Shopify ecosystem
Find the shops that need your Shopify app, and the ones already paying a competitor
For Shopify app developers and app marketing teams
The problem
The Shopify app store rewards installs, but organic discovery flattens out fast. The shops that would benefit most from your app are invisible to you, and the ones already paying a competitor, which is the easiest switch conversation you will ever have, are indistinguishable from the rest.
How the data solves it
Filter on the apps a shop already runs. If a competing app is installed, that shop has proven both the budget and the intent. If a category of app is conspicuously missing while the shop is large enough to need it, that is a gap you can lead with.
The filter set this maps to
Every field below exists in the shop schema. This is the query, not an illustration.
- Platform
- Shopify
- Apps
- contains a competing app: or does not
- Products
- > 50 (large enough to have the problem)
- Performance (Mobile)
- < 50 if your app improves speed
Build it
Four steps to this list
Every column named here exists in the schema, and the request below runs as written.
- 1Filter actual_platform to shopify.
- 2Add a text filter on apps containing your competitor's name — or set not: true to find shops without it.
- 3Add products >= 50 so the shop is big enough to need what you sell.
- 4Optionally add lh_perf <= 50 if your app improves speed.
The same query through the API
POST this to /api/v1/search for a count, or /api/v1/rows for the shops themselves.
{
"filters": [
{
"kind": "dropdown",
"col": "actual_platform",
"values": [
"shopify"
]
},
{
"kind": "text",
"col": "apps",
"mode": "contains",
"value": "Klaviyo"
},
{
"kind": "numeric",
"col": "products",
"op": "gte",
"min": 50
}
]
}Playbook
What to do once you have the list
A list is not a campaign. These are the three things that decide whether it converts.
Lead with the app they run
Naming the competing app in your first line proves you looked. It also frames the conversation as a switch rather than a new purchase, which is a much shorter decision.
Segment by catalogue size
A 60-product shop and a 3,000-product shop need different pitches. Split the export on products and write two sequences, not one.
Re-run monthly
App installs change constantly. The same filter run next month returns a different set — that difference is your pipeline.
Outcome
What you end up with
A list of shops running a named competitor, ready for a switch campaign
Shops with the catalogue size that makes your app worth installing
Technology context so the first email references what they actually run
Questions
Shopify apps: frequently asked
Can I see exactly which apps a shop has installed?
Yes. The apps field records the applications detected on the storefront, and you can filter for shops that include a specific app or exclude it. That is what makes competitive-switch targeting possible rather than guesswork.
How do I find shops likely to churn from a competitor?
Combine the competing app with a signal that the shop is underserved: poor mobile performance, a small app footprint overall, or an old domain with a recently rebuilt storefront. Those are the accounts where a switch conversation lands.
Can I find shops that removed a competitor and installed nothing?
You can get close. Filter for shops carrying the category signals your app serves, on a live storefront with real catalogue depth, then exclude every competing app you know by name. What comes back has the need and no tool in place. The data records what is installed now rather than an install history, so a removal is inferred from absence rather than observed.
How do I judge whether a shop can afford a paid app?
Use catalogue depth and trading history rather than guessing at revenue. Product count and collections show how much merchandising work the shop is doing, domain age shows how long it has been at it, and international shipping and multiple languages suggest budget behind it. None of these is revenue, and the dataset does not carry revenue, but together they separate a hobby store from a business.
Does the app list include private or custom apps?
No. The apps field records what is detectable from the public storefront. A custom app built for one merchant, or a private integration running server side, leaves no trace in the page and will not appear.
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