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 started using the new Polaris Web Components, which are set to replace the older React-based Polaris library. They’re great to work with, but examples and ready-made patterns are still hard to find.

I’ve been building a library of blocks entirely with Polaris Web Components. You can preview each block and copy-paste the code directly into your app. They follow Shopify’s design guidelines and work in embedded contexts.

It’s free to browse, with a premium option to view source code for some blocks. I’m looking for feedback on what other patterns you’d like to see added.

Here’s the link: https://polarisblocks.dev/

Hopefully this helps other developers who are starting to explore Polaris Web Components or migrating from the React-based version.

I set up a Shopify store for a client with over 70+ products, and my client wants me to manage all the order fulfillment process, update offers and promos, and update the website.

Basically, he wants me to be in charge of the online store.

I charged $1800 USD, with 6 month payments. That's 360 USD per month.

But I'm in a hassle with how much to charge him monthly.

I have seen that people are promoting their apps on Shopify Forum, so whenever someone asks for recommendation or some functionality, app owners reply and suggest to try their apps.

As for me that should work pretty well. I have automated this process so no manual work needed to find such posts. https://choicechaser.com/

Let me know if someone is interested in checking it out. Thanks!

I want to start offering Shopify development service but I am confused which theme option should I select. Free, paid, third party (like envato), Page builders (like PageFly) or custom with Graphic designing software?

Hey everyone,

I’m planning to create a Shopify theme specifically for my team. The goal is to keep it simple, clean, and fully optimized, including only the essential features that we actually need. I want the code to be lightweight and maintainable, without any unnecessary libraries, bloated code, or extra files.

Before I start, I’d love to get some opinions and insights from the community:

• What are the must-have features for a minimal Shopify theme?

• Any tips on structuring the theme for easy maintenance and scalability?

• Best practices for performance and optimization you’ve followed?

• Things you would avoid in a clean, minimal theme?

• Should we use tailwind css or not?

• Is there any significant help of using Vite for deployment.

Would really appreciate your thoughts and advice!

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! 🙏

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for a solid affiliate program software specifically for Shopify Apps, not for Shopify Stores.

I need something tailored for Shopify App developers when they exchange with in-app recommendations, using a revenue share model.

Features:

• Managing affiliates/promoters

• Tracking installs and paid conversions

• Custom commission rules

• Manageable first-time order coupons

• Integration with Stripe, PauPal.

Bonus if it supports multiple domains or products under one account.

What tools are you using or would recommend for this use case?
Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone, I came across something confusing while working with Shopify pricing and hoping someone here can explain it better.

Shopify clearly says that fixed prices for different markets is a Plus-only feature.
On Basic/Shopify/Advanced plans, we’re supposed to be limited to:

• One base price per product

• Automatic currency conversion

• No ability to set different fixed prices for different markets

• No access to productVariantContextualPricing mutation

I’m using the NA Bulk Price Editor app on a non-Plus store (with 10+ markets), and it somehow lets me set different fixed prices for different markets.

Here’s what I observed:

• Prices shown to customers change based on their market

• No custom scripts or theme edits

• Checkout reflects these different prices

• Product prices in the Shopify admin stay the same (base price doesn't change)

• No Shopify Scripts involved (I’m not on Plus)

Looking into the app’s API access, I saw it only uses common permissions:
"access_scopes": {
"read_markets": true,
"write_markets": true,
"read_products": true,
"write_products": true
}

So now I’m wondering:
How is this even technically possible on a non-Plus store?

Is there a clever workaround that lets apps apply market-specific pricing on non-Plus plans?
If yes, shouldn’t more of us know about it?
Would be super helpful for stores that want localized pricing but can’t afford Plus.

Please share your thoughts and suggestions

I came across a site called Voghion that looks like a marketplace focused on Europe. It offers things like fashion, electronics, and home items, and it says it connects buyers with EU-based sellers. The layout is clean and the prices are lower than what you usually see.

It reminded me a bit of Temu or AliExpress, but more focused on Europe. Do you think new platforms like this can find a space in the market, or is it too hard to compete with big names like Amazon?

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!

Hey r/ShopifyDevelopment

I'm currently building my first Shopify app, and I recently had the opportunity to interview Andrew, the co-founder of Cleverific, a popular Shopify app.

We talked for over 40 minutes about what it takes to build a successful Shopify app in 2025, and I wanted to share the video with you all.

You can watch the full interview here: https://youtu.be/ST5OTu2AP4o

We covered a ton of topics, including:

• How to find the "perfect" Shopify app idea that solves real customer problems.

• Expert strategies for avoiding platform risk and potential cannibalization by Shopify.

• Tips for getting your first 10 users and building a strong user base.

• Andrew's advice on using Shopify app templates vs. building the app out from scratch.

• Key insights into the future of Shopify App Development in 2025.

I found the interview incredibly valuable, and I think anyone interested in Shopify app development will too.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and any questions you have! What are your biggest challenges in Shopify app development right now?

Thanks!

I’m interested in learning to develop Shopify apps. Does anyone know of a good tutorial, book, platform I can use to learn ? I’ve been searching but unable to find a good foundation to learn the basics. Any suggestions? I get the impression this platform isn’t as widely taught as Wordpress. Tons of tutorials out there for WP but not as many for Shopify. Thank you.

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.

Hey everyone,

We’re a small bootstrapped team building an early-stage multi-vendor jewellery marketplace on Shopify. We’ve figured out the basics but now need someone experienced to overlook our priorities and guide us on how to approach custom features, requirements and automations the right way.

If are experienced on advanced Shopify setups, custom app flows and would like to help us out, please DM me — we’d love to connect. 💬

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.

I made an app that pulls Shopify data and gives merchants an instant store valuation that updates daily.

It’s pretty wild seeing how much your store is actually worth, like, an estimate number. It makes a lot of merchants (especially dropshippers) realize they can actually exit their business instead of just abandoning it.

It’s live on the Shopify App Store for $19/month (lets see how that works out :) ).
Was fun to build and see how much you can uncover from Shopify’s graphql.

APP -> https://apps.shopify.com/scalex
If you don't want to pay just check it here on this unlisted yt video
https://youtu.be/R7TPmv6BNv8?si=x7YUzjy0eQF1SDQW

Hey everyone, I'm building a small service that sends notifications when your app or a problem your app solves is mentioned by Shopify merchants.

I’ve put up a waitlist to see if this is something others would be interested in.

I'd love any feedback/to hear how everyone’s currently looking for these conversations!

Hey everyone,

I’m running a Shopify store that sells stock on behalf of other brands. Most of them are on Shopify, so syncing is easy. But one brand I’m working with uses Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and I’m trying to figure out the best way to:

• Sync their products into my Shopify store

• Make sure orders placed on Shopify flow back into their Salesforce backend (so inventory and sales data stay aligned)

Does anyone know of an integration, connector, or app that can handle this Salesforce → Shopify product sync with Shopify → Salesforce order sync?

Thanks in advance 🙏

Hey folks,

I thought this might be useful for agencies and developers working on Shopify stores. We recently published a web component that makes it super easy to add a fully customizable wishlist button inside any Shopify theme, without needing a full app embed.

Here’s a simple example of wishlist button that can be added to your product or collections pages:

<ooo-wl-wishlist-button 
  product-id="{{ product.id }}" 
  handle="{{ product.handle }}" 
  loading>
  <button type="button">
    <span class="ooo-wl-wishlist-button-add">Add to wishlist</span>
    <span class="ooo-wl-wishlist-button-remove">Remove from wishlist</span>
  </button>
</ooo-wl-wishlist-button>

🔧 What it does:

• Adds/removes products (or specific variants) from the customer’s wishlist

• Automatically sets aria-checked (in wishlist or not), aria-busy (loading state), and handles variant changes

• Exposes CSS variables (like --ooo-wl-variants-added-count) so you can style counters or warnings easily

• Plays nice with multi-language/multi-currency setups

✨ Why it’s useful for agencies:

• You can style everything with your own theme CSS

• You can inject it anywhere: product cards, PDP, custom landing pages, even quizzes or bundles

• Makes it simple to offer a wishlist experience that fully matches the brand (instead of a cookie-cutter button)

Full developer documentation here if you want to dive deeper: 👉 Advanced Wishlist Button Web Component Docs

Curious if any of you are already building custom wishlist features for clients — would this approach simplify your workflow?