My name is Andrew Robbins, and I’m the creator of the WordPress plugin ShopWP. I’ve been a professional Web Developer for over 10 years now. I work primarily in PHP and JavaScript, but love tinkering with all aspects of the web.
I currently live in Austin, TX with my beautiful wife and son (and soon-to-be second boy). We have two cats (Kirby and August).
I grew up and spent most of my life in the cold (but beautiful) winters of Minnesota (USA), where my immediate family still lives.
During college, I attended an art school in Minneapolis, MN, where I studied Graphic Design. After graduation, I landed an internship as an “HTML Email Developer” and developed my love for programming.
Andrew Robbins with his family
The Journey Began
I’ve been using WordPress for so long at this point that it’s hard for me to remember a time when I didn’t use it.
Before WordPress, I was primarily coding very simple websites in HTML. I still remember learning on https://www.htmlgoodies.com in 2004. However, during that time, I was more interested in making digital art in Photoshop. This was back when “photo manipulations” were really popular.
When I first discovered WordPress, I remember being pretty intimidated. There was a fairly steep learning curve at the time. Back then (2008 or so), there were no managed WordPress hosts. If you wanted to use WordPress you needed to upload the .zip via FTP, configure the database yourself, etc.
Yet, what made me fall in love with WordPress was that same open-source, developer-first nature. I didn’t need to ask permission to create a powerful website. If I put my mind to it—I could do it myself. There was something empowering about that.
The Need for “ShopWP”
ShopWP Logo
Around 2016 I was working at a local co-working space in Minneapolis as a WordPress contractor—basically making websites for people. One of my clients had a simple Shopify store at the time for selling his t-shirts. He had a big problem though: his WordPress blog was fully developed and had years of SEO built up. Because of this, he didn’t want to move his entire web presence onto Shopify. He simply wanted to sell his Shopify products on WordPress.
As I did some research, I discovered that Shopify had discontinued its official WordPress plugin—so I decided to make one myself!
After finishing the project, my client encouraged me to pursue the plugin as a product, and I haven’t looked back since.
Many of the challenges I’ve faced over the years are related to never running a business before. Marketing a product, obtaining users, increasing revenue, reducing churn, etc. I struggled (and still struggle) with many of these things today.
I think over time, you simply learn what works for your business, and if you’re smart, you stick to what works.
There were technical decisions I made early on that set me back for months. Without going into details, a failure on my end to think through the consequences of a specific technical approach forced me to rewrite a lot of the plugin code 6 months into launching the plugin. This was annoying, but definitely necessary to keep the plugin useful for people.
I currently work exclusively on ShopWP full-time, and I plan to keep growing the plugin the best I can in the years to come.
Myself with my Brilliant Team
At the moment, it’s just me! I’m hoping to make my first hire in 2025.
You can usually find me working out of Radio Coffee in Austin, TX.
Andrew’s cats
Advice for Business Owners
1. Build an MVP as quickly as possible
I think creating an MVP or “Minimum viable product” first is important. You need to fail early and fail often. Have a read through The Lean Startup by Eric Ries for more on this. I think it’s a solid strategy—but hard to implement sometimes.
The idea here is that you don’t want to get ensnared by the sunk cost fallacy, where past investments compel you to forge ahead. “I’ve spent two years building this thing! I can’t stop now. I must keep going!”
Verify that there is a market for your product before investing massive time and energy in refinements, features, and mental focus. You can do this by building a really small—but very focused—plugin to start. See if people use it and ask for feedback often. After a few months of this, you’ll quickly know if you’re on the right path or not.
2. Implement a recurring revenue model
Once you have a viable product that solves real problems, have your customers pay using either monthly or annual subscriptions. Thankfully this is a common pricing model for WordPress plugins already, so users will have an easy time accepting it.
This is important because the revenue will compound itself each year as your product grows. Over time, this could turn into a full-time business.
Of course, I say this like it’s easy—it’s not!
Pricing has turned out to be extremely hard to get right. As soon as I thought I had the “correct” price, I realized I was wrong.
To be honest, I’m still not sure I’m pricing ShopWP correctly to this day. Although, I think I’m closer now than I was before. Progress!
I played around with an optional monthly price (in addition to annual pricing). While I did notice that people would purchase a monthly plan, I also noticed that they would churn more often than the annual subscribers. My theory behind this is that they were not as committed to using the product as their annual counterparts.
Also, by raising your price you attract a different type of customer. This is important to remember. I suggest experimenting and seeing what works right for your users.
3. Customer support is really important
I go out of my way to help ShopWP customers. I have a private Slack channel for priority support. I log in to people’s WordPress sites to help debug things. I write custom CSS to help with layouts.
All of these things will build trust with your users. I suggest treating your customers like they’re the most important people in the world, and they will reward you. Also, people love working with the creator of products.
Don’t be afraid of customer support. Embrace it. Use their feedback to build out a docs site to help reduce future problems. Here’s mine as an example: https://docs.wpshop.io/
I think many WordPress plugins could use better customer support. It’s a good opportunity for your plugin to stand out from the crowd.
4. Build plugins that extend other platforms
I think there is a massive opportunity all over the place for new and useful WordPress plugins.
Building extensions for existing platforms like WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, etc, is an easy way to find product market fit.
Instead of a single massive plugin, maybe consider developing a series of smaller, specialized ones. This might work better for people who get bored easily.
I also think there is a huge opportunity to build Gutenberg block plugins. Since Gutenberg changes the game so drastically, you could even improve on existing ideas and apply them to the Gutenberg context.
5. Your refunds contain gold
Start a new page in your notes system to document all refunds. The simple answer you’re after is “Why?”.
People will usually be very honest with you about why they left. You’ll want to document every reason in a centralized place somewhere to review later.
Sometimes your product is missing a specific feature. Other times they simply couldn’t make it work in a reasonable amount of time. All of this information is gold. It tells you exactly what your customers are looking for.
So similar to documenting bugs in your code, documenting the reasons your customers give for requesting refunds can help you understand their needs better.
Of course, you don’t have to wait for a refund to do this. Reaching out to existing users right now and asking them a handful of questions can be extremely valuable–especially during the MVP phase.
WordPress & Beyond
Since I work exclusively on ShopWP, I’m planning to continue growing the plugin into something bigger. My long-term vision—assuming Shopify continues to grow—is to provide a real alternative to WooCommerce. For years now, Woo has had a pretty firm hold on the WP e-commerce space. I’d like to disrupt that and give entrepreneurs a new choice.
The growth plan includes making more video content for the ShopWP YouTube channel, doing more interviews, and generally just putting myself out there more. I don’t think many people know about ShopWP despite being around for over 5 years at this point. So I need to change that.
I think WordPress will continue executing its long-term vision of Gutenberg. I’m really excited to see it become more polished with more blocks for functionality.
Stay in Touch
My Love for the WordPress Community
Before Covid, I used to attend the Minneapolis WordCamp pretty regularly. Since then, I’ve moved to a new city and haven’t prioritized them. I want to start attending more often again.
I love the networking aspect of WordCamps. It’s not often you get to chat with another WordPress user, let alone an entire convention centre full of them. I really miss them!
Pippin Williamson (creator of Easy Digital Downloads) has been one of my main inspirations. I’ve really enjoyed his approach to marketing and creating WordPress plugins.
How I Keep Myself Updated
Some important accounts I follow on X:
Also, The WP Weekly newsletter is fantastic!
I Have a Life Other Than the Work
In my free time I like playing disc golf (when it’s not too hot), Go (baduk), and mostly hanging out with my wife and son.
The holidays are usually spent here in Austin, TX—sometimes we’ll travel back to Minneapolis as well.
My wife and I loved visiting London last year, but nothing comes close to Wengen, Switzerland. That place was absolutely incredible. The hospitality was unmatched as well.
Andrew Robbins with his son
I Reward Myself by
Occasionally I’ll go heads down and really dial in on a new feature or release. As I type I’m doing this right now for the upcoming 9.0 release of ShopWP.
Usually, after I complete a sprint like this I’ll take a break from work for a week or so. Relax more with my wife and kids, and try to forget about the business. Although, it’s not easy to do!
Special Discount
- Get 15% OFF on ShopWP and any ShopWP extension by using the code below.
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Connect With Me
In my newsletter, I talk more about managing a WordPress business and specific tips for entrepreneurs.
