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Hmm... my company builds Shopify apps for large companies. We have had several in the app store that we maintain, that we're either moving to end-of-life or pla

Hmm... my company builds Shopify apps for large companies. We have had several in the app store that we maintain, that we're either moving to end-of-life or planning to. Personally I believe the days of a solo engineer being able to build a viable Shopify app business are nearly over. Shopify has instituted new process for assessment and approval of new apps in the app store, similar to Apple. We are finding the approvals can take weeks and sometimes require big rewrites to meet as-yet-undocumented business requirements. Also Shopify stores can explode in bursts of traffic at a moments notice. And these apps sometimes are mission critical to the merchant's business. It is very challenging and expensive to scale an app rapidly when the folks who have installed it get large bursts of success without any forewarning. If a DTC brand launches their store with some cheap / free apps and their product goes viral, that means the indie solo app developer has to scale to meet the demand. These new DTC merchants often don't understand very much of the business of maintaining SaaS and aren't very forgiving when an app fails to keep up with the demand put on it. The challenge is if an inexperienced developer offers the app for free or a nominal fee like $50/mo that means they have to scale up infrastructure and support and often re-write the app for a small number of merchants who are still only paying $50/mo. This happens to more Shopify app developers than I want to admit, and many many bootstrapped folks are operating at a substantial loss, looking for a way out without irking customers who depend on their app. With that in mind, be very careful if you enter any type of SaaS marketplace. It seems tempting and low barrier to entry but you may be biting off much more than you can chew.

klausjensen 6y ago
DTC in this context is "Direct to Consumer" - I wasn't sure, so I looked up so you don't have to. :)
DevX101 6y ago
Any unofficial details on the business requirements Shopify looks for before approving apps? I'm working on an app and would like to avoid being blindsided.
- rwhitman 6y ago
  My company has a partner relationship with Shopify so I can't go into too much detail but. My rules of thumb: 1) The value of the app to merchants in the app store is taken into account. They look at whether the app fits into the ecosystem and adds value for merchants. 2) Your monetization strategy should involve revenue share with Shopify from the get-go, in a way that scales with the success of your app. 3) The user should not leave Shopify for account registration or authentication. 4) As much functionality should be embedded in Shopify as possible. 5) Do not ever attempt to build something that side steps Shopify's checkout or order data in any way. Shopify payments and transaction fees is how they make money.
encoderer 6y ago
> With that in mind, be very careful if you enter any type of SaaS marketplace. It seems tempting and low barrier to entry but you may be biting off much more than you can chew. Ok, yes, I hear your gate-keeping, but counterpoint: bite anyway. It leads to growth. Maybe in more ways than one.
- extesy 6y ago
  Are you suggesting "we lose money on every sale, but make it up on volume" approach?
  - encoderer 6y ago
    He's advising people not to build these businesses because they are hard. I think that is generally a gate-keeping attitude. Possibly you misread.
    - DiggyJohnson 6y ago
      I disagree, but see where you are coming from. With your definition is it possible to advise or warn against something without committing (the sin of) gatekeeping?
jmknoll 6y ago
Does Shopify allow extensions which are priced according to usage?
- pikelet 6y ago
  It does. You can set up a usage charge on top of an existing subscription: https://shopify.dev/docs/admin-api/rest/reference/billing/usagecharge https://shopify.dev/docs/admin-api/rest/reference/billing/us...
xwdv 6y ago
If you’re operating at a loss and looking for a way out, just shut down and get blown out of business. Those merchants won’t hesitate to find a new product that does what you did.

klausjensen 6y ago

DTC in this context is "Direct to Consumer" - I wasn't sure, so I looked up so you don't have to. :)

DevX101 6y ago

Any unofficial details on the business requirements Shopify looks for before approving apps? I'm working on an app and would like to avoid being blindsided.

rwhitman 6y ago
My company has a partner relationship with Shopify so I can't go into too much detail but. My rules of thumb: 1) The value of the app to merchants in the app store is taken into account. They look at whether the app fits into the ecosystem and adds value for merchants. 2) Your monetization strategy should involve revenue share with Shopify from the get-go, in a way that scales with the success of your app. 3) The user should not leave Shopify for account registration or authentication. 4) As much functionality should be embedded in Shopify as possible. 5) Do not ever attempt to build something that side steps Shopify's checkout or order data in any way. Shopify payments and transaction fees is how they make money.

encoderer 6y ago

> With that in mind, be very careful if you enter any type of SaaS marketplace. It seems tempting and low barrier to entry but you may be biting off much more than you can chew. Ok, yes, I hear your gate-keeping, but counterpoint: bite anyway. It leads to growth. Maybe in more ways than one.

extesy 6y ago
Are you suggesting "we lose money on every sale, but make it up on volume" approach?
- encoderer 6y ago
  He's advising people not to build these businesses because they are hard. I think that is generally a gate-keeping attitude. Possibly you misread.
  - DiggyJohnson 6y ago
    I disagree, but see where you are coming from. With your definition is it possible to advise or warn against something without committing (the sin of) gatekeeping?

jmknoll 6y ago

Does Shopify allow extensions which are priced according to usage?

pikelet 6y ago
It does. You can set up a usage charge on top of an existing subscription: https://shopify.dev/docs/admin-api/rest/reference/billing/usagecharge https://shopify.dev/docs/admin-api/rest/reference/billing/us...

xwdv 6y ago

If you’re operating at a loss and looking for a way out, just shut down and get blown out of business. Those merchants won’t hesitate to find a new product that does what you did.