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Why merchants uninstall your Shopify app
When a merchant removes your app, Shopify asks for a reason. The answer is recorded with the uninstall and returned by the Partner API. Read together with when the uninstall happened, it is the cheapest user research you will ever get.
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Where the reason is
In the Partner API, an uninstall is an app event of type RelationshipUninstalled. It carries two fields: reason, the option the merchant picked, and description, the free text they may have added. The Partner dashboard shows individual uninstalls; the API lets you count them.
Read the reason with the timing
| When they leave | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Within a day of installing | They were testing, or setup lost them. Look at the first screen and the first required step. |
| Before the trial ends | They understood the app and decided it was not worth the price, or it did not do the one thing they came for. |
| After the first charges | Something changed: the price, a competitor, a bug, or their store. The free text matters most here. |
A store closing is not an uninstall. Shopify records it as a separate event, and it says nothing about your app. Keep the two apart or your churn will look worse than it is.
Watch for a break in the pattern
A steady trickle of uninstalls is normal. A jump is a signal: a release that broke something, a change on Shopify's side, a price change. A simple rule works well: compare the last nine days with the nine before, and look closer when uninstalls rise by more than 15% and there are at least five of them.
What to do with each reason
- Too hard to set up: shorten the path to the first result, and measure how many stores finish it.
- Just testing: nothing to fix, but check which search or category brings these stores. Some sources send testers, others send buyers.
- Too expensive: compare with the plan they were on and how much they used the app before deciding it is the price.
- Missing a feature: read the free text. This is your roadmap, written by people who almost stayed.
Luseri groups these reasons for you, shows retention by cohort, and lists the stores that left with what they said.
Questions
- Do all merchants give a reason?
- No. The reason can be empty, and the free text usually is. Treat the distribution as a sample, not a census.
- Is an uninstall the same as a cancellation?
- Not exactly. A merchant can cancel a paid plan and keep the app, or uninstall during a trial without ever paying. Follow both.
- Can I contact a merchant who uninstalled?
- Shopify's rules on merchant data and contact still apply after an uninstall. Check the Partner Program Agreement before you write to them.