Should I Build It Should I Build It
02 Jul 2025
E-Commerce

a shopify plugin for businesses that sell gifts. A customer orders a ...

...product to be sent to the gift recipient however it is the customer that receives the shipping notification. This plugin would allow the customer to send the shipping notification to the gift recipient with a message. That way the receiver knows the gift is coming in the post and can track the order. .

Confidence
Engagement
Net use signal
Net buy signal

Idea type: Minimal Signal

There’s barely any market activity - either because the problem is very niche or not important enough. You’ll need to prove real demand exists before investing significant time.

Should You Build It?

Not yet, validate more.

Your are here

You're entering a market with very little validation. The fact that we only found two similar products suggests that the problem you're solving might be very niche, or perhaps not painful enough for businesses to actively seek a solution. Given the low engagement (zero comments on average for similar products), it's crucial to validate the demand for this feature before investing significant time and resources into building it. Right now, there is no real market activity that we can measure to give any reliable signal if you should build this or not. Therefore, it is important to treat this as 'Minimal Signal' idea and validate more, as there are not enough signals to suggest that you should build it as is. But don't give up yet. You've got this!

Recommendations

  1. Start by identifying online communities where Shopify store owners and gift-related businesses gather. Share your idea, explain the problem it solves, and gauge their interest. Honest feedback at this stage is invaluable. Ask them to detail their current workaround. Try to find out the annual number of gifts shipped and their shipping notification problems.
  2. Before building the plugin, offer to manually solve the shipping notification problem for a few potential customers. This could involve creating custom email templates or using a third-party email service to forward notifications. This hands-on approach will give you a deeper understanding of their needs and pain points.
  3. Create a short, engaging explainer video showcasing how your plugin would solve the shipping notification issue. Highlight the benefits for both the gift sender and recipient. Share this video on relevant online platforms and track how many people watch it fully. A high completion rate indicates genuine interest.
  4. Consider creating a waiting list for your plugin and asking for a small, refundable deposit to join. This is a great way to gauge commitment and validate demand. Be transparent about the fact that you are in the validation phase and that the deposit is fully refundable.
  5. Based on user feedback on a landing page, test how much people are willing to pay for such a plugin (even if you don't actually bill them for it). This way you can measure the positive buy signal more precisely than we can at this stage with the zero net buy signal we have, which makes it impossible to compare against other launches.
  6. If you struggle to find even a handful of genuinely interested customers within a few weeks, it might be time to reconsider your approach. This could involve pivoting to a different feature, targeting a different market segment, or shelving the idea altogether. Your ability to find at least 5 interested parties will be a telling sign whether this idea has legs.

Questions

  1. What are the most common workarounds businesses currently use to address the shipping notification issue, and how satisfied are they with these solutions?
  2. Beyond sending shipping notifications to recipients, are there any other gift-related pain points that your plugin could address to provide additional value?
  3. What is the ideal price point for your plugin, considering the value it provides and the budgets of your target customers?

Your are here

You're entering a market with very little validation. The fact that we only found two similar products suggests that the problem you're solving might be very niche, or perhaps not painful enough for businesses to actively seek a solution. Given the low engagement (zero comments on average for similar products), it's crucial to validate the demand for this feature before investing significant time and resources into building it. Right now, there is no real market activity that we can measure to give any reliable signal if you should build this or not. Therefore, it is important to treat this as 'Minimal Signal' idea and validate more, as there are not enough signals to suggest that you should build it as is. But don't give up yet. You've got this!

Recommendations

  1. Start by identifying online communities where Shopify store owners and gift-related businesses gather. Share your idea, explain the problem it solves, and gauge their interest. Honest feedback at this stage is invaluable. Ask them to detail their current workaround. Try to find out the annual number of gifts shipped and their shipping notification problems.
  2. Before building the plugin, offer to manually solve the shipping notification problem for a few potential customers. This could involve creating custom email templates or using a third-party email service to forward notifications. This hands-on approach will give you a deeper understanding of their needs and pain points.
  3. Create a short, engaging explainer video showcasing how your plugin would solve the shipping notification issue. Highlight the benefits for both the gift sender and recipient. Share this video on relevant online platforms and track how many people watch it fully. A high completion rate indicates genuine interest.
  4. Consider creating a waiting list for your plugin and asking for a small, refundable deposit to join. This is a great way to gauge commitment and validate demand. Be transparent about the fact that you are in the validation phase and that the deposit is fully refundable.
  5. Based on user feedback on a landing page, test how much people are willing to pay for such a plugin (even if you don't actually bill them for it). This way you can measure the positive buy signal more precisely than we can at this stage with the zero net buy signal we have, which makes it impossible to compare against other launches.
  6. If you struggle to find even a handful of genuinely interested customers within a few weeks, it might be time to reconsider your approach. This could involve pivoting to a different feature, targeting a different market segment, or shelving the idea altogether. Your ability to find at least 5 interested parties will be a telling sign whether this idea has legs.

Questions

  1. What are the most common workarounds businesses currently use to address the shipping notification issue, and how satisfied are they with these solutions?
  2. Beyond sending shipping notifications to recipients, are there any other gift-related pain points that your plugin could address to provide additional value?
  3. What is the ideal price point for your plugin, considering the value it provides and the budgets of your target customers?

  • Confidence: Low
    • Number of similar products: 2
  • Engagement: Low
    • Average number of comments: 0
  • Net use signal: 0.0%
    • Positive use signal: 0.0%
    • Negative use signal: 0.0%
  • Net buy signal: 0.0%
    • Positive buy signal: 0.0%
    • Negative buy signal: 0.0%

This chart summarizes all the similar products we found for your idea in a single plot.

The x-axis represents the overall feedback each product received. This is calculated from the net use and buy signals that were expressed in the comments. The maximum is +1, which means all comments (across all similar products) were positive, expressed a willingness to use & buy said product. The minimum is -1 and it means the exact opposite.

The y-axis captures the strength of the signal, i.e. how many people commented and how does this rank against other products in this category. The maximum is +1, which means these products were the most liked, upvoted and talked about launches recently. The minimum is 0, meaning zero engagement or feedback was received.

The sizes of the product dots are determined by the relevance to your idea, where 10 is the maximum.

Your idea is the big blueish dot, which should lie somewhere in the polygon defined by these products. It can be off-center because we use custom weighting to summarize these metrics.

Similar products

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Notify Rush - Keep customers Notified

10 Mar 2025 User Experience SaaS E-Commerce

Notify Rush automates customer updates for Shopify stores. Easily send bulk emails on backorders, shipping, and more. Advanced filters ensure precise targeting, reducing manual work while improving customer satisfaction. Keep customers informed effortlessly!

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