How to Build a Business as a Shopify App Developer

Follow these tips to find success as a developer on the Shopify platform.

Outline for Shopify Success

When developers ask us for help promoting their apps, we tell them:‍

• Become a Shopify merchant. Before you write a single line of code, or even start to imagine what you want your Shopify app to do, one must “become” the customer… to learn how to address real problems.
• World-class customer support. Most Shopify merchants have no knowledge of code nor are accustomed to reading long FAQ’s — get ready to answer a lot of simple questions, which will provide an opportunity to up-sell customizations or services that are very profitable for you both.
• Focus on emerging markets. Seek ideas to address specific needs for foreign countries, or at least focus your communication/UX on those countries. Localize makes this easy.

Go open source For visibility and reputation, contribute to open-source!

1. Hire the right way. StackOverflow and AngelList allow you to hire remote talent, which is often cheaper and easier than finding local employees, and they will usually be even more loyal. Win-win!
2. Line up plenty of trigger emails and email marketing. Use Intercom
3. Publish various Shopify apps. After some time, focus on between two to four apps and improve them constantly.

Ok, what’s next?

• Keep improving your Shopify apps, EVERY SINGLE DAY.
• Prepare your apps for internationalization with Localize — prioritize this!
• Do frequent promotions.
• Reach out to other developers and experts for cross-promotion.
• Expand your outreach by building apps for huge SAAS markets like AWS, Salesforce, Zendesk, and GoogleApps.

Good luck!

Don’t forget to send feedback and sign up for a Free Trial of Localize!

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