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- ASR Sunday Brief #1
ASR Sunday Brief #1
What Shopify operators were talking about this week
From the founder:
Welcome to the first ASR Sunday brief - A weekly newsletter for our brand and app network.
This is an attempt to stay connected with all of you and an exercise in being human - not written by AI. My own thoughts, observations from enabling hundreds of connections a week on our platform, product updates and curated industry links directly from my personal notepad.
We hit a few big milestones recently, including hitting $1M paid out to brands. This is huge, but what we know is even bigger and immeasurable is how much new value has been created for app teams and brands beyond the incentives for calls.
This week on app store research:
This week 14 new app teams and 12 brand operators joined our network. 21 paid research calls were completed and $8,400 was paid out in incentives. Brand operators seem increasingly interested in two main areas - replacing legacy, costly, slow apps with more nimble apps where the app founding team can offer white glove onboarding, migration and strategic direction.
We also added buyer signals to brand profiles to help Shopify app teams better prospect for sales calls.
There is a sample of the data that appears on brand profiles:
We're actively growing the brand network - if you know operators who'd be a good fit, let them know about app store research. And let me know what you think of this new email newsletter format.
Like this newsletter? Forward this email to another brand operator or app developer!
Welcome to the brand network:
These are a few brand operators that joined us this week:
Johan Ö. — Customer Service, United Kingdom · Health · Plus plan
Adam D. — E-commerce Manager, Australia · Fashion & Apparel · Plus plan
George M. — E-commerce Manager, Australia · Fashion & Apparel · Basic plan
Start a project to meet these participants and others like them.
Popular projects last week:
Seeking Shopify merchants to validate new retention marketing channel
Research Call · Incentive: $150 · 30 mins
How US Subscription Box Brands Can Reduce Fulfillment Costs by 30% or More Research Call · Incentive: $150 · 60 mins
Help Shape an AI Growth Assistant for Shopify Stores
Research Call · Incentive: $150 · 60 mins
Breakout Apps of the Week
853 new Shopify apps hit the marketplace this week as per SASI by Mantle.
Here are 3 innovative apps that caught my attention this week:
1. SATHI | AI-powered operator assistant This category of apps is putting an always-on AI layer over the operational workflows brand teams used to run manually.
2. Mech | Operational tooling for Shopify brands This category of apps focuses on simplifying the operational backend that most brands cobble together with 5+ tools.
3. Brink AI Labs | Modern commerce infrastructure This category of apps is replacing legacy commerce tooling with faster, more composable alternatives.
Pattern of the week
Looking at the latest buyer intent from our brand network, we noticed a clear pattern emerges around email/retention and CRO:
70% named Email & Retention as a top focus area
60% named CRO & Store Experience or Subscriptions & Loyalty
60% are actively replacing existing apps — not just exploring
Most apps being replaced or evaluated against include: Klaviyo, Gorgias, Triple Whale, Smile, Better Reports, Selleasy, Fast Bundle
50% flagged AI & automation or AI search optimization as a priority
What this tells me:
Operators are not adding more tools. They're rationalizing the stack they already have and replacing tools that aren't pulling their weight - especially in the retention, analytics and support categories. AI is increasingly framed as a way to do more with less rather than a shiny new line item.
Most common timeline: 1–2 months. This is a buying window, not a research window.
New App Reviews
Our brand network frequently writes reviews for apps they use. These reviews are visible from all Shopify app accounts under the App reviews tab.
1. LimeSpot Personalizer
Reviewer: Owner, Food & Drink
Operator liked:
first tool that let them do personalized recommendations
helped the team learn how to use this type of tool
Didn't like:
offering changed post-onboarding with no communication
most of the product didn't work — or reporting didn't work, hard to tell
account manager unresponsive, felt ghosted after signing on
2. Section Store: Theme sections
E-commerce Manager, Fashion & Apparel
Operator liked:
excellent variety of blocks and section modules
easy to customize, element styles suit the brand
amazing value for money
Didn't like: support could be improved — clunky on the rare times needed
3. Judge.me Product Reviews App
Reviewer: E-commerce Manager, Shopify Agency
reliable, affordable, not overcomplicated
got product reviews, photo reviews, review request emails, star ratings live quickly
free plan is genuinely useful; paid plan stays simple
Didn't like: next layer should be helping merchants turn reviews into conversion assets, not just collecting them
You Need To Read This Week
Three LinkedIn posts worth your time this week:
1. Kareem Raslan, Co-Founder @ BrainGain - the full ecom stack behind their UK & EU growth →
2. Andrew Costaris, Leadership @ Partners Coffee - on AI startups cold-emailing operators →
3. Harley Finkelstein, Shopify President - Indigo's online store is now on Shopify →
Join our private communities
Join the ASR Brand Operator Slack
Private discussions for Shopify brands. Apply to join →
Join the ASR Shopify App Slack
For Shopify app founders. Apply to join →
Photo of the week
Harley on stage at Shopify Unite 2019 in Toronto. The number on screen for Shopify partners in 2018 probably included the broader marketplace value with reported payout to apps at ~ 140M in 2018 vs ~1.3B in 2025. The payout growth curve to app developers is pretty extraordinary.
See you next week.
Jon and team
— app store research
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