And in case you want something more than the bare basic features, you can always go to Shopify’s main app store and pick your first Shopify app from there. With nearly 8000 apps from all categories, there should be everything you might ever need, right?

The problem with those ready-made Shopify apps though is that they are all pretty limited in what they can do. What if you are looking for an app that has unique features or integrations? Or a Shopify app for custom products your ecommerce store is offering?

This is where Shopify custom app development comes into play. Shopify partners can create a bespoke app for that will fit perfectly and solve the main obstacle holding you back from growing your business.

What is a custom Shopify app, and why would you want one?

Introduction to Shopify Apps

In Shopify, apps serve as plugins that enhance your store’s functionalities, improve the customer experience, or automate daily tasks. These apps utilize the Shopify API to access your shop’s data, such as inventory, orders, and more, enabling you to perform various actions from your shop’s control panel.

The Shopify marketplace offers a wide range of apps across various categories, including marketing, store management, payments, shipping, and customer experience. Currently, there are 6943 apps available to merchants, and this number doesn’t even include unlisted apps that may not appear in search results.

If you’re on a tight budget, there are numerous free apps available for Shopify. However, there are also paid apps developed by third-party developers specifically for the Shopify platform. Many paid apps offer a free trial, allowing you to test them before committing to a subscription. If you can’t find the right app or require unique features, you can opt for a bespoke solution. In this case, you can approach a Shopify app development company to create a fully customized app for your store. Their team of developers will discuss your requirements and suggest the best design approach for your app.

We’ll talk more about custom apps in a moment, let’s go back first to the Shopify marketplace and apps available there.

When you visit the Shopify marketplace, you will see that the apps are all categorized to help you find what you want more easily. Shopify also has a “Collections” section where you can discover apps that may prove helpful when you are launching a new shop or searching for apps that work with Shopify POS (Points of Sale).

How can you start using those apps?

In the Shopify marketplace, find the app you want to use and download it. Then, on the App listing page, you can add the app to your online store. Then you just need to install the app from the Shopify Admin panel, and that’s it. You can then access the app from the Shopify’s Apps page.

Why should you use Shopify Apps?

Thanks to how many dedicated apps you can find in Shopify, you have almost endless options for extending the functionality of your online Shopify stores. There’s an app for (almost) every need, whether you’re looking to add customer reviews, send email newsletters, promote products on Facebook, or get in-depth analytics. Shopify customization app? Point of Sale integration app? Upsell bundles? Few clicks and you can have it.

Using those, you can, with a couple of clicks, automate some daily tasks that you would instead have to do manually or add new features to run your business more effectively.

For example, you could use one of the Shopify apps to handle accounting tasks. Typically, either you or an accountant would need to export data like the sales figures and transaction information from the platform, then manually import it into accounting software. It would also be your responsibility to sort out and analyze the sales metrics. Shopify apps from the Accounting category meanwhile could do all of that for you.

What’s more, you can use those tools also to design custom invoices, forecast profits or manage inventory. This gives you more time to focus on growing your business or serving customers.

With Shopify’s partnerships with dozens of software companies and tool providers who are adding their apps to the Shopify marketplace, you can basically get all the tools you need to run your online shop from one place, saving you time.

What types of Shopify Apps are there?

You can add two types of apps to the store: public apps (available to all merchants inside Shopify Marketplace) or custom apps (made exclusively for you). In previous years, Private apps (that were similar to custom apps with the difference you had to give the app developers API access to the online store and your Shopify admin page) were allowed, but from January 2022, those apps are no longer supported.

How are public and custom apps different?

Shopify Public Apps

Public apps are created either by the Shopify team themselves or made by third-party developers and are available for all Shopify users to download. But before that, every app has to pass Shopify’s approval process to ensure that it is safe to use and works as intended.

Public apps can be very useful for solving everyday problems that a lot of merchants face. On the other hand, since they are made for a “general audience,” you shouldn’t count on many customization options available inside. But if you are just starting,  those apps can be an excellent way for you to try out a solution and see if it makes your life easier… or you need something else.

Public apps fall into two types, listed and unlisted. Listed apps can be found and downloaded from the Shopify App Store. Unlisted apps meanwhile can be either found on the App listing or the developer’s website. It does not mean they are less safe. All apps, listed and unlisted, must pass Shopify’s app review process before they are approved by the platform.

Custom Apps development

Shopify merchants who are looking for something unique, can ask a Shopify app development company to build a custom Shopify app for them.  Unlike public ones, custom apps are tailored to a specific merchant and their specific business requirements. Such apps can give you exactly the features, integrations, or functionality you need or seamlessly integrate with your store or tools you use. However, they take time and cost quite a bit as you first need to hire developers to build the Shopify app for you and  then discuss your expectations with them. Developers also need to pick which programming languages they will use, what technologies the apps must use to meet the expectations, how will it import and export data and so.

But the good thing is that because those apps aren’t available in the Shopify app store, they don’t have tp go through Shopify’s approval process. That means you can use them straight after the developers will send you an installation link.

Custom Shopify App Development – how can it help your business?

As Shopify has so many tools from all sorts of categories and they can be installed in a matter of minutes, most Shopify merchants simply use those they can find there. That’s a good start – public apps are designed to address the most common issues Shopify store owners are experiencing, so you might find a good fit if you try a few.

However, you might also discover that neither of those is what you need – or that you have to use several apps to run your store. Here, it might be better to consider hiring a custom Shopify app development company to create a bespoke application for you.

A custom-made application is made from scratch, so you have full control over how it should look and function. Whether it is about what features should be available, what integrations it should have, or how the workflow should be – everything will be customized to your business requirements.

So if you need an app that will smoothly work with a dedicated CRM or ERP, fix an irritating problem you regularly encounter, or one that will help you sell products on other ecommerce platforms, a custom application can easily do that.

However, getting a bespoke app has one more benefit – you’ll have all the features and functionalities in one place rather than several. In this way, you won’t have to switch between multiple apps during your workday, but you will be able to accomplish most of the tasks with just one. Not only will that make managing store easier, but you also won’t have to worry about slowing down the website with multiple programs installed.

Why should you ask a Shopify app development agency for creating a custom app? Can’t you just make it yourself?

The benefits of having a custom app are obvious, but well, those benefits come with a price to match. Just like tailor-made clothes, the custom-made applications can have a significant price tag on them. So here, you might wonder wouldn’t be cheaper to create Shopify apps yourself.

And technically, if you know a bit about using a programming language, are familiar with computer’s command line and know how to use rest API, you can use it for building a Shopify app or yourself.

But while doing this might look like you are saving money now, the time and energy you will spend on designing, building, and later maintaining and updating it might actually cost you far more in the future. If there are any problems or issues with the app, you will also have to rely on your skills to fix those.

So, in fact, hiring a custom Shopify app development company, while expensive at the start, might actually save you money in the long term.

Why choose our Shopify app development services?

Agencies such as ours have been dealing with everything related to Shopify for years, cooperating with both Polish and foreign brands – for example, Just Beck or Vetsak.

That’s why we can quickly recognize what needs are, what is the best way to create your app, what will take the most time and price our work.

And besides working on your main project,  we can also support you with the app setup, SEO or UX, build custom UI elements for you or optimizing the website. If you need any other specific Shopify app integration in your new app, then we might be able to help as well.    That’s why we can say with confidence that we know Shopify inside out.

We are also pretty familiar with Shopify plugin development as we have also created a few useful Shopify B2B apps for our clients to use in their Shopify stores:

Official integration of Przelewy24 with Shopify

Together with Przelewy24, we launched the official Przelewy24 app available in the Shopify App Store. With this integration, Polish merchants can now easily accept payments through Przelewy24, one of Poland’s most trusted payment gateways, and offer customers more convenient options. It all adds up to a great customer experience!

Official integration of PayPo with Shopify

Who doesn’t love the Buy Now, Pay Later payment method? Great news – we’ve teamed up with PayPo, the most popular BNPL payment provider in Poland, to create an official app available in the Shopify App Store.

Official integration of Super Payments with Shopify

We developed a custom integration that allows Shopify merchants to seamlessly add Super Payments to a Shopify storefront checkout so customers use Super Payments as a payment method. It is available in the Shopify App Store.

The integration also allows adding the SuperPayments’ marketing assets to the merchant storefront, enhancing brand visibility and promotion. We developed theme extensions for legacy & custom themes and 2.0 themes (including new & old checkout).

InPost integration

InPost launched its official app in the Shopify App Store in 2023. It offers Polish merchants full integration of InPost services. The app requires a Shopify Advanced plan or an active Carrier-Calculated Shipping option. However, before the official app was available, we developed our own integration with InPost to allow customers of various Shopify stores to choose whether they want their package delivered by courier or to a parcel locker.

DHL, DPD, UPS, TNT, GLS, FedEx Integration

Our team developed an all-in-one application to add support for courier deliveries. With this direct delivery methods integration, you don’t have to add any additional applications to offer shipping options. Additionally, it’s compatible with all screen sizes and devices, so your customers can use it on any device they wish.

Conclusion

There are plenty of Shopify apps that you can use right from the start to customize your shop or simply make running the store a bit easier. If you are just starting, have a limited budget, or must have an app straight away, then there’s a good chance that a ready Shopify app will be enough.

Hire Shopify app developers from WeCanFly

But if you are thinking about a tailor-made app that will help to give next-level experience to the users and grow your business in a few years, you should contact a Shopify app development service provider like us. Since we have been in the Shopify industry for quite some time, we’ll know what needs to be done once you tell us about your problems and requirements. So rather than get an ready app that might stop being useful in a few months or use several apps during one day, why not  getting a user-friendly  custom app that can grow with your business?

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