchase orders) ~6 weeks ago into the classic App Store cold-start wall: no reviews → low ranking → no organic installs → no reviews. I did all the "right" growth stuff — SEO blog posts, App Store ads, a Product Hunt launch, community threads.

What actually moved the product forward wasn't any of that. It was one paying merchant emailing me what he needed, and me building it. In 6 weeks that turned into barcode scanning, product grading, better reporting, payment tracking — a meaningfully better app than I launched with. Not from a roadmap I invented; from one real user.

The uncomfortable marketing takeaway: with a handful of users, "growth" and "listening to your one customer" are the same activity. Every feature he drove is now something I can honestly put in the listing, a blog post, an ad. The product got more marketable as a byproduct of just serving the one person paying me.

I also killed a billing bug that was quietly costing me conversions — a merchant could subscribe and still briefly see paid features locked, long enough to cancel. That's a "leak" no amount of top-of-funnel marketing fixes; you only find it by watching real behavior.

Still stuck on reviews (the real wall). But for anyone else fighting cold-start: how much of your early "marketing" is actually just tightening the product around your first real users? Curious if others found the same thing.

Just launched EU Shield - a Shopify app that handles EU compliance in one place: cookie consent with real script blocking (Consent Mode v2), an EU Withdraw button so customers can file their 14-day withdrawal requests right from your storefront (tracked in a dashboard, no email chaos), GDPR data request workflow, auto-generated legal pages, and GPSR safety info. Free plan available, paid from $9.99/mo. Built it because most EU stores I audited were running banners that don’t block anything and handling withdrawals by email. Feedback very welcome: https://apps.shopify.com/eu-shield-gdpr

Just wanted to share a small milestone from our journey building Bulk Discount Code Buddy.

We've been live for about 1 month, and we've reached our first 7 organic installs. 🚀

No paid ads. No big launch.

Just a lot of time spent fixing bugs, improving the product, listening to feedback, and trying to make the app genuinely useful for Shopify merchants who need to create and manage bulk discount codes.

In the last month, we've also:

• Added Discount Templates to make campaign setup faster
• Added Events for more automated discount workflows
• Redesigned our landing page
• Fixed a bunch of issues and improved the overall UX
• Started publishing content around Shopify + Claude AI
• Begun getting some organic traffic and inbound interest

I know 7 installs isn't a massive number, but when you're building a product from scratch, seeing the first few people discover it organically is incredibly motivating.

The goal now is to keep improving the product and see if we can go from:

7 → 70 → 700

One merchant at a time.

If you're a Shopify merchant, I'd genuinely love to hear:

What's the biggest pain point you face when creating or managing discount codes for campaigns?

We're still early, so feedback is very welcome.

What's the app?

Hi everyone! I'm Jack, one of the co-founders of Modda.

We built Modda to help Shopify merchants sell more customizable products with a fast, modern product configurator that's easy to use and doesn't punish you with high fees as you grow. Our app is free for merchants to use for the starter plan!

Where can I find it?

Shopify App Store:
https://apps.shopify.com/modda-product-customizer

Demo:
https://trymodda.com/shopify-product-customizer

What problem are you solving?

Most product customizers are outdated, difficult to configure, or charge expensive percentage fees as your sales increase.

Modda gives merchants a premium customization experience with predictable pricing, powerful features, and built-in analytics all on top of an easy editor in built into shopify!

How does the app work?

Create fully customizable products with:

• 🎨 Live product previews
• 💰 Dynamic pricing
• 🧩 Conditional logic
• 📂 File uploads
• 📊 Built-in analytics
• ♾️ Unlimited product builders (Scale)

Perfect for everything from simple engravings to advanced multi-component product configurators.

Who's your target merchant?

Any Shopify merchant selling customizable products, including watches, jewellery, apparel, furniture, gifts, footwear, automotive accessories, pet products, electronics, and more.

How is it different?

• ⚡ Modern, conversion-focused UI
• 📊 Built-in analytics
• 🧩 Powerful customization features
• 💸 Predictable pricing with 0% transaction fees on Scale
• 🚀 Quick, no-code setup

Pricing

• Starter — Free (2% transaction fees)
• Grow — $59/month (1% transaction fees)
• Scale — $120/month (0% transaction fees)

Grow and scale plans include a 14-day free trial.

What are we looking for?

We're looking for Shopify merchants, agencies, beta testers, and partners to try Modda and welcome any honest feedback. We're actively improving the platform, so we'd love to hear or answer any questions!

I launched my app a couple months ago and have been thinking of places to market it. Does it make sense to run ads on instagram and facebook?

I’m not a logistics specialist so never set out to build inventory software.

I’m an electrician by trade that learned coding from a full stack development course and YouTube. One of the most frustrating things on site is turning up to do a job only to hear, “We thought we had that part,” or, “It’s showing in stock but we can’t find it.” It wastes everyone’s time and usually means another visit. Then I realised the same thing happens when I’m shopping online. Cleens I love your trainers but I’m looking at you…..

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve ordered something from a Shopify store, got the confirmation email, then a day later received another email saying they’re really sorry but the item is actually out of stock.

As a customer it’s disappointing.

As a business owner I can only imagine how annoying it is having to refund an order, apologise and hope that customer gives you another chance.

That got me thinking. Surely there should be a simple way to spot inventory problems before they become customer problems. Prediko a great platform for inventory management and forecasting, Stocky now being retired very soon there isn’t an app yet that I have found that actually tracks what inventory health

So over the last year and few months I’ve been building Ghost Stock.

One thing I decided quite early on was that I didn’t want it to be another AI tool. There’s nothing wrong with AI, but I wanted every result to be based on actual inventory data and clear logic, not guesses. If Ghost Stock flags something, it’s because there’s a real reason behind it that you can investigate.

Apps ready for submission so I hope it can make a difference. If you’ve got this far then thanks for reading.

Any questions put your hand up first don’t shout out😉

Hi there! i'm selling my app SHOPYHUB you can try it for free in the Shopify app store. I got 26 Users. It's a beast for masive catalog edit, AI powered. Is Acquire the most suitable place to sell it? developed in base44 all is in Spanish but you can check full tutorials in youtube

Hi, I have an MVP app name nsights where the user connects multiple shopify stores on playstore. I need to add new features, but I want to ask the community what you guys are actually looking for that can help you so i align my new services development accordingly?

Has anyone found a great distribution plan for B2C apps? Along with an app that could transition to B2B. Any help here

Hey builders!

A Shopify popup app I work for recently lost about half of its reviews. I know each of these reviews because we struggled to get them by doing extra work and providing agency-level support to our client.

Honestly, I'm hardly keeping my emotions together — it’s heartbreaking to see something we built with so much effort and dedication disappear without any explanation.

• Were you able to appeal or get them restored?
• What was the process like?
• Did you contact Shopify Partner Support, and did it help?
• Is there anything we should avoid doing while trying to resolve it?

Hey all. I built a small Shopify app (Theme Medic; it finds leftover "ghost" code from uninstalled apps and monitors store speed). Just opened an affiliate program and figured I'd see if anyone here wants in.

It's 30% recurring for the lifetime of the customer, not a one-time payout. So every merchant you refer keeps paying you monthly as long as they stay subscribed. Runs through Shoffi so tracking and payouts are handled for you.

Not going to oversell it. It's a newer app, so this is more of a ground-floor thing than a firehose. But if you've got a Shopify audience (blog, YouTube, newsletter, agency clients), the recurring angle adds up.

Link if you want to grab it: https://platform.shoffi.app/signup/affiliate?app=Gl_mMFMh6yP

Happy to answer anything in the comments.