In my opinion, you need to know/understand where your value prop is:
1. Is the value prop this unique way of purchasing that no other Shopify apps support?
2. Or is it the product, and you really just need to have Shopify behave a certain way for you?
An example of #1 would be a company like Collage:
Photo books, photo blankets, photo canvas | Collage.com
Collage makes custom printed stuff, like blankets with your grandma's photo on them. The value prop of taking photos from the internet and getting them on printed materials is a tech problem that will need continual improvement and advancement. So Collage is a tech company. And that's how they see themselves.
An example of #2 would be a company like Blue Bottle:
Coffee Roaster - Brewers, Subscriptions & Brew Guides - Blue Bottle Coffee
They sell coffee. Pure B&M + ecommerce play. Yet, they had a tech need to create a great online buying experience that they put together here:
Coffee Match | Blue Bottle Coffee
Their coffee matcher isn't a project that is going to require an ongoing technical team to spend all their time. It's just a simple web form that's custom coded with some logic. This is a finite contract project, with some upkeep contracts, I'm sure.
To illustrate this, look at their job postings:
Collage.com makes custom photo products easy, with great deals and 50+ products to make your own.
www.collage.com
Collage have 7 jobs available, and 5 of them are for engineering roles (and the other two for tech product roles).
70% engineering job postings
30% digital product job postings
0% job postings for manual labor jobs like warehouse managers
Job openings at Blue Bottle Coffee
jobs.lever.co
Blue bottle have 2 engineering positions available and several dozen non-engineering (manual labor) roles like Baristas and Café Leaders It's economical for them to have full time engineers manage their website at their size, but they aren't a tech company.
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In other words, you need to decide if you're a tech company or not.
If this tech need is something that will be a main differentiator that will require ongoing improvement and application of tech, then you are pivoting into being a tech company. You're going to be working with engineers day in and day out. So you'll want to have a tech cofounder or learn how to really engineer software so you can relate to them.
If not, you can hire this out on contract or collaborate with other likeminded Shopify stores to pool funds and have some devs make this app for you; then become a customer of those devs. Don't try to be something you're not (which is an engineering/tech company).
This is just my opinion. I'm sure others would disagree with it...but you asked for my opinion, so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This is a huge compliment! Thank you, I'm grateful for it.