7. What's Missing: The Gap Between Built and Paid, Renewed, Referred
Date: 30 Sept 2026 · InvoiceBridge (working name) · Back to WHAT-TO-DO-AND-AVOID.md
Assumption: nothing is built yet, and the idea came from a catalog row, not a founder. So these are gaps between the pattern and a business.
7.1 Gaps to pay
| Gap | Why it blocks payment | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| No defined buyer | "Small businesses on popular tools" can't be priced or reached | French Shopify merchants with €100k–5M revenue, B2B orders preferred |
| No pricing model | Undefined, and the anchor is €0 (13 free PAs) | Essentiel €19/mo (≤300 orders, e-reporting, up to 20 B2B e-invoices) → Pro €39/mo (≤2,000 orders, unlimited B2B, OSS splits, pre-checks) → Plus €89/mo (multi-store, >2,000 orders, accountant export, onboarding call). Annual = 2 months free. 14-day trial, no free plan. Through Shopify Billing. |
| No quantified value promise | "Compliant" is invisible until something goes wrong | Lead with the shipping-VAT audit: "we found €X of VAT you over-declared last quarter". Then "0 rejections, every report on time". |
| Commodity core | Transmission and formats are free from any PA | Price the Shopify-specific work: sync, split, pre-checks, numbering, rejections handled |
| Unclear partner cost | Your margin is unknown until the PA signs | Sign a partner at ≤10% of revenue with a 24-month price lock before building |
| No trust signals | Merchants hand you their tax data | French help center, named partner PA (registered with the DGFiP), EU hosting, DPA, insurance, an expert-comptable's review quoted on the site |
7.2 Gaps to renew
| Gap | Fix |
|---|---|
| The duty is invisible when it works | A monthly summary email: reports sent, invoices sent, rejections fixed, VAT anomalies found |
| Store closures | Can't prevent them. Keep them out of your controllable churn metric, and weight acquisition to stores with €100k+ revenue |
| Free PA pressure from accountants | Give accountants a free dashboard and a clean export, so they prefer you |
| Price increases from the partner | 24-month price lock. PA-agnostic connector. |
| "It's not required yet" before Sept 2027 | Sell the receiving inbox (required since Sept 2026) and the shipping-VAT audit now. Annual plans that start before the deadline. |
7.3 Gaps to refer
| Gap | Fix |
|---|---|
| Nothing visible to other merchants | The e-invoice PDF sent to B2B buyers carries a discreet "Facture électronique via InvoiceBridge" line |
| No free hook | Free tools: "Suis-je concerné ?" checker, Shopify shipping-VAT audit, calendar by VAT regime |
| No professional channel | Accountant dashboard (free) and agency referral (20% recurring for 12 months) |
| No community | Answer every French Shopify forum thread on the reform, with a useful answer first and a link second |
7.4 Non-product gaps
Distribution
- Missing from the catalog idea entirely.
- Channels that work here: Shopify App Store search (reviews decide ranking), French search for the reform terms, experts-comptables with e-commerce clients, Shopify agencies, and the Shopify community forum.
- Channels that burn cash: paid ads before the deadline, and generic "SME" events.
Positioning
- Current: "a tax and e-invoicing compliance connector". Generic and interchangeable.
- Better: "Votre boutique Shopify conforme à la réforme 2027 : e-reporting et factures électroniques, sans changer votre façon de vendre." (Your Shopify store compliant with the 2027 reform, e-reporting and e-invoices, without changing how you sell.)
Sales motion
- Merchants: product-led (App Store install → trial → paid), with founder-run 15-minute onboarding calls for the first 30.
- Accountants: light partnership (a demo, a free dashboard, a referral link). Start it at month 4.
Compliance and legal
| Area | Requirement |
|---|---|
| E-invoicing and e-reporting | All transmission through a DGFiP-registered PA. You're a connector ("solution compatible"), not a PA. Keep the partner's registration visible. |
| Tax liability | You transmit what Shopify holds and flag anomalies. You never compute VAT. Terms say so. |
| Data protection | GDPR. EU hosting, a DPA with merchants, a subprocessor list (partner PA, hosting, email). Customer names and addresses are personal data. |
| Archiving | French invoice retention rules apply. Use the PA's archive or a certified archive provider. Not verified in this run: confirm the retention period and format with the adviser. |
| Shopify platform rules | App Store review, Billing API for charges, the protected-customer-data policy for order data |
| Insurance | Professional indemnity (RC Pro) before the first live report |
| Advice disclaimers | Help content is informational, not tax advice. Link to the official impots.gouv.fr pages. |
Team
- Not provided. Minimum for this wedge: one developer comfortable with the Shopify Admin API and webhooks, French-language support capability, and a paid expert-comptable or e-invoicing adviser on call.
Metrics and instrumentation
- Minimum set: install-to-paid conversion, share of payers on Pro/Plus, reports sent on time, rejection rate, VAT anomalies found per merchant, monthly revenue churn (excluding store closures and including them), installs by channel, partner cost as % of revenue.