Do you think that Shopify should allow app developers to promote their apps or should the Shopify app store only show results organically?
Asked 6 years ago
Shopify recently started promoting apps in their app store. I understand that it's important for them to improve monetization, but my question is how this move will affect merchants and app developers.
Tom Amitay
Monday, April 01, 2019
Good question. This move that Shopify made not long ago certainly gave app developers with a lot of money in funding a serious advantage. I think that the main issue is that it raises the bar for new app developers with limited budgets. I fear that the Shopify app store is becoming more about advertising and money than about quality. It can affect the entire ecosystem eventually because average apps with deep pockets are now able to get more exposure than great bootstrapped apps. But these are the rules of the game everywhere, right? On Google, you can appear first if you pay, and the same goes for Facebook and Instagram. This is why big brands can quickly become monopolies. But still, you see bootstrapped companies that come from nowhere and snowball. Also, remember that most users react differently to ads than to organic results. We naturally trust unbiased information much more than promotions, and this is where the small apps should focus their efforts. If they provide great value, personal customer support, and be responsive to feedback, they'll still be able to compete. I trust Shopify will keep showing organic results based on overall performance because it is imperative that their algorithm identifies and advances the best apps for Shopify to continue being successful. If merchants see that they can't rely on advertised apps, they will naturally learn to disregard the ads, and then there's no value in them whatsoever. The Shopify app store itself has to stay very trustworthy and competitive so that good app developers can sill create independent growth. If they miss the mark on this one, alternative app stores or even google search can take over. Or, even worse, app developers can be discouraged and seek other platforms. That would be a terrible outcome since app developers are a super important part of the ecosystem. By allowing them to create apps, Shopify uses a kind of crowdsourcing to improve their service and attract more merchants. Shopify, no matter how big and strong, could never match the aggregated creativity and drive that all of the app developers bring to the game. It may affect merchants if app developers have to increase prices to cover their marketing budget. I believe that The two final issues that may take time to perfect are targeting capabilities and relevance score. Shopify developers should be able to target merchants based on average order value, number of orders, store type, etc. And I hope the algorithm shows ads based on how relevant they are to merchants, not only on the bid relevance score (like it's done on Google and Facebook).
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