An email agency we spoke with wanted Shopify stores using Klaviyo or Omnisend. Its main offer was improving the email flows those merchants had already set up.
It was also open to stores without either tool when other signs suggested a setup opportunity. Paid traffic was one of the things it looked for.
For its main offer, an existing email tool was a reason to look more closely. A search limited to stores without one would have left that group out.
An app founder faces the same choice. Your product might help a merchant start doing something, replace a tool they dislike or get more from a process they already have. Each offer gives you a different reason to put a store on the list.
What would the merchant change?
The agency could find a store using Klaviyo and ask about its current email flows. Who looked after them? Which parts needed work? Had the team tried to improve them? The app gave it somewhere to begin that conversation.
It couldn't answer those questions on its own. A store might use the app thoroughly and be happy with the results. Another might have it installed but use little of it.
For stores without those tools, the agency needed to learn how they handled email today and whether setting up another system mattered to them. Other signs, such as paid traffic, helped narrow that search.
An app founder can write down the buying situation before choosing the filters. If you're helping with a first setup, look for signs that the work has become relevant. If you're replacing another tool, find out what the merchant would give up by switching. If you're improving an existing process, learn which part needs attention.
Knowing the current process gives you something to ask about. A spreadsheet, product tags or someone maintaining collections by hand may be doing work your app could help with. None of those has to appear in a list of software vendors.
Ask about the last time the work happened. Who did it, what did they use and which part took time? Someone describing a recent workaround gives you more to investigate than someone agreeing that an easier solution sounds nice. Bringing in the person who owns the job or agreeing to try your product on a specific task gives you more to go on too.
What the store can show you
A storefront lets you narrow the search before those conversations. Scripts, widgets and app blocks can show which tools appear on the pages you inspect. Language versions, catalog changes and shipping information can help you judge whether a particular kind of work applies to the store.
Keep the page and date with the finding. A feature on a product page may be absent from the homepage. If you only checked the homepage, write that down. A blocked page or failed scan should stay unknown.
Shopify also handles some jobs without a separate app. Merchants can import translations through CSV files and create discount codes or automatic discounts in Shopify's admin. Before pitching a missing capability, check whether the store already has it through Shopify, a custom setup or another vendor.
For the email agency, a missing Klaviyo or Omnisend signal would therefore lead to a question about how the merchant sends email today. It wouldn't establish that the work had been left undone. Even when the app is visible, its presence doesn't show who uses it or whether they want help.
Changes over time need a little care as well. If a detector starts recognizing an app it previously missed, the apparent number of stores using it can grow without anyone buying new software. Removing an unreliable rule can make the number fall without anyone cancelling. Check whether the detector changed before using those numbers to find new users or recent removals. The first date an app was detected isn't necessarily when the merchant adopted it.
Check a small batch before expanding the list
Twenty stores is a practical starting batch if you're checking them yourself. That number doesn't make the sample representative or establish statistical significance. It gives you a manageable amount of research before you commit to a larger campaign.
For an offer like the agency's, keep setup prospects separate from stores where you'd improve existing flows. Review the pages that matter for each group. Record what you found, how else the store might handle the work and what you still need to ask.
Decide what would make you remove a store. A current process that works well may leave little reason to change. A catalog too small for your app or a market the merchant doesn't serve can rule it out too. Keep the reason when you drop an account; it changes how much of your original list is worth pursuing.
The conversations should change the next search. If merchants handle the job well with Shopify's own tools, account for that in the filters. If the work becomes difficult only after they enter a second market, look for that situation. If they have a problem but nobody can implement another tool, you may need to change the offer.
Keep the reason beside the contact
When you export a list, a domain and an email address can survive while the reason for choosing the store disappears. If you do the research and send the campaign yourself, you may have to reconstruct that reason several days later.
Keep a short note with each store: what you saw and when, why it might fit, what you need to ask and what would rule it out. Check that the person you plan to contact still works there and owns the relevant job. An email address that accepts mail establishes neither.
That note should help you write the first message. If you found evidence of translated products, ask how the merchant keeps them up to date. A missing translation app alone doesn't justify telling them they aren't translating their store. Ask about the process you've found a reason to discuss, then let the merchant explain it or correct your understanding.
I work on StoreInspect.
Sources
Shopify's native translation and CSV import workflow:
https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/international/localization-and-translation
Shopify's native discount features:
https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/discounts
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