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. 1d ago

    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

  2. Aug 8

    "Data is oil, but it's also toxic waste": Owning your customer data with Danny Phillips from Omneo

    Every episode we cover a different part of the ecosystem. We’ve talked bundles, subscriptions, point of sale and lots more. But what’s more important than any of these? Customers! Customer data is your biggest asset. If you don't own it, or it's scattered across a dozen platforms, someone else can take it away from you whenever they like.  Danny Phillips has spent his career proving that on the customer side. He co-founded Omneo, a platform that helps omnichannel retail brands own, control and actually use their customer data properly, and he was building zero-party data tools before "zero-party data" was even a term anyone used. We get into what owned data actually means beyond the buzzword (Danny's zero-party data framework), why the humble newsletter pop-up is dying and what Omneo's QR-code Profile Portal replaces it with, the "red napkin theory" for turning one-off buyers into repeat customers, and why most loyalty programs are boring because they only offer stuff instead of status, access and power. Plus Danny's line of the episode - data is oil, but it's also toxic waste - and why that means you should be deleting more of it, not hoarding all of it. Links This episode is sponsored by The Support Heroes - dedicated Shopify support agents who actually know what they're doing. Head to thesupportheroes.com.  You can learn more about Omneo and how it helps you grow sales and retain your best customers at omneo.io.  Check out my apps, including Fish Wishlist, Product Pelican and Stork Credit at nativeappco.com. Apps that don’t feel like apps. In this episode: What "owned data" and zero-party data actually mean, and why Danny built Omneo around themThe Profile Portal QR code that's replacing the newsletter pop-up in physical storesWhy "pick up where you left off" experiences matter more than AI recommendation enginesThe red napkin theory: how to turn one-time buyers into repeat customersWhy points-based loyalty is stale, and what status, access and power look like insteadDanny's take on Black Friday, and the four weeks after it that most brands waste 00:00 — Owned data: why it matters 01:09 — Sunny Torquay and the shiny topic of data 01:24 — What "owned data" actually means 04:30 — The payoff: a "receipt for their time" for every shopper 06:51 — Product data and customer data: two sides of the same coin 10:02 — Profile Portal: swapping the newsletter pop-up for a QR code 12:30 — Uniqlo, login with Shop and the "80% brand, 20% me" homepage 14:31 — Buy it again: the win that doesn't need an algorithm 16:55 — Winning the one-and-done customer with the red napkin theory 21:29 — Stop burning margin on first-purchase discounts 22:38 — Clean data starts on day one 25:53 — "Data is oil, but it's also toxic waste" (the headline moment) 26:06 — Status, access and power: fixing stale loyalty programs 30:26 — Why surprise loyalty credit annoys customers more than it delights them 31:00 — When loyalty turns into a retail media program in disguise 33:45 — Black Friday: the race to the bottom nobody wants to run 35:33 — The four weeks after Black Friday nobody uses properly 37:21 — Wrapping up

    "Data is oil, but it's also toxic waste": Owning your customer data with Danny Phillips from Omneo

  3. Aug 2

    Live at DotDev Toronto: AI Product Discovery with third-time founder Jay El-Kaake

    If recording one episode of my mid life crisis podcast at DotDev in Toronto wasn't enough, I got an email at 10.30pm at night saying that they had an extra slot open up. Kurt Elster, the OG of Shopify podcasting, wasn't able to make it, so they asked me if I'd fill the slot. Obviously I said yes, and then I had to find someone to talk to. So I thought I should have some fun with it and do it my way, but wasn't quite sure who to have as a guest. Then, I got chatting to this bloke after a DotDev session on AI Product Discovery, and it turns out we're both product data nerds. It turns out "this bloke" is Jay El-Kaake. Three time founder. Co-founded Smile back when it was Sweet Tooth, built and exited Fera.ai, and now he's running Osello, getting Shopify stores onto Nordstrom and Macy's. We covered two main topics: • Why 90% of "agentic optimisation" is stuff you should already be doing with your product data and content, and the value of taste when you're letting AI write your content. • What it's like to be a founder in 2026. Jay is obviously a pro, I'm just starting out, so we shared our different perspectives. This episode's brought to you by The Support Heroes, who support Shopify Apps all over the world. And I would be remiss not to plug my own app, Product Pelican, which is helping stores enrich their product data for this new AI world. This was the second Episode we recorded at DotDev, you can also catch our episode where we chat with Shopify's Head of Product Jonathan Zazove wherever you're listening to this. YouTube Chapters 00:00 - Live from Dot Dev (definitely not a Toronto love story) 01:19 - From a refugee family's retail shop to falling for computers 02:44 - Osello: getting merchants onto Nordstrom, Macy's, Bloomingdale's and Target 03:05 - Why every marketplace "AI" claim didn't add up 04:22 - Where Product Pelican and Osello's pipelines meet 05:18 - Cleaning your data and building the pipe are two different jobs 06:16 - The Dot Dev talk on AI enrichment 07:42 - Buzzwords fade, fundamentals don't 08:27 - Why 90% of agentic optimisation is stuff you should already be doing 09:24 - The Hailey Bieber quote and the value of taste 09:57 - Why AI wants to feel human too 11:21 - Choosing a lane matters more than ever 12:25 - Hyper-niche apps, and why enterprise pricing doesn't scare people anymore 14:54 - Toronto's deep bench of founders 15:55 - Distribution is still the hardest part 16:45 - Your first customers should basically be your best friends 17:57 - Authentic video reviews over polished social proof 19:17 - Wrapping up

  4. Jul 23

    Live at DotDev Toronto with Jonathan Zazove and Mike Rossi

    This is a big moment for my little podcast... Shopify invited me to record the podcast from their special studio on the floor at DotDev! Shopify's Director of Product, Jonathan Zazove, and an OG app founder, Mike Rossi of Smile (fresh off a Shopify Build Award) caught up with me to chat all things Sidekick, the future of Shopify apps and what is being done to make life better for app developers. If you weren't able to make it to Toronto, or want to head back there, tune in! SponsorsThis episode is sponsored by The Support Heroes - dedicated Shopify support agents who actually know what they're doing. Head to thesupportheroes.com. It's also brought to you by my company, Native App Co - apps that don't feel like apps. That's Product Pelican, Stork Credit, Fish Wishlist and Omnibus Owl. Check them out at apps.nativeappco.com. In This EpisodeShopify's new penalty for incentivized reviews: apps lose the reviews outright, not just the listingThe push to stop copycat apps trading on real brands' namesWhy Built for Shopify became more important, not less, as Smile moved upmarketAdmin UI extensions, admin actions, and how apps stopped being "second class citizens" in the adminSidekick app extensions explained: data access plus the "action experience" that fills in forms for youSmile's real-world Sidekick build: turning it into an AI loyalty program managerWhy Jonathan modeled Sidekick extensions on MCP, and why most of Smile's users won't touch MCP directlyThe shift in loyalty from cheap acquisition to proving lifetime value, plus the POS/retail expansion playJosh Bitossi and POS Cafe as proof that niche, unsexy problems can be a whole businessWhere to actually start an app business today: agency-first, or go hunting for niche enterprise problems Chapters 00:00 - Shopify App Show Live in Toronto 01:23 - Building Trust in the Shopify App Store 06:33 - Building Native Shopify App Experiences 10:39 - Sidekick, UI, and Merchant Workflows 14:15 - MCP and AI Integrations for Apps 15:57 - Proving Loyalty Program Value 17:47 - Loyalty Innovation and Retail Growth 20:03 - Where to Find App Opportunities 25:52 - What Apps Would They Build Next? 27:24 - Why B2B Is Still Underserved

  5. Jul 8

    "The Future Isn't A Chat Box" Inside the Product Discovery & Agentic Commerce Brain of Michael Tutek

    Agentic shopping is already here. While Shopify rolls out things like the global catalogue, UCP and Agentic Channels, some platforms are already a couple of years into that journey. Michael Tutek is one of them. I remember loading up the Arc'teryx site one day and there it was - an AI shopping assistant, live and working, while most of the industry was still writing think-pieces about whether this stuff was even real. Michael is the founder and CEO of Preezie, the guided-selling and agentic commerce platform working with brands like Puma, Lorna Jane and Arc'teryx. He started on the sales floor at The Good Guys, clocked that 30% of in-store visitors bought something against barely 1% online, and has spent the best part of a decade trying to close that gap. We get into why Michael thinks a chat box bolted onto your store isn't the future, and why agentic commerce is. Plus how you stop an AI assistant confidently making things up, why feeding it your old human chat transcripts can make it worse not better, and the out-of-stock feature that's worth 20-30% of the whole tool's value on its own. We also get into why Michael flatly refuses to build products that try to change shopper behaviour. This episode is sponsored by The Support Heroes - dedicated Shopify support agents who actually know what they're doing. Head to thesupportheroes.com. Also brought to you by Product Pelican (https://apps.shopify.com/product-pelican), the native PIM for Shopify. Michael's whole point is that good AI starts with good data - Product Pelican keeps your catalogue clean and consistent at scale, so whatever you bolt on top of it, agentic or not, has something solid to work with. Install it from the Shopify App Store. In this episode: From throwing-water-on-your-face mornings to The Good Guys sales floor: the 30% vs 1% insight that started everythingWhy Preezie pivoted from e-commerce quizzes to a full agentic shopping platform after one day with MicrosoftThe case against conversational commerce: why agentic beats a chatbot boxKeeping AI honest: onboarding it like a new hire, and why your old human chat logs can make it worseThe out-of-stock play worth 20-30% of the tool's value on its ownWhy it still matters to let shoppers scroll through 10 pages of productsTurning real shopper questions into user-generated FAQs for SEO and GEOWhy Michael refuses to build products that try to change shopper behaviourThe roadmap: an "e-commerce brain" built natively for the AI era YouTube chapters: 00:00 — Cold open: agentic shopping is already here 01:51 — From bricklayer's son to The Good Guys sales floor at 14 03:19 — The 30% vs 1% conversion gap that started the obsession 04:44 — Quizzes first, then Microsoft's tap on the shoulder about AI 07:04 — Spotting Preezie live on Arc'teryx before anyone else had it 07:48 — Sit and wait, or do something: why agentic beats conversational 10:30 — The out-of-stock feature worth 20-30% of the tool alone 13:40 — Training AI like a new hire, and performance reviewing it 16:56 — Killing support tickets with a mini AI on the contact form 18:12 — How much instruction is too much (it depends on the brand) 20:37 — Turning shopper questions into content: transcripts, FAQs, SEO and GEO 23:59 — Why the paradox of choice means discovery isn't going anywhere 28:17 — Don't try to change shopper behaviour: the electric car test 31:19 — The roadmap: building an e-commerce brain for the AI era 32:01 — Wrapping up

    "The Future Isn't A Chat Box" Inside the Product Discovery & Agentic Commerce Brain of Michael Tutek

  6. Jul 7 ·  Bonus

    "By the time they realise it's usually too late" - Support For Shopify Apps with The Support Heroes

    If you've tuned into The Shopify App Show, you'll know that The Support Heroes have been great supporters of the show, and also great supporters of Shopify Apps all over the world. When they approached me to sponsor the show, I couldn't have thought of a better fit. The Shopify App Show is all about showcasing independent apps, founder-led businesses who have built their business from the ground up. And for those who are successful enough to hit scale, maintaining a customer support team who can deliver as good a service as the founders of the business is nearly impossible. That's where The Support Heroes come in. So I thought it was worth catching up with Anggy from The Support Heroes to talk about how they work, where they fit in and what they do for Shopify app developers all over the world. It's a bit of a different format to our usual episodes, but if you're an app founder, this one is for you.

  7. Jun 18

    Picking Up Shopify Editions, Sidekick Apps & Uber Eats for Shopify with Emili Horncastle of Zapiet

    Shopify Editions is basically tech's twice-yearly keynote moment now. The Everywhere Edition dropped 150+ updates, and landed on the same day I'd booked Emili Horncastle of Zapiet, so we hit record three hours later and got the early takes while the dust was still settling. Emili's the real deal: Zapiet invented store pickup and local delivery on Shopify! She now runs six apps including Zapiet Eats (you guessed it, basically Uber Eats for Shopify). We get into what Editions actually means for developers - why Sidekick makes good UX more important, not less, the gap between cool catalogue-API demos and genuinely useful experiences, and the glaring silence around the online store and themes. Then we go deep on Zapiet Eats: how it lets restaurants ditch the brutal Uber/DoorDash margins for their own loyal customers, why one app became six, the new Shopify billing API and per-order pricing, and the Zapietosaurus - the dragon-meets-T-Rex mascot Emili designed that kids now drag everywhere. If you build apps and you're trying to work out where to actually point your energy after Editions - and after the Mantle news - this one's for you. This episode is sponsored by The Support Heroes - dedicated Shopify support agents who actually know what they're doing. Head to thesupportheroes.com. In this episode: Editions three hours in - Sidekick, the catalogue API, and why "everywhere" is the whole pointThe Sidekick paradox: why AI-driven setup makes clean UX and consistent terminology more criticalWhat Editions left out - nothing for the online store or the theme ecosystem that's still most merchants' lifebloodThe Mantle wind-down, the scramble to replace it, and rebuilding reporting in-house with AIThe new billing API - per-order vs percentage, and why Zapiet won't take a cut of every orderHow one app became six, and why merchants need a bike, not a rocket shipZapiet Eats: restaurant ordering on Shopify, ditching aggregator fees, and pulling Wendy's onto the platformThe Zapietosaurus - and why a dragon-T-Rex mascot matters more than you'd thinkYouTube Chapters 00:00 — Editions drops: early takes, and why we recorded three hours later 02:17 — Emili joins: 150+ updates and what excites a developer 04:47 — Inventory, catalogues and metafields: faster data processing 06:23 — The Sidekick paradox: why UX and terminology matter more, not less 09:30 — Getting app data into Shopify reports (so Sidekick can find it) 10:48 — The Mantle wind-down and what app developers do now 14:43 — Mantle, the dev dashboard, and rebuilding reporting in-house 15:40 — The new billing API: per-order vs percentage pricing 18:43 — Why Zapiet won't take a percentage of every order 20:31 — Zapiet's origins: pioneering pickup and delivery on Shopify 23:07 — One app becomes six: giving merchants a bike, not a rocket ship 26:03 — Zapiet Eats: restaurant ordering and ditching aggregator fees 30:55 — The real cost of Uber Eats fees for restaurants and diners 33:54 — The Shop app, Shop Minis and untapped potential 36:00 — Token bills, vibe coding and racing your co-founder 36:26 — The Zapietosaurus: designing a dragon-T-Rex mascot 39:38 — A 300-year-old store, kids, and a mascot that took on a life of its own 41:27 — Wrapping up

    Picking Up Shopify Editions, Sidekick Apps & Uber Eats for Shopify with Emili Horncastle of Zapiet

  8. Jun 15

    The Plankton of E-commerce: Product Metafields & Data with Ole Thorup

    Product data is the plankton of ecommerce — the bottom of the food chain that everything else feeds on. Your content, your search rankings, the LLMs, the marketplaces: they're all eating what's at the bottom. Feed them junk, get AI slop. Few people understand this better than Ole Thorup, who built Accentuate Custom Fields as a solo developer back in 2016 — when metafields were just strings and booleans. Ole's also just launched Kairos Protect — bot detection and checkout protection that keeps card testers and price scrapers out of your store and out of your analytics. If you've ever fought with a 30,000-product catalog, managed product data in a spreadsheet you're scared to open, or wondered how the merchandising teams at big stores actually do it — this one's for you. We've put together a playbook to go with this episode: Your Shopify Products Are Being Read By Machines. Find it on Substack, and if you're not subscribed yet — do the thing. This episode is sponsored by The Support Heroes — dedicated Shopify support agents who actually know what they're doing. Head to thesupportheroes.com. And if you're talking product data, you should be managing yours properly. Product Pelican is a native PIM for Shopify — manage and audit your entire catalog at scale, with missing data, broken images and SEO gaps flagged before your customers find them. Install it from the Shopify App Store. In this episode: Building Accentuate in 2016, when metafields were strings and not much elseGrowing to 20,000+ merchants and the Shop Circle exitHow Live Metafields works (and the lesson about not over-engineering)Conversion and merchandising use cases merchants loveMetafields as the trigger for Shopify Flow automationsInventory, ERPs, PIMs and getting data into the right shapeAI, MCPs and where apps still winKairos Protect: bots, card testing and checkout protection Chapters: 00:00 — Why product data is the plankton of ecommerce 02:27 — Building Accentuate in 2016: strings, booleans and stringified JSON 07:12 — 20,000 merchants and the Shop Circle exit 07:59 — Live Metafields: data that updates itself 11:37 — Use cases: bestseller collections, conversion data, review filtering 14:21 — Metafields as Shopify Flow's biggest unlock 16:38 — Warehouse stock vs store stock: the inventory puzzle 18:37 — The Omnibus directive: boring stuff, solved for you 20:05 — ERPs, PIMs and 30,000-product catalogs 22:09 — Shopify's Claude and ChatGPT apps: threat or opportunity? 24:35 — A crowded App Store and why service wins 30:02 — Kairos Protect: bots, card testing and checkout protection 33:00 — Wrapping up

    The Plankton of E-commerce: Product Metafields & Data with Ole Thorup
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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
    24
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Martin Cox
  • Show Website
    The Shopify App Show