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CASE-STUDY

Shopify

Empowering Merchants Through a Thriving Ecosystem

Shopify, the leading e-commerce platform, has revolutionized how merchants set up and manage online stores. A key factor in Shopify’s success is its extensive App Store—a dynamic marketplace of third-party apps and plugins that extend the platform’s capabilities and enable merchants to customize their stores.

The Shopify App Store

The Shopify App Store features over 10,000 apps and plugins that allow merchants to tailor their stores to their unique needs. From marketing and sales tools to shipping and fulfillment solutions, the App Store provides merchants with everything they need to streamline operations and scale their businesses. This extensive ecosystem turns Shopify from a basic e-commerce platform into a highly customizable, full-service solution.

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Driving Value and Revenue

For Shopify, the App Store is a powerful driver of customer retention, offering merchants a wide array of integrations to enhance their online stores. It also represents a significant revenue stream, generating over $100 million in 2020 through listing fees and revenue-sharing agreements with app developers. As of 2023, over 5,000 app vendors have listed their products, with more than 80% of merchants using at least one third-party app—underscoring the App Store’s critical role in Shopify’s growth.

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A Powerful Partner Network

Beyond the App Store, Shopify has developed a robust partner network that includes developers, agencies, and consultants who provide specialized expertise and services. This ecosystem drives referrals, attracts new customers, and supports merchants in building and growing their online stores. In 2021, the Shopify Partners ecosystem alone generated a staggering $32 billion in revenue, highlighting the immense value this network brings to the platform.

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Extensibility at the Core of Shopify

Shopify’s marketplace strategy is all about fostering a community that empowers merchants. The App Store and partner network make it easy for businesses of all sizes to access the tools and resources they need to succeed. This focus on extensibility transforms Shopify into a flexible, scalable platform that evolves with its users, allowing them to stay competitive in a rapidly changing market.

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Let's Build on Shopify

Shopify has a range of options available for developers to extend the ecommerce product's functionality.

Let's take a look at building an App Bridge extension. As always, we we create our basic sample personalised "Hello ${User}" application.

Our goal is to create a new plugin, register it and have it running inside the target platform. We will also try to use the available SDK or APIs to show a personalised greeting if this functionality is available.

Zero to Hello World

To create a Shopify app using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and have it hosted on a third-party hosting service, you can use Shopify's App Bridge. This will allow your app to be embedded within the Shopify admin UI.

Here are the steps to create a simple "Hello World" app with a personalized greeting message:

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1. Create a new Shopify app:

  • Go to the Shopify Partners Dashboard (https://partners.shopify.com/) and log in or sign up for a partner account.
  • Click on "Apps" in the sidebar, then click "Create app."
  • Select "Custom app" and enter the required information, then click "Create app."
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2. Set up App Bridge in your app settings:

  • Go to the "App setup" section in your app settings.
  • Add your app's "App URL," which should be the HTTPS URL where your app will be hosted.

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3. Create the frontend files (HTML, CSS, and JS) for your app:

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Replace 'YOUR_SHOPIFY_API_KEY' with your actual Shopify API key and 'YOUR_SHOPIFY_SHOP_ORIGIN' with your actual Shopify shop origin (e.g., 'https://your-shop.myshopify.com').

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4. Deploy the frontend files:

Upload the index.html and main.js files to a hosting service that supports HTTPS.

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Sponsored:

Forge is a great solution for deploying your Shopify Plugins. Built especially for plugin developers and to support the world's best plugin platforms. Verified plugin developers can host Shopify plugins for free.

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5. Configure your app's OAuth scopes:

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  • In your app settings on the Shopify Partners Dashboard, go to the "App setup" section.
  • Add the required OAuth scopes for your app, such as "read_shop_metadata."

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Now your Shopify app is ready to go. When a user installs your app and clicks the "Get Personalized Hello" button, they will see a personalized welcome message with the shop owner's name.

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Reference Documentation

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Developer Docs - https://shopify.dev/

App Bridge - https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/tools/app-bridge/getting-started/app-setup

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