Shopify offers the platform to merchants to sell across the internet. The Canadian e-commerce company does this with the help of applications that streamline operations, save money and time and scale online business. However, developing an app for Shopify requires more than technical knowledge. Mat De Sousa, an app developer from Paris, shares three tips from his experience of building five successful Shopify apps.
With a monthly income of more than $45,000, De Sousa feels the urge to answer his most asked question: “Aren’t you afraid Shopify kills or builds your app?”
I've built 5 Shopify Apps. And I make $45,000+ monthly. 💰
— Mat De Sousa (@DsMatie) July 28, 2023
And I always get the same question: "Aren't you afraid Shopify kills or builds your app?"
So here is my 3-step method to reduce platform risk: 👇🧵
Three Steps to Reduce Platform Risk
De Sousa started his Twitter thread by acknowledging the fact that one has to accept the platform risk as it is inevitable in the Shopify app business. The developer believes that one must focus on rewards to accept that risk.
In four points, De Sousa explained the rewards of building a Shopify app. A developer gets more Shopify merchants every day, wins their trust, gets free website traffic through Shopify App Store and doesn’t need to handle a payment system.
1. Move With Shopify
De Sousa’s first advice for app developers is that they should move in the same direction as Shopify. “This is my first technique. Don’t build something Shopify doesn’t want you to build. And on the contrary, figure out where Shopify is going and go in the same direction,” he tweeted.
The developer went on to mention the latest updates made by Shopify to encourage fellow developers. He spoke of Functions, Checkout extensions, App blocks, Online store 2.0 and the removal of Checkout.liquid.
In February, Shopify removed the checkout.liquid theme file and Shopify Scripts. The plan is to replace checkout.liquid with checkout extensibility. Checkout.liquid customization won’t be available for Shipping, Payment and Information from August 13, 2024. Shops that are using checkout.liquid currently for their in-checkout pages will require to upgrade customizations to checkout extensibility before August 13.
Stores that fail to upgrade their checkouts will automatically be upgraded to un-customized and out-of-the-box Shopify Checkout. However, Shopify Plus merchants can continue leveraging checkout.liquid to customize post-checkout pages that include Thank You and Order Status Page. Shopify will eventually allow customizations on post-checkout pages with checkout extensibility as well.
What is Checkout Extensibility
Checkout extensibility is “an easier way to customize Shopify Checkout in a way that’s app-based, upgrade-safe, higher-converting, and integrated with Shop Pay,” states Shopify. Unlike the earlier old way of customizing Shopify Checkout, customizations with checkout extensibility are upgrade-safe. This allows merchants to enjoy new checkout features as soon as they are made available.
Checkout extensibility also offers seamless integration with Shop Pay. Stores will be able to include any or all of their customizations to Shop Pay with only a few clicks. Thus, creating a similarly smooth experience across their Shop Pay and guest checkout. This allows Shopify Plus stores to surface business-portal customizations in express checkouts besides tapping into Shop Pay’s 4X faster checkout experience and 91 percent higher conversion rates on mobile.
With the help of checkout extensibility, Shopify Plus merchants can make code-free customizations to checkout with the help of a new checkout editor and public apps. Instead of editing and maintaining code in their checkout.liquid theme file, brands can use a suite of impressive and efficient apps and branding tools. Meanwhile, it also gives merchants the flexibility to develop custom applications for bespoke and advanced customizations.
According to De Sousa, Shopify’s recent updates aim at reducing technical debts caused by other developers. “They want to be more flexible with their own updates. That’s why we can expect even more updates in the future. They won’t have to handle technical debts caused by other people,” he said.
“At the same time, they are giving tools for developers to build on the platform. At the same time they are giving the basics to the merchants from the tools they gave us,” the French developer added.
What is Shopify Scripts?
Replacing Shopify Scripts, Shopify Functions comes as a new powerful way to extend as well as customize Shopify features in order to suit the unique business requirements of different brands on the Shopify platform. Functions are installed with an app, hence, merchants can configure them directly alongside native features in the admin. This means you can modify your customizations without any need to touch a line of code.
With Shopify Functions, you can create customized shipping and payment methods as well as unique discount coupons. Shopify plans to include support for checkout and cart validations, return validations, shipping rates and order routing in near future. Shopify will also release “additional Functions APIs to cover existing Scripts use-cases, and more”.
However, it is important to note that both Functions and Scripts are compatible together. So, in case, a store is not supported by Functions yet, you can continue using existing Shopify Scripts.
“So if you build something today that relies on Shopify Functions for example… I think you’re in a great position! And as they remove technical debts, they try to keep us on the platform to build exclusively for Shopify,” De Sousa explained.
“I won’t be surprised in the future if they remove apps dashboards and we would be forced to create an extension that integrates in the theme. That’s where they’re going. It allows them to release things without worrying about what we created,” he added.
2. Limit Creativity
De Sousa also advises his fellow developers to not build anything that is beyond Shopify’s limit. “Shopify’s limits are here but can be removed anytime. They don’t need to build things for months to release it,” he said.
He also gave an example saying: “Apps that exist because we can’t exceed 100 variants. The moment they increase it, some apps will die.”
3. Above Basic
The developer feels that Shopify merchants deserve apps and themes that provide more than “basic” functionality. “We now see where Shopify is going. They give us more tools to provide value and at the same time they release something “basic” for merchants,” he said.
De Sousa went on to describe the process in three points. “Take your app’s main feature,” he begins and urges the developers to discover the basic version of this app.
Shopify will release the basic version but it leaves the developer at risk. De Sousa explained with an example: “Apps to translate the store. The basic here is: You provide a text, we translate”.
“You can’t go lower than that, this is the basic. And some apps only provided this basic feature. So obviously Shopify was going to release something for that. And these apps died. Except for the ones giving MORE value and features than the basic ones,” he added.
About Mat De Sousa
De Sousa is the CEO of The Wide Company, which developed Shopify apps — Wide Bundles ‑ Quantity Breaks and WideReview Reviews Testimonial. He started the company in 2020. “Since then, we’ve grown from 0 to more than 2100 users and from $0 to $27K in less than a year without any funding. Our goal is to create the biggest Shopify apps studio in France,” reads a statement on his website.
Shopify’s Support
In June, Shopify announced new updates to assist app developers in making e-commerce a better place for everyone. Shopify President Harley Finkelstein took to Twitter to discuss the four updates that every app developer must know.
“Shopify is the best place to build your app – period. Thousands of devs have built businesses on the Shopify App Store, and more are joining daily. Being the best place to build means constantly evolving. We deeply value our community’s feedback. That’s why we recently shipped a ton of new updates to make it faster and smoother for you to build and sell apps on Shopify,” Finkelstein said in a Twitter thread.
Finkelstein’s thread mentioned only four updates, though there are many more. Easy submissions, a new app store, built for Shopify and an advertising algorithm are four crucial updates described by the Shopify President.
