Building an AI marketing assistant for Shopify merchants — looking for feedback
Building an AI marketing assistant for Shopify merchants — looking for feedback
Hey everyone,
I’m building Vexa AI, a tool that helps Shopify store owners create marketing content faster.
I noticed that many small store owners struggle with things like:
- Writing better product descriptions
- Creating ad copy
- Planning content consistently
Vexa helps with:
- Product descriptions
- SEO titles and meta descriptions
- Ad ideas
- Content plans
I’m currently looking for Shopify merchants who can try it and give honest feedback.
You can try Vexa AI here: https://vexa-growth-ai.lovable.app
What’s the biggest marketing challenge you face when running your store?
Nice niche - marketing content is a real pain point for solo store
owners. I'm in a similar space building Reporting SaaS, automating
the reporting side (revenue, orders, trends) instead of content
creation. Feels like our tools could genuinely complement each other
for the same Shopify merchant.
What's been the biggest challenge getting merchants to actually try
Vexa so far - discovery, or convincing them AI-generated content is
good enough to use as-is?
Thanks! I think they actually complement each other well — reporting helps merchants understand what’s happening, and Vexa helps them take action on that data through better marketing content.
So far, the biggest challenge has been discovery. A lot of Shopify merchants have the problem, but getting in front of them and getting them to try a new AI tool is the hardest part.
On the AI quality side, feedback has been surprisingly positive when they actually test it. The main thing is building enough trust for them to give it a shot.
Curious about your experience too — has distribution been the hardest part for your reporting SaaS?
Distribution has honestly been the hardest part for me too, more than I expected going in. My app is a Shopify sales/revenue reporting tool, launched a few weeks ago, and just getting the App Store listing itself right (accurate keywords, a translated English listing, avoiding vague copy) took longer than some of the actual features.
Reviews are the other big lever — ranking depends heavily on review velocity, and it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem: you need installs to get reviews, and reviews to get installs.
What's helped most so far honestly isn't any single channel, it's just conversations like this one. Curious if you've found anything that's worked noticeably better than others for Vexa's distribution, beyond the App Store listing itself?
Thanks for sharing this. I can definitely relate — distribution has been much harder than building the product itself.
For Vexa, what’s been working best so far is direct conversations with Shopify brands. I’ve been doing cold outreach to merchants, trying to understand their biggest marketing/content challenges before pushing the product.
I’m also experimenting with communities like Indie Hackers and Shopify groups, because the feedback from real conversations has been more valuable than just sending traffic.
I agree about reviews too — getting the first users is the hardest part. It feels like the early stage is mostly about finding those first few people who really care about the problem.
By the way, congrats on launching your Shopify reporting tool. What has been your most effective way of getting those first installs so far?
Honestly? Nothing dramatic yet, and I don't want to oversell it. I've spent the last couple weeks on the unglamorous stuff — fixing up the App Store listing (same thing you mentioned, took longer than expected), building a couple of SEO pages and a free calculator tool around the exact problem the app solves, and conversations like this one. Install numbers haven't moved yet from any of that, which is a bit deflating to admit, but I think it's just early — SEO especially takes weeks before it shows up at all.
The cold outreach angle you mentioned is interesting though — I've deliberately avoided messaging merchants directly so far, mostly because I wasn't sure how to do it without it feeling spammy. How are you finding people to talk to, and are they actually responsive to a cold message from a stranger?
Yeah, I totally understand. I think we’re both dealing with the same early-stage challenge: getting those first few users is much harder than building the product.
For cold outreach, I’ve been trying to avoid making it feel like a sales pitch. I usually approach it more as a conversation — asking about their current challenges with marketing/content and seeing if Vexa could actually help.
I’m finding Shopify stores through tools like StoreCensus and also looking for brands that are actively investing in marketing. The response rate is still not huge (most people don’t reply), but the few conversations I’ve had have been much more valuable than just waiting for traffic.
I think the key is that early outreach is less about scale and more about finding the few people who have the problem and are willing to talk.
I’m curious about your SEO pages and calculator idea — what calculator did you build around the problem your app solves?
Nice, that's a good sign that relationship-first outreach still gets responses even at low volume — StoreCensus is new to me, will check it out.
The calculator is pretty simple: "how many hours a year are you losing manually checking your Shopify sales." Two sliders — how often you check, how long each time takes — and it spits out a yearly total. Nothing technically clever, but it turns an abstract annoyance (repetitive admin logins) into a concrete number, which now that I think about it is basically the same instinct as your "prevented 2 oversells" framing from the other thread.
Here it is if you want to see it: https://reporting-saas-app.vercel.app/outils/calculateur-temps-perdu
Appreciate the outreach approach, by the way — treating it as an actual conversation instead of a pitch is probably exactly why people reply at all.
Thanks for sharing this — I actually like the idea of turning a vague pain into a concrete number. Making the cost of a problem visible is a powerful way to get people to care.
I checked the calculator concept and I think the same principle applies to ecommerce growth: merchants often know they have problems, but they don't always realize how much revenue or time they're losing until they see it quantified.
Also appreciate the feedback on outreach. I'm still experimenting with Vexa AI and trying to learn directly from store owners instead of just pushing a product.
Good luck with the reporting SaaS — curious to see how it evolves 🚀
Thanks Max, appreciate that — and genuinely good luck with Vexa too. The AI-quality-is-good-but-trust-is-the-blocker thing you mentioned earlier is going to be an interesting problem to watch you solve.
Feels like we ended up covering a lot of ground here — App Store mechanics, outreach, pricing psychology almost by accident. Good reminder that a single genuine conversation on here has been worth more than most of what I've tried this month. If Reporting SaaS and Vexa's audiences really do overlap the way we both suspect, be good to stay in touch as both things develop.
Thanks Ayoub, really appreciate the conversation too. I agree — building trust around AI outputs is probably one of the biggest challenges, especially when the product directly impacts business decisions.
I’ve learned a lot from these conversations, and it’s been great exchanging ideas beyond just the products themselves.
Definitely happy to stay in touch as both Reporting SaaS and Vexa evolve. Would be interesting to see where the audiences overlap and if there are opportunities to help each other in the future.
Good luck with Reporting SaaS as well!
I like that you're focusing on the recurring marketing tasks merchants have to deal with instead of trying to be an AI that does everything.
I'll be interested to see which workflow people keep coming back to most. Repeated use usually reveals where the product creates its strongest value.
Thanks! That’s exactly what I’m trying to learn at this stage. I want to understand which marketing workflow merchants naturally come back to instead of adding too many features. I’ll be tracking which tools get the most repeated use and feedback.
Appreciate the context.
The repeated-use signal is probably the most interesting thing to watch here.
Would be curious to hear what you discover as merchants start using it.
What's the best email to reach you on?
Thanks! I really appreciate the feedback.
I'm focusing on getting the first Shopify merchants actively using Vexa so I can learn from real usage patterns, especially repeat usage as you mentioned.
You can reach me at max.manuel.vexa@gmail.com. I'd also be happy to share what I learn as the product evolves.
Thanks! I’ve just sent it over.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts whenever you have a chance.
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