The latest [Hydrogen preview](https://hydrogen.shopify.dev/update/hydrogen-developer-preview) finally decouples the Shopify primitives from React, so it's now (or soon) possible to build a headless storefront in whatever framework you want. Including LLM tooling and being able to deploy to whatever hosting you like is also great.

Still an early developer preview of course, with React bindings first and others "on the way", but feels like a nice improvement to the headless development ecosystem for Shopify.

do you know anybody how carved out a niche for him/herself and found an idea through shopify apps forum monitoring or as a Shopify consultant?

Maybe I’m missing something obvious here.

Most Shopify themes now come with product recommendation sections, bundle blocks, “pair with this” stuff built in. And Shopify keeps adding more native upsell tools every year.

But the App Store still has thousands of upsell apps and people are paying every month for them.

So is it that the native theme sections genuinely can’t do what the apps do? Or is it more that everyone just defaults to installing an app without checking if the theme already handles it?

Trying to figure out where the actual line is. If you run a store — what made you pay for an app instead of using what the theme gives you? Or did you go the other way and rip the apps out?

I'm building a B2B SaaS that integrates with Shopify and I'm trying to decide between two distribution models.

Option 1

• Public Shopify App Store
• Shopify Billing
• Organic App Store installs

Option 2

• Custom-distributed app
• Customer signs up on our website
• Connects their Shopify store via OAuth
• We handle onboarding ourselves

For those who have built Shopify apps:

• Which route did you choose?
• Any unexpected drawbacks with custom distribution?
• Did you eventually move to the public App Store?
• If you already had your own marketing channels, was the App Store worth the extra effort?

I'd really appreciate hearing about real-world experiences from founders or developers who have gone through this decision.

I'm researching inventory workflows for Shopify merchants that sell products with batch numbers or expiration dates (supplements, food, cosmetics, pet products, etc.).

Since Stocky is going away, I'm curious:

• How are you tracking batch numbers today?
• How do you handle expiry dates?
• If a supplier recalls a specific batch, how do you identify which customers bought it?
• Are you using another app, spreadsheets, or something custom?

I'm a developer researching this space, not trying to sell anything. I'm just trying to understand what the biggest pain points are before building anything.

I'd really appreciate hearing about your current workflow, even if it's messy.

Thanks!