#5 - How to build a successful Shopify App 🚀

WideBundle

2021 was a bit complicated. We reached a plateau for WideBundle. We saw some changes from Shopify so it didn't help. And Covid lockdown was over.

The churn was also so high that it was equal to the growth.

So at the end of 2021, when we had less support due to less activity, we prepared the 2022 plan to break this plateau completely!

By the way, some information regarding Shopify Apps Activity:

• January, February, and March (Q1) are usually not great months for Shopify Apps. Christmas, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and some stores close at the end of the year. This is usually a drop-off in the number of installs.

• April, May, and June (Q2) are better. You're starting to get traction again, and you'll probably see a peak in June.

• July, August, and September (Q3) are not that great. Better than Q1, though.

• October November December (Q4). You will see massive growth in October and mid-November. But then, nothing will happen in December (you might lose some MRR there)

The 1st question to ask is: How do you overcome a plateau?

If you reach a plateau, it's usually because growth = churn.

And we decided to break this question into 5 points:

• Reduce the churn

• Increase ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)

• Increase conversion rate (free to paying users)

• Increase conversion rate on the app store

• Increase the number of new paying users

And we fixed the goal for each point with a quantified number. We wrote a post in the team Slack and pinned it so that all the team knew what the goals were.

I'm sorry, the numbers are still private for the moment 👀

And then, for each point, we divided it into sub-points. There were the monthly goals.

We were then able to track that using data. Are we going toward our goals or not? Do we need to pivot? What should we change?

But we had our plan for 2022.

Q1 was focused on talking to our user base. We jumped into calls to understand what people needed and structured our roadmap with these calls.

We are currently on points 1, 3, and 4 and making progress. Then we'll focus on point 2 and, finally, point 5.

WideReview

Yup, WideReview, let's talk about it.

I built WideReview when I saw WideBundle was growing. I wanted to multiply the success. But it didn't work that way.

The 1st goal of WideReview was to learn how to work with developers. Managing developers is not the same as developing yourself, and I wanted to learn by doing.

I didn't want to hire developers for WideBundle because I didn't know how to do it and didn't want to "kill" my progress on the app.

But it was a mistake. I was still working full-time on WideBundle and had to manage developers on another project now. That is not a good idea.

If I had to go back, I would hire developers to build WideBundle again from scratch as another app. And the moment I was ready, I could place the developers on the real WideBundle, get the new code, and keep going.

But we can't go back in time, right? So let's continue with what we already have.

I still needed to take the win from that move, the benefits of having another app:

• I could make tests (because WideBundle earnings are paying for WideReview developers)

• I could go slowly and learn how to manage people, how to create documentation, etc.

And I did it!

The 1st goal was $1K MRR. We reached it. Now we are focused on having an app with features people love.

We didn't really do marketing. I'm not actively promoting WideReview to WideBundle users. I didn't do affiliate marketing as I did with WideBundle. I didn't do partnerships. I go slowly. Because I can!

And once WideReview features are great and enough (by talking to my current customers), I will be able to go faster.

I also want to hire developers on WideBundle first (using the 2022 plan to earn more), so I can completely dedicate my time to marketing both apps! (and to do some other cool stuff 👀)

The 1st chapter of this newsletter was about my back story. You learned a lot about what I did, how I did it, my failures, my successes, etc.

And almost 400 people are reading this newsletter now! Wow! Thank you!

So I wanted to ask you since I'm writing it for you:

What do you want to see in the next emails?

Reply to this email directly to send me your responses! It will help me structure the emails for the coming weeks!

Let's go for chapter 2 next week. It will be crazy!

See you next week,

Mat