Launched my first Shopify app a week ago (Purser), still on 0 reviews. How would you approach the first installs?

Shopify Discussion
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Hi all,

I launched my first Shopify app last week: Purser.

It handles purchase orders, one-screen receiving, and accounts payable inside the admin. Short version, it tracks what you owe each supplier, when the bills are due, and what you actually paid for stock over time, not just the last price Shopify hangs onto.

I’m in the awkward part now. Zero reviews, and I think that’s the exact thing making a cautious shop owner hesitate to install. I’ve been going into threads where merchants are already talking about this stuff rather than cold DMing, which feels more honest, but it’s slow and I haven’t cracked the first reviews yet.

A bit on why I built it. Shopify keeps a single cost field per item and it’s whatever you paid last. Buy 100 at $4, then 20 at $7, and every unit reads $7. That quietly wrecks your margin numbers. On top of that, Stocky, the app a lot of smaller shops used for POs and supplier stuff, is being retired by Shopify on 31 August, so there’s a wave of people needing somewhere to land. So there’s a real gap opening, and I wanted something that does the boring money side, POs, receiving, and the supplier bills, in one place, without shoving people onto a $300 ERP.

My honest worry is positioning. The people who’d get the most from this are established shops doing proper bookkeeping, and those are exactly the people who won’t touch an app with no track record. It’s free under 5 POs a month and $37.99 for unlimited, so the barrier isn’t money. It’s trust.

So I’d really value your read on:

  1. Would you lead with “Stocky’s closing, here’s where to land” or with the accounts-payable angle, since almost nothing cheap actually does that?
  2. How did you get your first few reviews when your buyers are the careful type?
  3. Is there a smarter move than daily outreach for an app whose whole pitch is “don’t lose your supplier data before August”?

If the idea or the listing makes you go “no thanks”, I’d honestly rather hear that now than later.

Thanks for reading.

2

Merchants want free as much as possible, so for putting out your first app, I’d recommend taking a hit on gating the plans, and offer an “early subscriber” deal. Maybe offer pro plan for free for the first 50 merchants. I’m not an app developer but if I was I’d probably do something like that. Accept some up front profit cuts in exchange for some downloads and customers actually using the product and reviewing. And also maybe adjusting what’s included in the plans themselves. 5 vs unlimited.. I think there is a wide enough gap between free and pro that you could make room for something in the middle.

3

Reviews are not easy to come by at first. I’m still at 0 reviews, but have a very awesome set of paying clients and a lot of stores that have installed. Don’t expect too much too fast. Some apps go months and months without reviews, but that doesn’t indicate your app is not liked. They are just busy with running their store.

5

I’m in a similar spot. I build Efsun (abandoned cart recovery suite), overhauled the whole app and relaunched last week. Tried reaching out to people on Reddit for a while, only one actually tried it and left a review.

One data point on the free plan question, since I just lived it: I retired my free tier at relaunch, and a free user’s goodbye email was basically “I picked yours because it offered 10 a month free, we don’t use it often enough to pay for it.” The free tier attracted exactly the people who would never convert or review. If I did early-supporter pricing again I’d do a time-limited deal on the paid plan instead of a free tier. You want early users who actually value the thing.

Also, Cold emailing stores is a minefield, even ones that installed your app. What works better for me: answering merchant threads where the pain is already being discussed, disclosing I’m the dev, keeping the app mention to one sentence. Slow, but it doesn’t burn trust. And put the review ask inside the app, triggered only after real usage, asking at the moment of value beats any email.

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Hi @jpfrompurser

In my opinion, you should start with mentioning the Stocky retirement because it is an urgent issue that many merchants want to resolve. Having attracted their attention, mention the ability to work with accounts payable as one of the main advantages compared to competitors.

In order to establish credibility, I would suggest to provide free onboarding/migration services for your first users in exchange for a review. Just a couple of authentic reviews may turn out to be very useful for you.

Moreover, I would suggest creating a comparison page between Stocky and your application and show what merchants get by migrating from one platform to another.

Instead of sending emails each day, you may publish posts that will be helpful for people to migrate from Stocky, participate in Shopify Community discussions regarding Stocky and ask your early users about their experience with the app.

In general, the concept resolves an actual problem. The main issue is not the pricing but the trust.

7

Hi there @jpfrompurser
Congratulations on the launch. With a product like this, trust is probably the biggest hurdle, so a small number of early reviews from some relevant merchants will be worth more than any big outreach. You might want to provide a handful of store owners with a guided setup experience in exchange for feedback. Focusing on the Stocky transition might gain you some eyeballs, but true value could be found in accurate costing, suplier tracking and better purchasing decisions. The niche is well-defined and by targeting merchants that have a recurring purchase order you might just find your audience.

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I would not choose between the Stocky closure and accounts payable as if one has to become the permanent positioning.

Use the Stocky deadline as a time-boxed acquisition campaign, but keep the durable product promise around purchase orders, supplier bills and true stock cost. A possible structure:

Permanent promise: “Purchase orders, supplier bills and true stock cost for shops that have outgrown Shopify’s single cost field — without moving to a $300 ERP.”

Migration hook: “Moving from Stocky before August 31? Bring your purchasing history with you.”

For this audience, I agree that trust is the real blocker. I would build a small trust pack before doing more daily outreach: a migration checklist, a sample CSV/import result, a short reconciliation demo showing how one item’s cost is calculated across deliveries, and a clear explanation of data access and support during migration.

One important caution on the review advice in this thread: do not make free onboarding or migration conditional on leaving a review. Shopify’s July 6 policy update explicitly prohibits review incentives inside or outside the app and can lead to review removal, ranking demotion or delisting. You can still offer free migration to early users; keep it unconditional, then ask for neutral feedback separately after they have completed a real value event, such as closing their first PO and reconciling a supplier balance.

That gives you an immediate August campaign without making Purser sound obsolete after Stocky closes.