#127-A Few Tips That Will Help You Get Your Shopify App Approved

An Indian corporation shares how they got a very special Shopify app published on the Shopify app store. In the past few years, the Shopify App Store has been gaining a lot of popularity with more and more people interested in building their own store. There is a whole new generation of entrepreneurs who are looking to create their own Shopify store. 

Bengal IT Services, Inc. , an Indian corporation, was hired by a UK-based corporation to develop a very special Shopify app. The app can automate all important aspects of the dropshipping process. The corporation assigned a team of highly experienced software developers to the project. A representative of the corporation was kind enough to share their experience with us. 

The app was developed following Shopify's official requirements. The corporation's Shopify experts worked diligently and remained in touch with Shopify during the course of development. The representatives of Shopify were very professional and helpful. In the beginning, the UK-based corporation contacted Shopify regarding a billing implementation issue. The UK-based team wanted to know more about getting clearance to use a payment processor such as, PayPal or Stripe, instead of Shopify payments. The Shopify team answered the questions. If you have any queries, and you are unable to get them resolved by browsing the documentation and contacting the community experts, you can get in touch with Shopify support through live chat, phone, or email. Be brief, to the point, & crystal clear. In the end, the corporation decided to use Shopify payments for its advantages. 

Your Shopify app needs to be compatible with all popular browsers. You can use a platform such as lambdatest for cross-browser compatibility testing. Bengal IT Services, Inc. had a great experience testing the public standalone Shopify app on different setups (device, browser, browser version, operating system, & resolution). The app was tested extensively. 

After submission, you will receive a confirmation mail. If your app does not fulfill all the criteria to get approved, it will either get rejected or you will be requested to make a few updates. Your team needs to be meticulous regarding satisfying all the requirements. For instance, an app might get rejected due to its name being different in the partner account and in the Shopify app store listing even when the difference is a space. An app might get rejected if it has not subscribed to the mandatory GDPR webhooks. An app might get rejected due to issues in OAuth implementation. You also need to be careful as if you submit an app, again and again, that does not meet the app store requirements, you might face a suspension. The Bengal IT Services, Inc. sent the following email in response to a mail from shopify app review team requesting updates,

"Hi,

You are welcome. We have patched the minor issues (1-10) mentioned in the mail from shopify app review team. Please see the details below.

Note-REDACTED: One or more of the issues were due to a bug in the implementation of the /process-REDACTED-declined route. It has been fixed.

1. The issue has been patched.

Details: Please see the screencast (see 7) to understand how the connection to facebook works. It is not required to visit your fb ads page after connecting to facebook. The indication of a successful connection to facebook is the auto population of the 3 dropdown menus below. When the user connects to facebook for the first time, they will see a success message in the facebook popup. To understand how fb login button works, please read the official documentation, https://developers.facebook.com/docs/facebook-login/web/login-button/ .

2. The issue has been patched.

Details: A different documentation was followed during implementation of oauth. Changes have been made following the official shopify documentation. If you encounter an issue in the oauth implementation again, please send us a screenshot of the issue as the screenshot url shared earlier was invalid.

 

3. The issue has been patched.

4. The issue has been patched.

5. The issue has been patched.

Details: The Website URL/ landing page url is REDACTED . The implementation is such that when the user is logged in, they will automatically get redirected to the app page. If you would like to visit the landing page when you are logged in, you can either log out or visit the page in a different browser window with a different session. The FAQs url has been updated.

6. The issue has been patched.

7. The issue has been patched.

Details: Please see the screencast here, REDACTED .

 

8. The issue has been patched.

Details: Please see note-REDACTED above.

9. The issue has been patched.

10. The issue has been patched.

Details: Please see note-REDACTED above.

We appreciate your cooperation.

 

REDACTED"

Depending on the feature sets of your app, Shopify might request you to review a few additional terms, ask you to answer a few questions, & sign agreements. Respond professionally & follow their instructions. For instance, you might be required to sign the End Recipient Data Acknowledgement Form if you are an End Recipient that "gains access to Shopify merchant data" through the application. Also, different types of requirements might apply based on your specific app type. Please ensure your team complies with all of them. 

After the Shopify app review team is satisfied, you will get an email very similar to the following email, 

"Hi REDACTED,

Thanks very much for getting back to me and for resolving the issue.

Your  app  is  now  approved  for  publication  on  the  Shopify  App  Store. 

[...]

If  you  have  any  questions  moving  forward  please  go  to  our  Forums.  We  have a  team  dedicated  to  answering  questions  in  there,  as  well  as a  community  of  helpful  developers.  You  can  also  stay  updated  with  changes  to  Shopify's  API  and  more  at  the  API  changelog  page.  In  your  Partner  dashboard  under  the  Resources  tab  in  the  side  bar  you  can  access  Partner  Academy, as  well  as  Support.

It  is  important  to  review  and  adhere  to  these  guidelines. 

[...]

Thanks,

REDACTED | Shopify Apps Team"

Please note that some information has been redacted in order to protect trade secrets. 

1mgtheboss's blog is a professional IT service provider. The corporation might receive a commission if a product is purchased following the URLs in this article. We test each product thoroughly and only use the best. The corporation is independently owned & the opinions expressed here are its own.