A landing page for a closed-source commercial web app doesn't seem like an appropriate use of Show HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html
So long as he made it, I'm fine with it.
What do you think it contravenes in those rules?
Show HN: TinyStore - A minimal store for your Shopify Lite plan
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Re: Show HN: TinyStore - A minimal store for your Shopify Lite plan
#22Haven't read the full terms of service for shopify, but i could imagine that this doesn't align well with the strategy of shopify?
Indeed. Nice work, but it feels like you're circumventing the exact restriction of the Lite plan. I imagine they'd shut you down if you got too much business.
Re: Show HN: TinyStore - A minimal store for your Shopify Lite plan
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
If there's one thing I'd suggest, it would be putting a blurb something like the above on your website as well - as someone with 0 contextual information about Shopify, there was no obvious problem the application was solving, even after reading the FAQ.
If this is meant to be used with Shopify, why would someone w/zero contextual information on such would even be interested?
Because they thought Shopify would not be interesting for them, or maybe just because they bumped into TinyStore first?
Re: Show HN: TinyStore - A minimal store for your Shopify Lite plan
#24Haven't read the full terms of service for shopify, but i could imagine that this doesn't align well with the strategy of shopify?
Seems like that's the whole point of Shopify Lite[1]. It sells you the DB and payment backend without front-end; or am I misreading this?
> Whether you’re on WordPress, Squarespace, Tumblr, or anywhere else, with just a few clicks you can turn your website into an online store.
Re: Show HN: TinyStore - A minimal store for your Shopify Lite plan
#25Agree with some of the other commenters here – this seems really really smart, but only because I live and work deep in Shopify land. It was immediately obvious to me what this means, but there's plenty of Shopify merchants and partners who aren't even aware of the Lite plan, and if they know it's there, are unclear of the limitations.
I can definitely think of people who this would be great for – it's almost like headless commerce for the extreme low end. I'll be interested to see if you build this out further and what you decide to add. I'm surprised more haven't attempted to build full, wholesale replacement of Shopify's frontend outside of enterprise alternatives like Shogun Frontend.
A simple theming system and more customization would be a natural next step.
Re: Show HN: TinyStore - A minimal store for your Shopify Lite plan
#26If you have this, what exactly does Shopify provide for the 9$ ?
Seems like Shopify Lite provides product, invoice CMS and payment gateway: https://www.shopify.co.nz/lite
basically just no front-end and some other advance features by the looks of it.
Re: Show HN: TinyStore - A minimal store for your Shopify Lite plan
#27If you have this, what exactly does Shopify provide for the 9$ ?
With Lite plan, you get the whole experience except that you don't have a storefront to sell your items.
Re: Show HN: TinyStore - A minimal store for your Shopify Lite plan
#28Great
Re: Show HN: TinyStore - A minimal store for your Shopify Lite plan
#29Haven't read the full terms of service for shopify, but i could imagine that this doesn't align well with the strategy of shopify?
Seems like that's the whole point of Shopify Lite[1]. It sells you the DB and payment backend without front-end; or am I misreading this? > Whether you’re on WordPress, Squarespace, Tumblr, or anywhere else, with just a few clicks you can turn your website into an online store. 1 - https://www.shopify.co.nz/lite
It's been a few years since I built a Shopify store but iirc they give you an HTML/JS/iFrame "snippet" of your products you can copy paste anywhere you like.
Re: Show HN: TinyStore - A minimal store for your Shopify Lite plan
#30I made a simple web app for merchants/small businesses who use Shopify Lite Plan and want to have a simple/minimal storefront. I built this initially for my wife. She owns two online stores in Shopify. With her Lite plan, she only pays $9/month/store versus the Basic plan for $29/month/store. Since the Lite plan doesn't include an online store, TinyStore allows merchants to have one. The app is still new. I appreciat…
If there's one thing I'd suggest, it would be putting a blurb something like the above on your website as well - as someone with 0 contextual information about Shopify, there was no obvious problem the application was solving, even after reading the FAQ.
Agreed - saying something like "Having a storefront on Shopify would normally cost you an extra $20/month. TinyStore does this for $5/month." would sell pretty well I'd assume.