The Shopify App Show

Martin Cox
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  • Entrepreneurship

The Shopify App Show goes deep with "indie" developers who build the most innovative stuff on the Shopify ecosystem. This is not a product demo show! Hosted by a 14-year ecosystem veteran, we skip the sales pitches, demos, and pricing talk. Instead, tune in for fun, 25-minute chats with founders about their craft, origin stories, and the specific use cases that help you win. Find the hidden gems that outperform the VC-backed giants. Real builders. No corporate fluff. Just great apps. Subscribe to build a better tech stack.

  1. 5d ago

    Can you make a website optimize itself? Self Driving CRO with Georgi Petrov

    For every case study you see about A/B tests and CRO changing the world and printing money for merchants, there's unlimited, untold stories where these two methodologies are eternally in the too hard basket. At the end of the day, every Shopify store has the same s****y numbers. A hundred people land on your site, maybe three make it to the checkout. The rest just vanish, and we all get stuck trying to work out how to solve it. Georgi Petrov is the kind of guy who makes the rest of us feel like mere mortals. In the last 15 years, he has built iSenseLabs into the number one OpenCart plugin vendor, then carved out three companies from it: SMSBump, which sold to Yotpo, NitroPack, which sold to WP Engine, and he's involved in Consentmo too, which we featured on the podcast in a couple of other episodes with Elena Tsacheva. His newest venture, UXify, is AI agents that watch real shoppers, catch the exact moment they get frustrated, and fix it without spending time and money on A/B tests. So I got Georgi to share his story and I had to grill him about what UXify's AI agents actually do. We get into some juicy topics like why shoppers coming from ChatGPT convert 10 times better than everyone else, and a new tool that's basically TikTok for rage clicks. SponsorsThe Support Heroes provide support for app developers all over the world. If your app business is drowning in support tickets, head to thesupportheroes.com. Native App Co, building apps that don't feel like apps, including Stork Credit, Fish Wishlist, Product Pelican & Omnibus Owl. Check us out at nativeappco.com. In this episodeGeorgi's path from iSenseLabs (the number one OpenCart plugin vendor) to spinning out SMSBump, NitroPack and ConsentmoWhat UXify's AI agents actually do: watching real shopper behaviour to find friction and fix it liveReal numbers: one agent driving $200K/month in extra revenue, another lifting re-engagement by 30%Why ChatGPT-referred traffic converts at 10x the rate of regular trafficTalking to your data instead of drowning in dashboards, and unifying every AI tool under MCPReals: a "TikTok for rage clicks" feed showing the last 10 seconds before shoppers bailWhy layout shift (CLS) matters even more now that AI shopping agents are browsing sites themselvesHow much traffic you need before UXify is actually usefulYouTube Chapters00:00 - Intro 02:15 - From iSenseLabs to SMSBump, NitroPack and Consentmo 05:10 - What UXify's AI agents actually do 07:45 - Real wins: $200K/month and 30% re-engagement 08:56 - Winning back abandoned tabs 10:58 - Why ChatGPT traffic converts 10x better 13:07 - Ditching dashboards for an AI-first chat interface 14:52 - Correlation vs causation: weather, World Cup and email timing 15:50 - Unifying every tool under MCP 17:39 - What's next: Chrome extension and new agents 19:20 - Reals: TikTok for rage clicks 21:35 - Making layout shift (CLS) visible 22:40 - CLS as an agentic Core Web Vitals problem 24:12 - Real user monitoring vs synthetic testing 26:23 - How to get started and the traffic threshold that matters 28:16 - Wrapping up

    Can you make a website optimize itself? Self Driving CRO with Georgi Petrov

  2. Sep 8

    Shit in, Shit out. The Ugly Truth About Merchandising with Mark Rillera of Tagalys

    Merchandising and fashion sound easy, don't they? Everyone's been selling clothes online for years, so surely all the existing platforms have that covered. But this episode might change the way you think about that. I sat down with Mark from Tagalys, who specialise in search and merch for fashion. We talk about one of my favourite technical terms: shit in, shit out. If your data's a mess, it doesn't matter how good your AI, your merch tool, or anything else on your store is. We spent some time breaking down what good actually looks like. Mark name drops brands like Sheike and Represent in the UK, who balance brand storytelling with trade performance. I'm a big believer that if you get the stuff under the hood right, that gives brand, marketing and e-commerce teams the power to do good marketing that's creative and interesting - which is what fashion should be all about in the first place. Given the time of year, we also talk about how you need to be trading differently heading into peak season versus the rest of the year, and what you should be doing there. We talk about what the future looks like too - Shopify Sidekick, and whether that's the UX merchandising teams actually want, or whether we're moving to a world where you've got a Tinder swipe for merchandising instead. Mark's spent time on the agency side at MindArc and running e-commerce for the likes of Incu, Hype DC and Glue Store before landing at Tagalys, so he's seen the "get your data in order" problem from every angle. We get into what separates the merchants who nail merchandising from the ones drowning in spreadsheets, why the data problem people should have fixed five years ago still isn't fixed, how to restructure your collections for peak trade without torching your brand identity, the benchmarks you should be watching daily once peak hits, and why Mark thinks the next merchandising UX looks less like a chatbot and more like Tinder. Sponsor ReadsThe Support Heroes: dedicated Shopify support agents who actually know what they're doing. If your drowning in support tickets for your app heading into peak season, head to thesupportheroes.com. Product Pelican: If today's episode hit a nerve, it's probably because your product data isn't in the shape it needs to be. Product Pelican is a native PIM for Shopify - it helps you manage and audit your catalogue at scale so your merch tools, your AI, and your search actually have something good to work with. Shit in, shit out, remember. Check it out at apps.shopify.com/product-pelican. 00:00 - Why fashion merchandising is harder than it looks 02:04 - Why Tagalys exists: the physical store analogy 04:16 - What actually makes Tagalys different 05:39 - The merchants nailing it: Sheike and Represent 07:04 - The data mistake almost everyone's still making 09:05 - Shit in, shit out 12:14 - Peak trade prep: what to do right now 14:44 - Structuring collections for peak vs business as usual 16:13 - Day to day merchandising once peak hits 18:02 - Automating rules instead of manual pinning 19:07 - Getting the whole team reading the same data 20:45 - Feeding merchandising data into Sidekick, Klaviyo, MCP 21:44 - Has Tagalys built a Sidekick extension yet? 23:19 - The Tinder swipe future of merchandising 24:41 - What keeps Mark excited about e-commerce 32:12 - Wrapping up

    Shit in, Shit out. The Ugly Truth About Merchandising with Mark Rillera of Tagalys

  3. Sep 3 ·  Bonus

    "You can't fake real trust": Agencies and Influencers with Gavin McKew & Yash Chavan (live episode)

    Third and final bonus drop from Toronto. This one's got an agency lens on it: Gavin McKew is Director of Innovation at SHERO Commerce and doesn't hold back on what actually gets an app noticed inside a 75-person agency. Yash Chavan runs SARAL, an influencer marketing platform, and just launched SATHI, their new Shopify affiliate offering. We get into why Gavin doesn't trust app store reviews anymore, the one thing that gets an app instantly deleted from his test store (hint: it's about metafields), the build vs buy fight happening inside every agency dev team right now, and Yash's take on why AI-generated influencer content still can't fake real trust. Also a properly funny bit at the end about the best way to bribe an agency person. Video's rough as usual but the panel's razor sharp. If you're pitching apps to agencies or wondering how influencer marketing actually plays for B2B, this one's for you. Sponsor Reads This episode is sponsored by The Support Heroes - dedicated Shopify support agents who actually know what they're doing, and the team who helped make this Toronto live show happen. Head to thesupportheroes.com. And from us at Native App Co, a plug for Product Pelican, the native PIM for Shopify. Gavin's entire "if it's not using metafields and metaobjects, it's uninstalled" rant is basically our whole product philosophy said out loud. apps.shopify.com/product-pelican. In this episode: Gavin on why app store reviews don't cut it anymore for agency evaluationThe instant red flag: any app that doesn't feel native gets uninstalled on sightThe build vs buy fight playing out inside agency dev teams right nowYash on SARAL, influencer marketing as a numbers game, and why B2B and AI companies are jumping inWhy AI-generated influencer content still can't replace real trustSATHI's quiet, waitlist-only launch and its 100% trial-to-upgrade rateClosing bit: what's the best way to win over an agency person00:27 — Meet Gavin and Yash 01:39 — The state of the app ecosystem from inside an agency 03:40 — What signals Gavin actually looks for in a new app 05:17 — The instant red flag: apps that don't feel native 06:16 — The build vs buy fight inside every agency 09:14 — Meet Yash and SARAL: influencer marketing as a numbers game 11:04 — Why AI-generated influencer content still can't fake trust 13:05 — SARAL's go to market and agency partnerships 13:55 — SATHI's quiet launch and 100% trial-to-upgrade rate 14:48 — Building partnerships as an indie vs enterprise app 16:56 — Yash's strategy for his first Toronto trip 17:38 — Closer: how to actually win over an agency person 19:24 — Wrapping up

    "You can't fake real trust": Agencies and Influencers with Gavin McKew & Yash Chavan (live episode)

  4. Aug 31

    Shopify B2B: Why It's Time To Get On Board, with Josiah Hubbard

    B2B is quite possibly the biggest opportunity for most ecommerce businesses. The B2B numbers most people ignore: 87% of all US e-commerce transactions are B2BB2B orders run roughly four times bigger than B2COnly 2-10% of Shopify stores actually do B2B That's why this episode is an important one. B2B is one of my specialities on Shopify, so it was a pleasure to sit down with Josiah Hubbard, who's been at Helium Dev for eleven years. Helium's flagship app, Customer Fields, took off in 2018-2019 as merchants kept bending it sideways to hack together B2B registration flows. That misuse is what led them to build Onboard B2B, a dedicated app for vetting and approving business customer applications. We get into why B2B on Shopify used to mean tagging customers and duct-taping discount codes together, what changed when Shopify opened B2B to all plans (not just Plus) earlier this year, and how Josiah decides when to say no to a feature request even when a merchant's convinced it's a no-brainer. If you've ever talked yourself out of trying B2B because you don't have a "proper" wholesale operation, or you're an app developer wondering where the next opportunity is, this one's worth your time. Sponsor readsThis episode is sponsored by The Support Heroes - dedicated Shopify support agents who actually know what they're doing. Head to thesupportheroes.com. Speaking of B2B, this episode's brought to you by Fish Wishlist. Fish works natively with Shopify B2B, pulling in your B2B price lists by default, and lets customers turn their wishlists straight into quotes that land in Shopify as draft orders. If you're running B2B, it's built for exactly this. Check it out on the Shopify App Store. In this episode:The stats nobody's talking about: 87% of US e-commerce is B2B, but hardly any Shopify stores touch itHow Helium's Customer Fields app accidentally became the backbone of DIY B2B setups (and why merchants abused it into spaghetti flows)Why Onboard B2B exists: Shopify authentication first, then a proper vetting and revision process for business applicantsWhat changed when Shopify opened B2B to every plan, not just Plus, and the pricing pivot that followedHow Josiah decides what to build when two merchants want a feature versus fiftyBuilding outside Shopify: Scale Headshots, the corporate headshot SaaS used by H&R Block and FIFAWhat's next for Onboard B2B: global tax ID validation and storefront application formsYouTube Chapters00:00 — Why B2B is Shopify's most under-tapped opportunity 02:00 — Helium's eleven years and the birth of Customer Fields 06:11 — How merchants hacked B2B together with tags and abused flows 08:21 — The problem with building for a workflow with infinite branches 10:51 — Deciding what to build: two requests vs fifty 16:01 — Shopify B2B goes to all plans - what actually changed 20:26 — Where merchants get stuck starting B2B 25:10 — Building outside Shopify: Scale Headshots and Snap Bar 31:18 — What's next: tax ID validation and storefront forms 33:38 — Wrapping up

    Shopify B2B: Why It's Time To Get On Board, with Josiah Hubbard

  5. Aug 27 ·  Bonus

    Building the Shopify apps they wish always existed. Gabbie Rea & Adam Wooding (live episode)

    Bonus episode number two from the Toronto live show, and this one's the self-declared "Aussie panel." Adam Wooding built POS Cafe, solving a very specific pain: Shopify POS's three-variant limit wrecking havoc for cafes and restaurants trying to run a coffee order with extra shots and oat milk. Gabbie Rea used to work for Martin at Overdose, jumped ship, and now runs Sundae Lane and Biscuit Bundles, one of the first Shop Minis builders out there. We get into the terrifying leap from charging agency day rates to supporting someone for ten bucks a month, how Gabbie rode the Cart Transform API wave to build native bundles, Adam's brutally honest take on running an agency and an app business at the same time, and why neither of them sees other apps in their space as the enemy. Video's a bit shaky again but if you've ever wondered whether it's worth ditching agency life to build your own thing, this one's for you. Sponsor Reads This episode is sponsored by The Support Heroes - dedicated Shopify support agents who actually know what they're doing, and the crew behind us getting this live show off the ground in Toronto. Head to thesupportheroes.com. And a shout to Product Pelican, the native PIM for Shopify, from us here at Native App Co. If Adam and Gabbie's story about building something merchants are actively hunting for resonates, that's exactly the gap Pelican fills for product data. apps.shopify.com/product-pelican. In this episode: Adam on why POS Cafe exists: solving Shopify POS's modifier limitations for cafes and restaurantsHow POS Cafe grew almost entirely through organic word of mouth and Shopify's retail sales teamGabbie's leap from agency developer to founder, and the Cart Transform API moment that made bundles possibleThe gut punch of going from agency hourly rates to ten-dollar-a-month customersAdam on the rollercoaster of running an app business and an agency side by side to keep cash flowingWhy neither of them sees other apps in their category as competition00:27 — Welcome to the Aussie panel 02:22 — What is POS Cafe, actually 04:10 — Growing organically through the Shopify community 05:32 — Gabbie's leap from Overdose to founder 07:22 — Cart Transform API: the catalyst for native bundles 08:19 — How they decide what to build next 10:31 — From agency day rates to ten dollars a month 11:27 — The rollercoaster of running an app and an agency at once 13:20 — Why more apps in your space isn't a bad thing 14:58 — Getting ROI out of a week like this 16:33 — Nothing beats in-person relationships 17:40 — Wrapping up

    Building the Shopify apps they wish always existed. Gabbie Rea & Adam Wooding (live episode)

  6. Aug 25

    Why Your Cart Matters More Than Ever: Talking Upsell Secrets with Sylvie Wilson

    I started this podcast talking to indie app developers, because they have some of the best insights into e-commerce. A lot of them don't just have the experience of building apps - they've often started out working in an e-commerce business, they've worked in agencies, or they've even started their own businesses. This episode I'm speaking to someone who's done all of the above: Sylvie Wilson, one of the founders of Unicorn Cart, which started as an app on her own Shopify store. She ended up selling that business and going all in on building Unicorn Cart and creating great upsells for merchants. And we've come into the time of year where upsells matter more than anything - so I picked Sylvie's brain about what makes a good upsell, how to drive higher AOV this Black Friday, and everything else that matters to merchants right now. If you're running a Shopify store and you've been "set and forget" with your cart, this one's for you. It's August - this is your last real window to test offers before Q4 traffic lands. Get it wrong now while it's cheap, not in the middle of Black Friday. Sponsor ReadsThanks to The Support Heroes for supporting this and every episode of the show and helping me bring stories like this to you - dedicated Shopify support agents who actually know what they're doing. Head to thesupportheroes.com. If you're looking for new ways to incentivise your customers this Black Friday, check out Stork Credit - the app I built to help you automate your store credit, so your customers get rewarded on their next purchase, not the one they're currently making. Hint: it also pairs nicely with cart upsells. storkcredit.com In this episode:How Sylvie and her husband James built Unicorn Cart to solve their own Black Friday gift-with-purchase problem on their fashion brandBuilding a personal, founder-led brand on LinkedIn and Instagram to earn trust in a market of 103 App Store pages for "upsell"What actually differentiates Unicorn Cart: deep customisation, native theme integration, and "revenue per visit" as the North Star metricThe real data behind a free-gift threshold A/B test that lifted one merchant's AOV by 64%Whether agentic checkout spells the end of the cart, and what's next on Unicorn Cart's roadmapYouTube Chapters00:00 — Why upsells matter right now 01:27 — There are 103 App Store pages for "upsell" 01:48 — Born from her own Black Friday problem: how Unicorn Cart started 04:00 — Staying close to merchants as the product evolves 05:55 — Why app ads flopped and word of mouth won instead 07:18 — Knocking on doors in Byron Bay with bags of chocolate 09:10 — Building a personal brand on LinkedIn and Instagram 12:29 — Inside Unicorn Cart: upsells, cross-sells, GWP, and "revenue per visit" 14:39 — Cart real estate: balancing AOV vs conversion rate 17:05 — Personalising offers by customer journey and buyer intent 17:31 — The A/B test that lifted AOV 64% by lowering the free-gift threshold 20:17 — Why "set and forget" carts are costing you sales - test now, before Q4 21:44 — Beyond gift-with-purchase: prize draws and other offer trends 22:40 — Will agentic checkout kill the cart? 26:53 — What's next for Unicorn Cart 28:12 — Wrapping up

    Why Your Cart Matters More Than Ever: Talking Upsell Secrets with Sylvie Wilson

  7. Aug 20 ·  Bonus

    Why Shopify Sidekick might be the answer: Elena Tsacheva, Matt Sodomsky & Daniel Beck (live episode)

    Bonus round! This one's straight from the Toronto stage, recorded live the week before DotDev, and fair warning: the video's a bit rough (one mic, one stage, zero time to fuss over lighting) but the panel is stacked. Matt Sodomsky is the tech guy behind two proper OG Shopify apps, Mechanic and Locksmith. Elena Tsacheva runs Consentmo, keeping merchants on the right side of consent law across a dozen jurisdictions. And Daniel Beck built the Ablestar suite and Altera, going head to head with Matrixify on product data import/export. We get into what it actually takes to keep an app relevant a decade in, why Sidekick extensions are exciting and terrifying in equal measure, the "too many MCPs" problem everyone's quietly dealing with, and how AI has let Daniel's team ship six years worth of PRs in six months. Elena also gets real about why compliance apps have to be the most cautious ones in the room when it comes to AI. If you've ever wondered how the app store's veterans stay sharp while chasing every new Shopify release, this one's for you. Sponsors This episode is sponsored by The Support Heroes - dedicated Shopify support agents who actually know what they're doing, and the crew who backed us putting this whole live show on in Toronto. Head to thesupportheroes.com. And a word from Product Pelican - the native PIM for Shopify. If you're managing product data at any real scale, this panel is basically a live case study in why native beats bolted-on every time. Check it out at apps.shopify.com/product-pelican. In this episode: Matt on what keeps Mechanic and Locksmith fresh a decade into the gameWhy Matt's holding off on Sidekick extensions until the OAuth migration is sortedElena on preserving your voice (literally) and surviving conference weekConsentmo's approach to AI: careful, cautious, compliance-firstThe "nobody wants fifteen MCPs" problem and why Sidekick might be the answerDaniel on building Altera as the modern alternative to Matrixify, and using AI to run overnight test suites00:27 — Kicking off the live show 03:48 — Meet Matt: the OG apps, Mechanic and Locksmith 04:16 — Meet Daniel, fresh off a flight from Spain 04:23 — Meet Elena, and her missing luggage 05:27 — Conference survival tips: save your voice 07:23 — What keeps Mechanic and Locksmith fresh 09:22 — Sidekick extensions and the OAuth migration headache 11:24 — Consentmo's cautious approach to AI and compliance 12:46 — Shipping six years of PRs in six months 13:13 — Daniel on building Altera vs Matrixify 15:38 — How merchants are handling their data differently 17:37 — Sidekick adoption: high uptake, low stickiness 18:04 — The "too many MCPs" problem 19:39 — Why native, embedded apps win 20:28 — Wrapping up

    Why Shopify Sidekick might be the answer: Elena Tsacheva, Matt Sodomsky & Daniel Beck (live episode)

  8. Aug 18

    Double Agents: Inside the Shopify Agency & App Ecosystem with Matt Humphreys

    Up until now, we've had a simple formula. Every week I catch up with an indie app developer to talk about a different part of the Shopify ecosystem. Today, I'm going rogue. We've got a guy who threw a legitimate frat party, in a real frat house, in Toronto at DotDev recently. We're both agency guys from a long way back, and I've been wanting to do an episode on where agencies fit into the Shopify ecosystem. Why? Alongside app developers, agencies and consultants make up a huge part of the Shopify ecosystem. For those of us building apps, we all know that an agency that advocates for us is so valuable. But building those relationships isn't as easy as offering some kickbacks or taking them to lunch. For merchants, there's so much expertise living in app developers and agencies, and leveraging both is how great ecommerce businesses perform. So that's what this conversation is about. Matt Humphreys is the perfect person to talk to for this conversation. He has scaled large agency teams in the past and worked with retailers of all shapes and sizes. Now he runs a boutique agency, Urban Folk, out of Toronto. Sponsors Thanks to The Support Heroes for sponsoring the show and supporting app developers all over the world. thesupportheroes.com And a plug for my own app, Product Pelican, our native PIM for Shopify. It's just launched a bunch of new AI features, including the ability to analyse product images to build rich product content. In this episode: Matt's 25 years on the agency side, from scaling Diff to running his own shop, Urban FolkWhy fractional expertise beats hiring internally for mid market merchantsVibe coding and AI collapsing delivery from days to hours (and the client who asked him to slow down)The one question Matt asks before ever recommending an appWhy the best app market research is talking to agencies, not merchantsThe story behind the DotDev Toronto frat party, and why IRL beats another pull up banner00:00 — Cold open: "Do we need an app for this?" 00:07 — Going rogue: the agency episode 01:37 — Matt's 25 years in agency, from Diff to Urban Folk 03:11 — How Shopify deal sizes and expertise shifted over 13 years 05:14 — The mid market sweet spot: fractional expertise over big agency 07:48 — Vibe coding and AI: from days to hours 09:39 — Vetting client ideas against the roadmap, not chasing every trend 12:34 — The first question before recommending any app 14:54 — The feedback loop that makes apps better 15:57 — Build custom or use an app? How Matt decides 18:48 — Advice for app developers: talk to the agencies, not the merchants 22:41 — Product market fit hasn't changed, just the tools 24:36 — Inside the DotDev frat party: why IRL beats another banner 30:52 — Wrapping up

    Double Agents: Inside the Shopify Agency & App Ecosystem with Matt Humphreys
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About

The Shopify App Show goes deep with "indie" developers who build the most innovative stuff on the Shopify ecosystem. This is not a product demo show! Hosted by a 14-year ecosystem veteran, we skip the sales pitches, demos, and pricing talk. Instead, tune in for fun, 25-minute chats with founders about their craft, origin stories, and the specific use cases that help you win. Find the hidden gems that outperform the VC-backed giants. Real builders. No corporate fluff. Just great apps. Subscribe to build a better tech stack.

Information

  • Creator
    Martin Cox
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    31
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Martin Cox
  • Show Website
    The Shopify App Show

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