was approved last month; however, we have not received any installs to date. We wanted to ask whether this is typical for newly approved apps, or if there could be an issue related to our app’s visibility in the Shopify App Store.
Since the launch, we have received several emails offering paid or fake installs and reviews, which we have not accepted or responded to. We strongly believe in growing and promoting apps in a fair and transparent way, especially for new apps that are still establishing their presence. Starting without installs or reviews has been somewhat discouraging, particularly given the significant time and effort invested in development.
From a developer perspective, we believe that increased visibility or promotion opportunities for newly approved apps could greatly help them gain initial traction and compete more fairly within the App Store ecosystem.
We also attempted to promote the app using Shopify Ads, but unfortunately this did not lead to any installs and resulted only in ad spend.
We would greatly appreciate any guidance, insights, or recommendations you may have regarding app visibility, discovery, or best practices to help improve installs.
Thank you very much for your time and support. We look forward to your feedback.
This is actually more common than it feels, especially for newly approved apps — and usually is not a technical visibility issue. A few point that might help:
New apps don’t get organic discovery by default. Until an app has installs, reviews and any signals being used, the app store algorithm rarely surfaces it. So, zero installs in the first few weeks or months is not unusual.
Shopify Ads alone rarely work for new apps. Without social proof or a sharp hook, ads tends to drive impressions, not installs. We have seen this issue earlier.
The real gap right now is promotion: Merchants would hesitate to install analytics or data related app at the first place without any social reviews or proof that shows real outcomes.
What usually works better at this stage than ads is direct outreach to founders or merchants to secure early installs and collect honest feedback. Also, try to improve the listing for conversion add real dashboard visuals, and briefly explain “why this vs others.
You did the right thing by avoiding fake installs. Early traction is less about visibility and more about earning the first proof points manually — once those exist, discovery becomes much easier.
Getting your first few reviews is always a battle. You need installs to get reviews, but you also need reviews to get installs, so it’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation.
Even once someone installs an app, it’s extremely rare for them to leave a review when they’re happy, even if you ask directly. Most people only tend to write reviews when something goes wrong, so in reality it becomes a numbers game.
This is made even harder by the fact that some competitors simply buy reviews. It might look tempting when you’re starting out, but I’d strongly avoid going down that route. It feels like we are finally starting to be some traction around getting Shopify to take fake reviews more seriously, and if an app is caught doing it there’s a real risk it could be removed from the App Store. Building genuine reviews now will put you in a much stronger position when they eventually clamp down.
In my opinion, the main trick with a new app is getting it in front of the exact audience who are most likely to give it a try, even without reviews.
The best ways I’ve found are replying when people specifically ask about apps like yours in the Shopify Community or Shopify-related subreddits. Reddit ads can also work well. They’re relatively cheap, and you can target very specific subreddits so your app appears directly in front of the right people.
I can also see you have a free plan, which is a great way to encourage those first installs.
Just keep at it. It can sometimes feel like a slow burn at the start, but if your app is genuinely useful, the installs and reviews will come.