Shopify e-commerce development has long been one of the most exciting areas of development. As developers, we were also highly moved with the idea of Shopify app development. The e-commerce industry grows by leaps and bounds. Trying to be part of the industry is more than a satisfying.
Irrespective of the fact that we have had tremendous experience in doing business and also marked success, at large but diving into the industry of Shopify app was a totally new experience. Trust me, it was no less than a roller coaster ride.
Building a website is not just about integrating technologies and giving them a platform to serve users. Instead, the journey of app development encompasses a bundle of issues and problems in nearly every stage. Right from the start, you need to be cautious about every move. Yes, the industry of Shopify apps is growing and so does the competition. Hence, in order to stay at the forefront, you have to be sure that the app does not entail room for errors.
Certainly, it’s not easy and so we are here to help you and guide you through the lessons we learned when building our first Shopify app.
Thoughts on Shopify App E-commerce Development
1. Know About The Complexity of Apps
Having an idea is important but not enough. When you decide on building a Shopify app, there are several elements that you should cater to. Whether you wish to integrate a third party API for merchant-customer engagement, or embed scripts or templates. You might also consider using the base app to store data or extend the external APIs by adding more features. Each part needs to be skillfully planned and rightfully executed.
2. Using Shopify Polaris For Front-end
The Polaris interface uses Typescript, and this emerged as one of the ideal advantages for us to move on with Shopify website development. The Polaris library has a wide set of components that is extremely resourceful. The library extends itself to both the common features and the not so popular ones. Additionally, each component has had a list of do’s and don’ts help developers to understand and use the language effectively.
3. Use Style Components
Though Shopify Polaris library has inbuilt components on style feature at times there are not enough and give the app a basic look. Instead, you should expand your development space and use CSS styling components to add another layer of custom design to the developed app.
4. Shop Identifier
Shopify does not have sequential ids to identify unique shops. On the other hand, every show registered has its own Subdomain and can be accessed through myshopify.com/domain. The domain is specific to the shop and vulnerable to changes in the future. You can use these to identify them in your database.
5. Webhooks
Each shop store is entitled to personal events and so we use webhooks to seek which shop has altered their integration with the app. In case, a shop uninstalls the Shopify app, these webhooks notifies us and so we can eliminate them from our app database. For reinstating, the process needs to start from scratch.
6. Access Scope of APIs
Given the fact that Shopify allows only a single URL, distinguishing between a new app and the one of an existing customer turns cumbersome and has to be done by us while feeding them to our database. An SQL query is executed first, to know which segment of customer does the URL belongs to.
7. Cart Permalinks
Customers would always want to have an automated checkout process and so we use cart Permalinks to redirect them to the checkout page with items preloaded on it. This improves their buying experience. We also used unique IDs to every customer visiting the store. This helps us track which product belongs to which particular user.
8. First Time Login
For the very first time, every user is given an access token and a unique I’d. This is fed into our database so that the user does not have to onboard every time, he/she visits the app.
9. Automated Discounts
We are aware of the fact that Shopify has a different platform for the checkout page and then adds to the cart page. Further, discounts need to be added to the checkout page. However, because of the script tag, we struggled to achieve the above. To solve this issue, we used links shareable between the pages, so when the user is redirected to the checkout page, the discounts code gets applied automatically.
Conclusion: Building Our First Shopify App
Now, these were a few vital aspects of the Shopify e-commerce Development. Though it seemed pretty tough at the start, focusing on each component individually and working for one at a time, helped us build the app effectively.
Author Bio
Ashish Goyal is a Business Growth Strategist at Xtreem Solution a leading Shopify Website Development company. You can hire web developer from our robust team. He understands start-ups, enterprises, and their needs well. Apart from that, he is an expert in lead generation and inbound marketing. He has also handled the marketing and growing operations. He loves to help businesses in improving their online brand visibility and sales. You can join Ashish via LinkedIn.
