Got the most generic feedback to my BFS submission

Built for Shopify
1

I submitted my app for Built For Shopify and got this back within an hour or two:

We found one or more issues in the following areas that must be corrected: 4.1.1: App must be polished, functional, and not buggy, 4.1.1: Content must live in a container, 4.1.4: Use only Shopify Admin navigation, 3.1.1: App must not contain any embedded pages from external websites, 3.1.3 Enable seamless sign up based on Shopify credentials, 4.3.4: Don’t overwhelm merchants. We did not complete a thorough review of your app against the Built for Shopify requirements. Please re-review your app against the above categories and the remainder of the Built for Shopify Requirements to ensure your app adheres to all directives before proceeding.

I’m really not sure how to go about resolving this, and I’m wary of resubmitting without having things resolved, given the threat of suspension further in the email.

The app has been running in a live environment for 18 months or so, with hundreds of paying customers and ~50 genuine 5-star reviews (no lower-star reviews).

The app isn’t buggy to my knowledge.

It uses the Shopify Admin navigation.

Almost all content lives in a container, though I believe some headings and small bits of text like subtitles can live outside a card.

The app doesn’t embed any external website pages. All external pages (e.g. documentation site links) open in a new tab.

There’s no sign-up process, it authenticates using Shopify credentials automatically.

I don’t believe it overwhelms merchants but I guess that’s subjective?

Has anyone has this kind of extremely generic early feedback and how did you deal with it?

Can anyone at Shopify help me out? Happy to resolve any issues but some more specific direction would be nice so I’m not “fixing” things that aren’t even the root of the feedback. @Liam-Shopify ?

Thanks,
Gunner

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Yes the way to deal with it is changing the app, even if what they sent makes the app objectively worse, then hope they will change their mind.

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That doesn’t really help me. As I said, what they sent is extremely generic, so I don’t even know what to change or fix in the app. I also mentioned that to my knowledge the app already complies with several of the points, such as using the Shopify Admin navigation, authenticating with Shopify, and not embedding external websites.

I’ve had other feedback for another app a year or two ago but it was reasonably specific. It included screenshots from the app indicating what needed changing. I didn’t agree with some of them, but at least I could tell what they wanted changed. On this occasion, I really have no clue. There’s no screenshots, and what I’ve pasted above is the entirety of the feedback.

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@Alan_G Are you able to provide me with some any guidance? Happy to message privately if you want context of the app/account.

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Hey @gunner -

Thanks for flagging this. From what’s in the thread, I don’t have enough app-specific context to say which exact page or workflow triggered those categories, and I definitely get why you’d want more specific direction before resubmitting.

I can take a closer look on our end and see if there’s any more specific guidance we can surface. Could you share the app name/app ID, Partner org, submission timestamp, and the full feedback email? If you’d prefer to set that up over DM, just let me know since I realize. there might be some private info there - I can set that up on my end.

In the meantime, I’d hold off on resubmitting until you’ve checked the flagged areas against the current BFS requirements: App Bridge/admin embedding, no external surfaces for primary workflows, Shopify-based signup, Shopify Admin nav, card-like containers for most content, and reducing dense banners/forms/copy where possible.

I also just wanted to mention that pinging folks who haven’t joined a thread is technically against our code of conduct: Code of Conduct

No worries this time though, happy to help with this - just wanted to share that for the future. Hope to hear from you soon.

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Hi @Alan_G

Thanks for responding and cheers for letting me know about the forum terms, I wasn’t aware.

Yes can we please set up a private message so I can share that information with you?

As far as I’m aware I’m in compliance with all those things: App Bridge/admin embedding, no external surfaces for primary workflows, Shopify-based signup, Shopify Admin nav, card-like containers for most content, and reducing dense banners/forms/copy where possible.

Of course, I may have overlooked something or misinterpreted something, but surely not all of them, so I really need some more specific feedback to avoid resubmissions without having addressed the problems.

Would be very appreciative of your assistance with this.

Thanks!

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No worries @gunner - setting up a DM now :slight_smile: