There are thousands of Shopify apps, enough to seemingly have everything covered. As ecommerce evolves and the Shopify platform develop further, new opportunities have arisen and will continue to arise. We are actively working on apps and keep tabs on the Shopify apps store to gauge the popularity of new apps.

As part of a new blog schedule, this is the first Wednesday Brainstorm post with a ideas for Shopify apps. These aren't thoroughly researched yet, and are merely some of the areas that appear to have potential to help independent ecommerce businesses.

1. API enabled / headless commerce apps. While 'headless commerce' may be a newly trending search term, the core features of headless commerce look to be enduring. Service that help commerce to cross platforms, mediums, and locations will have more potential ahead. APIs have enormous potential ahead and unlocking more features for Shopify commerce looks promising.
2. Third-party analytics apps. There are challenges coming next year for Shopify merchants whereby Apple will make it difficult for merchants to understand the effectiveness of third-party ads, such as those on Facebook and Google. Apps that go help merchants to better track and understand these metrics will prove more valuable in the future.
3. Traffic generating platforms. Google and Facebook are increasingly become siloed and less ready to push users to third parties. This may open up opportunities for customers not in those ecosystems to find new shopping solutions.
4. 3d printing app. There's a handful of apps available now and there are still so many opportunities. More specific uses cases, specialized materials, local printers, and other opportunities all look viable.
5. AI-based new product recommendations. Scan reviews and customer feedback to find ideas for new products.
6. Cooperative merchant apps. Merchants with complementary products and/or similar target audiences help customers discover new products.
7. Product discover apps. Amazon has made shopping super convenient, if you know what you want. It's still terrible for discovery and there's limited options for discovering products in an enjoyable manner.
8. Pricing flexibility. There's been an explosions of apps that help customers pay over time. The creativity seems to have stopped at that point and could be pushed further to enable more interesting auctions, increase scarcity, etc.
9. Cryptoassets. Shopify controls payments and thus bitcoin app options are limited. However, crypto and digital assets are rising quickly in popularity.
10. Points & rewards apps. Communities drive brands and points help drive brands. Rewards systems are still under-utilized among most digital commerce businesses.
11. AI-generated products. Unlock more potential with robots and machines, enhanced with trained neural networks.

Shopify app ideas are easier to come by than to actually make a success. Crypto, AI, and platform enabling apps look promising in the future of tech, and have potential for Shopify. We're working on a public app related to #2 and have developed private apps related to #5 and #10.