8. If I Were You: The Next 90 Days
This plan is written for ~15 hours a week. Full-time compresses it to about 6 weeks.
The single most important thing
Get 5 multi-brand EU retailers to pay for GPSR catalogue help before you write app code, and list the app by day 90.
Segment: Shopify stores selling 10+ third-party brands, 200+ SKUs, trading for 1+ year, selling into Germany or Austria first. Typical categories: toys, baby goods, home and kitchen, beauty, sports, gifts.
Job: "Collect manufacturer and safety data from all my brands, show me what's missing, and put it on every product page."
How: start with a concierge fill:
- export their catalogue as CSV;
- send each brand a Tally or Google form (the prototype of the supplier portal);
- chase the brands by email;
- import the answers into native metafields.
Charge a one-off fee. Automate only the steps you've done by hand at least 10 times.
Week-by-week
| Weeks | Goal | Hours (at ~15/week) | Exit criteria |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Discovery. Build a list of 80 multi-brand EU Shopify retailers. Contact them all, and hold 20 calls (15–20 min). Ask about their last GPSR problem: a marketplace block, a letter, a customer question. How do they collect brand data today? How many hours does it take? What do they pay for now? | ~30 | You can write the top 3 pains in the retailers' own words, with hours or euros attached. At least 10 of the 20 describe chasing brands as a recurring job. |
| 3–5 | Concierge pilot. Offer 5–8 of them a GPSR catalogue fill for €149–299 one-off, plus founding pricing on the app (Growth at $29/mo, locked for 12 months). Run it with CSV, forms and email. | ~40 | Day 45 kill test: 5+ paid pilots, and 3+ say they'd pay $49/month to keep it running. If fewer than 3 will pay, the recurring pain isn't real. Stop, or switch once to the EU rules bundle (01). |
| 5–10 | Build the thin v1 on the Shopify app template, to Built for Shopify standards from day 1 (embedded, Polaris, App Bridge, theme app extension, Web Vitals). Scope: gap scan (free), brand profiles, vendor rules, supplier portal, storefront block, warnings library, CSV, Billing API, GDPR webhooks. | ~75 | The pilots' catalogues run on the app, not your spreadsheets. Admin LCP ≤2.5s. Storefront Lighthouse drop ≤10 points. |
| 10–11 | List it. An English and German App Store listing. The first screenshot shows the gap scan ("412 of 1,930 products missing data"). Submit for review, and allow time for Shopify's app review (duration not verified). | ~20 | Approved and listed. Pilots moved to paid plans. 5 reviews requested from pilots. |
| 12–13 | Measure and decide. | ~15 | 30+ installs since listing, 8+ paying, 3+ reviews, ≥60% of pilots still paying. If you hit it, keep going and start the Built for Shopify count (50 net paid installs, 5 reviews). If you miss it, go back to the listing and the segment, not the features. |
Kill criteria (write these down now)
- Day 45: fewer than 5 paid pilots, or fewer than 3 willing to pay monthly. Switch the wedge once, or stop.
- Day 90: fewer than 15 installs from search since listing, or fewer than 5 paying. The listing or the segment is wrong. Don't respond by adding Prop 65, documents or the withdrawal button.
The one thing to stop doing
Stop thinking of this as a compliance platform covering GPSR, Prop 65 and B2B/customs documents.
That's three apps with three rulebooks, three competitor sets and three support queues. At ~15 hours a week, it guarantees three mediocre products and a 16th-place GPSR listing. Documents are the most tempting because Sufio shows the prize. They're also the most expensive to build and the easiest to get wrong (tax, customs, e-invoicing). Every week spent on them is a week not spent finding out whether multi-brand retailers will pay you for GPSR.
A close second: stop planning an English-only launch. The category's most anxious buyers and strongest competitors are German-speaking.
What stays on the long-term roadmap (only after proof)
- Marketplace-ready exports (Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Kaufland), once the formats are verified.
- EU storefront rules modules: the GARAN guarantee notice, then Omnibus, if customers ask.
- A deadline calendar and alerts, plus a build-ahead rule for the next EU wave (verify the EUDR, Digital Product Passport and e-invoicing dates first).
- A brand-side data network: brands keep one verified profile that every retailer can pull. This is the only moat on the list.
- Then, with income and a merchant base, a second app (documents or e-invoicing) as the next step of the stair-step.