Shopify Website Audits / Ecommerce Consultancy for Shopify's Shop App / Online Marketplace

   If you need a hand with SEO for Shopify's Shop App and Shop.app website get in touch. I've worked on large e-com sites for brands such as Yamaha Music, Robert Dyas, SNCF Connect (one of France's largest ecom websites) etc.

  I've noticed that in certain sectors (e.g. fashion) SEO appears to remain for some e-commerce businesses not a priority, often with a focus on other (digital) marketing channels e.g. print ads, PR & social media marketing in that sector.

   If your Shopify ecom website meets the eligibility requirements outlined in Shopify's Merchant Guidelines, then your store's products are automatically listed in Shopify's Shop IOS / Android app & shop.app website, and the Shop sales channel will display in your Shopify admin system.

  You can manage your presence on the Shop app and website with the following features:

1. Customise the details of your store.

2. Manage products displayed in the Shop app.

3. Offer customers the option to download the Shop app for delivery tracking.

   It was said that “In Q4 [2023], ... [Shopify's] Shop app nearly reached $100 million in Gross Merchandise Value in a single month" and could be a potential Amazon (and Ebay) competitor in the long term - with the USP that some designer / luxury brands that don't sell on Amazon / Ebay are to be found on Shop.  Note that a Shopify spokesperson has said that product listings on the Shop. app website are not indexed by Google thus don't compete with a merchant's website in search results - thus it is not part of their strategy to be an Amazon (nor Ebay) competitor as an online marketplace in Google Search at present. This might change...

  The Android app alone has had 10M+ downloads ( as of Aug 2024).  Shop may become an ecommerce search engine it's own right: 50% of U.S. consumers start their product searches on Amazon (compared to 31% on Google) according to a 2023 report by PowerReviews. It is hard to see how Shop becoming an ecommerce search engine it's own right will be achieved while it is not part of their current strategy to be an Amazon / Ebay competitor as an online marketplace visible on search engines for products.

    It is backlinks from 607K referring domain (Semrush data) - here is an overview of the number of phrases the shop.app's is ranking for globally in the top 100 results on Google globally:

Sample of shop.app's current Google rankings 

 Shop.app ranks well and has some 'low hanging fruit' on Google US for phrases including (monthly search volumes on Google US):

SEO / ranking factors for Shop.app website / app search

 In this online marketplace (note it is also effectively a search engine of opted-in Shopify websites) - it appears that keywords in shop names offer an advantage r.e. autocomplete - see below:

    as do the number of reviews (especially for the "Related shops" listed for a search). To a certain extent I would expect optimisation of your visibility on this marketplace to be similar to optimisation of your Shopify website for Google search (you can use Google Keyword Planner for keyword research in Google dominated search markets): by optimising your Shopify website you can also optimise your visibility on their Shop app. It is a growing marketplace: you can get some 'first mover advantage' by optimising your Shopify website (if you haven't already) as you would for Google Search.

   I would expect the Shop app algorithm to be more similar to Amazon and Ebay than Google: e.g. that the conversion rate (the number of views on a listing that are then converted to sales) being a significant ranking factor. 

    I note that for some searches major global e-commerce players are colonising search results on Shop.app - 7/30 products listed on the first page of search results for 7 of 30 first page results for "beach cover ups" (49,500 monthly searches on Google UK) and 23 of 30 first page results for "cover ups" (5,400 monthly searches on Google UK) are from Fashion Nova from search location of the UK. I also note the search results for "cover ups" are different from search locations of the  US/UK - 'only' 9 of 30 first page results for "cover ups" (18,100 monthly searches on Google US) are from Fashion Nova from search location of the US. 

   My research is ongoing - if you need a hand with SEO for Shopify's Shop App and Shop.app website get in touch. I've worked on large ecommerce sites for brands such as Yamaha Music, Robert Dyas, SNCF Connect (one of France's largest ecom websites) etc. I also do Shopify website audits.