Below are the list of questions that were asked during the Clover App Approvals webinar.
- I have submitted an application for review, this application was designed for a specific client. The Site URL for this application is an endpoint on the customer's website. I understand the need to submit the application to ensure a secure connection to the clover API's; however, once approved must the application be shown on the marketplace?
- Yes, there are options for apps not to show up in the Clover Market, but it requires more work on Clover's side, so it's part of the discussion during the review process. Let your reviewer know you don't want this app to be public and they can discuss options.
- In regards to selecting the Clover SaaS plans that an app can be used on, what if an App can function just fine in the Payments Plus plan, but DOES have some additional functionality if someone has a higher plan (such as Register Lite), should we check off all of the SDK endpoints or only the ones in the Payments Plus?
- Selecting modules restricts the app to merchant plans that include those modules. We recommend selecting all modules required by your app; if an app can optionally make use of further modules, those modules do not need to be selected. An app with optional modules should be very clear on what functionality merchants will receive on their plan.
- Alternatively, if the merchant's SaaS plan significantly affects the behavior of your app, you could consider creating SaaS-specific versions and submitting those as separate apps.
- More on modules and merchant plans at: https://docs.clover.com/clover-platform/docs/understanding-modules
- Why does a Clover integration that only uses credit card processing require a full Clover web app? Other payment gateways have a much less strenuous integration process and we've been able to implement those easily. With Clover, it's been an intense uphill battle to do this same thing.
- That is an important question and one we're working directly on addressing. The E-Commerce API (which is replacing DevPay API) will soon offer functionality that better aligns with some of our competitors in terms of ease of deployment. If you are a developer looking to sell your app to merchants, however, you will still need to complete the entire app approval process as apps are intended to be made publicly available for Clover App Market. Due to efforts in keeping our merchants' data secure, we appreciate your understanding while running through the app approval process.
- Hi there. I've seen multiple areas we need to cover in our formal approval process (Product & Legal Narrative, Video's, etc). Do you have a formal outline we can follow when putting this presentation together?
- You can follow any of the two docs, depending on your integration type: Platform Overview > App Approval Process, Semi-Integrate with Clover Devices > App Approval Process
- How do you see the competition between FREE Clover apps and 3rd party apps that charge a monthly fee?
- That's a great question! One misconception here is that all of our apps are free, when in fact many of them are either paid for via the SaaS plan or a separate monthly subscription. But the big difference between a Clover app and your app is that you have the opportunity to devote as much engineering power as needed to customize it for the type of merchant you're targeting. We at Clover try our best to serve all of our merchants; however, their use cases are varied and we cannot always allocate resources to every single use case. If we can offer a merchant a good solution while yours is great, that merchant has a big decision to make—and will likely pick the app that best fits their needs.
- What are your plans for improving the app market?
- The plans for improving the App Market are to improve ratings + reviews in order to boost submissions and to introduce dynamic rankings.
- Would you accept an app that cannot be used in all US states? (e.g. not accepted in California due to privacy regulations, but ok in all other states)
- Due to the way our App Market is designed, it is not possible to control for merchant downloads by location within a region. An app that is submitted to a region must be usable to merchants within the entire region.
- Is it correct that if a merchant gets a price of 10 USD now and stays customer for 10 years he still has to pay only 10 USD? How can it stay profitable if costs for servers, employees, taxes etc. are going steadily up?
- Currently this is true. Though we understand your concern and will be relaying your feedback to our teams.
