#10 - How to build a successful Shopify App 🚀

Shopify Unite 22 🎤

Shopify announced Shopify Unite. It's THE place to be in 2022 for Shopify Partner.

At Shopify Unite you'll be able to meet other Shopify Partners, make partnerships, listen to 2022 updates and boost your energy!

You have 3 events:

• London on September 12-13

• Toronto on October 12-13

• Melbourne on October 26-27

The events are the same and you can't buy more than 3 tickets!

I'll personally be at London's event so if you want to meet me you know where to go!

I launched the Magical Checklist for Customer Support ✨

Finally! I created a FREE checklist for all Shopify App owners to help them identify key steps to automate and prepare delegation of their customer support!

I've been through the pain of it. Getting more and more tickets and I had to learn how to hire someone, how to create processes and how to spend the least time possible on support.

And I packed this knowledge into a simple FREE checklist that you have to follow to delegate your support.

If you want to get the list, click here

8000 followers 🙆‍♂️

This is huge, 8000 people are following on Twitter. Can you imagine that? When I started taking Twitter seriously in December 2021, my goal was to get 10,000 followers by the end of 2022.

It was a big number and I didn't know if I'd be able to reach it. But I took the bet.

Today, we are at 8000 followers, only 2000 left for the main goal and we still have more than 5 months until the end of 2022.

When I started I had this vision:

I wanted to be the guy I'd like to meet when I started.

I've been building Shopify apps since 2017 and it wasn't easy. I struggled and the thing is, we didn't have a lot of content around it, people showing how they managed to build their app and grow it.

So I made it a mission: if someone wants to build a Shopify App I want them to type "Mat De Sousa". I want to be the reference for Shopify Apps.

And every day I receive messages from people saying thanks for the content, saying I helped them or inspire them and I'm so grateful for that!

One point I didn't expect was that people would do the same thing. More people are sharing their experiences daily, teaching what they've learned, which is incredible!

So thank you again for that, let's keep going, more is coming, so stay tuned!

600 subscribers to this newsletter 🥳

When I set up the goal of 10,000 followers, I told myself I also wanted to create a newsletter, where I would share insights, my thoughts, and everything.

And I told myself I'd create it at 5000 followers, which I did.

Today, more than 600 people are reading my weekly newsletter which is even more incredible. People take time to open my email every week and read it.

So if you're reading this, thank you very much! This couldn't have happened without you!

This tutorial isn't directly for Shopify Apps. You can use it for any business.

But since I have received this question many times, I think I have to explain my thoughts about it.

The question I receive a lot is:

Isn't the Shopify App market already saturated?

The first answer to that is:

If the Shopify App Market is saturated, all other business markets are too. Yet, we see a lot of new businesses that are working.

New markets and new businesses are rare. To get a new market, we need to create new needs, which doesn't happen overnight.

If you tell me that creating a Shopify app was easier 4 years ago, I'll say your right! But it's the same thing for other businesses!

Once something is too easy to do, many people will jump into this new opportunity. The easier it is to enter, the faster the market will be saturated.

And trust me, building a business with no entry barrier is not a great idea.

Now that you have my thoughts about saturated markets, let's discuss how to deal with them!

How to build an app in a saturated market?

When a market is saturated it usually means there are a lot of people. Whether it's competitors or customers.

So usually when a market becomes bigger and more saturated, there is a place for sub-markets.

Sub-markets are less saturated markets. And since many people are still in it, you can do business. And it will allow you to penetrate the initial market with more power slowly.

For a Shopify app, you can't compete with other apps if they already have a lot of reviews, trust from merchants, etc.

You'll have to pick a market and jump into a sub-market.

The market can be upsell apps so your target is people who want upsell apps. But since you already have a lot of competitors, you will niche down and you can use your unfair advantages to choose this sub-market.

For WideBundle, many bundling apps already existed. What I did was simple, I focused on the French market because I speak French and I targeted French merchants who wanted bundling apps.

By doing it:

• Your copy will be written for these people so they will feel that your app is THE solution for them

• You won't have any competitors in this sub-market (or only a few)

• You get unfair advantages for this sub-market (in my case, speaking French and knowing this sub-market was better)

Even if this sub-market isn't that big, it will allow you to get your first customers and reviews and compete with others.

Once done, you can broaden your market and compete with other apps.

If we take another example: ConvertKit.

Nathan Barry founded ConvertKit, an emailing service.

The market was saturated and Nathan couldn't grow. What he did was simple, he focused on bloggers.

Doing that, he knew who to contact and where to get users.

Getting the 2nd customer was easier because you had social proof

He started to grow and was able after that to broaden his target.

How to pick a sub-market?

I suggest you pick a sub-market before building an app. That way you can choose your app based on the sub-market.

So it's something that comes before.

And to choose it, you have to go with your unfair advantages.

If you're Brazilian, great, start with a Brazilian app

If you've been in retail for 20 years and know the market, great, go for it, build an app for this market

It's all about checking what you have and using it.

That's it for this email! Thank you for reading! Hope you liked it! If you did, forward this email to someone who will like it too!

See you next week,

Mat