14 merchants, $0 revenue, and a 33% same-day churn problem — ProfitHelm update

ProfitHelm hit 14 active merchants this week. Net +3 in the last 30 days: 6 installs, 3 uninstalls. Sounds okay on paper. But 2 of those 6 installs churned the same day they installed — 33% same-day churn. That's the number keeping me up. People install, look around, and leave before they ever see value. Classic activation problem.

The hard truth: still at $0 revenue. The app is free while I figure out the activation loop. I'm watching install patterns and the data is telling me something is broken between 'installed' and 'got it'. Either the onboarding isn't showing value fast enough, or the wrong merchants are finding it. I'm leaning toward the latter — the Shopify app store discovery is a black box and I have no idea who's actually landing on the listing.

Next: I'm going to focus on the first 10 minutes of the install experience. Map exactly what a merchant does (or doesn't do) before churning. If I can't fix activation, scaling installs doesn't matter. Also finally going to set up a paid plan — free forever is a bad signal and probably attracting tire-kickers. Would love feedback from anyone who's solved same-day churn in a Shopify app — what moved the needle for you?