Shopify Partners, you have seen this term and you do not know what it is? Or are you looking for a Shopify agency with the Shopify Partner certification? In any case if you have a Shopify store, it is worth understanding what is behind the term Shopify Partners to learn a little more and make the right choice in the Shopify agency ecosystem.
What is Shopify Partner?
Before we begin, a few small explanations on what exactly "Shopify Partners" is and why it is important.
For a few years now, Shopify has been growing more and more and the number of Shopify agencies and freelancers who can evolve around the platform continues to grow.
This is great for merchants because it allows them to choose a specialized e-commerce agency perfectly mastering the Shopify solution.
And this is where the term Shopify Partners comes in, a way to sort and classify Shopify's partner agencies and therefore normally a guarantee of quality and seriousness for merchants.
But we will see that Shopify Partner is much more than that but also that this term hides some flaws.
Who is Shopify Partner?
And this is the first fault, which can be Shopify Partners ? Well, to tell the truth, for the moment, just about everyone can become Shopify Partners. There is no real barrier to entry or conditions required to become Shopify Partners apart from having an email address and accepting certain specific conditions, such as not doing paid advertising on the Shopify keyword or to use the keyword Shopify in its domain name.
So to put it simply anyone can become a Shopify Partner. A Shopify Partners is therefore not necessarily a expert Shopify. In itself, it's not very serious because becoming a partner is often the first brick to deepen your knowledge of the Shopify universe. It is not against not a pledge or a certificate of quality as claimed by many other agencies.
If an agency tells you that they are Shopify Partner, it just means that they have access to tools to create Shopify sites in development mode, for example, or to online training, but that says nothing about the quality of their project management. , the expertise of their developers or the satisfaction of their customers.
What is the point of using a Shopify Partner
But then if everyone can become a Shopify Partner with a simple email address, what's the point? Well, in fact, it's extremely useful for customers and e-commerce agencies in many ways:
Shopify Partner is the possibility of creating development shops
Number one advantage when you are a Shopify Partner is to be able to create shops, as many as you want, within the same interface and in a few clicks and above all "free" shops. So no Shopify is not becoming free but Shopify partner offers another "package" called development and which is free.
Interface Shopify Partner de l'agence Pikka
It is made to develop shops as long as necessary without constraints except for one big one: the impossibility of opening the shop to customers without taking out a subscription.
This is of course completely normal, the work of the developers at Shopify deserve pay.
The deal is therefore very "fair", on the one hand the possibility for digital agencies to be able to work on a large number of shopify stores but on the other hand the obligation to transfer it to the customer with a paid subscription to put it online officially.
At pIkka, we are obviously Shopify Partners, which is extremely useful for us to work in good conditions or test new Shopify features.
This is often how we test our developments and creations of Shopify themes, applications or sections.
Shopify Partner is also a training center
For once, you have to be English-speaking, but this is often the case in agencies, but Shopify offers many training courses in development or marketing to launch your agency or better manage projects within the "Shopify Academy"
He has a lot of training videos on Shopify, and some courses can even be sanctioned by a small test which allows you to have a knowledge certification badge.
It is not actually possible to "show" this badge or display it on your agency's site, but at least it allows all developers and marketers to improve their knowledge through the Shopify partners interface for free.
A store management tool
Another very practical element, the Shopify Partners interface allows a developer or an agency, if you have previously authorized it, to connect to your site without counting in the list of employees!
This allows us at Pikka to do technical Shopify maintenance on hundreds of sites without having to share any passwords.
This strengthens security and increases the quality of the Shopify ecosystem.
Of course, it is always possible for you to cut off access to your shop at any time once the work of the agency is finished.
As a merchant you stay in control and can choose the level of access you want to share with the Shopify Partner agency of your choice.
Programme Partner Shopify Plus
We talked a lot about the Shopify partner program but did you know that there is another similar program? The Shopify Partner Plus program. It is reserved for Shopify Plus agencies and is therefore much more elitist.
You must have worked on several Shopify Plus projects beforehand to benefit from this label.
It is not possible to register online for Shopify Plus certification, this is done by contacting Shopify directly.
FAQ Shopify Partners
How much does the Shopify Partner program cost?
Good news, the program is completely free, whether for agencies or merchants, this is 100% organized by Shopify. You won't have to pay anything more to take advantage of it, just respect the general conditions of use.
What is the back office of Shopify Partners made up of?
There are several elements in the Shopify Partner dashboard with for example:
- Shops (live and development)
- Shopify Plus stores
- Sponsorships
- Affiliate tools (being phased out)
- Applications developed
- The themes developed
- Shopify's commissions under the Affiliate Program
- Information about Shopify Point of Sale
- Training resources, Shopify Academy
- Very responsive Shopify partner support
- Management of the agency's internal team and access
- The settings
As a merchant, using a Shopify Partner agency is therefore a good thing to benefit from tools that freelancers or web agency wouldn't have under other conditions.
However, it is not either a white breast or a guarantee of quality on the code, the working methods or the training of the teams. So it's up to you to be careful when choosing your agence e-commerce and to resist the sirens and the effects of announcements that are a little too good to be true.
