Recruiting Agencies

Agencies are the single best partner type for most Shopify apps: one relationship, many stores, repeat recommendations. But they're also busy and pitched constantly. Recruiting them is about being useful, not being loud.

Finding the right agencies

Start with agencies that have already touched your app — the ones who built or manage stores using you. Then widen to agencies serving your ideal merchant type. Prioritise fit over size: a 5-person agency that specialises in your niche will out-refer a giant generalist agency.

The pitch that works

Agencies don't care about your commission first. They care about whether recommending you makes their clients happier and their life easier. Lead with: your app solves a real problem for their clients, you'll support their team, and — by the way — you'll pay them for the recommendations they're already making. The commission is the close, not the opener.

How to reach out

1. Reference something specific — a store they built that would benefit, or one already using you.
2. Explain the merchant value in one sentence, not a feature list.
3. Offer to set them up: a partner link, a demo for their team, and assets they can drop into client decks.
4. Name the commission plainly and make it easy to say yes.

Enable them, then get out of the way

Once an agency joins, the difference between a dead partner and a productive one is enablement: a link that tracks, a one-pager they can send clients, and a quick demo for their team. Agencies refer when it's frictionless to do so.