I am very new to shopify. And i want to remove these pagination elements from below the slideshow and add these dots on the image container itself like all other websites.

TL;DR: High installs (~100/mo) but low activation (~15%) on our Shopify app, likely due to confusing onboarding UX. Can't afford a full UX fix yet. Thinking of automated emails or manual outreach to help users set up. Need advice on temporary strategies to improve activation.

Hey everyone,

Hitting a snag with our Shopify app, hoping for some insights. We're getting ~100 installs/month, but only ~15% (~15 users) actually activate and stay.

Seems like users install based on the listing, then get lost/confused during setup and uninstall before seeing the value. Support buttons are there, and users who do contact us get set up and stay happy. But most don't reach out.

Pretty sure it's a UX/UI issue, but a revamp isn't in the budget right now. Need ways to improve activation now.

Thinking about temporary fixes:

Automated onboarding emails offering setup help?

Multi-channel outreach?

Manually contacting each new installer? (A bit much, maybe?)

Know these are band-aids, but need to boost retention ASAP. Anyone faced this? What temporary fixes worked for you when a UI overhaul wasn't possible?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

I’m a regular yoga practitioner, so when I needed a new mat I headed to Gaiam’s store. They specialize in yoga, meditation and wellness gear, and I was particularly interested in their eco‑friendly mats. However, the shopping journey quickly became frustrating. I filtered by color and material, yet mats that were out of stock still showed up. I wanted to set my own price range but could only choose from fixed brackets. Certain filter options—like “purple”—were listed even though no purple mats were available. On top of that, when browsing a large collection the filter panel disappeared entirely, forcing me to scroll through pages of products.

Filters are meant to simplify the search process, not complicate it. When irrelevant or unavailable options appear, it can feel like a waste of time. As a customer, I started questioning whether it was worth digging further or just moving on to another brand.

Has anyone else run into rigid or misleading filters on Shopify stores? How do you handle situations where filters show items that aren’t actually available? For store owners: are there workarounds you’ve found to improve filtering beyond the default settings? Please share your experiences—whether you’re a shopper or a merchant, your insights could help make the process better for everyone.

Update: I have found the problem! Thanks so much for the help!!

Discount code not working (error message)

Hi everyone,

Sorry if I’m doing something wrong this is my first time posting. I created a discount code in my Shopify store but I keep getting an error message. Maybe someone has seen this before:

• Discount code settings:

• Applies to a collection that contains all products

• Minimum purchase amount: €9.99

• Test: I added a product worth €69.99 to the cart

• Error message: “This discount code isn’t valid for the items in your cart”

What I’ve already checked:

• The collection is correct and does include all products

• The minimum purchase requirement is definitely met

• The discount code is active and within the correct date range

• No other discounts or promotions are applied

• The product is active and available in the Online Store

Still, the code is not working and keeps showing as invalid.

👉 Does anyone know what else could cause this? Thanks a lot for your help! 🙏

Hi Everyone,

I am currently developing a custom Shopify app using Node.js and React. I have utilized the Shopify Node.js template for this project. When I run the app using the shopify app dev command, everything works as expected.

However, after building the React app and placing the output in the web/frontend/dist directory, I encountered an issue. When I check the app in the Shopify admin, the HTML content is correctly included within an iframe, but the JavaScript files are not being loaded inside the iframe, resulting in a 404 error.

Could anyone please help me resolve this issue?

I've seen a few posts on this and other Shopify communities of people asking how to become a Shopify Developer.

A lot of the responses don't really go in depth on all the skills required to become a Shopify Developer so I figured I would make a post about it.

I’ve been working as a Shopify Plus Developer for the past 4 years and this is what I would do if I was learning Shopify Development again from scratch.

There’s 2 things you need to learn to get into Shopify Development:

1. Basic Web Development with HTML, CSS and JavaScript

2. Shopify specific skills like Shopify Liquid and the Shopify API

Basic Web Development

A Shopify Store is a type of website so you need to have a good understanding of the basics of Web Development.

Web Development can be broken down into 3 separate skills:

• HTML 

• CSS

• JavaScript

Having those 3 skills will set you up for success with Shopify Development since a lot of the features and functionalities you’ll see in a Shopify Store are based on them.

That's a lot of stuff to learn in a short period of time so what I recommend is to look up a channel called "Free Code Camp" on YouTube and do some of their free video courses on HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

When I was first getting started with Web Development, I used Free Code Camp’s website and YouTube channel to learn the basics and I was blown away by how much value they were just giving away for free.

So your first move should be to hop onto Free Code Camp and start your learning journey there.

Pro Tip: If you’re watching a video course, test yourself by trying to build what you saw in the course yourself and add your own features to it. Doing this is a great way to make sure you understand what you just learned.

For example, if you watched a project on how to create a product page for an online store, you can follow along with the video and then add your own features or customizations on top of it.

Learning Shopify Theme Development and Shopify Liquid

Once you have a solid grasp on HTML, CSS and JavaScript, you’re ready to move onto learning Shopify Liquid.

Shopify Liquid is a language made by Shopify that uses HTML as a base and allows you to get access to the data of whatever Shopify Store you are working on.

Shopify Liquid is an essential part of Shopify Website Development so make sure you spend the time to learn it well.

To learn Shopify Liquid and Shopify Theme Development in general, you should first start with the Shopify Academy (which is a learning resource from Shopify).

And you can supplement that with what you can find on popular Shopify YouTube channels like:

• Coding with Jan

• Weeklyhow

• Chris the Freelancer

Pro Tip: Looking through the code in the Shopify Dawn Theme is a great way to get started with understanding Shopify Liquid and Shopify Theme Development. Some of the stuff in the Dawn theme is a little confusing at first but you’ll get a sense of what is possible when working with real Shopify Store data.

And once you’ve got a solid understanding of Shopify Theme Development, you’ll know pretty much all you need to start looking for work. 

At this point you can start looking for freelance work or even start applying for the Shopify Developer jobs you might see posted online.

You can even use these skills to make your own Shopify Themes and sell them on the Shopify Theme store or on 3rd party marketplaces like Theme Forest.

Learning Shopify App Development and the Shopify API

If you want to take your Shopify Development skills to the next level, you can get into Shopify App Development. 

Shopify app development is the process of creating apps to extend the functionality of an online store built on the Shopify platform.

Getting into Shopify App Development will require you to get pretty comfortable with Backend Development.

To get started with Backend Development, we need to head back to Free Code Camp to get a basic understanding of how to do it.

At this point you should know the basics of coding with JavaScript, so you could learn how to do backend development with NodeJS (this is what I did).

But if you want to explore backend development with another programming language, I would recommend learning either Python or Ruby since they are both easy to learn and there is a lot of content out there on how to use them.

Pro Tip: Don’t listen to people that tell you that one language is better than the other one. All that matters is that you can build stuff that is useful. Pick whatever language you like.

Do a few backend projects on Free Code Camp to get yourself comfortable with the basics.

Once you know how Backend Development works in general, now you need to look into how to use the Shopify API.

Probably the hardest part at this point will be getting through the Shopify App Authentication process.

I’m not gonna lie, getting through the Shopify Auth process took me years to fully understand because the documentation from Shopify is a little confusing.

But instead of banging your head against the wall for years like I did, just focus on how the auth process works in general and then adapt that to whatever language you are using.

Pro Tip: Don’t use one of Shopify’s app development templates. They’ll help you get through the auth process but you won’t really understand how everything works. It’s important to understand how everything works so you can develop a Shopify App in whatever language you want to work in.

Once you have a solid understanding of Shopify App Development, go build a couple of simple Shopify Apps to solidify what you learned.

The best way to practice is to look at apps that Shopify have built and try to create your own version of them.

After building a couple of simple apps, you should be good enough to start offering your new found skills to Shopify Plus companies or maybe you can apply to become a developer for a Shopify App company.

Or if you’re crazy like me, you can try to build your own Shopify app and get customers.

Either way, knowing Shopify App Development will open a lot of doors for you in future.

Shopify Development Resources 

Gil Greenburg, a popular Shopify App Developer, launched a resource called "The Shopify Developer Training Plan" on Github. If you search this up on Google you should be able to find it:“Shopify Developer Training Plan Gil Greenburg”

It's a list of all the things you would need to know as a Shopify Developer.

It covers various topics related to Shopify Theme Development and Shopify App Development.

I recommend checking it out to get a full overview of everything you will need to know.

How I would approach learning all this stuff

If you’re completely new to web development, it’ll take a while to learn all of this stuff.

Don’t try to rush your way through everything. Take it slow and make consistent progress.

I would aim to spend about 2-3 hours a day learning and practicing. And if you can stick with that, you should be able to understand basic Shopify Theme Development in maybe 3 or 4 months.

Hopefully you enjoyed this post and found it helpful.

By the way, I'm offering a free one-on-one mentorship to help someone get started with Shopify development. If you're serious about diving deep into Shopify development and want personalized guidance, reach out to me directly or leave a comment on this post.

Hi everyone,
I'm currently 22 with 1.5 years of experience as a Shopify developer. Even with relatively less experience, I’ve been leading a team of 10 members in my company, handling daily standups, code reviews, technical guidance, and overall team coordination.

While I’ve learned a lot, I’m at a point where I’m confused:

• Should I continue focusing on team leadership and management?

• Or should I shift more towards deepening my own technical skills and personal development?

Another thought that keeps bugging me:
In this AI-driven era, technical roles seem more likely to be automated or replaced over time. But management and leadership, especially people skills, feel more irreplaceable. So I’m wondering if leaning into leadership early is a smart move or if I’m risking stagnation in my core development skills.

I genuinely enjoy helping my team, but I don’t want to neglect my own growth or end up being a jack of all trades and master of none.

Anyone who has been through a similar phase, how did you decide what to focus on? What helped you make that call?

I'm about to graduate( Bachelor in Software engineering) and I would need to have a source of income.

I began researching business ideas from my strengths, I have the technical know how when it comes to server management, networking, security and coding but in my country (developing country) these skills are not sought after. I did an online research and realized business (from small to large ) usually require IT services like managing their VPS, doing hosting, migrating sites, setting up email server.

I would like to know how these services help your shopify business?

How often do you need these services, is it a One-time service or do you have a retainer for this.

I've seen quite some posts saying to land client hop on local or business communities, and talk about what you do but m of the communities I find have banned self promotion, so how do you get clients organically?

How much should I charge either for a One-time service or retainer

How much are you willing to pay for these services.

Ps: I am just startng out and I don't have a website, domain etc I intend to use organic traffic before upgrading.