What Shopify Plus Partners Are and How a Shopify Select Partner Becomes One

Hey gang! Hope your nog’s treating you well.👋

That’s right. It’s me Jay Myers and it’s time for part two of our Shopify Partner Tiers deep dive. If you missed our first installment on Select Partners, that’s where we broke down the first meaningful milestone in Shopify’s tiered Partner Program. The short version is that Select status means a freelance expert or expert agency has demonstrated commercial impact and earned Verified Skills credentials through proctored (monitored) assessments. But Select Status is just the beginning. Above it sits Plus Partner status, where around 450 expert agencies worldwide operate. And understanding what separates Plus Partners from Select Partners will hopefully help e-commerce merchants and online retailers make smarter decisions about who to hire as their business grows. Which is why I’m here. Let’s get to it. 

Differences Between Plus and Select Partners

This will sound like a joke, but it’s true. Shopify Plus Partners have everything Select Partners have and then some. More commercial impact. More credentialed team members. And critically, access to resources that let them handle larger, more complex projects. For store owners, Plus Partner status signals an expert agency that can tackle enterprise-level challenges. ERP integrations. Multi-store architectures. Mobile App Dev. Custom checkout experiences, or complex migrations from platforms like Magento or WooCommerce. 

If the project you’re considering involves either dizzying technical complexity or you’re operating at scale, Plus Partners have the demonstrated capacity to deliver. But tier status can’t and won’t tell you everything. It can’t tell you if a particular Plus Partner is the best fit for your specific brand. And it definitely doesn’t tell you if they’re available and interested in working with a business your size. 

Now. Let’s dig into what actually differentiates these tiers.

What Shopify Plus Partners Actually Offer

The majority of Plus Partner Agencies occupy what our industry sometimes refers to as the “mid-market sweet spot.” which is to say that they primarily work with merchants who’ve outgrown their “basic” Shopify setups but aren’t quite enterprise scale operations yet. 

The typical Plus Partner handles projects that Select Partners usually can’t. Or won’t.

Large-scale platform migrations probably represent bread-and-butter work of most Plus Partner Agencies. Moving a store from Magento or BigCommerce to Shopify involves data migration, redirect mapping, custom functionality recreation, and integrations with existing business systems. Such projects often run six figures and take months to complete properly. Select Partners can technically attempt them, but Plus Partners have the team depth and experience to manage and execute replatforming  without cutting corners.

ERP and system integrations separate serious expert agencies from developers who just build online stores. Connecting Shopify to enterprise resource planning systems like NetSuite, SAP, or Microsoft Dynamics requires understanding both the online retail side and the old fashioned business operations side. Plus Partners have usually done this dozens of times across multiple ERP platforms.

Custom checkout development matters for retailers who need functionality beyond what Shopify’s standard checkout provides. B2B pricing. Complex shipping logic. Subscriptions management … i.e. the kinds of projects that require web developers who genuinely understand Shopify’s checkout architecture, including the extensibility framework that replaced their old checkout.liquid approach.

What Are the Requirements for Plus Partner Status?

Sadly Shopify doesn’t really publish exact thresholds, but the program requirements fall into two categories. Commercial impact and skill credentials. Sound familiar? But. It’s the same framework we covered in the Select Partners article, just with higher bars to clear.

Commercial impact measures the revenue a partner brings to Shopify’s ecosystem. This includes merchant referrals, deals closed, and the subscription revenue those merchants generate. Plus Partners have higher commercial impact requirements than Select Partners. They’ve demonstrated a sustained pattern of bringing valuable merchants to Shopify, not just one or two lucky referrals.

If you’re an e-commerce retailer evaluating partners, that “commercial impact requirement” has a practical side. Because it means that every Plus Partner has skin in the game with Shopify. Their tier status depends on continuing to close deals and deliver results. If they’d regularly disappointed their clients, their commercial impact numbers would’ve suffered as word spread and referrals dried up.

Skill credentials work differently at the Plus tier than at Select. While Select Partners need a baseline number of Verified Skills badges, Plus Partners need more of them and they need them distributed across a larger team.This distribution requirement matters. An expert agency with one highly credentialed founder and a dozen uncredentialed junior developers doesn’t meet the standard. Plus Partners must demonstrate that expertise exists across their organization, not concentrated in a single individual.

For merchants, this credential distribution signals something important about project continuity. If the lead developer on your project leaves, a Plus Partner should have other qualified team members who can step in. With smaller shops, losing a key person can derail an entire engagement.

How Shopify Select Partners Climb to Plus

The path from Select to Plus isn’t a single leap. It’s sustained growth across multiple dimensions simultaneously.

First, Select Partners need to increase their commercial impact. This usually means closing larger deals, working with merchants who generate more revenue, or simply handling more projects annually. There’s no shortcut here. The numbers either qualify or they don’t.

Second, Select Partners need to expand their credentialed team. This typically means investing in Shopify Academy assessments for additional team members. Those assessments cost money, require study time, and expire after two years. Expert agencies pursuing Plus status budget for ongoing credential maintenance, not one-time certification.

Third, Select Partners need to demonstrate capacity for more complex work. This often happens organically as they take on increasingly sophisticated projects. But some agencies deliberately seek out challenging projects to build their portfolio and prove capabilities that will support tier advancement.

The timeline varies significantly. An established expert agency already doing substantial Shopify work might achieve Plus status within a year of deliberately pursuing it. A smaller shop building from scratch could need two or three years of sustained growth.

For e-commerce retailers trying to understand what tier advancement means, the key insight is that Plus Partners have invested considerably in reaching their tier. They’ve committed real money to credentials, built teams rather than remaining solo operators, and generated enough business to meet commercial thresholds. None of that guarantees they’ll do good work on your project. But it does demonstrate a certain level of organizational seriousness.

What Plus Partners Get from Shopify

Tier status comes with benefits from Shopify that matter to e-commerce retailers, even if indirectly.

Dedicated support from Shopify means Plus Partners can get answers faster when technical questions arise. If your project hits an edge case or encounters a platform limitation, a Plus Partner can usually get guidance from Shopify’s partner support team more quickly than a Registered or Select Partner could.

Marketing development funds help Plus Partners attend conferences, sponsor events, and market their services. This funding matters less to merchants directly, but it explains why Plus Partners often have more polished marketing materials and stronger industry presence than smaller shops.

Referral incentives at higher rates mean Plus Partners earn more when they bring merchants to Shopify. This creates alignment between the partner’s financial interests and successful merchant outcomes. A Plus Partner benefits when retailers they refer succeed and grow on Shopify.

Co-sell opportunities give Plus Partners access to lead sharing with Shopify’s sales team. When Shopify identifies a prospect who needs implementation help, Plus Partners may receive referrals directly from Shopify. This matters to merchants because Plus Partners in these co-sell arrangements often have recent experience with projects Shopify considers strategically important.

Access to beta features sometimes gives Plus Partners early looks at upcoming Shopify functionality. For retailers working on innovative projects, a partner who already understands next-quarter features can provide strategic advantages.

The Service Track Tiers Beyond Plus

Plus Partner status isn’t the ceiling. Premier and Platinum tiers exist above it, with progressively higher requirements and benefits.

Premier Partners number around 42 worldwide. These expert agencies typically work with enterprise-level merchants and large household-name brands. They’ve demonstrated exceptional commercial impact and maintain extensive credentialed teams.

Platinum Partners represent the apex of the program, with roughly 14 agencies globally. These are major consultancies and systems integrators with global reach and enterprise capabilities.

For most merchants, Plus Partners represent the appropriate tier for serious projects. Premier and Platinum Partners usually focus on merchants with budgets and complexity levels that match their capabilities. A growing DTC brand doing a few million in annual revenue would typically be better served by a Plus Partner than by trying to get attention from a Platinum-tier enterprise consultancy.

What Tier Status Will and Won’t Tell You

Here’s a basic practical framework for thinking through partner tiers as an online merchant.

Tier status tells you about organizational scale and Shopify investment. Plus Partners have bigger teams, more credentials, and demonstrated commercial success. They’ve committed to the Shopify ecosystem in ways that smaller operators haven’t.

Tier status tells you about access to resources. Plus Partners get faster support from Shopify, earlier access to features, and better incentives. These benefits can translate into better outcomes for your project.

Tier status tells you about project capacity. Plus Partners can handle larger, more complex engagements than typical Select Partners. If your project is genuinely complex technically, a Plus Partner is more likely to have relevant experience.

Tier status can’t tell you anything about fit. A Plus Partner focused on fashion brands might not be the right choice for a B2B industrial supplies merchant, even though their tier status is impressive. Specialization can matter as much or more than tier.

Tier status doesn’t tell you about availability. Plus Partners often have waiting lists and minimum project sizes. A Select Partner who’s available immediately and genuinely excited about your project might deliver better results than a Plus Partner treating you as a low-priority client.

Tier status doesn’t tell you anything about an agency’s working style. Some Plus Partners run structured enterprise processes with extensive documentation and formal project management. Others operate more like boutique shops with direct founder involvement. Both approaches can work, but they are very different experiences when you’re the one waiting for a deliverable.

Some Questions to Ask Plus Partners

When evaluating Plus Partners specifically, a few questions can reveal whether their tier status actually benefits your project.

• • How many credentialed team members do you have, and which would work on my project? This reveals whether the credentials supporting their tier status will actually apply to your engagement or sit elsewhere in the organization.
  • What complex projects have you completed in my industry or with similar technical requirements? Plus Partners should have a portfolio of sophisticated work. But sophistication in one area doesn’t automatically transfer to another.
  • What Shopify beta features or upcoming changes should I know about? Plus Partners often have visibility into Shopify’s roadmap. A partner who can’t answer this question either lacks that access or doesn’t prioritize sharing it with clients.
  • What’s your typical project timeline and minimum engagement size? This helps you understand whether your project fits their operational model. A Plus Partner whose minimum is $100k might not be the right fit for a $30k project, regardless of their capabilities.

Remember, You Don’t Have Do This By Yourself

Plus Partner status represents a meaningful milestone in Shopify’s tiered program. The approximately 450 expert agencies worldwide who hold this status have demonstrated commercial success, invested in team credentials, and proven capacity for complex work. For e-commerce merchants evaluating agencies, Plus status is a useful filter but not a final answer. It tells you an expert agency has organizational depth and Shopify investment. It doesn’t tell you whether they’re right for your specific project.

Use tier status as one input among several. Check for relevant experience, ask about team composition, and evaluate cultural fit. The best partner for your project might be a Plus Partner. Or it might be a Select Partner who happens to specialize in exactly what you need. Or hey, you could skip most of the legwork and just let our matchmakers do it for you. What matters most is finding someone who can actually deliver results for your business. Tier status helps narrow the field. Everything else requires asking the right questions.

Ok everyone. I think that’s gonna wrap it up for this one. Next time we’ll tackle Premier and Platinum Partners for those of you playing at the enterprise level. Until then, Happy Holidays, keep building something awesome and see you all again in the New Year! – Jay