Newsletter #35: my first custom app, investors’ logic, and concerts

Hi there,

I hope you're feeling good.

On Tuesday, I was invited to the Shopify Winter Partner Day in Paris.

All the French Shopify agencies were present: Colorz, Axome, W3Lead, Unlikely Technology, Expertify, Rainbow, Piment, to name just a few.

It's always enriching to discuss with all these experienced Shopify partners.

Shopify France presented us with insightful information: key figures of 2023, names of French merchants who recently joined Shopify (Le Slip Français, Le Coq Sportif, Rouje, etc.), Winter Editions highlights, and priorities for 2024.

It was very interesting and the buffet was delicious (organic peach juice, you have my heart). A perfect afternoon!

This edition is sponsored by Gadget.

Gadget Launch Week starts on Monday!

Next week, we’re launching Gadget v1.0 to make Shopify app development truly friction-free. You’ll get access to new features every day, and we’ll be hosting live builds with the Gadget team to show off what’s new.

Sign up to be the first to see what launches! https://bit.ly/49IaT0K

In today’s edition, we’re discussing my first custom app, investors’ logic, and concerts.

Let's dive in.

Work

A few months ago, a French jewelry brand contacted me.

All of their creations are made of recycled gold. This means they melt down existing gold to create beautiful rings, necklaces, and other accessories.

Their rings, in particular, are causing a specific problem: currently, on their online store, when a ring size is out of stock, it’s displayed as out of stock. So far, so good. However, a ring is rarely really out of stock.

Indeed, these recycled gold rings can be replaced by the closest upper size (+1) or the closest lower size (-1). For example, if a ring in size 52 is out of stock, the merchant has the ability to melt a size 51, or a size 53, to turn it into a size 52.

Other rings can also be replaced by the +2 and -2 sizes, +3 and -3 sizes, and even by the +4 and -4 sizes!

So, when an out of stock ring is ordered (this is possible because the merchant activated the “continue selling when out of stock” option), they enter into a long manual process:

• Choose the replacement ring.

• Adjust the inventories of the ordered ring and the replacement ring in the Shopify admin.

• Contact the salespersons in the physical stores to ask them to remove the replacement ring from the shop’s window, so that it can’t be ordered by a customer through Shopify Point of Sale (POS).

• Remove the replacement ring from the shop’s window.

Operationally, this process is a nightmare and can be a source of errors.

So, it had to be automated.

I called my friend Aurélien Bobenrieth, who is a freelance developer specializing in Shopify applications. Together we used Gadget to build a custom app specifically for this need.

I had never built a custom app before. I had only built a public app which was related to customer segments (see edition 32). This was my first time playing with variant inventories through APIs.

I scoped the need with the merchant and we got to work. As Aurélien has been a developer for more than 7 years, I learned a lot from him, especially regarding the app's structure and testing processes.

This app:

• Listens to every new order.

• Retrieves the type of resizing scenario (scenario 1 for +1/-1 sizes, scenario 2 for +2/-2 sizes, etc.).

• Determines the replacement variant, based on this resizing scenario, as well as a couple of additional custom rules.

• Adjusts the inventories of the ordered variant and the replacement variant in Shopify.

• Stores a summary of the executed process inside a metaobject located on the order, so that the team can consult it at any time if needed.

• Sends an email to the salesperson in the appropriate physical store to ask them to remove the replacement ring from the shop’s window, so that it can’t be ordered by a customer through Shopify Point of Sale (POS).

Now that these resizing scenarios are automatically handled by our custom app, the merchant saves several hours per week. They can dedicate this time to other areas of their business, which are more impactful.

Thank you again, so much, Aurélien! Having fun whilst learning and making a merchant’s life easier is all I can ask for.

Inspire

A year ago, Ryan Hoover (the founder of Product Hunt and now the founder of the early-stage fund Weekend Fund) and Vedika Jain (an investor at Weekend Fund) launched an interesting project called Signature Block.

Signature Block is a newsletter dedicated to fund managers or people thinking of starting a fund. It curates advice and learnings about topics such as fundraising, deal flow, founder support, etc.

At the end of February 2024, Ryan and Vedika started experimenting with a new series on Signature Block called "Why they invested".

As the name suggests, their goal is to detail the reasons why investors bet their money on a specific company.

The first company they are analyzing is Zip, which grew from a $0 to $1B+ market capitalization in 18 months.

This is the first time I've come across an article with this approach. I find it original and super insightful.

Discover more by reading the article “Why they invested: Zip”.

Explore

This month, my biggest disconnection from work is concerts.

Last weekend, I went to see the French artist Ronisia, at Paris’s Zénith with my brother. 6,000+ people singing and dancing together, what a great time!

Her performance was amazing and she happily brought many guests on stage with her: Dadju, Tiakola, Joé Dwèt Filé, Eva, etc. It was very cool vibes!

We have two more concerts planned next week, and friends are going to join us for those.

I have a strong feeling that I’m currently building memories that I’ll cherish for years to come.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for reading this edition until the end.

I'll talk to you soon.

Take good care of yourself.

Coralie