The App Collective Episode 18
Heat maps to gain intelligence
Hi~
I mentioned that we would be having guest contributors and today we are lucky (pun intended) to have The App Collective OG members Molly Staats and Sean McCarthy from Lucky Orange joining us for this episode. Next week, we have another guest contributor joining us so yay, so many cool things happening!
Have you all listened to Billie Eilish’s new tune called Birds of a Feather? It’s just wonderful. I have been listening to it on repeat for days.
This is once again going to be an action-packed episode so let’s get into it.
What's Inside
Speaking at Shopify Editions
Social listening for Shopify apps
Using session recordings to gain intelligence
Build better Shopify apps using Lucky Orange
Shopify Editions
This piece of news has been TOUGH to keep tight lipped about but I’m so excited to announce that I will be contributing to a workshop at Shopify Editions titled, Optimizing Your App Listing for Growth. This might be old news to you by now if you follow me on X but for those that don’t, there you go~!
So, to review, I will be hosting a panel on Monday at Pre/ditions with Tim Peckover and Tina Donati AKA “the band” titled, Full stack growth: Understanding the best marketing strategies to implement at every stage of growth. I believe that panel will be at 11:00 am. We just did a dry run of our talk today for the first time and it’s already shaping up to be one for the books.
On Tuesday, I will be doing a 30-minute workshop at Shopify Editions. I’ll have to get the time for that session soon for you all.
I hope to see you there! Please come say hi.
Social listening for Shopify apps
I cannot stress the importance of listening to your customers on social media enough, specifically X, LinkedIn, and Reddit.
The content above just happened yesterday. As app owners, you want to be able to discover these conversations, and have a plan to respond both publicly and also privately to their concerns. The OP explains his pain with the app in the full thread as it goes further on in the discussion.
Now there is also positive in this. There are clear brand advocates that have joined the chat endorsing the app too. What might Loox insert app name do with the people advocating for the brand? Yeah, a lot can be done for them here with this listening, too.
The potential churn can be avoided and the damage control of having this negativity stuck in potential new customers minds can be mitigated if handled with the proper care.
Sprout Social put together a list of tools you can consider using to listen to your customers on social media but they also created a guide on how to gather this intelligence specifically on X.
Using session recordings to gain intelligence
When I work with Shopify apps, one of my requirements is that they have a visual sessions recording software on both the app and the website. I require this for several different reasons.
Here are just a few of those reasons:
CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) - The Shopify app's website is a prospecting tool that customers sometimes use for support-related things.
1st hour churn - When a merchant uninstalls the app within the first hour, I want to monitor the onboarding flow and look for any leaks that can be patched for new installs.
Bad reviews - If a customer leaves a bad review, I want a single version of the truth to determine the app's real issue.
Troubleshooting - If a customer submits a support ticket but cannot articulate the issue or developers can't replicate the bug they are experiencing, the recordings can show where the problems are.
I want to learn:
How prospects are navigating through the site and app
How customer service is being handled and if it's answering their FAQs/problem solving their queries
The wins and the areas of opportunity for improved workflow
There are 2 goal outcomes:
Being reactive to issues related to churn
Being proactive in figuring out how best to optimize both the website and app for higher performance
That is precisely why I have asked my friends at Lucky Orange to contribute to this week's episode. This is not sponsored content, but if you follow me on social media, you know I love this app and this team. They are funnier on LinkedIn but are getting more active on X so follow them to encourage them to post more shenanigans.
So, without further adieu, let's turn this over to the experts to talk about why Lucky Orange is the silver bullet for Shopify app intelligence.
Sean McCarthy and Molly Staats, AKA the dynamic duo of the orange team, chime in on how Lucky Orange can be used for Shopify apps.
Build better Shopify apps using Lucky Orange
You're busy building a great app, but what happens when an issue arises in settings or onboarding? How are you supposed to fix something you can't see?
With Lucky Orange Session Recordings, you can see everything a visitor does, from initial signup and onboarding to billing, settings, and other key app activities.
This level of insight means you'll never be solving a problem blind again.
Here are a few ways you can use CRO tools in your day-to-day workflows:
User error or bug? Look into a customer service trend to see if people are engaging with your app incorrectly or if a true bug needs to be squashed.
Improve team communication: With clear visual proof of user behaviors, you can simplify the conversation between technical and non-technical team members.
Build better testing hypotheses: Verify an existing idea or spot a chance to optimize part of your app or website flow.
People often think this sort of thing takes a ton of time—time they don't have.
The solution to this concern is segmentation and filtering. With Lucky Orange, you can use premade segments or easily build your own based on the visitor groups you care about most.
Here are some common visitor segments app developers monitor:
First-time visitors: See what your newest signups do as they start to figure out how to use the app settings, navigate onboarding, and find their way.
Frustrated visitors: This premade segment shows visitors who rage click or shake their mouse in a way that indicates frustration—a great starting point for your research.
UTM-based segment from paid ads: If you're driving traffic to your app's site from paid ads, see what that traffic does on your site by creating a UTM-based group.
To make session recordings even more valuable, you can use Lucky Orange's other tools, including a powerful heatmap showing the page's average visitor behavior. This heatmap helps you see which page elements get clicks, how far down the page people scroll, and more.
TIP: Heatmaps are a great way to confirm that what you see in a session recording isn't just a fluke but a full-on trend worth working on further.
Give it a try to see how visitors are using your app and website.
Start a free 7-day trial with no credit card required.
Whether you use Lucky Orange or other services such as HotJar, FullStory, or any other sessions recording software, please consider installing it today so you can run your business more efficiently and with stronger insights.
Well, that’s it for today. Have a great week. Thanks for reading, liking, sharing, subscribing, and for being a paid subscriber (it really helps me continue to put out this content weekly), etc.
Deb
Great episode as always, super exited about your talk and panel in Editions and Pre/Editions. See you in Toronto 🇨🇦