New Benefits and Criteria for Built for Shopify: Learn the Latest

In recent years, Shopify has revolutionized the world of e-commerce, offering increasingly advanced and customized solutions to merchants around the world. One of the most innovative programs is Built for Shopify (BFS), which promotes apps built to the highest standards of ease of use, design, and performance. This program has proven to be a game-changer, recording an average 49% growth in new app installs in the first 14 days after achieving BFS status.

Today, Shopify is announcing new benefits and criteria for Built for Shopify apps, aiming to provide merchants with the best of the Shopify App Store. Let's dive into all the new features.

New Benefits for Built for Shopify Apps

Merchant Plan-Based Ad Targeting

One of the most exciting new features is the ability for BFS apps to target App Store search ads to specific merchant plans. For example, if you want to target Plus merchants or Shopify Retail merchants exclusively, you can now do so. This targeting allows you to focus your advertising efforts on the exact segment of merchants you want to drive installs from, thus maximizing the effectiveness of your campaigns.

Autonomous Search Filter

Another significant improvement is the standalone search filter for BFS apps. Previously, this filter was hidden in the "Refine" search filter group. Now, merchants can easily filter their queries to see only the highest-quality apps for a given search, thus increasing the visibility and install rate for your apps.

New Criteria: General and Category-Specific Updates

To ensure Built for Shopify apps continue to offer the highest quality and integration, Shopify has updated its program criteria. These updates include both general criteria applicable to all BFS apps and category-specific criteria.

General Policies (Applicable to All BFS Apps)

1. Seamless Registration: We now require merchants to be able to quickly get started with any installed app without having to log in or register.
2. Administrative Performance Updates: We are modernizing our administrative performance benchmarks to ensure apps meet the right standards, replacing First Input Delay (FID) with Iteration to Next Paint (INP) and reintroducing Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) as a key metric.
3. App Design Guidelines (ADG) Updates: We've made several updates to our app design guidelines, including a new section dedicated to subscription apps.

Category Specific Criteria

To maintain high quality standards, we are expanding the BFS criteria to more app categories. Developers are responsible for determining the category(ies) to which their apps belong and must meet the specific requirements for that category. Categories include:

- Product Reviews: Apps that allow merchants to collect product reviews.
- Bundles: Apps that group products together to sell as a single unit.
- Subscriptions: Apps that allow customers to purchase products on a recurring basis.
- Discounts: Apps that allow merchants to define and configure price reductions.
- Order Fulfillment* Apps that use your location to prepare and ship orders on behalf of merchants.
- Printing Invoices and Delivery Notes: Apps that generate invoices or delivery notes for orders.
- Returns: Apps that make it easier for customers to manage and process product returns, exchanges, and refunds.
- Courier Services (Updated Criteria): Apps that connect to a courier service to provide real-time shipping rates.

Program Update: Annual Renewal Reviews

Starting in January 2025, renewal reviews will begin for existing Built for Shopify apps. Apps will be reviewed annually to ensure they continue to meet the BFS standards. Failure to meet these standards will result in a 60-day grace period to address any issues before losing their Built for Shopify status.

Conclusion

The new updates and criteria for Built for Shopify represent a significant step forward in ensuring that apps in the Shopify App Store offer the highest quality and integration possible. These changes not only help merchants find the best apps for their needs, but also offer developers greater opportunities for growth and visibility.

For more information on how to make the most of these updates and optimize your Shopify app, contact Yastime, our Shopify experts. We're here to help you grow your business with customized solutions.

Contact us today!