If you are planning to test the waters of the digital marketing world, there has never been a better time
than now to get started with Shopify app development.
Shopify is an eCommerce platform that helps budding business owners or entrepreneurs to grow their
businesses by helping them create apps for their stores.
Over 1.7 million businessmen have been helped by Shopify all across the globe to build, manage and spread
their business on the e-commerce platform. In this era of a global pandemic, stepping into the digital
platform for growing your business is highly beneficial in every way. Therefore, knowing everything about
Shopify app development will help you take your business to new lengths.
Keep reading this article where we will talk you through the steps of creating your very own Shopify app.
Understanding the Shopify Ecosystem
Before we get started with the process of real-time app development in Shopify, it is
important to understand how apps work in the atmosphere of Shopify.
How are apps in Shopify distinguished from other apps?
Shopify is specifically designed to get merchants to think out of the box. With millions of people working
on a new project every day, your work will not be concerned until it has some striking features.
Each merchant is unique and they have separate sets of challenges to overcome. Therefore, Shopify helps
these blooming merchants to establish themselves differently from the crowd.
Apps contain a multiverse of things, within and beyond the scope of the business of a merchant. Shopify
helps the merchant to collect all the information they need and tailor them specifically as per their
needs, engaging with only what fits their business best.
.
Integration between apps and Shopify
If it is still not clear to you regarding how Shopify helps with app development, here’s the catch:
1.Using Shopify’s APIs, mostly the Admin API, app developers can read important information and data that
is relative to the app’s customer scale, inventory, products, orders, fulfillment, et cetera.
2. By adding new features to existing parts of Shopify APIs or POS
3.Shopify enhances the way stores display information about a specific app to the customer
What are the types of Apps provided by Shopify?
Shopify provides access to three types of apps in general. 1. Public Apps – Accessible to all merchants and are listed in the
Shopify
App Store 2. Custom Apps – Made for merchants with specific requirements. Not
listed on the App store as they are customized individually 3. Private Apps – when the specific needs of the customer are not
met by the custom app development, a private app approach is used. They are not listed on the Shopify app
store.
Getting started with the process of building your Shopify app
Once you understand the parameters of the f Shopify environment, the answer
to how to build a Shopify app is quite simple. The only difference
between a Shopify app and a regular
web app is Shopify's Admin API.
Here are three important things you should keep in mind when developing a Shopify app for the first
time.
Authorization from a store Before you categorize your app as a Shopify app, a partner account is required to register and
authorize your app. After this process, you will be given an API key and API secret key to include in
the app for authorization. You will need a public address for your app to complete this step.
Your app needs to be hosted somewhere You will require a public
address for your app which will be submitted to Shopify via the authorization partner mentioned above.
Only having a Shopify partner account does not mean that the app will be hosted for you by Shopify
Authorization from a store Before you categorize your app as a Shopify app, a partner account is required to register and
authorize your app. After this process, you will be given an API key and API secret key to include in
the app for authorization. You will need a public address for your app to complete this step.
Use Shopify API The most primary feature of a Shopify app is
the
use of a Shopify API. You need to use the right Shopify API, which will be the Admin API. With that, you
will be able to write and read data from your store providing a common interface to all functions. You can
even get Storefront APIs which allow publicly accessible data to your storefront.
Do you want to know how to build a Shopify app? Here, follow the steps.
Choose a tech stack- You need to decide which programming language
you want to use. The most recommended ones are JavaScript and Ruby.
Authenticate your app- Before you start with the real development
process, you need to make sure that your app can be connected successfully to the Shopify app store. To
authenticate your app you will need a tunneling address and an API Key and API Secret Key
Setting up the Tunneling address- You can use a site like Ngrok to
get easy services for tunneling. On this site, you will get a public address that will help you run the
application.
Register your app on Shopify App Store- Now that you have a public
address for your app, go to your Shopify Partners account, on the sidebar click on Apps. In the next step,
press the Create App button in the left top corner. This step is equivalent to registering your app. After
this step, click on Public Apps, and add the URL, which is the public address you got from the previous
step. Insert your API Keys, and your app is very close to accessing its first test run. Confirm the
acknowledgment and you will be taken to a page where you have to authorize the app for completing the
process.
Building the app- Now you have your very own Shopify App.
Understand the app structure and test run the app a few times.
This was most of what you need to know before developing your app on Shopify. Nowadays digital
applications play a crucial role in the success of businesses and entrepreneurs by empowering them to meet
unique challenges and providing them with exposure to enlarge their market. The e-commerce market is
constantly growing and having an application using a fast-paced platform like Shopify will help you
respond to the market demand and even give you scope for expansion. With a Shopify app, you will be able
to sell your products on multiple channels. We hope this article helped you with your query on knowing
everything about Shopify app development.
