I’m still trying to get clarification on marketplace connector apps.
When I first submitted my app, it was rejected for the following reason:
Shopify is not currently accepting apps that connect to a marketplace system outside of Shopify. This applies to all apps that connect to a marketplace outside of Shopify
The app is an eBay intregration. Originally, my app included functionality for exporting/cross-listing existing Shopify products to eBay (and providing product content and inventory syncing between both platforms). I was able to salvage some of the app, particularly importing eBay listings into Shopify and inventory syncing.
The classification is basically based on whether data is moving from Shopify to an external marketplace versus data moving into Shopify from the external marketplace (apart from stock quantities, since that is really inventory management). So it seems as long as data is only moving in the latter direction (external marketplace → Shopify), it’s allowed.
But this of course has devalued my app and has limited its growth potential. A lot of merchants rely on cross-listing their Shopify products to other popular marketplaces to increase sales and maintain a livable income, since in most cases, those marketplaces provide a lot more traffic compared to their Shopify store.
And turning the app into a sales channel app is obviously not possible (I don’t own or represent eBay for example).
I understand Shopify recently started to enforce this to not lose out on payment/transaction fees.
And I know the fact that there are already many marketplace connector apps grandfathered in doesn’t affect current policy interpretation or enforcement for new apps.
But is there any arrangement at all that can be made that would prompt Shopify to provide written consent to develop and publish a marketplace connector app? Whether that includes paying some type of fee to Shopify? Or anything at all? I worked really hard on trying to make the process of exporting Shopify products more efficient than current marketplace connector apps. I have already lost a lot of potential customers because they were specifically asking to be able to export their Shopify products to eBay.