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An editorial slot on the marketplace where an app gets surfaced beyond its organic ranking — typically a hero card on a category page, a "new and trending" rail, a Spotlight badge, or a Cloud Fortified / Top Vendor distinction.
Also known as: editorial pick, marketplace spotlight, featured app, staff pick, marketplace promotion
Featured placements matter because they reach merchants who weren't searching for the app by name. AppRanks tracks the public featured sections per platform with a signed-out browser, so personalised or admin-only recommendations are out of its view; when an app enters or leaves a public featured section, the app's AppRanks page records the change and its date. On Shopify the most-watched public featured surfaces are the App Store homepage collections and the category spotlights; Built for Shopify is a separate certification, not a placement. On Atlassian the equivalent is Spotlight membership combined with Cloud Fortified status. Losing a featured slot often precedes a drop in new reviews and in category rank.
Featured slots are the marketplace equivalent of paid acquisition for free — apps reach merchants who weren't searching for the app's category. AppRanks does not quote an install multiple for a featured slot: most marketplaces, Shopify included, publish no install counts. Tracking featured-slot changes over time also gives early warning: marketplaces typically rotate slots based on quality signals (rating, support response, performance), so a slot loss is often the visible front-edge of a deeper listing-quality issue worth investigating before it shows up in rank and reviews.