App Stores Not a Distribution Silver Bullet

App stores work best as a top of funnel wedge, not as the whole go to market. They make it easy for a small team or solo user to discover a tool and install it in one click, but the highest value revenue often comes later from larger accounts that buy through a more deliberate process, with procurement, internal champions, and sales assist layered on top.

• Postscript fits the pattern. Shopify App Store discovery helps merchants get started fast because the SMS product is already wired into their store data, but the bigger revenue base tends to come from Shopify Plus brands, and those customers are less likely to shop through the marketplace alone.
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• The core limitation is identity and qualification. In channels like the Chrome Web Store, many signups come through personal Gmail accounts, which makes it hard to tell whether a real business team is forming inside the product or whether the user is just a casual consumer trying it once.
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• The contrast with Calendly shows what a real distribution engine looks like. Calendly spreads because every scheduled meeting exposes a new recipient to the product inside the workflow itself. A marketplace listing helps discovery, but it does not create that same built in loop or guarantee expansion into enterprise spend.
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The next phase of PLG is less about winning shelf space in marketplaces, and more about turning self serve usage into account level revenue. The strongest companies will still use app stores for discovery, but they will pair them with product telemetry, onboarding, and sales assist to move promising users into larger team and enterprise deals.