I build Shopify apps ($600k+ per year) Get more users from the Shopify App Store: https://xitter.cf/t.co/tAM7ihcat5 I share my journey to inspire you.
My resources 👉
Joined October 2016
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Get back your Shopify App reviews removed with this feature.
We analyzed all reviews Shopify removed and identified patterns.
So we can tell you which reviews are worth appealing and why some were deleted.
I guess it's also something we won't have in Europe 🙃
Mat De Sousa retweeted
Someone attacked our bundle app with 1-star reviews on Oct 17. They wrote 5 reviews stating the same message "I wasn't using the app, forgot to cancel, app charged me for months".
Facts:
1. All five shops belong to the same company (it's in their T&C).
2. All reviews were left within 15 minute time frame.
3. Our bundles made them $275K additional revenue across all stores.
4. They never reached out to customer support for refund. They're ignoring our messages as well.
This attack caused our app to drop in App Store rankings significantly and will definitely impact our installs / revenue. It's pretty crazy how much damage can 1 person do even for an app with 6.3K 5-star reviews.
cc @liam_at_shopify @blairbeckwith @ShopifyDevs
Mat De Sousa retweeted
Hey @DsMatie I love opening my nightly appstorepulse email and seeing all green numbers!
Mat De Sousa retweeted
Someone is actively looking for vulnerabilities in my Shopify app WideBundle.
For days, I've seen scans, webhook probing, SQL injection attempts, and forced requests.
I'm sure other Shopify apps are being targeted too.
Run regular security audits.
People have been trying to find vulnerabilities in WideBundle in the last few days.
I see they've been testing webhooks, SQL injections, different requests, etc.
And this is how I monitor everything (if you want to do something similar):
1. Rejected requests are logged with the reasons (like failed webhook signature, hmac, whatever)
2. I track the requests by the hosting platform with time, method, path, response, duration, IP, etc.
3. I give AI access to these logs to find patterns like someone trying dozens of endpoints, hundreds of requests failing, fake webhooks, etc.
4. I let Claude replicate these requests and see what they potentially receive.
5. I compare data in the database to spot weird things
6. I have a report every 30 minutes with what's happening, weird activities, etc
Then I get a small report that tells me whether everything is fine or something is wrong.
For now, they haven't found anything, but I keep monitoring it.
Someone is actively looking for vulnerabilities in my Shopify app WideBundle.
For days, I've seen scans, webhook probing, SQL injection attempts, and forced requests.
I'm sure other Shopify apps are being targeted too.
Run regular security audits.
New Shopify apps have an advantage over older ones in the App Store.
That’s been true for the past few years, largely because of everything Shopify has released.
New features were easier to implement and the App Store algorithm favored newer apps too.
😬
Is there a way to see Sidekick adoption for both merchants and app devs?
Can you guys please give me the option to disable Shopify Sidekick on our account? @Shopify @tobi
I don't want it and I especially don't want it jammed in my face on every single Shopify screen
I use 1 chatbot and 1 chatbot only, I will never use a different chatbot on every single software tool in our business
ChatGPT and Claude won, bend the knee, and just build better software, please
I am positive adding a "disable" button would make ~85-90% of merchants happier
Listen.
You don’t win over a Shopify agency by having the best app.
You win them over by sending a bottle of champagne.
(It’s a metaphor, of course, but an agency literally told me that 😂)
Mat De Sousa retweeted
I've been sharing my numbers and what worked for my apps since 2021.
I had a working product, years of code, big presence in the Shopify App Store.
And I think many app founders started an app after reading my content.
Two things happened:
1/ AI
You know it, we know it, everybody knows it. You can copy an app pretty easily.
I wasn't scared back then: to copy me meant copying years of code.
Now people are more likely to copy your app because it's quick.
But there is nothing Shopify can do about it
2/ Shopify changes
That one is caused directly by Shopify because of the strategy they decided to follow.
No hate. They wanted more partners and a better platform.
But being an early mover in the Shopify App Store used to be a moat.
So we could share freely without expecting a newcomer to take your spot.
I don’t think that’s true anymore.
Everything released benefited new apps. Not old ones.
- New apps could be BFS faster (less code to maintain and more agile)
- New apps could easily integrate new features (for example functions) compared to older apps with a roadmap, features to migrate, users to please
- Old apps were forced to stop their momentum to work on changes (app embedded, script tags, etc)
- Many old reviews have been removed, making bigger apps almost at the same level as new ones
- The number of reviews matters less
- % growth is more important than actual installs (an app going from 0 to 30 users, then to 100 users, shows extreme growth compared to an app going from 5K to 5,1K)
And probably some other things I missed.
Now I'm not saying it's a good or bad thing. It's part of the game.
But when it comes to sharing what worked for you. Would people still take that risk?
I’ve always appreciated how open and collaborative the Shopify Partner community is.
But a few recent conversations have made me wonder whether the uncertainty around SaaS and agency work is changing that. Not in a total doomsday way, but a subtle vibe shift.
I get the anxiety: margins under pressure, and customers asking harder questions about where value is actually being created.
I worry that this uncertainty is making some of us more protective of what’s working—and the ecosystem a little less open as a result.
Less sharing of what works and what doesn’t. Less tide-raising and more moat-building.
It's possible I'm over-reading a small sample.
Are you feeling this in your own conversations with partners? What am I missing?
Counterexamples especially welcome.
The question is:
Why show the Sidekick bar in the first place if the app hasn’t integrated with Sidekick?
I’d love to understand the reasoning behind that decision 🤔
I am tired
community.shopify.dev/t/upda…
Mat De Sousa retweeted
We have actually researched this at @judgeme, in partnership with @ucl.
Turns out that on the Shopify app store, there are LATE mover advantages in about 9 out of 10 categories!
So yes, Shopify app store is very competitive, it's in the benefit of Shopify for it to be this way.
Here's the paper: research.judge.me/research/s…
I've been sharing my numbers and what worked for my apps since 2021.
I had a working product, years of code, big presence in the Shopify App Store.
And I think many app founders started an app after reading my content.
Two things happened:
1/ AI
You know it, we know it, everybody knows it. You can copy an app pretty easily.
I wasn't scared back then: to copy me meant copying years of code.
Now people are more likely to copy your app because it's quick.
But there is nothing Shopify can do about it
2/ Shopify changes
That one is caused directly by Shopify because of the strategy they decided to follow.
No hate. They wanted more partners and a better platform.
But being an early mover in the Shopify App Store used to be a moat.
So we could share freely without expecting a newcomer to take your spot.
I don’t think that’s true anymore.
Everything released benefited new apps. Not old ones.
- New apps could be BFS faster (less code to maintain and more agile)
- New apps could easily integrate new features (for example functions) compared to older apps with a roadmap, features to migrate, users to please
- Old apps were forced to stop their momentum to work on changes (app embedded, script tags, etc)
- Many old reviews have been removed, making bigger apps almost at the same level as new ones
- The number of reviews matters less
- % growth is more important than actual installs (an app going from 0 to 30 users, then to 100 users, shows extreme growth compared to an app going from 5K to 5,1K)
And probably some other things I missed.
Now I'm not saying it's a good or bad thing. It's part of the game.
But when it comes to sharing what worked for you. Would people still take that risk?
I don't know how old this update is.
But when Shopify asks you to change some stuff about your app.
Instead of writing in the email what you have to do, they send you to a page with the details.
Better experience!
I've been sharing my numbers and what worked for my apps since 2021.
I had a working product, years of code, big presence in the Shopify App Store.
And I think many app founders started an app after reading my content.
Two things happened:
1/ AI
You know it, we know it, everybody knows it. You can copy an app pretty easily.
I wasn't scared back then: to copy me meant copying years of code.
Now people are more likely to copy your app because it's quick.
But there is nothing Shopify can do about it
2/ Shopify changes
That one is caused directly by Shopify because of the strategy they decided to follow.
No hate. They wanted more partners and a better platform.
But being an early mover in the Shopify App Store used to be a moat.
So we could share freely without expecting a newcomer to take your spot.
I don’t think that’s true anymore.
Everything released benefited new apps. Not old ones.
- New apps could be BFS faster (less code to maintain and more agile)
- New apps could easily integrate new features (for example functions) compared to older apps with a roadmap, features to migrate, users to please
- Old apps were forced to stop their momentum to work on changes (app embedded, script tags, etc)
- Many old reviews have been removed, making bigger apps almost at the same level as new ones
- The number of reviews matters less
- % growth is more important than actual installs (an app going from 0 to 30 users, then to 100 users, shows extreme growth compared to an app going from 5K to 5,1K)
And probably some other things I missed.
Now I'm not saying it's a good or bad thing. It's part of the game.
But when it comes to sharing what worked for you. Would people still take that risk?
I’ve always appreciated how open and collaborative the Shopify Partner community is.
But a few recent conversations have made me wonder whether the uncertainty around SaaS and agency work is changing that. Not in a total doomsday way, but a subtle vibe shift.
I get the anxiety: margins under pressure, and customers asking harder questions about where value is actually being created.
I worry that this uncertainty is making some of us more protective of what’s working—and the ecosystem a little less open as a result.
Less sharing of what works and what doesn’t. Less tide-raising and more moat-building.
It's possible I'm over-reading a small sample.
Are you feeling this in your own conversations with partners? What am I missing?
Counterexamples especially welcome.
I had a call with a Shopify agency about bundles.
They code their bundles themselves for their customers.
BUT
They said they'd use WideBundle if we could give them better CRO analytics.
We're not a bundle app anymore, we're a tool that helps merchants make decisions