Divine Bites

The app is fine if you only run an online store. But the moment you try using Local Inventory Listings, it becomes a complete rabbit hole. On the Shopify side everything appears fine, mostly because there is barely any control or visibility into what is actually happening behind the scenes. Meanwhile Google Merchant Center keeps complaining that there is no local inventory feed configured, even though the Google & YouTube app gives the impression that local inventory is supported. Eventually Merchant Center starts threatening suspension warnings. Then starts the endless cycle with Google support. Most support agents do not seem to understand how the Shopify Google & YouTube app actually works with Merchant Center. Replies are mostly copied templates, and every response takes days. After 2 weeks you usually get an answer that does not solve anything, and then you start the whole process again from scratch. What makes it worse is that almost every app that actually handles local inventory feeds properly is paid. It is honestly disappointing that Google created an official Shopify app for navigating their already confusing Merchant Center ecosystem, but only implemented half the functionality needed for physical retail stores.

Being a software developer myself, I’ve seen a lot of crappy apps. But not many come close to this one. It’s hard to believe that someone on the Shopify team saw this app and said, “Yeah, this looks solid. Let’s launch the damn thing!” But clearly, I am giving them too much credit.

So far.. so good. I was looking for a simple subscription app to run some A/B tests. It was easy to configure, and I am happy so far. Will update the review as I explore more.