Hi everyone — I’m building an app for my marketplace platform, District, where sellers list products and buyers can purchase via buy-now, auction, or livestream, checking out entirely on District’s own platform (we have our own cart, payment, and auction/auto-charge logic). Shopify integration is a nice-to-have feature for our sellers, not our core product — the app lets Shopify sellers import their products into District, and when an order happens on District, it syncs back into Shopify as an order so the merchant can manage inventory, fulfillment, and reporting in one place alongside their other sales channels.
Our submission was rejected for violating App Store Requirement 1.1.2 (“Use Shopify checkout”) — since buyers complete purchase on District’s own checkout, not Shopify’s, and the resulting order is only synced into Shopify afterward via the Admin API.
I see marketplaces like Temu, Amazon, and eBay operating this exact way as Shopify apps — buyers clearly check out on the marketplace itself, not on Shopify, yet the apps are approved and orders still sync back for fulfillment.
What do I need to do to get approved to keep our own checkout flow (not redirect buyers to Shopify checkout) while still syncing orders into Shopify, the way Temu/Amazon/eBay do? Is this only possible by being reviewed/onboarded as a Sales Channel rather than a standard app, and if so, what’s that process?
Hey @Nhan_Tran - thanks for reaching out. Based on the flow you described, District does fit the definition of a sales channel, but sales-channel status alone doesn’t always permit an offsite checkout.
For public apps, buyers currently need to complete their purchase through the merchant’s Shopify checkout using a cart permalink or Storefront API-powered flow. Creating the Shopify order after checkout on District would still likely conflict with App Store requirement 1.1.2. There’s a similar clarification from my colleague Kyle in this thread.
If keeping District’s checkout and auto-charge flow is essential, your best next step is to continue with App Review or Partner Support and ask whether a separately approved arrangement is available. There isn’t a standard public-app path I can point you to for that architecture today.
Hi @Nhan_Tran , hi @Alan_G ,
We have been through the same process since last December, and the App Store Team ultimately ended up pausing the app. Here is their last decision:
“Shopify can’t guarantee the safety or security of an order that’s been placed through an offsite or third-party checkout. Apps that bypass checkout or payment processing, or register any transactions through the Shopify API in connection with such activity, are prohibited. In your submission notes (Section 4.5.4), you mentioned that your current architecture prevents customers from being routed to the merchant’s Shopify storefront for order placement. Please note that all apps must use Shopify’s native checkout process. We prohibit apps from bypassing Shopify’s checkout/payment processing or routing transactions through third-party checkouts, as we cannot guarantee the security of offsite orders.”
Although several other apps and sales channels have the same architecture, with checkout taking place on their external platform and are still listed, we have migrated our marketplaces to Shopify, so checkout now happens within the Shopify ecosystem.
Yet, the app has still never been approved, which we certainly find unfair.