How do I find merchants for my Shopify app?

3,200 stores launch every day with no apps installed and no habits formed. Why new merchants are the easiest users an app will ever get.

App store search rewards apps that already have installs and reviews. That is fine once you have them and a serious problem before you do, which is why most Shopify apps struggle at exactly the point they most need users.

The way around it is not to compete in the listing at all, at least not first. About 3,200 Shopify stores launch every day with nothing installed, no habits formed and no incumbent tool to replace.

Why new merchants convert more easily

No switching cost. Selling to an established store means displacing a tool with data in it, a workflow around it and someone who chose it. A new store has none of that. You are the first option, not the replacement.

They are actively looking. A founder in week one is assembling a stack. They are searching, asking and installing. That posture lasts weeks and then largely stops.

They tell you what they need. What a store installs first is a readable signal of what the founder is worried about. Reviews first usually means they know they have no social proof. Analytics early means someone is measuring. If your app serves the problem they have already shown they care about, the pitch writes itself.

Early users are better users. A merchant who installs in their first month and grows with the store becomes the long tenure account every app needs, and the review you cannot buy later.

Finding them

You need stores at launch, filtered by what makes them relevant to your app. Category if your app is vertical. Country if you have language or payment constraints. Existing apps, to see whether a competitor got there already or whether the slot is open.

That last filter is the sharpest one and almost nobody uses it. A store with a reviews app but no email tool is a precisely qualified prospect for an email tool, and you can see that before you contact them.

The approach

Be specific and be useful. A founder who launched eleven days ago does not want a feature list. They want the one thing your app fixes, named in terms of a problem they already know they have.

Volume helps here. With 22,403 launches in a week you do not need a high response rate, you need relevance and consistency.

FisherLeads lists newly launched stores with the apps each one is running and the owner's contact details, which is what makes the open slot filter possible.

The first message has to arrive. Recievet sets up a branded address authenticated from the first send, so your outreach to a new merchant reaches the inbox. Figures last confirmed October 14, 2026.