Straight-up strategies to boost your business's bottom line. No jargon, just results.

I help Shopify apps in the age of AI — 

Nail your positioning so users don't scroll past your app. 

Land more clients, find product-market fit, optimize you onboarding and UX funnels, optimize your app store listing to attract and convert more paying clients and create revenue generating pipelines to grow ARR.

Get a free audit for your app here: https://audit.ohadmichaeli.com

Ohad Michaeli

Perfect software is quietly terrible for App Store growth.
I was on an audit call today and discovered something that made my jaw drop.

A competitor in the product options space is getting 10+ reviews per day.

They went from zero to position #2-3 in their category in 4 months.

Here's how they're doing it.

They intentionally ship a visual bug that makes product swatches look incorrect on the merchant's storefront.

Not broken enough to be unusable. Just wrong enough that merchants notice and contact support.

Once the merchant contacts support to fix the bug, the rep asks for a review.

Manufactured support tickets. Manufactured review opportunities.

Evil. But kind of genius.

Most app founders don't realize this: stable apps with no bugs don't get support contacts. And without support contacts, you don't get natural review opportunities.

Meanwhile, this competitor is gaming the system by creating problems they can solve.

The App Store rewards speed. 
Reviews are currency. 
And this hack prints them.

This is what you're competing against.

The founders building stable products are getting beaten by founders manufacturing support tickets.

What's the wildest growth hack you've seen in the App Store?

Ohad Michaeli 🫧

Helping Shopify apps get more clients with the power of AI

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A founder's app ranked #2 for their main keyword.
For years.
Then it dropped to #9.

Today they showed me the audit from another consultant. 

Pages of technical recommendations. 
Algorithm theories. Competitor analysis.

I looked at their App Store listing for 30 seconds.

"What's your main keyword?"

They told me.

"And what's in your app name?"

They pulled it up. The plural version.

Silence.

"Merchants search for the singular. You're ranking for the plural. Shopify's algorithm treats them as different keywords."

One letter was costing them installs.

They checked the search volume data. The singular version gets searched WAY MORE.

The fix took five minutes. 
Change the app name. 
Remove one letter.

Moved up in rankings.

Most founders think App Store optimization is complicated. Expensive audits. Algorithm secrets. Competitive moats.

Sometimes it's just checking whether merchants search for the singular or plural version of your keyword.

Here's another example from a few months ago:

Your competitor just shipped 5 new features.

You replied to a review.

Guess who's winning?

Most Shopify app founders think differentiation comes from features. Better upsells. Smarter algorithms. More integrations.

I audit A LOT of app listings.

Everyone has the same features. Different names, same functionality. 
Merchants can't tell apps apart.

So what separates winners from noise?

Support that feels personal.

Real humans who respond fast, say yes to customization requests, and reply to every review like it matters.

Not "we'll get back to you in 24-48 hours." Not chatbots.

I was on an audit call recently. The founder said something that stuck:

"You need to do it very, very well. And so if somebody has a problem, they need customization, they need something like that. You always say yes, right?"

Always say yes.

That's a positioning strategy.

Three reasons this works:

• Merchants assume your app works. Support is where you prove you're different.

• They remember how you made them feel when something broke, not your algorithm.

• Reviews compound. One great support interaction becomes visible social proof. Features don't show up in review text.

Your next merchant doesn't care about feature #47.

They care if you'll answer when they're stuck at 2am before a launch.

Want me to help you streamline your customer support/success?

♻️ Repost this to help me share the message.

How do you know a Shopify niche is getting hot?

In the past 30 days, I had 4 apps from the same space book discovery calls with me.

It's important to note that one of my business's pillars is that I don't work with competing apps. 

First come, first get.

(Here's that silly meme everyone on twitter's raving about. I uploaded a photo from a party so it made me a DJ lol)

Open your app listing.

Now imagine your drunk grandmother logs in at 4 a.m.

Can she understand what you do in 5 seconds?

If the answer is no, you're losing merchants before they even scroll.

I use this test with every Shopify App Audit:

"If your drunk grandmother can't log in at 4 a.m. and immediately understand what you do, then it's not good enough."

Harsh. But accurate.

Most app listings fail this test.

They hide behind jargon. They list features instead of solving ONE clear problem. They assume merchants will read three paragraphs to figure out what problem this solves.

They won't.

Attention is the scarcest resource in the App Store.

You get 5 seconds. Maybe less.

If a tired person at 4 a.m. can't immediately understand what you solve, you've already lost.

Strip the jargon. Pick ONE problem. Make your value obvious before they have to think.

That's the test.

---

Want your app listing audited? Scan the QR code in my banner!

Your App Store listing looks great.

Until a merchant actually tries to understand it.

I’ve seen this in dozens of audits: founders obsess over polish and miss what actually blocks the install.

What tanks listings, even the ones that look professional:

𝐉𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐨𝐧 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝

You're fluent in your own product. Merchants aren't.

"Automated post-purchase engagement flows" means nothing to someone who just wants to send a thank you email after checkout.

They type simple problems into search. You rank for complex solutions nobody's looking for.

The fix isn't dumbing it down. It's using the exact words your support tickets use. That's what merchants search for.

𝐁𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐙𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐬

Your screenshots show your app. They should show what changes.

A merchant doesn't care what your dashboard looks like. They want to know what happens after they install.

First screenshot needs to answer one question in under 3 seconds: "What's different for my store?"

Most founders need 6 screenshots to get there. That's 5 screenshots too late.

𝐍𝐞𝐠𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬

Last review response was 4 months ago.

Doesn't matter if it's a 5-star review. What merchants see is silence.

They're not reading reviews just for social proof. They're checking if anyone's actually running this thing.

Recent replies signal you're present. Old timestamps signal you've moved on.

You lose installs before they finish scrolling.

Your listing isn't static. It's the first impression of whether your product is alive or abandoned.

When's the last time you actually looked at yours like a merchant would?

One space. 
That's what separated page 1 from page 2.

Had an audit call with my friend Gideon.

He runs partnerships for a solid Shopify app. Great product, strong reviews, around 500 installs.

He wanted quick wins for their App Store listing.

We're going through it and I notice something.

They were optimizing for "chatbot", one word.
But their competitors ranked for "chat bot", two words.

We checked:
Page 2 for "chatbot"
Page 1 for "chat bot"

One space. That's it.

——

𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐩𝐩 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐣𝐨𝐛𝐬:

Turn visitors into users, and help new people find you.

Most founders only think about the first one.

The apps that get found don't stuff keywords. They match the exact words merchants type. Every character counts.

Most of the wins I find on audit calls are this quiet. Nothing flashy. Just the gap between what you wrote and what merchants actually type.

What's the one keyword your app most needs to rank for? Go check how the page 1 apps spell it.

——

Follow me for more.
Repost this ♻️ if you think it's valuable 😎

Varun Kundra

Co-founder @ AfterSell

Since founding Aftersell (acquired by Rokt) and scaling to 40,000+ merchants, I’ve been focused on building the next growth engine for DTC brands: Rokt Ads.

Get $10K+ in ad credits to test Rokt Ads—the new customer acquisition channel helping DTC brands diversify beyond Meta and Google.

We place your brand on the checkout pages of top ecommerce sites—reaching high-LTV shoppers at the moment they’re most likely to convert. It’s already driving standout results for brands like Honeylove, Quince, and DRMTLGY—and scaling fast.

Co-Founder

We build software that helps independent eCommerce merchants compete on a global scale. Our apps are trusted by over 5000 of the world's top brands.

beamcommerce.com
aftersell.com

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