service 01
Migration to Plus
Magento, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud onto Shopify Plus with redirect mapping, data migration, and SEO preservation.
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§ · journal
How to choose the perfect Shopify Plus agency.
A buyer's playbook for 2026 - seven evaluation criteria, five agency archetypes, the RFP that ships in 48 hours, and the red flags that quietly cost brands six figures.
§ 01 · TL;DR
Three signals. Five archetypes. Seven criteria.
Three signals tell you when to upgrade to Shopify Plus: annual revenue past $1M with credible scale ahead, multi-region or B2B requirements that exceed standard Shopify, and custom checkout flows that need Functions or Checkout Extensibility. Once those signals fire, every Shopify Plus agency you'll evaluate falls into one of five archetypes - the enterprise systems integrator, the Tier-1 Plus partner agency, the conversion-focused CRO Plus shop, the headless commerce specialist, and the migration specialist. The seven criteria that actually predict outcome are verified Plus-partner status against the official Shopify Partner directory, the count of Plus stores shipped at your revenue tier, vertical specialization that matches your category, technical depth across Liquid + Functions + Flow + Storefront API, headless and Hydrogen capability when you need it, conversion-rate and Core Web Vitals competence, and the post-launch retainer model with a named lead engineer. Bring the eight-question discovery playbook and the RFP template below to every shortlist call.
§ 02 · what a plus agency actually is
Plus competence. Not just Shopify competence.
A Shopify Plus agency is a Shopify-certified partner with verified competence across the Plus-tier feature set - the layer above standard Shopify where most $5M-plus DTC and B2B commerce actually lives.
The distinction that matters most for buyers is the partner-status hierarchy. There are roughly 8,000 Shopify Partners globally - the entry-level certification any agency or freelancer can earn by signing up to the Shopify Partner Program. The Shopify Plus partner agency tier sits above that: roughly 300 vetted agencies worldwide that have shipped enough Plus stores to qualify for the Plus Partner directory. The Premier Shopify Plus partner category is the top tier - approximately 30 agencies globally with the deepest enterprise track records. When you see "Shopify Plus partner" in agency marketing copy, verify the claim against the official partner directory rather than the agency's own homepage. The directory is the source of truth.
The Plus-specific feature set a credible Plus agency works across includes Shopify Flow for marketing automation logic, Shopify Functions for discount, delivery, and payment customization at the platform layer, Checkout Extensibility for the post-Checkout-Liquid app architecture, B2B catalog rules and customer-specific pricing, multi-store organization architecture for brands running multiple country storefronts under one Plus account, Shopify Scripts (legacy) for stores not yet migrated to Functions, headless Hydrogen storefronts on Shopify's React framework, and the Plus Academy curriculum that the engineering team works through to maintain currency.
service 02
Custom theme + headless
Bespoke Liquid theme builds and headless Hydrogen or Next.js storefronts using Shopify's Storefront API.
service 03
App + Functions development
Custom Shopify apps, Shopify Functions for checkout customization, and private app integrations against Admin API.
service 04
CRO + strategy
Conversion-rate optimization sprints, A/B testing infrastructure, paid-media landing pages, and attribution work.
service 05
Retainer engineering
Ongoing engineering retainers for app maintenance, performance tuning, feature releases, and incident response.
The three signals that tell you it's time to upgrade from standard Shopify to Plus: first, annual revenue is past $1M with credible scale ahead and the merchant-fee math starts working in Plus's favor; second, the brand needs multi-region storefronts under one organization, B2B catalogs with customer-specific pricing, or the unlimited staff accounts and dedicated launch manager Plus carries; third, the checkout itself needs customization that standard Shopify cannot deliver - per-region payment-method logic, custom delivery rate functions, gift-with-purchase mechanics that exceed app limits, or B2B NET-30 payment terms. If any one of those three signals fires hard, hiring a Shopify Plus agency to handle the upgrade is usually cheaper than the engineering hours an in-house team would spend rebuilding what Plus ships out of the box.
§ 03 · seven evaluation criteria
Seven criteria. Everything else is texture.
Most agency-comparison content runs to a 30-row checklist nobody finishes. Cut to the seven that actually predict whether a Plus engagement ships clean and converts well.
01 · verified plus-partner status
Verified Shopify Plus partner status
Verify the agency on the official Shopify Partner directory, not the agency's own homepage. The directory shows partner tier, completed Plus projects, and verified reviews. Premier Plus is the top tier (roughly 30 agencies globally); regular Plus is roughly 300 worldwide. Anyone claiming Plus partner status without a directory listing is misrepresenting credentials.
02 · plus stores shipped at your tier
Count of Plus stores shipped at your revenue tier
A Plus agency that has shipped 50 stores in the $5M-$20M band knows different things than one with five Plus stores at $100M-plus. Ask for a specific count plus three named, verifiable client stores at your exact revenue tier. The right agency answers in single-digit seconds and shares the live URLs without needing a follow-up email.
03 · vertical specialization
Industry specialization that matches your category
DTC fashion, food and beverage, beauty, wellness, home goods, B2B wholesale, and electronics each carry their own Plus playbook - subscription mechanics, sizing UX, regulatory layers, B2B portal patterns. A Plus agency that has shipped six brands in your vertical brings playbook depth a generalist takes 18 months to build.
04 · technical depth
Technical depth across the Plus stack
Liquid theming and Online Store 2.0 fluency, Shopify Flow automation patterns, Shopify Functions for checkout customization, Storefront API for headless work, Admin API for custom apps, Plus organization architecture for multi-store. A Plus agency without depth across all six is shipping incomplete work to clients who need the full set.
05 · headless + hydrogen
Headless commerce and Hydrogen capability
Hydrogen and Oxygen, Next.js with Shopify's Storefront API, and selective Vendure or commercetools experience for hybrid stacks. Headless is not the right answer for every Plus brand - but when content depth, multi-region complexity, or app-embedded commerce are in scope, a Plus agency without headless capability is going to push you toward a themed solution that fits their bench, not your problem.
06 · cro + performance
CRO and Core Web Vitals competence
A Plus agency without conversion-rate optimization muscle ships pretty stores that under-convert. Ask for the A/B testing tool the team uses (Convert, Optimizely, VWO), the Core Web Vitals targets they hit on launch (LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms, CLS under 0.1), and three named clients with documented post-launch CRO uplift figures.
07 · post-launch support
Post-launch support model with named lead engineer
The work doesn't end at launch - and most of the ROI from a Plus engagement shows up in the 90 days afterwards. Ask the agency for the retainer rate card ($5K-$25K/mo is the typical band), the SLA (response time, defect resolution, deploy windows), the named lead engineer who'll own the account, and how that engineer's time is split across other accounts. A Plus agency that won't put the lead engineer's name in writing on the proposal is hedging on accountability.
§ 04 · five agency archetypes
Every Shopify Plus agency fits one of five archetypes.
Brand recognition is misleading; archetype-fit is everything. Match these to your stage, revenue tier, and team capacity before evaluating individual agencies.
01
The enterprise systems integrator
Wipro, Tata Consultancy, Accenture, Capgemini, Born Group, Astound Commerce, OneMagnify. They sell to the C-suite. Plus engagements start at $500K and run into the millions when ERP, OMS, and PIM integration are part of scope. Cadence runs in quarters not weeks. The work is high-discipline, high-overhead, and high-political - useful when the build needs to coordinate across IT, finance, supply chain, and 12 internal stakeholders.
Best for: Fortune 500 retailers replatforming a global Plus stack. Not for: anyone under $50M revenue.
02
The Tier-1 Shopify Plus / Premier partner agency where DH sits
Tier-2 ecommerce-native agencies with verified Shopify Plus partner status, deep Plus playbooks, and 100-plus stores under their belt. Examples in this archetype include Swanky, Eastside Co, We Make Websites, IWD Agency, Underwaterpistol, and ourselves at Digital Heroes. Project sizes range from $50K theme migrations to $300K custom Plus builds with B2B and headless components. Six-week build cadence is standard. Premier Plus partner agencies (the top 30 globally) sit at the upper end of this archetype.
Best for: $5M-$100M Shopify Plus DTC + B2B brands. Where most healthy Plus growth happens.
03
The conversion-focused CRO Plus agency
CRO-led Plus agencies that combine Plus development with paid-media landing-page optimization, lifecycle email work, and retention-mechanic engineering. Examples include Sleepless Media, G&CO, Commerce-UI, and a handful of growth-attached studios with embedded engineering. Project sizes $40K-$200K with a meaningful retainer attached afterwards. The pitch is growth-attached commerce work, not just storefront builds.
Best for: $3M-$30M brands where storefront build and growth program are one engagement.
04
The headless / composable commerce specialist
Hydrogen and Oxygen, Next.js with the Shopify Storefront API, and composable-commerce-first agencies. Examples include Frontend, Helium, and the Hydrogen-specialist arms of larger Plus agencies. Project sizes $150K-$500K. Best fit for content-heavy brands hitting the limits of theme-system flexibility, multi-region operators with currency and tax complexity, or brands wanting commerce embedded inside an editorial site, mobile app, or progressive-web-app shell.
Best for: $10M-plus brands needing custom storefront performance and content depth.
05
The migration specialist
Plus agencies focused specifically on Magento-to-Plus, BigCommerce-to-Plus, Salesforce-Commerce-Cloud-to-Plus, and WooCommerce-to-Plus replatforming. Examples include Qikify, the migration arms of the Tier-1 Plus agencies, and dedicated migration shops. Project sizes $35K-$150K with a defined six-to-twelve-week scope. The pitch is data integrity, redirect mapping, and SEO preservation through the cutover - the unglamorous engineering work that makes or breaks a replatform.
Best for: brands mid-replatform from Magento, BigCommerce, or WooCommerce.
§ 05 · selection process
Five phases. Two weeks. Written scope.
A disciplined Shopify Plus agency selection runs in five phases over roughly two weeks, ending with a written scope and a signed deposit. Anything longer is usually scope-creep before the engagement has even started.
Phase 1 - Define scope, goals, and KPIs. Before any agency call, write down the scope in plain English: what's launching, what's migrating, what's integrating. Pin three KPIs the build needs to move - usually conversion rate, average order value, and Core Web Vitals. State your timeline target and budget range honestly. Plus agencies that take on under-scoped engagements end up in change-order spirals; agencies that walk away from under-scoped engagements are the ones you want.
Phase 2 - Build a shortlist of five to seven Plus agencies. Source from the official Shopify Partner directory, peer referrals from Plus merchants in your vertical, the Shopify Plus partner directory, and the Clutch top-rated lists for Shopify Plus development services. Filter against the seven evaluation criteria above. Eliminate any agency that fails on partner-tier verification or vertical match. The shortlist that survives should be five to seven agencies - small enough to evaluate properly, large enough to compare.
Phase 3 - Issue the RFP. A useful Plus RFP includes current-state context (revenue, traffic, current platform, current pain points), goals and KPIs, scope (functional and non-functional), timeline target, budget range (state it - not stating budget is the single fastest way to get useless proposals), evaluation criteria you'll score against, and a response-deadline. Most credible Plus agencies will return a proposal in 5-10 business days. Anyone who needs three weeks is overcommitted.
Phase 4 - Review proposals, case studies, and reference calls. Score each proposal against the seven criteria. Read the case studies the agency includes - the published ones on their site plus any unpublished examples they share under NDA. Call at least two named-client references per shortlisted agency. Five questions to ask each reference: did the team ship on time, was scope discipline real, who was the named lead, did pricing change mid-project, would you re-hire.
Phase 5 - Pricing model selection. Three pricing models dominate Plus engagements: flat fee for a fixed scope (the cleanest model when scope is well-defined), time-and-materials with a not-to-exceed cap (better when scope is exploratory), and retainer engineering at a monthly rate (best for ongoing work post-launch). Most $50K-$300K Plus builds run flat fee with a separate retainer for the post-launch optimization curve.
§ 06 · red flags to avoid
Five red flags. Each costs six figures when ignored.
- Inflated promises without documented case studies. An agency claiming "300 percent revenue uplift on every Plus engagement" without three named clients with verifiable post-launch numbers is selling marketing copy, not engineering. Ask for the metrics by client, the time horizon, and the contribution-margin math behind the number.
- Lack of in-house Shopify Plus developers. If the agency subcontracts Plus engineering to a contractor pool, the work shipped is uneven and the lead engineer named in the proposal often won't write the actual Liquid. Ask which engineers are W-2 or salaried in-house, what their tenure is, and how subcontractors (if any) are managed.
- Generic strategies not tailored to your vertical. A Plus agency pitching the same 47-step launch checklist to a beauty brand and a wholesale industrial supplier is copy-pasting strategy. Ask for the vertical-specific playbook - subscription mechanics for beauty, B2B portal patterns for wholesale - and three named brands they shipped that work for.
- Poor communication and no project-management discipline. A Plus agency without weekly status reports, a documented six-or-eight-week build cadence, a project-management tool the client has access to (Linear, Asana, Notion), and a named delivery lead who runs the cadence will silently drift. By week 4, the build is two weeks behind. By week 8, scope is 30 percent over.
- "Starting at" pricing language with no scope follow-up. A Plus agency that opens with "starting at $50,000" but won't return a written scope within 48 hours of the discovery call is hedging. The "starting at" anchor is a sales tactic; the actual quote arrives at $120,000 four weeks later when you're already three calls in. The 48-hour written-scope test is the single best predictor of how the engagement will run.
§ 07 · cost of hiring
Plus pricing. Honest mid-points.
Plus agencies on either tail of the market exist. Below are the honest mid-points across the five archetypes for 2026 - what most $5M-$100M brands actually pay.
| Engagement type | Typical 2026 cost | Cadence |
|---|---|---|
| Plus theme migration (existing Plus, new theme) | $50,000 - $120,000 | 6-8 weeks |
| Custom Plus build (subscriptions + B2B + bundles) | $80,000 - $250,000 | 10-16 weeks |
| Headless Hydrogen or Next.js build | $150,000 - $500,000 | 16-26 weeks |
| Migration to Plus (Magento, BC, WooCommerce) | $35,000 - $150,000 | 8-14 weeks |
| Retainer engineering (post-launch) | $5,000 - $25,000 / mo | Ongoing |
What drives Plus pricing up
- · B2B catalog complexity (customer-specific pricing, NET-30 terms, quote-to-cart)
- · Multi-region storefronts under one Plus organization
- · Custom checkout extensibility (per-region payment-method logic, custom delivery rate functions)
- · Headless and composable architectures using the Storefront API
- · ERP, OMS, or PIM integration
- · Custom Shopify Functions or app development
What drives Plus pricing down
- · Standard Plus theme adaptation (Dawn-derivative or Plus-published theme)
- · Single-region storefront with one currency
- · Off-the-shelf Plus apps for subscriptions, reviews, and search
- · Tight scope with a written feature list and no exploratory discovery
- · Existing brand assets (Figma library, design system, content)
- · Migration from a clean source platform (Shopify standard, not legacy Magento)
§ 08 · discovery-call playbook
Eight questions. Thirty minutes. A useful shortlist.
Bring this to every Plus discovery call you take. The agencies worth shortlisting answer all eight cleanly, on the call, without rehearsal.
- Are you a verified Shopify Plus partner on the official Shopify Partner directory, and how many Plus stores have you shipped at my revenue tier in the last 18 months?
- Who specifically will lead my engagement - what's the named lead engineer's name, tenure, and what other accounts are they staffed on this quarter?
- What does your Plus build cadence look like, week by week, for a six-week, eight-week, or twelve-week scope - and which one applies to my project?
- What's your written-scope turnaround time after this call, and when will the proposal land in my inbox?
- What do I own at the end of the engagement - the Liquid code, the design files, the Plus admin account, the payment-gateway setup, the third-party app subscriptions?
- What happens if we cancel mid-project - what's the kill-fee structure, the partial-completion handover, and how is in-progress work transferred?
- What's your weekly status reporting format, what KPIs do you track per engagement, and which project-management tool will I have access to?
- How do you define a successful Plus engagement - what does a "good" handover look like at week 8 and at day 90 post-launch?
If a Plus agency dodges any of the eight, take the dodge as the answer. A confident Plus agency answers all eight without preamble.
§ 09 · where we fit
The agency we know best is our own.
Digital Heroes is a Premier Shopify Plus partner agency in archetype 02 above. We're headquartered in New York and Delhi with offices in London, Sydney, and Lucknow. We've shipped 2,000-plus stores since 2017 across the US, UK, India, Australia, and 50-plus other markets. Our typical Plus engagement is a $50K to $250K Plus theme, custom, or migration build on a six-week cadence, with optional ongoing engineering retainers afterward at $5K-$25K/month. Trustpilot 4.9 across 70-plus reviews. DUNS-verified at registration number 650878346. UN Global Marketplace Tier 1 registered.
We're not the right fit for every brand on this page. If you're a Fortune 500 retailer replatforming a global multi-region Plus stack with deep ERP, OMS, and PIM integration, talk to archetype 01 - the systems integrators with internal teams who've done that scale before. If your Plus project is sub-$30K with a tight feature list, a freelancer or boutique freelancer collective will be more cost-effective. If your build needs are CRO-led with 70 percent of the engagement in growth and 30 percent in storefront engineering, a conversion-focused Plus agency in archetype 03 will carry the growth program better.
If you're running a $5M to $100M Shopify or Shopify Plus DTC or B2B brand and you want a six-week build with named senior engineers in your timezone, a written scope in 48 hours, and a clean post-launch retainer model - that's the fit. Read our published case studies, the previous post on how to choose between firms, our Shopify Plus agency service page, and the Shopify migration service page for the work, the cadence, and the named team. The companion piece on when to hire a Shopify Plus agency covers the timing question; the Magento-to-Shopify migration cost piece is the migration-specific deep dive.
§ 10 · questions buyers ask
Six honest answers.
What does a Shopify Plus agency do that I cannot do in-house?
A Shopify Plus agency carries pattern-matched expertise across Plus-tier features that a single in-house developer rarely accumulates - Shopify Flow automation logic, Shopify Functions for discount and delivery customization, Checkout Extensibility apps, B2B catalog rules, multi-store organization architecture, headless Hydrogen storefronts, and the Plus Academy curriculum. The agency also brings cross-discipline coverage: senior engineers, conversion-rate optimization specialists, brand and UX designers, and post-launch retainer support under one engagement. An in-house developer can ship excellent work on one or two Plus features. An agency ships across all of them on a six-week cadence with named delivery leads and contracted SLAs.
How long does a typical Shopify Plus build take?
A standard Shopify Plus theme migration with three to five integrations, payment-gateway and tax setup, content migration, and SEO preservation runs six to eight weeks end to end. A custom Plus build with subscriptions, bundles, B2B portals, or lightly headless work usually runs eight to twelve weeks. A fully headless Hydrogen or Next.js storefront with multi-region, ERP integration, and a complex data migration runs four to six months. Anything longer than six months is usually a scope problem rather than a complexity problem - the right answer is to phase the build into shippable cuts rather than wait for a single big-bang launch.
Can a Shopify Plus agency also handle my migration from Magento or WooCommerce?
Most credible Shopify Plus agencies handle replatforming from Magento, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and Salesforce Commerce Cloud as a core service. The work spans data migration (products, customers, orders, metafields), URL redirect mapping for SEO preservation, third-party integration rewiring across email, reviews, search, analytics, ERP and 3PL, and the launch checklist. Migration costs typically run $35,000 to $150,000 depending on catalog size, customizations on the source platform, and the complexity of B2B or multi-region requirements. Ask any agency on your shortlist for a count of named, verifiable Magento-to-Plus or WooCommerce-to-Plus migrations they shipped in the last 18 months.
What ROI can I expect from working with a Shopify Plus agency?
Honest mid-points across our published client engagements and similar Shopify Plus agency work: conversion-rate uplift of 15 to 35 percent within the first 90 days post-launch when the build includes a CRO sprint, average-order-value uplift of 8 to 20 percent through bundle and subscription mechanics, page-speed gains that pull LCP under 2.5 seconds and improve organic visibility, and revenue uplift of 20 to 60 percent on the trailing twelve months versus the year prior. ROI varies by starting baseline - brands replatforming from a poorly-built theme see larger jumps than brands replatforming from a healthy Plus build. The cost of the engagement is typically recovered inside 6 to 14 months at $5M-plus revenue tiers.
What's the difference between a Shopify Partner and a Shopify Plus Partner?
There are roughly 8,000 Shopify Partners globally - the entry-level certification any agency or freelancer can earn by signing up to the Shopify Partner Program. Shopify Plus Partners are a vetted subset of approximately 300 agencies worldwide that have shipped enough Plus stores to qualify for the Plus Partner directory and access to Plus-only resources. Premier Shopify Plus Partners are the top-tier category, roughly 30 agencies globally, with the deepest enterprise Plus track records. Verify any claim against the official Shopify Partner directory rather than the agency's own marketing copy - the directory is the source of truth for partner status.
Should I work with a global agency or a US-based one for Shopify Plus?
The honest answer is that the binary collapsed years ago. Plenty of US-headquartered agencies subcontract Plus development to offshore teams; plenty of agencies headquartered outside the US run US-based delivery leads, US bank accounts, and full US business hours. What matters is the named lead engineer's location, the daily-overlap window with your business hours (target four-plus hours), and the verifiable two-year track record of US-client Plus work. We run from New York and Delhi specifically so US, UK, and India hours are all covered same-day. If your buyer constraints require a US-incorporated agency for compliance reasons, state that upfront - the market is large enough that you can satisfy it without sacrificing the seven criteria that actually predict outcome.
§ 11 · the next step
Bring the eight-question playbook. We'll bring written answers in 48 hours.
A 30-minute Shopify Plus discovery call. Named lead engineer on the call, not a sales rep. Written scope plus rate card returned within two business days.