How to Find and Evaluate Great Shopify App Ideas | CodingWithJan
Today, we will discuss the significance of great Shopify app ideas for building a successful business. We'll explore the importance of a good app idea, methods for generating app ideas, and how to evaluate app ideas based on specific criteria.
The Importance of Great Shopify App Ideas for Building a Successful Business
Hey everyone, Jan here, CodingWithJan.com. Today, we will discuss the significance of having great Shopify app ideas for building a successful business. It's essential to understand that creating a profitable app business requires both initial and ongoing effort but has the potential to become a valuable revenue stream over time. Firstly, we'll explore why having a good app idea is crucial and what defines a 'good' idea in this context. Then, we'll delve into various methods for generating app ideas. Lastly, we'll cover how to evaluate your ideas based on our criteria for a 'good' app. Building an app from the ground up involves some level of risk, whether it's the capital investment or the time dedicated to the project. If the app idea fails, all efforts are lost, and even if the idea partially succeeds, it may still pose challenges. Stay tuned as we delve further into this topic.
Factors to Consider for App Evaluation
When evaluating app ideas, it is essential to consider various factors to ensure that the app has a strong foundation. The first and foremost factor to assess is the total addressable market (TAM). This involves determining the number of potential Shopify stores that could utilize the app. For instance, if the app is relevant only for Shopify Plus clients, the potential market size may be around two to five percent. It is crucial to have a clear understanding of the customer base and the market reach to gauge the app's potential success. Additionally, it is important to note that the criteria for app evaluation may vary based on individual perspectives and preferences. Therefore, it's essential to consider a personalized set of criteria that align with the specific goals and target audience of the app. Stay tuned for more insights on app evaluation in the upcoming series.
Factors to Consider for App Idea Viability in the Fashion Industry
When evaluating the viability of an app idea in the fashion or clothing industry, several factors come into play. First and foremost, the target audience is crucial. If the app idea caters to a broad audience within the fashion or clothing industry, the potential market share could be substantial, possibly ranging from 50 to 60 percent or even more. This estimation is based on the relevance and usefulness of the app idea to individuals remotely associated with fashion or clothing. While the data may be incomplete, this educated guess provides an initial insight into the potential market share.
Another critical factor to consider is the importance of the problem that the app idea aims to solve. For instance, if the app addresses a make-or-break feature, such as a calendar for event ticket sales or legal requirements like invoices, its significance is high. On the other hand, if the app focuses on a nice-to-have feature, such as a visually appealing slideshow, the urgency and importance may be relatively lower. Thus, evaluating the importance of the problem helps in gauging the necessity of the app idea.
Furthermore, considering the search volume within the segment is essential. This involves understanding whether individuals facing the identified problem would actively search for a solution. For example, for crucial needs like legal requirements, such as invoices, there is likely to be a substantial search volume as many individuals would seek a solution. This relative approach to evaluating search volume within the segment ensures a realistic assessment of the app idea's potential reach and impact within the fashion or clothing industry.
SEO Optimization and Marketing Opportunities
When it comes to optimizing the speed or loading time of your app, it is indeed a desirable feature that many users would appreciate. However, it's important to consider that users may not actively search for speed optimization on platforms like Google or the App Store. In order to gauge the demand for this feature, you can utilize public data points such as Google search volume, forum discussions, and YouTube video views to assess user interest. Additionally, apart from relying solely on search traffic, it's crucial to explore other marketing opportunities. For instance, identifying relevant Facebook groups where you can promote the app, leveraging your own YouTube channel, or targeting specific niche audiences such as Shopify Plus merchants can open up new marketing avenues. Furthermore, considering influencer marketing within the e-commerce space for an app that caters to a broader audience can also be advantageous. As a recipient of numerous cold emails requesting promotional partnerships, you have the opportunity to understand the shortcomings of such outreach efforts and leverage this insight to effectively promote your app through alternative marketing channels.
The Importance of Approaching Influencers and Marketing Strategies Beyond Search Traffic
When it comes to collaboration with influencers, it's crucial to approach them in the right way. Avoiding certain actions can significantly increase the chances of successful collaboration. Recently, we partnered with the Tech with Tim channel, which boasts over a million subscribers, to promote Freemode. This exemplifies the importance of the approach and the value of the product to the influencer's audience. It's essential to consider marketing opportunities beyond search traffic. Moving on, a key aspect to consider is the clear ROI for merchants investing in the app. The return on investment should be easily quantifiable. For instance, an upsell app generating an additional $1,000 per month with a cost of only $50 presents an obvious value proposition. On the other hand, for an invoice app, one might question the $50 cost. It's important to justify this by emphasizing the time-saving and legal compliance benefits. This additional layer of abstraction can make pricing justification more challenging, but it's crucial to communicate the value effectively.
The Importance of SEO Optimization in App Development
As an excellent SEO optimization engineer and a translator proficient in multiple languages, I understand the importance of considering various factors in app development. One crucial aspect is the clear and easy-to-understand ROI for the end user. It is essential to ensure that the value they receive from the app justifies the cost. Additionally, technical simplicity plays a significant role in app development. While some may argue that complexity leads to less competition, I believe that starting with a simpler app allows for faster prototyping and iteration, which is beneficial especially for a first app. As I strive for simplicity, I acknowledge the potential flaws in my thought process and workflows, making it all the more important to prioritize simplicity at this stage. Furthermore, low competition is a key consideration. For my first app, I am specifically seeking opportunities with little to no existing solutions, as this allows me to enter the market without intense competition. While some may see a lot of competition as indicative of high demand, my current focus revolves around avoiding direct competition due to the learning curve associated with my first app. These considerations guide my approach to app development, ensuring that I make informed decisions for a successful launch.
Key Considerations for App Development and Idea Generation
And yeah, therefore low competition, the less the better. Okay, last one on the list is then low support demand. Like how many people will have questions? And I guess if you have a more complex app, then naturally more people will have questions. So that's one consideration. And since free mode is still my main business, I just can't devote full-time hours to this right now. So yeah, I would rather prefer less questions. And I'm also considering whether the app only acts on the back end, which is the same for every store, or if it also has elements that go into the front end, because then it has to integrate with a lot of themes. So there might be a friction point. Yeah, just considerations in terms of the overall support volume. All right, so far so good. Now we have a better understanding of what makes an app actually good, in quotes. And now the question might become, how do you even come up with new ideas? And tons of different ways there. First of all, if you haven't seen the interview with Matt so far, I highly recommend you catch up on that, because there was a lot of good information in there. But let me also bring some other sources of inspiration your way. So for example, you can freelance for a while and just see what kind of problems occur repeatedly across different clients. You can check existing apps and think if they exist.
Tips for Generating App Ideas for Shopify
When it comes to generating app ideas for Shopify, there are several effective strategies you can employ. One approach is to seek inspiration from successful plugins used in other content management systems, such as WordPress. By identifying the most successful plugins and understanding their features, you can adapt similar functionalities for Shopify. Additionally, exploring the Shopify forum, Facebook groups, and Reddit can provide valuable insights into the needs and preferences of Shopify merchants. Engaging with the e-commerce community at meetups can also offer the opportunity to gather ideas from merchants and developers directly. Committing to thorough research and proactive engagement is essential for uncovering a plethora of opportunities. Personally, I initially had two ideas in mind, but I recognized the value of reaching out to the audience for input. Through a type form, we received an impressive 46 responses, which significantly surpassed my initial ideas. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who contributed their time and insights. I have already disbursed the $500 token of appreciation to the individual who suggested the winning idea. Before making the idea public, I aim to allocate time for thorough development, considering the low barrier of entry. Finally, it's important to note that the process of building and refining these ideas will take precedence before public release. In conclusion, the exploration of various avenues, combined with genuine audience engagement, will undoubtedly contribute to the emergence of compelling app ideas for Shopify.
How to Evaluate Your App Ideas Using a Decision Making Matrix
As an SEO optimization engineer, I have a pretty good understanding of what a good app means. Now, the last question becomes how can you evaluate all your ideas? The method I used is called a decision making matrix, which is commonly used in engineering. You would list all the ideas you have, such as idea A, B, C, D, and so on, and then list them against all the criteria that you defined. In our case, we had 50 ideas, which made 50 rows, and 8 criteria, resulting in 8 columns. Then, you would rate every idea for every criteria on a scale from 1 to 10. This rating can be based on educated guesses or data points you have. If one of the criteria is of special importance, such as the total addressable market, you could also introduce some weights. For example, the score or rating for total addressable market would be multiplied by 1.5 or 2. However, for simplicity, I counted all the criteria as equally important. You can then add up all the numbers per idea to end up with one score per idea. It's similar to a video game where the high score wins. This approach can greatly help in evaluating and prioritizing app ideas for development.
How to Define and Evaluate Good Apps
Today, I want to share with you the best idea for quantifying intangible qualities, such as a good app. It's not easy to directly measure the quality of an app, but we can use proxy measurements or criteria to evaluate them on a scale from 1 to 10. This method allows us to define and measure the term 'good app' effectively. It's a beautiful way to approach app evaluation and proves that college education is not a scam, but that's a topic for another video. So, to summarize, we've explored one method of defining a good app, touched on ways to generate new app ideas, and learned how to evaluate them using a decision-making matrix. I hope you've gained new insights from this and I encourage you to stay tuned for more content. Don't forget to subscribe and share this with others. Also, feel free to share your favorite private API key in the comments. Have a fantastic day and I'll see you in the next video. Bye!
Conclusion:
In conclusion, finding and evaluating great Shopify app ideas is essential for building a successful business. We've explored the significance of a good app idea, the criteria for app evaluation, factors for app viability in the fashion industry, and tips for generating app ideas for Shopify. Stay tuned for more insights and strategies to boost your app development journey.