Having built on Shopify for nearly a decade, one of the most interesting changes I’ve seen is how much the platform has evolved.
Shopify is no longer used solely by merchants selling products through a traditional ecommerce checkout. Today, merchants use Shopify to power a wide range of businesses, including subscriptions, digital products, wholesale, B2B, booking services, marketplaces, content-driven commerce, affiliate storefronts, and many other specialized use cases.
This diversity is one of Shopify’s greatest strengths.
At the same time, the Built for Shopify program has become one of the most important quality signals in the ecosystem. It helps merchants identify apps that meet a high standard for performance, usability, accessibility, reliability, and overall merchant experience.
That raises an interesting product question.
As Shopify continues to support an increasingly diverse range of merchant business models, should every app category be evaluated through exactly the same framework, or should merchant intent and use case play a greater role in how applications are assessed?
Consider affiliate storefronts as one example.
These merchants intentionally use Shopify to build curated product discovery websites, recommendation portals, comparison sites, and other content-driven experiences. Their business is centered around helping customers discover products and earning affiliate commissions, rather than selling inventory directly through Shopify.
This isn’t a new use case—it has existed within the Shopify ecosystem for many years and continues to serve a distinct segment of merchants.
The question isn’t whether this business model is valuable. Thousands of merchants have demonstrated that it is.
The question is whether applications serving fundamentally different merchant workflows should always be evaluated using criteria designed primarily for traditional ecommerce experiences.
More broadly, this applies to many specialized business models that Shopify enables today. As the platform continues to expand, there may be opportunities for the Built for Shopify program to evolve alongside it while maintaining the high standards that make the badge meaningful.
I’m not suggesting lowering the quality bar. In fact, I think the success of Built for Shopify comes from maintaining high standards.
Instead, I’m curious whether there is room to recognize that different merchant categories may achieve those standards in different ways, while still delivering exceptional merchant experiences.
The Built for Shopify badge has become more than a recognition program—it’s also an important signal that influences where partners choose to invest their time and resources. Greater clarity around how different merchant business models fit within the program would help partners make better long-term product decisions while continuing to build high-quality experiences for Shopify merchants.
I’d love to hear thoughts from both the Shopify team and other partners:
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As Shopify continues to evolve, should Built for Shopify evolve with it?
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How should the program balance consistent standards with increasingly diverse merchant use cases?
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Are there other merchant or app categories that raise similar questions?
Looking forward to the discussion.