The Role of Custom Shopify Apps in Automating Store Operations

There are a lot of repetitive tasks involved in running an online store. You will need to process orders, tag and organise orders, manage stock, provide the customer with the same information regarding their delivery, provide different pricing for your wholesale customers and produce monthly reports for your finance department. On a smaller scale, you can manually complete these tasks however as your orders increase you will find this becoming a bottleneck, error and cause frustration. A custom Shopify app will help you automate your processes by using the unique processes and rules of your business. You don’t need to change your processes to fit the application, you can build a program to fit your unique processes. If you’re looking to use a Shopify development agency for your online store here’s what you need to know.

What is a Custom Shopify App?

A custom Shopify app is an application created for your specific store/business. It will connect to Shopify using Shopify’s API and webhooks. It will perform functions that can’t be done using standard apps or built in features.

It’s helpful to understand the difference between:

• Public Apps – These are available to use in the Shopify App Store. They are designed for thousands of merchants, are easy to install and will generally have the same workflow.
• Built in tools – Shopify provide some built in tools such as Shopify Flow. These can help automate many common workflows without any coding.
• Custom Shopify Apps – These are tailored to your needs. They can provide new admin tools, background processes and connect to private apps and logic.

It’s quite common to use all of these in a developing store. The key thing to understand is when you are hitting a dead end with your development and a turnkey solution won’t work.

1.When Should I Consider a Custom App?

Consider using a custom app if:

• You’re doing a repetitive task manually many times per day.
• You’re using multiple apps to part solve an issue.
• Your process uses an internal system (e.g. ERP) that no app can connect to.
• You have unique pricing, discounts or shipping rules.
• You’re wasting time/money due to manual data entry errors.
• You have a unique business model (e.g. Made to Order, Subscriptions or B2B).
• 1. Automate your Order Process

The first area you’ll notice an impact from is your order processing. You can set up your app to listen for new orders using webhooks and carry out specific actions.

These can include adding tags to high value orders for manual processing, splitting orders to ship from multiple warehouses, sending made to order items to production and in stock items to dispatch, identifying any suspicious orders and automatically sending your partner vendors their portion of the order. With your rules in place you’ll process all of your orders the same.

2. Automate your Inventory & Supply Chain

Whilst there are standard apps to help automate your stock, a custom app will help automate more complex rules. For example, you can use your app to aggregate your stock from multiple locations, automatically create purchase orders when your stock reaches below a certain level, manage bundles/kit (multiple items in your order will reduce by a certain amount) and update your stock based on supplier lead times.

This will help prevent overselling if you have multiple sales channels (website, marketplaces, offline stores).

3. Custom Pricing, Discounts & B2B

Many merchants will require custom pricing rules. This could be tiered pricing, minimum order quantities and approval processes for your wholesale customers. Or special offers for loyal customers based on their previous orders.

You can use custom apps (often in combination with Shopify Functions & checkout extensions) to apply your pricing rules reliably. You can also create bespoke B2B ordering pages, quote forms and reorder tools to save your sales team having to deal with all your wholesale queries.

4. Intelligent Shipping

Shipping is rarely a flat rate. You can use your app to calculate your shipping costs based on weight, pin code, delivery speed or product type. The app can also identify the best courier based on cost and performance, create shipping labels and automatically update tracking in Shopify.

If there are any issues with the delivery the app can notify the customer, create a task for your support team and update the order status. No need to chase up the courier.

5. Automate Support

Support teams can waste a lot of time answering repetitive questions. Using custom apps you can create self service tools for your customers to track their order, request a return/exchange and register their warranty.

The app can also create tickets in your helpdesk, automatically approve returns based on your return policy and issue store credit/refunds. This means your customers can get their answers quicker and your team can focus on queries that require a human.

6. Data Integration, Reporting & Finance

Having data in your store is only useful if it gets to the right people. You can use your app to send your order & payment data to your accounting software, create reports for GST, match settlements from your payment gateways and automatically send your sales data to dashboards/data warehouse.

This will help shorten your month end and give your decision makers accurate data.

7. Internal Admin Tools

Custom apps aren’t just for customers! Many of the time savers will be using a custom admin app. This will be an embedded app within your Shopify admin. It can help you bulk edit products, upload & validate your product data, manage custom fields, approve content and run reports with one click.

As it’s an embedded app there isn’t much to learn.

How are Custom Shopify Apps Built?

Understanding the basics will help you to ask the right questions to your developers. A typical custom app will include:

• Discovery – Understand your current process, pain points & goals to identify what needs automating.
• Architecture – Understand how the app will connect to Shopify’s GraphQL Admin API, webhooks and 3rd party systems.
• Development – Create the app backend & if required admin panel. This will be designed to look like a native Shopify app.
• Testing – Test the app in a live environment. Refunding orders, cancelling orders & processing unusual orders.
• Go live & monitor – Go live with the app and actively monitor logs & error alerts.
• Maintain – As Shopify release new versions of their API and your business changes the app will need updating.

Best Practice

• Stable process – If your process is constantly changing every week, ensure it’s stable before putting any automation in place.
• Human Intervention – Ensure your automation handles the usual processes and any unusual situations are flagged.
• Failures – If there is any issues with data syncing ensure there are failures & retries in place. Also ensure there are logs & alerts.
• API limits – Ensure there are queues & batches in place to ensure the app performs well during busy sale periods.
• Data Security – Ensure you only request the required permissions, credentials are stored securely & keep to privacy.
• Measurable – Ensure you can measure how much time you’re saving, how many errors you’re getting and how long your orders are taking to process.

Choosing the Right Shopify Development Agency

A custom app will rely heavily on the team you choose to build it. Try to find an agency who:

• Will take the time to understand your processes.
• Are honest about whether an existing app/Shopify Flow can be used.
• Have experience of working with Shopify APIs, webhooks, functions & app extensions.
• Can provide examples of stores/processes they have automated.
• Provide clear documentation, testing & post launch support.
• Give you ownership of your code & accounts.

Sometimes a good partner will advise you not to build as much.

Final Thoughts

Automation shouldn’t be used to replace people, but to remove repetitive tasks so your amazing team can do their best. Using custom Shopify apps you can define how you want to process your orders, inventory, pricing, shipping, support and reports. This will ensure they are all done the same way.

Start with one task. Identify what is taking the most time or causing the most errors in your store. Ensure this is well automated and then measure. Using the right Shopify development agency, custom apps can turn your bottleneck into a competitive advantage.

FAQ

1. What is a custom Shopify app?

A custom app is an app designed for one specific store/business. It will connect to Shopify using the APIs to help automate tasks or add features.

2. When should I use a custom app?

This should be used if you have a unique process, need to connect to an internal system, using multiple apps to solve one issue or existing apps can’t handle your rules. If there is a well reviewed app that can do what you need this will generally be the quickest and cheapest option.

3. Can I use a custom app with Shopify Flow?

Yes. Shopify Flow can help automate many processes throughout your day with no coding. However, custom apps can be used to add unique triggers, actions and data.

4. How long does it take to build a custom Shopify app?

This will depend on how simple or complex the app is. Simple apps can be built in a few weeks. However, complex apps with multiple integrations, admin panels and testing can take a few months.

5. How much do custom Shopify apps cost?

This will depend on how complex the app is, how many integrations there are and how much support you need. Ask for a detailed breakdown of how much discovery, development, testing & maintenance will cost. Compare this to how much time and errors you will save.

6. Are custom Shopify apps secure?

If built well they can be very secure. They will have limited permissions, secure credentials, secure hosting and regular updates. Ensure you choose developers who follow Shopify security guidelines and best practice.

7. Will I need to maintain my custom app?

Yes. Shopify regularly update their API and your business will change so apps will need regular updates, monitoring and fixing of bugs. Many businesses will have a support package with their development partner.