How to Build Shopify App Using PHP in 2024

Last updated on December 6th, 2024 at 04:15 am

Currently, there are several eCommerce stores compared to offline stores. For this, you need to monitor different variables, from inventory management to shipment, speed optimization, secure checkout, and email marketing. Because these stores have different features and functions, hence you can use Shopify apps to manage it. Shopify app store has many apps that support the merchants for encompassing the functionality of their online store. There is an app for each small need from adding customer reviews, enhancing email marketing, getting in-depth analytics, and publishing your products to Facebook. If you are just getting started on the Shopify app development ecosystem and want to create a shopify app using php, then this blog will support you in understanding it. Before going into a different section, let’s explore what the Shopify app is all about.

What is Shopify App?

A Shopify app is a crucial component of the Shopify platform that enables you to give your customers better service while also enhancing the features and functionality of your online store.

The Shopify App store includes a large selection of apps, some of which are available for free and others that need a payment. But, if you need a highly customized app or a custom solution, we can advise to hiring skilled Shopify developers who can properly fulfil your needs.

It has 4,806,002 live website stores and an additional 1,894,271 sites that used Shopify historically.

Types of Shopify App Development

As we said, Shopify apps can use the same Shopify REST APIs to talk to online stores. But they are not the same when it comes to getting them to customers. There are four groups of Shopify apps. Here’s what you should know about these four kinds of apps.

Custom Apps 

These apps are made for a specific merchant and cannot be listed in the Shopify App Store. They are reliable for expanding the internet business to additional channels or adding features to your Shopify admin.

In order to create modified applications, an outside app developer doesn’t require admin access to Shopify or API access to your store.

Public Apps

These apps are available to different merchants and can be listed in the Shopify app Store.

Listings come in two varieties: listed and unlisted. The Shopify App Store offers the aforementioned apps for download by retailers. However, the Shopify App Store search results don’t show unlisted apps. Instead, you can get them from the app store or the developer’s website.

Draft Apps

Shopify Partners use these apps for testing purposes at the time of development. They can be installed on development stores that permanently disable the store transfer.

Private Apps

Developers build these apps for merchants with specific needs not met by custom apps. Instead of the other two, users create private apps in the merchant admin.

The Shopify app store does not include any private apps and are only accessible for your store. The external app developer will require API and also Shopify admin access.

The Benefits of Shopify Apps

Why should you build a custom Shopify app? There are different reasons, and we will list a few of the most prominent ones. The evidence is that about 80% of Shopify store owners apply these apps to stay ahead of the rivalry.

There are different benefits of using a Shopify app. Let’s discuss some benefits of Shopify app development using php.

Uniqueness

You can focus on the specific functionality of your brand or product by using a shopify custom app development. It will make your store prominent and increase sales and customer loyalty.

Mobile Responsive Themes

All Shopify apps are mobile responsive because it is significant in current times. The platform considers a developed mobile commerce shopping cart.

User Experience

As a shop owner, you may face challenges in delivering the right data at the right time to the right customers while using just the standard Shopify functions.

Hence, you can hire shopify site developers to develop the app effectively. Because this app offers a smoother user experience, so it leads to better transformations.

Control

You can get full control of your shopify app with php. It is not only limited to functionality but also wider to data integration. In such a way, you will feel more resistant and safer to external events.

No Tech Worries

You do not need to worry regarding the operation and setup of your online store because Shopify facilitates the hosting and integration with third-party apps and software.

Easy to Use and Set Up

Developing shopify app using php helps you to get an easy-to-use, clean interface wherein the features are logically structured to assist you in developing your online stores easily and promptly. You can follow their documentation and video guide to create your online store.

Marketing

A Shopify app development using php can aid you to consider tailored marketing techniques. It is adapted to meet the requirements of your particular customers with customized product features.

Secure and Reliable

Even though they deal with massive personal data such as credit card details, Shopify stores are worthy of your trust because they ensure a fast and secure website.

24/7 Customer Support

Shopify’s quick customer support is accessible 24*7 through a phone call, email, or web chat.

Top Features to Implement While Developing Shopify App Using Php

Shopify is growing in popularity among online merchants all over the world. The US shop system keeps improving in the market and is now an important part of the e-commerce business.

Here are the main reasons we think Shopify will help you to build a profitable eCommerce business.

Customer Service

If you want customers to stick with you, then you should talk to them in person. We know you can’t talk to every customer on your own, but you can hire people to help with customer service, right?

The customer service kiosk will make them feel like they are being heard, improving their experience and making them loyal to the brand. But it would help if you ensured that customer questions are answered moderately.

Multiple Payment Options

Due to tough competition, the cost of getting a new customer is going up, and if you can’t offer multiple payment options, you might lose a sale. It could slow the growth of your eCommerce store.

By order tracking in eCommerce, a customer can always see where their purchases are. This Shopify feature makes the customer’s experience better because they know when their order will arrive and if there are any delays.

Push Notifications on the Web

You’ve probably seen funny notifications from food delivery apps, and we’re sure they’ll make you want to place an order. Isn’t that true? What if I told you, could you do the same thing with your Shopify eCommerce store?

That would be great, wouldn’t it? Yes, you read that right. You can use web push notifications to communicate with your customers even when they are not in your eCommerce store.

This feature will give you a lot of new ways to interact with people and can boost your business. This feature is easy to add in Shopify app using php in 2024.

AI-based Chatbots

Popular brands are now using AI-powered chatbots to answer questions from customers. It has many benefits, such as a quick response and shorter turnaround times. It also needs fewer people to handle the same number of customers.

Sort & Filter Options

If you can’t give your customers exactly what they want, they are more likely to go to a competitor. To stop this leak, you should offer sort and filter options. This lets you filter out irrelevant options from the results page and only show relevant ones, which makes it easier for customers to decide what to buy.

Social Media Integration

Social media is a way to get people to trust you. Your brand’s credibility will increase if you post content regularly and keep people talking about it on social media.

Social media integration lets customers who don’t follow your brand on social media and helps to know when they visit your Shopify store. It also makes your brand seem more trustworthy by showing that others believe in it.

Wish Lists

Customers can save their interested items on their wish list, in case they aren’t ready to buy. From a customer’s point of view, this is a feature of Shopify that is a must-have.

Shopping Cart Cross-Selling

Cross-selling is a way to get customers to buy related products. Your strategy fails if the “suggested” products do not satisfy the customer’s wants. Use Shopify apps like iCart Cart Drawer Cart Upsell to ensure your business performs well.

This app makes personalized suggestions for products so that you can get the most out of cross-selling.

Loyalty Program

Do you know that when customer retention increases by 5%, profit increases by anywhere from 25% to 95%? So, if you look at the numbers, you can see that businesses need to keep as many customers as possible. And loyalty programmes are a tried-and-true way for marketers to keep customers returning.

Reviews

Reviews are like word-of-mouth marketing in the digital world. So, if you want your product to go through the roof, you should embed Google Reviews on the page for that product. It’s fine to have some bad reviews—if you don’t, customers will think the good reviews are made up.

Things to Consider Before Developing A Shopify App using PHP?

Before creating an app, some points need to consider or keep in mind:

Hosting

The apps should be hosted anywhere. You will need a public address to access the app, and then you will submit it to Shopify. When the app is ready to deploy an application, you can use a service such as eBizneeds for hosting.

Authorization and Registration

Your app must be authorized and also registered. You can develop the console at the partner’s account. After the registration, the app will get listed in your partner account, and you will find an API key and API secret key for authorization and API authentication. 

For this, you can consult with a mobile app development company to get help with registration.

Shopify API

The app should use a Shopify API. Because, the API would permit you to read and write the data from your store. Specifically, it offers an interface to call the function within the store admin panel.

How to Build A Shopify App using PHP?

Developing a Shopify app cannot be an easy task. As a developer, you must have good command over the APIs. Shopify is a Rails application wherein, you can use different repositories in free to integrate your website from Shopify API. Here we have discussed some lists of Shopify repositories:

• Simple Shopify API Client
• Shopify API Library for PHP
• PHP Shopify API by LukeTowers
• Shopify API (now in Ruby)

Before you start to create shopify app using php. Visit developers.shopify.com and sign up as a developer to make an account.

You’ll see a first page called “Resources” when you sign in to your account.

Continue to left navigation panel and click the Apps category

Then click “Create app” and choose the app you want to make. There will be options for both a custom application and a public application. You can install a custom app to one Shopify store without having to submit it for evaluation by Shopify.

With public applications, however, you are required to install your Shopify app after reviewing it in the Shopify marketplaces.

The following form should appear after selecting.

App Name – You have to create a name for Shopify app.

App URL – The website URL wherein you will upload your Shopify files.

Allowed Redirection URL(s) – Herein, the token script or URLs will be generated for authenticating your Shopify.

Because Hostinger’s web hosting is very compatible with Shopify, especially when you are just getting started, we advise purchasing it.

You must click the Build app button after completing the form in order to access a new screen.

After creating Shopify app, you need to connect your website by using the API credentials. For completing this, you need to download it with one shopify repository. You can  download any one among these:

• PHP Shopify API by LukeTowers
• Shopify API by Alexaitken
• Simple Shopify API Client
• PHP Shopify API Wrapper

From GIThub, you can download it. Here will be 4 files in it such as:

• You must include inc, which will in-built the PHP methods into actions for showing items.
• Then an API call products.php to do things like change products.
• Next you’ll need a file named generate token.php to create tokens for each shop.
• And then, create an install.php file to hold the PHP code that will be used to install Shopify.

Add An Install.Php File

Here, all you have to do is put the value in $_GET[‘shop’] and set the variable $shop to that value. The value will be the URL of the Shopify storefront to which the store user will go.

You can put the API key in the $api key variable. You can find this API key on your developer app page. The $scope variable can be ignored.

The full URL of the generate token.php file will be stored in the $redirect uri variable.

If the user goes to the $install URL, they install an app. After you’ve configured these variables, the $install URL will redirect you to the original URL.

This code could be run:

<?php

$scopes = “read_orders,write_products”;

$redirect_uri = “http://YOUR-DOMAIN-NAME.COM/generate_token.php”;

$api_key = “ASSIGN YOUR API KEY HERE”;

$shop = $_GET[‘shop’];

$install_url = “https://” . $shop . “/admin/oauth/authorize?client_id=” . $api_key . “&scope=” . $scopes . “&redirect_uri=” . urlencode($redirect_uri);

header(“Location: ” . $install_url);

die();

• In order to generate token.php, you also need to be aware of the file entries.
• A $shared secret variable and a $api key variable are required for this.
• You may get this information on your developer app dashboard.
• If you know anything about web programming, you’ll know that the code you’ll be given will use the cURL client to run all requests.

Install the Shopify App

Then all you have to do now is install the Shopify app. After these things are set up, you can go to the project’s URL and activate the install.php command. Make sure the URL matches the dashboard for your app.

If it isn’t, you will get errors when you try to run the app. Make sure the URL also contains the variable store.

Then you’ll be asked to confirm that you want to install the app. By selecting “install an unlisted app,” you have created a PHP Shopify app.

If you don’t know PHP, it will be hard to create a Shopify app in PHP, so you can hire mobile app developer to make your app.

How Much Does It Cost to Build A Shopify App?

Shopify app development cost may be different because it depends on different factors. Building an app with freelancers is the cheapest way to do it. Their work costs depend on their experience level and where they live.

For example, an American or European Shopify developer will charge you between $50 and $200 per hour, while an Asian one will charge you between $20 and $50 per hour.

With freelancers, on the other hand, you are in charge of making sure their work is done right, which takes a lot of control.

But what about companies that make software and agencies? Apps can cost anywhere from a few thousand to tens of thousands of dollars.

We’ll show you an example of a cost estimate for shopify application development made for an electronics company so you can get a general idea.

It would be best to remember that each implementation is different, and the final price will depend on the project.

Hence, you can consult a shopify app development company for proper guidance.

Tech Stack

This tech stacks brings together several open-source tools from outside sources:

Laravel	Makes the back end and tests it.
Vite	Makes the front end of React.
React Router	Routes are made with React Router. We put a file-based routing layer on top of this.
React Query	React Query queries the Admin API.

In addition to these third-party tools, Shopify has tools that make it easier to make apps:

OAuth	It is added to the Laravel backend by the Shopify API library. This lets people install the app and permit it to do certain things.
OAuth Bridge App React	It adds authentication to API requests on the front end and renders components outside of the iFrame of an embedded app.
Polaris React	It is a powerful design system and library of components that help developers build Shopify merchants’ high-quality, consistent experiences.
GraphQL Admin API	Custom hooks send requests to the GraphQL Admin API that are signed.
file-based routing	With file-based routing, it’s easier to make new pages.

Conclusion

Shopify has a high uptime guarantee and great functionality. Hence, users focus on developing shopify apps using php because Shopify apps give you access to new features that help you to optimize your store for a better customer experience.

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