This is my first post on this forum. I’ll do my best to make this post as simple as possible.
The purpose of this post is to validate the Shopify app idea. And I need your honest review from merchants, developers or the members that willing to start Shopify.
The Shopify app idea is simple. I am going to build a Shopify app where the merchants able to upload any theme that is available within there stores. I means if a store having 5 themes, in which 4 are in Draft and 1 is live. So user able to upload any theme within the app. Once the all theme files uploaded (usually takes 10-15 minutes), then merchants able to write a prompt and explain the bug that they are facing (e.g. the cart drawer is not opening, add to cart not working), adding a new section or somewhat add a new feature all just with the prompt.
Ai, will analyze all the theme and then fix that specific issue. After that merchants will able to upload it again as a new draft theme with the new changes within the shopify themes sections.
I want to know is my app will really works or it’s still need improvements or something there is competition that will not let grow my app?
Built a couple Shopify apps recently so wanted to push back gently on a few parts before you commit.
The 10-15 minute upload step is going to kill flow. Shopify’s Theme API already exposes every asset (via /admin/api/themes/:id/assets.json or the GraphQL equivalent) with read scope, so AI reads the live theme directly. No upload needed. The upload model only makes sense for unpublished local files which is a much smaller use case than the post implies.
write_themes scope means slower app review too. Shopify scrutinises any app touching theme code since you’d be modifying customer-facing storefronts.
On competition, check the App Store for “AI theme” and look at Mechanic (mature automation tool that already handles Liquid edits via tasks). Plenty of agencies just use Cursor or Copilot directly on theme repos. The harder question is whether merchants actually debug theme bugs themselves by writing prompts, or do they just open a ticket with their dev/agency. From what I’ve seen, most merchants click “Help” or message a developer the moment something breaks.
Forum replies aren’t strong validation either, too biased toward being polite. Try 5-10 paid customer interviews ($20-50 for 30 mins) with merchants who currently fight theme bugs, plus a fake landing page with pricing and a waitlist. If you get 5 merchants to pre-pay even a small amount, you have signal.
Which segment are you targeting first, DIY merchants or smaller agencies?
Your suggestions really helps me a lot. I really appreciate it. And regarding your Question to target the merchants or devs. Here is the answer below.
From my POV the developers are not the decision maker in term of installing the paid/trial based app without a solid reason. If they get permission, they might be rejected because hey already know how to code, or how to make changes along with how to debug bug.
The main targeted users are merchants for me. I see that merchants spending millions of dollar on freelance platform just for bug fixing or code edits. This is not because they don’t have a smart mind, but this is because they don’t have right tools that helps them to debugg the code with just the help of Ai.
So this is what I believe and I’ll hoping to target the direct merchants and few devs as well.
The app idea you have doesn’t seem right for a merchant. This app will help all agencies, but not merchants. However, you can make it an app; it would be great if the merchant came. We don’t want to disappoint you. My friend, who asked this question, has also created an app, but he hasn’t found any merchants yet.
Thanks for your valuable answer. And yes you are right that every app idea will not make you millionaire.
There are already 28,000 app in the market in April 2026. And only 25% of them making over $272K per year. [reference].
I know the Shopify app market is growing very faster. But there are still some pain points where the merchants feel stuck.
In the past I notice that merchants are using the sidekick to ask the questions, make change within the store (not the code editor) and with Ai merchants able to create the sections. But the main gap is Merchants are unable to make changes that directly applied within the theme code editor. This is what I have thought there should be an app that helps merchant to make changes directly into the code.
@Custom-Cursor Nice idea, it really works… things are changing with the AI ecosystem, it’s definitly helpful for merchants and developers. " As our experience, website theme is very important ( UI and UX ), most of the time, merchants have queries ( best theme for store, how can I optimise the store, not getting sales, anyone can please review my store and share the honest feedback, add to card optimization, improve the card value etc ). Your app idea is definitly work. and it solves the merchant real problem, + AI prompt is a better idea.
To me that sounds too much for any merchant. It needs to be more automated. It already sounds tiresome for merchants, upload theme then wait, prompt and hopefully fix issue, than upload again to store and check. That workflow even in ideal cases does not sounds great for me. But question: how you verify that AI fixed the issue? Store owner needs to upload theme and check? And you know AI can not fix anything in 1 take 100%. So there will be some going back and forth so like 6 uploads for 3 checks.
Now if they could have a preview in some sandbox, maybe adjust prompts and only upload once after it is ready, that would be less bad. And like @lumine said you have other options, better from user perspective.