Furious Shopify App Developers Should Find a Better Use For Their Anger
There is a little bit of "Who Moved My Cheese?" going on with the recent Insider article around Shopify's App Store changes.
The big lesson is the App Store is a marketplace. Shopify doesn't treat its employees as family (Tobi has said as much), it's more like a sports team. It doesn't see its app store partners as family either.
Some reminders for everyone:
1 - In a marketplace, you are the "help". Your job is to provide inventory. Your ranking will rise with your number of installs, results, and ratings.
2 - The reason marketplaces work is because of conversion. If you land on a page, you need places to go if (for whatever reason) the page you landed on doesn't fit the needs of the buyer.
People have been arguing about this since the days of eBay. You don't own the page.
3 - Shopify App Store is still relatively early in its marketplace journey. The fact that related app inventory is being shown that is not paid for, in 2022, is actually unique.
Wait until later this year when ad inventory takes over more. Smaller developers are generally not going to be advantaged going forward.
4 - I'm sure Shopify will make some adjustments, but still this is all a tempest in a teapot. A new equilibrium will be established, new winners and losers. If you were relying on a specific niche or hack, time to find a new one.
Shopify isn't going to lose a single developer over these changes. They are not the "prime mover" in the flywheel, they are the accelerant. The prime mover is the adoption and growth of new entrepreneurs and merchants.
Better to direct your energy away from being furious with Shopify, and instead focus on your overall product, marketing, and service.
