The App Collective Episode 50
Losing a whale
Hello App Collective! We are at the final stretch of the first month of 2025. I’m not sure how your month has been going, but on my end this month felt like a year. There were high highs and low lows and a lot of life in between.
This is a free episode because today we have reached 2 milestones in one episode - we have officially been doing this newsletter for a year (technically on the 30th) and it’s also our 50th episode - tada! For those of you that have been with the newsletter for the entire year - thank you!! For those of you that have been around since the OG days of The App Collective during the webinars era - you really are real ones!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
I have some exciting news on the horizon so stay tuned. Until then, without further adieu, let’s get into today’s episode.
What’s inside:
Shopify Editions
Losing a whale
This news is a little bit old but … Shopify is getting organized this year and has announced the dates for Shopify Editions in May - once again held in Toronto. With the later notice last year, the prices of hotels and flights were pretty outrageous. This is probably due to Summit happening at the same time and it being summer in a vibrant Canadian city that people tourist during warmer months.
Word of advice: Book your travel NEOW if you haven’t already. As of now, things seem fairly reasonably priced at least from what I’m seeing.
Shopify Meetup Central & Eastern Europe 2025
If you’re on the UK/Europe side of the pond, there’s a Shopify partner event in April held at a cool looking location in Budapest, Romania.
I would totally go if I was on that side of the world for sure.
You can get your tickets here.
Losing a whale of a client
Losing a major merchant, often called a "whale," can be a challenging experience for a Shopify app. However, it's also an opportunity to reassess, adapt, and grow. And depending on your revenue model, a whale could mean a lot of different things but for this example, we can think of a whale as a store that has a high LTV with your app - either they spend a lot monthly or they have been with your app for years and are of high worth to your app.
They can be a well-known brand you feature on your website as a case study, a social proof logo on your home page, a review featured in a prominent area, etc. You get the idea…a store you would be completely gutted to lose on various levels - financially, relationally, and usually both.
Here are a few tips on how to recover from losing a whale of a client:
1. Conduct a Post-Mortem Analysis
Understand Why: Reach out to the client to understand why they left. Was it due to pricing, features, customer support, or external factors (e.g., budget cuts)?
Focus on Improvement: Use their feedback to identify areas for improvement in your app.
Could this have been avoided somehow? Did you somehow miss a beat with expectations or communication somewhere along the way?
2. Diversify Your Revenue Base
Avoid Over-Reliance: Ensure no single merchant accounts for a disproportionate percentage of your revenue in the future. This reduces risk.
Expand Your Niche: Consider targeting smaller merchants or different segments of the Shopify ecosystem to create a balanced portfolio. I’ve mentioned this in a past episode earlier last year. Portfolio diversification is key to ensuring financial stability.
3. Focus on Retention
Engage Existing Customers: Strengthen relationships with other merchants. Offer personalized support, check in regularly, and ensure they're seeing value. Figure out ways to help smaller merchants grow into larger merchants who would be more than happy to give you a case study about their success with your app down the line. In other words, build new relationships across several merchants.
4. Attract New Customers
Leverage Case Studies: If the whale store achieved success with your app, use their journey as a case study to attract similar stores (with permission).
Enhance Marketing Efforts:
Run targeted campaigns emphasizing the unique benefits of your app.
Invest in content marketing, such as blog posts, webinars, or partnerships with Shopify experts.
Shopify App Store Optimization: Improve your app's visibility and conversion rates by optimizing your listing with updated screenshots, reviews, and feature descriptions.
5. Strengthen Value Proposition
Develop New Features: If feedback from the lost merchant highlights a gap in your app, prioritize filling that gap. OR reconsider your ICP to fit into the features you currently have.
Highlight ROI: Emphasize how your app directly impacts sales, customer experience, or operational efficiency for merchants. This should be a goal for any app that increases operational or financial efficiencies. How can you resell that value to your customers on a more regular basis? If you aren’t, another app probably is.
6. Turn Loss Into Opportunity
Embrace Transparency: If the store was a prominent name, you can either remove their logo, case study, review, etc for transparency that they are no longer using your app OR keep ‘em if the merchant is still okay with you using their likeness.
Reconnect in the Future: Circumstances change. Reach out to the merchant if you have a close relationship in a few months to see if they are happy with their change. This is especially helpful if you made any changes to the app or business that would affect their decision to come back.
7. Resilience and Mindset
Learn and Move Forward: View the loss as a learning experience, not a failure.
Stay Focused: Reaffirm your mission and long-term goals, focusing on delivering value to a wider Shopify store experience.
Thanks again for reading and being a part of my world. Cheers to starting a brand new month stronger than ever before.
Until next week,
Deb