In this episode of the Liquid Weekly Podcast, hosts Karl Meisterheim and Taylor Page sit down with Farid Mosumov, a Shopify app developer and one of the first to release a Shop Mini, to explore the new frontier of the Shop app ecosystem.

Farid shares his journey from building Shopify competitors in PHP to becoming a full-time Shopify app developer in the Netherlands. He pulls back the curtain on the "Shop Minis" early access program, explaining how developers can leverage this new surface to improve discoverability for merchants. He discusses the technical stack (Cloudflare Workers, OpenAI), the "hidden" nature of Minis currently, and why this is a massive opportunity for developers to rethink how they drive sales.

Support Heroes
For more information about the sponsor of this episode, Support Heroes, check out: https://thesupportheroes.com/?utm_source=liquid_weekly&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=sponsorships

The leading outsourced customer support service for Shopify apps, helping developers focus on building while they handle the tickets.

Find Farid Masumov Online

• Twitter (X): https://x.com/faridmovsumov
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/faridmovsumov/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UCLzQ6NcHTYxwRCZDHn1PbPA
• Website: https://craftshift.com/
• Shopify Apps: https://apps.shopify.com/partners/craftshift
• Shop Mini App: https://shop.app/mini/find-your-colors
• Rankbase.io: https://rankbase.io/

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction and Support Heroes Sponsor Ad
02:00 Welcome and Introduction of Farid Masumov
05:08 Farid’s Origin Story: From PHP to Shopify App Dev
11:40 The Tech Stack: Laravel, React, and AI Tools
15:00 Using AI for Coding vs. Marketing
20:45 Getting Started with Shop Minis (Thanks to Harshdeep!)
23:00 What are Shop Minis? Strategy and Discovery
26:30 Ideation: How to Build for the Shop App Consumer
31:50 The Early Access Experience & Working with Shopify Product Managers
37:00 The Importance of Standard Category Metafields
46:00 Infrastructure & Costs: Cloudflare Workers and OpenAI
53:25 Dev Changelog Highlights
55:50 Picks of the Week

Resources

• Shop Minis announcement: https://www.shopify.com/blog/shop-minis-a-new-era-of-immersive-commerce
• Shop Minis Documentation: https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/shop-minis
• Dev Community Forums: https://community.shopify.dev/c/shop-minis/33
• Harshdeep Post: https://x.com/kinngh/status/1981088833903972531?s=20

Dev Changelog

• [Action Required] Customer marketing URL fields now require write access: https://shopify.dev/changelog/customer-marketing-url-fields-now-require-write-access
• Discount functions API now supports rejecting discount codes: https://shopify.dev/changelog/discount-rejection-support-for-discount-functions
• Venmo and PayPal are now treated as separate payment methods: https://shopify.dev/changelog/venmo-and-paypal-are-now-treated-as-separate-payment-methods

Picks of the Week

• Karl: Russell Stover Sugar-Free Peppermint Patties – A keto-friendly indulgence for when you need a sweet treat.
• Farid: Custom Data Declarations & Admin Intents – Using Metaobjects and Admin Intents to create fast, native-feeling editing experiences within embedded apps.
• Taylor: Ninja Creami – An ice cream maker that lets you control ingredients (and mix-ins!) for high-quality frozen desserts at home.

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