Hey! 👋

How are you?

2 weeks have passed since our last email so I’m happy to send you this one!

Before starting, you can now purchase your tickets to The Wide Event! 💚

It’s our Shopify Partners event in Paris, on May 27, from 6:00 pm to 11:30 pm.

I prepared something big:

• 150 attendees

• 4 of the best conferences and speakers

• French petit-fours and wine

• Time for networking in an amazing place called “The Hall of Mirrors”

And for the first 50 tickets, you can get them at -50%! (Only until Monday 22 though)

Get more details about the event by clicking on the image below 👇

In today’s email we’re going to talk about:

• The Wide Event

• Access to the Shopify App Founders Community

• The products and variants API are going to change

• Our first 1-star review on WideReview

Let’s go!

The Wide Event

I wanted to release the tickets sooner. That’s why I announced it 3 months before the date.

But in the end, with all the work and unexpected events, the tickets are live only 1 month and a half before the event.

But it should be enough! And many people already got their tickets!

4 sponsors followed me for this edition, and I can’t thank them enough: Zapiet, Crisp, Mantle, and Pagefly!

For the moment 2 speakers are announced: Ruslan and Tim

And just with them, be prepared to receive a lot of value!

Ruslan is the founder of many Shopify Apps including Checkout X or Vanga AI. He also sold many of them.

And during his talk, he will share with you how he did it so you can do the same.

Tim was the Head of Marketing at Loox and he worked for many successful companies. He’s also behind the most successful Oberlo blog post.

And in his talk, he will share with you these secrets!

This time I won’t be talking, but you’ll be able to talk to me during the networking time!

Access to the Shopify App Founders Community

Earlier this month I got access back to my Facebook account!

For those who don’t know, my account has been locked since October 4.

And I had built a community for Shopify App Founders on it: The Shopify App Founders (Yea, the name is pretty basic).

So I couldn’t post on it anymore!

But now I got it back!

I already did a live last week, and even though I announced it one day before, 60 people watched it in total!

You asked many great questions and I always love discussing with you, so I’ll do more in the future!

You can join it if you haven’t already: The Shopify App Founders Community

The products and variants API are going to change

Being a Shopify App Founder is a roller coaster. Shopify is evolving so fast as a company, which should be great, but for us, it makes things complicated.

We’re not as big as Shopify so whenever we have to make changes, it takes a lot of time, especially because we’re the last ones to be notified.

• They released BFS where you have to update your app

• They announce updates that you have to add to your app

And recently they announced something big:

The increase in the variants limit and the number of options.

From 100 variants to 2,000.

From 3 options to 3+.

And to increase this limit they had to change the API. This means updates again!

We’re working with products and variants API on WideBundle so it means change.

1. They’re deprecating the Rest API for products and variants

2. They’re updating the GraphQL API for products and variants

So you’ve to understand first what has changed, then update your app.

The problem is that it’s not just an endpoint that needs to be changed but the complete workflow, so it’s not just about changing the API call but also about changing the way your app works.

And you understand why it’s a roller coaster.

You constantly have to work on things that NEED to be done but are not making your business better.

Other apps too, but it’s still annoying! That’s part of the game!

Our first 1-star review on WideReview

Let me tell you about that story.

I released WideReview in 2021. It’s been 3 years.

Since then I never received a single bad review… until last week!

And we didn’t receive 1 bad review. We received 2! 😳

So I investigated.

1. The two stores used our app for only a few minutes WITHOUT actually using our features (Mixpanel shows everything!)

2. Both stores come from the US

3. The two stores are empty (not real stores, or at least completely new)

4. Both stores left many 1-star reviews on other review apps during that time

Based on that it’s clear that they are fake reviews.

When it happens, the only thing you can do is pack all the proofs and contact Shopify Partners support, but also contact them on Twitter.

But most people were never able to remove the bad reviews.

So usually I just say: Get more 5-star reviews. And you should follow it too!

The problem in our case is that we’re not doing any marketing on WideReview and not actively collecting new users or new reviews, making it almost impossible to cover these 2 bad reviews!

Too bad!

Fake reviews impact the ecosystem a lot. It impacts partners but also merchants.

Finding fake reviews is complicated, and technology cannot find all of them. Do you think Shopify can do something about it?

Thank you for reading that far! Don’t forget the Wide Event!

And see you in the next email!

Mat 😁