ASR Weekly #20

What Shopify operators were talking about this week

October 02, 2026

From the founder:

Ten of you put someone forward during the referral contest. Twenty-three invitations went out, and twelve of those people have already sat down for their first research call. That's a real dent in a month.

The referral contest closed on September 30. Winners are below, and the prizes land in ASR balances today.

One housekeeping note: this issue is landing on a Friday. We asked a while back whether Sunday was the right day and the honest answer, from the numbers rather than the replies, was no. So we're testing a few days over the next month. Nothing else changes.

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:

Tom P. — E-commerce Manager, United Kingdom · Electronics & Photography · Plus plan

Gina L. — E-commerce Manager, United States · Health & Beauty · Plus plan

Fran H. — Operations, Australia · Toys & Games · Plus plan

Start a project to meet these participants and others like them.

  • How Shopify brand owners decide on apps, tools and fulfillment partners
    Research Call · Incentive: $150 · 60 mins — how founders weigh operational spend, value and risk, and what makes them replace a partner

  • Organic Marketing but make it Agentic 
    Sales Call · Incentive: $250 · 30 mins — agents that diagnose and run organic marketing, aimed at getting your brand into AI answers and Google search

  • Your Shopify clients' inventory headaches could be your next revenue line
    Research Call · Incentive: $100 · 30 mins — for agencies: how you handle client inventory today, and whether forecasting is worth reselling

Pattern of the week

Nobody asked for a new capability this week.

Five operators wrote in, and every one of them described systems they already run — ad platforms, analytics, loyalty programs, internal tools they built themselves — and asked for the pieces to be joined rather than replaced. One wants "one consistent revenue view" across six platforms. Another wants to "connect the dots to achieve a larger picture." A third wants the campaign pipeline automated end to end, from product selection through to reporting.

Why it matters: the gap operators are naming is between their tools, not inside them. And every one of those handoffs is currently a person — usually the person writing in, usually on a Monday morning, usually in a spreadsheet.

The stack isn't missing a tool. It's missing the seams.

Referral contest - the results

That's a wrap. Thank you to everyone who put ASR in front of someone this month.

Final leaderboard - top three:

  • 🥇 Alex M. — 7 invites, 4 active referrals — $1,000

  • 🥈 Sarah T. — 5 invites, 3 active referrals — $500

  • 🥉 Eric J. — 3 invites, 2 active referrals — $300

Genuine thanks as well to David H., Bryn H., William E., Kristi S., Noah S., Alexis G. and Emma L., who all brought someone in. A few of those referrals are still waiting on their first call, so they didn't count as active before the deadline - but the regular bonus still lands the moment they complete it.

The contest is over. Referrals aren't.

The standing rewards don't go anywhere:

  • $100 — Shopify Plus brands

  • $50 — Shopify brands

  • $50 — researchers and app builders

No leaderboard, no deadline. You get paid whenever someone you referred completes their first research session.

Three new rankings - and the numbers under them

Three new pieces went live this week:

None of these are App Store star averages. Every ranking is built from reviews our participants wrote about tools they're actually running, and we print the sample size next to every verdict — including when it's small. The DTC piece draws on 427 operator reviews across ten apps, from 209 on Klaviyo down to 14 on Okendo. The CRO and forecasting pieces say outright that their samples are thin and should be read as directional rather than statistical, because you deserve to know how much weight a verdict carries.

Three things that fell out of it:

  • Satisfaction and stickiness are different numbers. Rebuy is the most-reviewed CRO-adjacent tool at 18 reviews — 56% "very satisfied," but 89% still using it. That gap is a category of its own: operators who aren't thrilled and haven't left.

  • The thickest review coverage is all retention. Acquisition and attribution tools have a fraction of it. Which is either a sampling artefact or a fair description of where most DTC stacks are actually deep.

  • Every forecasting tool shares the same weak spot — short product history and demand spikes. Nobody has solved it, so the choice comes down to everything else.

If you run any of these apps, your review makes the next one better - add it from the App Stack tab in your account.

From the feed this week

Three reads worth your time this week:

Photo of the week

The first Sears Christmas Book, 1933 - 87 pages, only 25 of them toys. Sears put it in people's hands in the autumn because by December every decision that mattered had already been made: what to stock, what to feature, what went on the cover.

Black Friday is 54 days out. Whatever you're going to sell in November, you're choosing it this month.

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 →

See you next week.

Jon and team
— app store research

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