We back, babbbbyyyyy!
In today's newsletter, we focus on:
What this newsletter will be about moving forward
Technical debt with your Shopify app
Spotlighting an opportunity for a Shopify app collaboration or feature build
Back story and where we’re going
Years ago, we started The App Collective to elevate the discovery process for merchants to uncover the best Shopify apps to use in their tech stack. At the time, Shopify just lowered the barrier to entry for app developers to join and the flood gates opened. There were probably around 6,500 apps at the time which was a lot…hahahaha and there’s more than 8,000 now!! We partnered with some of the most exciting apps in the ecosystem for a series of webinars and an ambitious 58-page e-book (IYKYK). It didn't feel like we were doing anything out of blatant bias, although there are always biases in the content we put out as humans.
When I (Deb) thought about how to restart this newsletter, I was concerned about biases and maintaining my integrity. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized the benefit of doing it outweighed the perceived negatives.
And one thing about me is I LOVE to talk about Shopify apps. It's an obsession that I have turned into a career over the past ten years. WOW, seeing that in writing just gave me the chills. I've had the extreme fortune of working with apps of all sizes since 2016 after working at a Shopify development agency for two years.
In this newsletter, we'll explore all things Shopify apps, from the apps that I like that my friends work on, apps I've worked with in the past or present, and lesser-known apps I find in my travels through the app store. We'll discuss marketing & sales strategies, operational ideas, news, and anything related to Shopify.
Now, enough about me; let's get into some exciting content.
Technical debt
Those of you who know me know that I am good at helping apps with positioning and growth. Admittedly, I've put some lipstick on a few pigs (allegedly). Harshly said but it’s true.
No amount of advertising dollars, partnership opportunities, influencers, content, positioning, etc., will work in growing apps with a lot of technical debt. If your app needs to catch up features-wise, the UI is old, and you're busy fixing bugs and adhering to Shopify's mandated updates, you will have a steep hill to climb in growing your MRR. The solution isn’t throwing more money on the front end and hoping it sticks. Spoiler: it won’t. I suspect that is why some app developers think that Shopify ads don’t “work.” We can save that for a future newsletter to dive deeper into.
Your best bet is to throw whatever resources you have into catching up development-wise before you spend resources (time and money) on acquiring new customers. Otherwise, you'll have a never-ending revolving door of customer churn, wasted time, and money.
Spotlight an app collaboration or feature build
UGC and Back in Stock notifications are two huge trends we've seen in eCom over the past couple of years.
I'd love to take credit for the entirety of this novel idea, but it came from a conversation with a Shopify Reels app developer I've done small projects with over the past few months.
I mentioned that the competitor's app looked great on the home page of this store, but the user experience could have been better. The majority of the REELS showcased were of products that were out of stock. WOMP WOMP. I mentioned that it would be great if he built a feature in his app that automatically swapped out the REEL once the SKU was out of stock so the page always had fresh inventory that people could purchase. He suggested another alternative where you can set up back-in-stock notifications on those REELS instead. Both aren't terrible ideas. Which one do you like the most?
Alright, well, that does it for the first newsletter back. I hope you enjoyed it and you stick along for the ride.
See you next week in your inbox,
Deb
Follow on X @DebMecca