We got our Shopify app approved in 72 days. Now we're stuck at distribution and people keep offering us paid reviews.

Hi IH,

Three of us built Livy, a loyalty app for Shopify (points + abandoned cart recovery + winning back inactive customers in one app). We went from first line of the idea to App Store approval in 72 days, bootstrapped. We come from 4 years running our own loyalty platform for brick-and-mortar stores, so we know the problem well.

Approval felt like the finish line. It was the starting line. It's our first time in the Shopify ecosystem and we're honestly stuck on distribution. What we've tried in 3 weeks:

Facebook groups for Shopify merchants: posted in a few. Mostly silence and several DMs offering paid installs and paid reviews. We said no (Shopify delists apps for fake reviews, and it poisons the only ranking signal we have), but apparently that's a whole industry.
Cold outreach to local stores: some conversations, slow.
Reaching out to other Shopify app founders: little response so far.

Our thesis is that reviews are the engine. Listings with reviews rank, ranking brings installs. Goal: first 100 honest reviews. But that's a chicken-and-egg: no installs → no reviews → no ranking → no installs.

Specific questions for anyone who's been here:

1. How did you get your first 10-50 installs? Which channel actually moved the needle?
2. Does Shopify's "Built for Shopify" badge / featuring matter at this stage, or only later?
3. Is cold email to merchants worth it, or is that budget better spent elsewhere?
4. If you run a Shopify store: what would make you try a new loyalty app from an unknown developer?

App: link in comments

Brutal honesty welcome. We'd rather hear it here than learn it expensively over 12 months.