Shopify App Store: An underutilized acquisition channel?
I've analyzed all 494 Indie Hackers interviews and identified 34 acquisition channels that work consistently for founders (see Zero to Users for more details).
I've noticed a lot of founders having success with app stores. Shopify, Slack, Wordpress, Chrome; each of these platforms has its own app store. It turns out they're pretty good acquisition channels to get new paying customers as well. This week we're going to talk about the Shopify App Store and how it can help you get new paying users.
Why Do Founders Get Paying Users through the Shopify App Store (And App Stores in General)?
Because Shopify proactively spends time promoting third party apps to their userbase. Take Credible ($2.5K/mo). They're a Shopify app that displays recent purchases on your e-commerce site. Here's what they said on this topic when asked about their growth:
The other primary source of growth has been through Shopify itself. Shopify is amazing at promoting their apps. They take a 20% cut of your subscription fees, but it's well worth it in what they provide for you. When you first launch an app on the store, they feature it in the "New & Upcoming"** section for store owners to get a first glimpse of your app. After you prove yourself with some solid growth and positive reviews, they will feature you in the main "Featured" section of the store. Both of these were huge for our growth. When Shopify put us on their main featured page, we netted about 180 new recurring customers.
Credible's founder realized that Shopify was really open to promoting third party apps and went even further to get additional exposure:
Additionally, we worked with some of the Shopify team to be in the "Popular Sales App" section, which was posted in the settings/apps section of Shopify's store dashboard. This was a great source of new customers.
This is a pattern common among all app stores with which founders have been successful. The platform cared about third-party apps and spent time actively promoting them to its userbase.
Shopify App != Exclusively Target Shopify Users
You don't have to be a SaaS that exclusively targets Shopify users and their platform only in order to be listed there. Take Storemapper ($21K/mo), a tool that enables any e-commerce website to add a "store locator" widget (see live example). Their target market is not only Shopify sites, but all e-commerce websites. Yet, these guys have a Shopify app and have been pretty successful with it:
I built integrations with e-commerce platforms which would allow the app to be found through their app store search functions. It was only after that point that we started seeing pure inbound growth.
Almost all of our new customers are inbound. ... a big portion comes from searches inside the app stores of various e-commerce platforms like Shopify... .
StoreMapper decided to create an app for every major e-commerce platform (BigCommerce, Magento) which brought them even more additional traffic.
Get acquisition channel opportunities like this one via email, every week:
But I'm Not An E-Commerce SaaS...
Do you have a feature or a set of features that could be useful to e-commerce owners? Then you're a candidate for a Shopify App.
Preetam is the founder of an app called "WhatsApp Chat + Abandoned Card". They basically figured out how to use WhatsApp to help Shopify store owners recover abandoned shopping carts. As a result, they're making $25k/month and are being used by 20,000 merchants by ranking on the Shopify App Store for the term "whatsapp" (and similar terms):
Ask yourself:
Do you have a specific product feature that could help e-commerce owners achieve their goals? Some of their goals are similar to any other business: finding new products, increasing sales, boosting conversion rates, etc. If you do have something that is useful, you could potentially unlock a whole new acquisition channel.
What do you think?
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Darko, nice write-up. I downloaded your report on acquisition channels and it is solid gold!
I've been featured a few times with my Shopify app store now and have a repeatable process for working with the Shopify team to launch apps. I'll find sometime over the holidays to share how new developers can step by step go through the app process and launch an app.
Thanks! Interested to hear on your work with the Shopify team. Do you get an auto-feature for all new apps you release, or?
The best method I've found in getting featured is connecting with the Shopify team and then getting into their slot to be in the "Featured Staff Picks". They schedule this out months in advance, but this will give you the most meaningful traffic. To get into the "Featured Staff Picks" the internal team wants to see at least 10 positive 5 star reviews on your app.
I'll write up step-by-step how I've done it and what I'm doing in the future and would love to share it with you and rest of the community.
Looking forward to it.
Looking forward to it brother
Looking forward to this!
me too looking forward to it make a simple landing page and take my email 😄 i want to be notified
Thе Shopify App Storе is a goldminе for boosting acquisition. Don't miss out on this undеrutilizеd channеl. Discovеr nеw apps to amplify your storе's pеrformancе and stay ahеad in thе gamе!
Why is the arrow on the screenshot pointing towards “whatsapp chat + abandoned cart’s” competitor? 🙂
Lol, good catch. This was from the author's original article (seems he was talking about being overtaken by a free competitor when he referenced this screenshot.) Will fix it tomorrow, thanks!
This is very insightful. I'm looking forward to reading your PDF and also understanding any trends you noticed about user acquisition among B2C platforms!
I really wish I found more SaaS B2C examples. They're so rare. For e-commerce, that's not the case. But for SaaS/digital, it's pretty rare.
Indeed! Out of curiosity, is there anyone you know on IH who will do contract development work to develop a Shopify app and who has experience with getting this kind of an app featured in a Shopify app store? Wondering if there might be an opportunity to collaborate with someone and pay for this kind of work.
See the @Indiehacks post above.
Thank you!
Thanks @zerotousers. I dropped you an email @KennethF to see how I could help or point you in the right direction.
The Shopify App Store is an untapped acquisition channel for many businesses. Its vast selection of apps offers valuable tools and functionalities that can enhance and grow online stores, yet it remains underutilized by some.
I completely agree with your point that the Shopify App Store is an underutilized acquisition channel for Shopify app developers. As the owner of the Fordeer: Invoice Print Order app for Shopify, I've seen firsthand how powerful the App Store can be in reaching new users and growing your business.
Our app provides a simple and effective solution for printing and mailing physical invoices to customers, and the Shopify App Store has been a key channel for us in reaching new users and generating traffic to our website. By optimizing our App Store listing and actively promoting our app to the Shopify community, we've been able to steadily grow our user base and establish ourselves as a leading app in our category.
For any Shopify app developers out there, I highly recommend taking advantage of the Shopify App Store as a powerful acquisition channel for your business. With the right strategy and execution, it can be a game-changer for your growth and success. And if you're looking for an easy and affordable way to print and mail physical invoices to your customers, be sure to check out Fordeer: Invoice Print Order on the Shopify App Store!
Brand new invoice solution for Shopify orders.
The product solves customer problems with invoices, customization, brand identity as well as tax paperwork and commercial contracts.
We just released the Fordeer app: https://pdfinvoices.fordeer.io/
If you are doing business on Shopify give it a try, we have a Free version that supports most merchants working on it.
Give feedback We always listen to all opinions to collect back to make the product even better to bring the best to users.
Hi @darko
I have heard a lot from Shopify App owners that the marketplace is getting saturated where it is difficult for newer apps to get traction. Have you found that to be true in your research?
Also, is it common for a SAAS company to launch on Shopify, just for getting customer, like a traction channel. That way they can get customers and have them use an independent product?
Hey:
a) Take a look at my latest comment where guy asked something regarding the 'build it and they will come' saying. A guy replied to my comment (he's making Shopify apps full time) and he said that yes, it's still possible to get traction by appearing there. You may want to get in touch with him, since I don't go that deep into a specific acquisition channel currently.
b) I think yes, if one group of the customers you're serving are e-commerce owners.
Hope this helped.
Thank you @zerotousers
100% agree. @relay and I were on a Zoom this past week, and we discussed using this exact lead-gen approach to raise awareness of Relay.
More specifically, I think one lead-gen channel for Relay is forums/online communities, so I recommended that he build a lightweight app for Xenforo and other online community platforms like Vanilla Forums, etc. Also recommended he build a lightweight plugin for Wordpress and put it on Wordpress.org.
Hm what about a lightweight plugin for the Shopify app store? Live chat is pretty popular on Shopify as well.
Yeah, we talked about that too, but an eCommerce site may not be the best target for Relay.
Relay is not an agent-to-visitor chat support tool. It's like Discourse (chat room).
I've been doing eCommerce for 12+ years, selling either physical or digital products, and I haven't yet come across a use-case where I think having a chatroom on my site would make sense.
I want to sell, not get people distracted :)
Maybe there is a use-case for some eCom sites, but I'd have to think about it more.
Gotcha. Maybe it'd be useful for people selling/making a single product (so people can discuss things/aspects around usage).
Yeah, considered that too.
Possibly. But, the key for a Relay chatroom to be most effective (IMO) is to have enough simultaneous activity - many visitors visiting at the same time so they can discuss stuff with each other live.
I think it could work in some cases on an eCom site where maybe the brand/product uses it to do live chat events at pre-determined times. But, that would be only occasional use.
I'd worry a little that visitors would try to use it for support, and visitors may also get confused about why/when/how to use it.
Support is usually topic-based (problem > solution) whereas a chatroom is one long continuous discussion. Can't envision how it would make things simple for visitors in that context.
But again, maybe there are some use-cases where it makes sense.
I've looked through some of your negative reviews and it seems that people complain a lot about your app prompting to leave a review.
Could you explain how this feature is implemented? We tried to do something via email notifications, but didn't get much success.
Hi @AlexBuran
We at reviewhornet.com suggest you ask for reviews just after the customer got value from your product. Also, do it at the first or second time they get value. Don't spam.
When it comes to sending email, we suggest using one of the 'grow review' tools most review management companies (including us) provides. Make sure they don't completely gate the customers though as that could be against review platform rules.
What app are you talking about? Or did you mean to reply to @indiehacks?
Your app: Whatsapp Chat. How do you solicit user reviews?
Nice post
Thanks!
Useful as always, Darko. Thank you.
Glad you found it useful, Pete.
Great Insights
Thanks. What did you find particularly insightful about the post?
I wasn't aware Shopify could be useful to non-e-commerce SaaS bussinesses
Thanks for sharing!
Your last point totally made sense. If you take a look at the Shopify App Store Homepage, you'll notice many of these tools are just general SaaS tools customized for e-commerce owners.
Many SaaS owners can get a lot more new paying users by figuring out how to be useful to the e-commerce segment IMO.
That's very true. The platform wins (their users get additional functionality) + you win (more exposure).
My only con for using this strategy is "platform dependence". Fortunately, Shopify has been pretty amazing with its developer ecosystem (unlike Facebook). For some reason, B2B platforms treat their third party ecosystem much better as compared to B2C.
I've noticed that as well. Probably because of sheer numbers. B2C app makers tend to make spammy apps in general (they want to reach as many people as possible) as compared to B2B app makers (who want to focus on quality).
That's prob a big part of the reason yes.