Shopify Plus Extensibility: When To Customize And When Not To

While Shopify Plus is a comprehensive platform in itself, it also provides the flexibility for extensibility. Brands can extend the platform in various ways and directions. And extensibility does not mean customization.

In this blog, we learn about Shopify Plus extensibility and customization, its benefits for businesses, how to decide whether your business needs it, and how to go about it.

Let’s get started!

What is Shopify Plus extensibility?

To understand what Shopify Plus extensibility is, we must understand how extensibility and customization differ because both are used interchangeably. 

Extensibility vs. customization

Shopify Plus offers a comprehensive set of built-in capabilities for enterprise eCommerce architecture. But it is still possible to add capabilities through interfaces like APIs and Functions without changing its core behavior. 

Customization means rewriting and changing the platform’s core logic. For example, building customized systems or forking checkout code. 

Now, here’s the difference between extensibility and customization. When Shopify updates aspects of the platform, brands that extended the platform get updates automatically. But brands that customized have to re-test, patch, and rebuild its customizations every time Shopify introduces new updates. 

And that’s why Shopify Plus extensibility is better than customization. Shopify Plus brands that want to add new features and make managing the app easy should opt for extending instead of customizing.

How Shopify Plus can be extended

Here are some forms of extensibility on Shopify Plus.

• APIs: the Storefront API, Admin API, and Checkout APIs let external systems read from and write to Shopify programmatically, without touching its internals.

• Shopify Functions: small pieces of custom logic (discounts, shipping rules, payment customizations, delivery methods) that run inside Shopify's infrastructure rather than a bolted-on server, so they scale and update with the platform.

• Apps: both Shopify's own app store and custom-built apps, used to add features without writing them from scratch.

• Webhooks: event-driven triggers that notify external systems the moment something happens in the store, useful for keeping ERPs, CRMs, and fulfillment systems in sync in near real time.

• Custom storefront experiences: headless or composable front ends built on the Storefront API, used when a brand needs a shopping experience Shopify's standard themes can't deliver.

• External systems and integrations: the connective tissue linking Shopify Plus to the rest of the enterprise technology stack.

Why enterprise brands customize Shopify Plus

When the standard Shopify Plus storefront has reached its limitation and brands still want to enhance the setup further, or they want growth and scalability, they have to depend on extending or customizing. Here are some reasons why enterprise brands opt for customization.

To support complex business requirements

There are certain requirements that Shopify Plus isn’t able to fulfill. For instance, tiered pricing for wholesale business, tailored B2B contracts, subscription billing, or bundling logic that changes by market. These can be achieved by Shopify Functions and the Checkout APIs, which brands can integrate through customization and extension. 

To connect enterprise systems

Shopify Plus enterprise stores require many components to function in sync. For example, you need an ERP to track inventory and finance, and a CRM to manage customer relationships. Then, there’s a PIM that holds product data and an OMS driving fulfillment. There’s also a WMS that manages the warehouse. All these separate tools need to be connected into one system and that’s where you need custom integration via Shopify’s APIs and webhooks.

To create differentiated customer experiences

Brands that create unique customer experiences easily stand out. And there’s only so much brands can do through standard Shopify Plus themes. That’s one reason why brands opt for extensibility. It allows them personalization, custom merchandising rules, advanced search, and fully custom storefronts. 

When should you customize Shopify Plus?

Not all Shopify Plus businesses need customization. Whether or not you should customize or extend capabilities, depends on certain factors. Here are some of them:

1. If customization creates a clear business advantage

Customizing your Shopify Plus tech stack is an investment, which should generate returns for your business. And that’s something you must consider when planning customization or extensibility. Ask these questions:

• Will it generate more revenue per visitor?

• Will it lead to a higher conversion rate?

• Can it reduce operating cost per order?

• Will it impact customer experience and bring customers back?

2. If the requirement is unique to your business

When your existing Shopify Plus setup, theme, and tools cannot enable a specific feature or experience you want to create, it can be said to be a unique requirement. This may be a unique case that requires extensibility. 

The uniqueness of a requirement also depends on the way a business operates. For instance, if you require a pricing structure that changes deal-by-deal, or a loyalty tier system that is tied to a specific type of points formula, which no third-party tools can support. These are some examples of requirements for which you could opt for custom building.

3. If the customization can scale with the business

Enterprise brands keep growing and scaling. And hence, any customization that is designed for short-term, stops working after a point. Hence, the real value of customization can be seen when it stays relevant as businesses scale. 

However, scale is not just more traffic or an increase in orders. Scale includes product complexity, for example, new product categories, new variants, and new building rules. It also means more organizational complexity, including sub-brands, more storefronts under the same company. Operational complexity can also scale with new fulfillment partners, new payment methods, etc. 

4. If the customization integrates with your existing architecture

Most people think about customization only as something to enhance the frontend. But if your Shopify Plus customization is not going to change anything for better in your eCommerce operations, it is worthless. 

A customization that does not read from or writes back to systems leads to duplicated data, systems that fail to sync, and increases manual work. Hence, integration is something to plan early on, not as an afterthought. The trick is to map the data flow before development starts. This helps ensure customization integrates well with your existing architecture. 

5. The long-term value overweighs the complexity

While you might have to pay a development cost at the time of building customization, it should be built in a way that does not keep costing you over the years. For instance, if you have to run tests every time Shopify updates the platform, it is going to eat into your resource time and cost money. Hence, if the customization isn’t adding too much value and you still have to pay a cost over the years, it might not be worth it.

When should you avoid customization?

Here are some things to consider and avoid customization if you can.

1. A standard Shopify Plus capability already solves the problem

Shopify Plus’s native features offer a wide range of capabilities. Building a custom version of a feature that the platform already has is unnecessary and should be avoided.

2. An existing app or integration is sufficient

The Shopify Plus app enables thousands of use cases, such as subscriptions, loyalty, reviews, personalization, etc. These features are designed to scale. The correct method is to first evaluate what’s already there and then decide customization. 

3. The requirement is only a short-term workaround

Say, you need to run a short-term promotion for two months, or add a one-off event page. These may be important, but you shouldn’t create permanent customizations for temporary requirements. 

4. The customization creates technical issues

If customizing your Shopify Plus features leads to a system check whenever there is a platform update, then customization becomes more a liability than an asset. The effort, resources, and time given to these system checks adds up as cost in the long-term.

5. It’s difficult to measure the business benefit

If you do not have a clear answer to what business benefit the customization is bringing, you don’t really need it. It is better to stay away from the complexity such customization might add to your Shopify Plus extensibility.

7 questions to ask before customizing Shopify Plus

Before making any changes to your Shopify Plus architecture with customization or extensibility, answer these questions. It will help you make the right decision. 

1. What business problem are you solving?

This will help you understand the outcomes in business terms. 

2. Is there an existing Shopify capability?

This will help you identify native Shopify Plus capabilities before assuming you need to build something from scratch.

3. Can you solve something through configuration instead?

With configurations, you have the ability to reverse something and make it upgrade-safe. But with customization you cannot. 

4. Can an app or integration handle it?

If someone has already solved your problem and there’s an app or tool for it, it’s better to integrate that tool instead of creating a custom solution from scratch.

5. How will the Shopify Plus development via customization affect performance and scalability? 

To answer this question, assess the customization for future volume, not only for the current traffic or the existing catalog size. 

6. Who will maintain the Shopify Plus extensibility?

If your answer is the one who built it initially, it’s a big problem and you must rethink the Shopify Plus customization.

7. What happens if the business requirement changes?

Shopify Plus customizations that are not well planned often break when the business needs change. 

Shopify Plus customization vs. standard functionality - a simple decision framework

Here’s a framework that will help you decide whether Shopify Plus extensibility or the standard functionality is better for your business.

Wrapping up: Does Shopify Plus extensibility make sense for your business?

Your goals should be to create a Shopify Plus architecture that stays flexible, adaptable, and ready for scale as your business grows. For that, you can add customization or extensibility where required. And avoid it if unnecessary. 

Remember, keep your Shopify Plus enterprise architecture simple, connected, flexible, and planned for long-term. 

If you want to explore whether customization or extensibility can help you meet your business goals faster and if your Shopify Plus store needs it, contact XgenTech.