60 days building a Shopify app as a solo dev: 0 → 30 merchants (and 0 reviews 😅)
I’ve been building Shopify apps solo for about a year.
Two months ago, I started working on a new app focused on something pretty new: helping stores show up in AI answers (like ChatGPT and Gemini).
No big launch. No audience. Just shipping and figuring things out as I go.
Here’s what the last 60 days actually looked like — the good, the bad, and the confusing.
📊 The numbers
Started: 0 merchants
Now: 30 merchants
Revenue: $0 (free for now)
Reviews: 0
The “0 reviews” part turned out to be way more important than I expected.
🔍 What I learned from Shopify App Store SEO (ASO)
I did a full keyword audit:
Checked 38 keywords
Tracked ranking, competition, and top apps
Result: I ranked on page 1 for only 4/38 keywords.
A few examples:
“AI SEO” (~2,800 apps) → #18
“agentic storefronts” (~376 apps) → #12 (low competition, interesting space)
“AI visibility” (~2,300 apps) → #29
“JSON” (in my app name) → not even page 1
That last one surprised me the most.
The pattern was obvious:
Apps with 10+ reviews consistently outrank apps with 0 reviews — even if your listing is better.
So ASO isn’t just keywords.
👉 It’s keywords × reviews.
I also realized some of my search terms were useless.
Switched all 5 to more “blue ocean” keywords with weaker competition.
🚫 Getting banned from Reddit & Shopify Community
I tried doing what most devs do early on:
Answer questions
Mention my app when relevant
Got flagged and banned from both.
Lesson learned the hard way:
👉 These platforms reward helpful people, not subtle promoters.
What actually works (from observing others):
Give genuinely useful answers
Go deep, not generic
Don’t mention your app unless directly asked
Let your profile do the selling
⭐ The review problem nobody talks about
This is the hardest part so far.
30 merchants installed
Some are actively using it
Sent ~20 review requests
Added in-app prompts
Even personalized emails
Result: 0 reviews
It’s honestly frustrating.
Next experiment:
I’m planning to send short Loom videos to my top users.
From what I’ve read:
Email asks convert ~2–3%
Personal videos can hit 30–40%
Let’s see.
If anyone has cracked the “first 5 reviews” problem organically, I’d love to hear how.
👻 30–40% of installs never open the app
This one surprised me too.
Roughly a third of installs:
Complete install
Then never open the app
No idea why.
Could be:
Shopify behavior (install multiple, try few)
Weak onboarding
Wrong expectations
For now, I’m focusing on active users instead of chasing inactive ones.
🔜 What I’m doing next
Getting first 5–10 reviews (highest leverage)
Building SEO pages around queries like
→ “how to get your store recommended by ChatGPT”Trying cold outreach:
Find stores not appearing in AI answers
Show them proof
Reach out with that insight
🧠 My takeaways after 60 days
Shopify ASO is underrated
Reviews are the real bottleneck early on
Community marketing works — if you don’t act like a marketer
1:1 outreach > bulk messages (at this stage)
Still figuring things out, sharing as I go.
Happy to answer anything — especially if you’re building in the Shopify ecosystem.
