Is there still opportunity in the Shopify App Store?
I talk to a lot of developers. When I started leading the Shopify App Store six years ago, I spoke to developers every day. Some big, some small — all hungry to build their SaaS business on top of Shopify. We built out a team that not only nurtured developers in the ecosystem, but attracted new developers to it.
When I left Shopify, I still got many calls and emails from developers wanting my opinion on the App Store and how they could be successful in it. Many of these were people that I had worked with during my days “on the inside”, but just as many were people who were looking to get started selling an app on Shopify. Some had already built their app, some were wondering what they should build.
Occasionally, the question would come up: “is there still opportunity on the App Store?” I answered this question a lot at Shopify Unite this year, which just wrapped up this week. Agencies who have been building out stores for merchants see the appeal of recurring revenue and want to get in to the product game. People who launched a successful app years ago are considering dipping their toes back in with another.
Nobody wants to spend days, weeks, or months building an app only to struggle to gain any traction. With so many apps and integrations listed (some 2400 at current count), this is a logical question. It’s also not as clear cut as it used to be.
The App Store has been around since 2010. It’s easy to believe that the most popular apps have been sitting there for years, entrenched — solidly positioned after years of climbing up the rankings. Some of that is true. If you look at the top ten apps, some of them sit there with thousands of positive reviews gained over many years, and have enjoyed a long time near the top of the charts.
Dig a little deeper, though, and a different picture emerges. Roughly 20 of the top 50 apps have been published in the last 18 months. Dig deeper, and the numbers paint an even better picture. Shopify isn’t like many App Stores, where only the people at the top are making money. There are hundreds of apps making good money on the App Store.
How you define opportunity, then, becomes a factor. It all depends on what you want to do. The short answer is: no matter what you want, it’s still possible. You haven’t missed the boat — not yet. There are many people who have launched an app in the last year who are paying for dinners out every week and a vacation or two a year with the proceeds from their app. There are also entire companies that have gone on to startup incubators and raising rounds of funding that have been launched in the last year.
What has changed is the mentality required. Back in ~2012, “build it and they will come” was a strategy that actually worked. Their were a hundred apps in the App Store, and organic discovery was possible. You, as a merchant, could reasonably look at every option in the App Store and decide what was right for you. That’s just no longer the case anymore. Success is more than building, it’s marketing and growth, partnerships and customer service. The game has changed. There’s more effort required to climb the ranks.
It’s still possible, but there’s more to learn to get there. The Shopify community has always been one of giving back. A rising tide lifts all ships, or whatever your preferred saying is. Shopify publishes great content for app developers, but they’re limited by editorial decisions around what they want you to hear. We’ll be here to help you navigate the good, the bad, and the ugly around the Shopify App Store. We’ll provide in-depth content from developers, for developers, to help you launch and grow your app. You should follow this Medium publication, and subscribe to our newsletter via TinyLetter. We only send email every two weeks, and we promise it’ll be good. Stay tuned.
P.S. don’t mind my stupid face being the icon for this publication. Working on it.
