Many Shopify Plus brands aren’t fully utilizing the platform’s most powerful features. While Shopify Plus offers high-performance tools, many brands underuse its most valuable capabilities—often because they don’t know about them or are unsure how to implement them effectively.
In this post, we’ll explore critical Shopify Plus features that can boost your store’s efficiency, enhance customer experience, and drive significant revenue growth. These insider strategies will help you streamline operations, increase conversions, and future-proof your business, ensuring you're always ahead of the curve.
As you read, know that if you lack the capacity (or desire) to build a custom storefront independently, you can hire an agency to do the job. This option keeps the development burden off your internal team, gives you more time to focus on other aspects of your business, and gives you access to true experts in online storefront development.
What It Does: Shopify Flow automates repetitive tasks to save time, reduce errors, and optimize efficiency.
How to Leverage It:
- Automatically tag VIP customers based on purchase behavior.
- Trigger personalized email or SMS reminders for abandoned carts.
- Auto-reorder inventory when stock reaches a set threshold.
Example: A premium skincare brand reduced cart abandonment by 15% by using Shopify Flow to send automated SMS reminders to customers who left items in their carts.
Implementation Steps:
- Navigate to Shopify Admin > Shopify Flow.
- Select Create a Workflow.
- Set a trigger (e.g., order value over $200).
- Define an action (e.g., tag the customer as VIP and send an exclusive discount).
- Activate the workflow.
Why It Matters: By automating customer engagement and operational workflows, brands save time while improving conversions.
👇🏽 Below is a video that might be helpful.
What It Does: Shopify Functions allows merchants to customize checkout experiences without custom scripts, replacing Shopify Scripts.
How to Leverage It:
- Apply dynamic discounts based on cart size.
- Create location-based shipping rules.
- Implement tiered pricing for bulk purchases.
Example: A luxury fashion brand increased its average order value by 20% by applying automatic tiered discounts using Shopify Functions.
Implementation Steps:
- Navigate to Shopify Admin > Functions.
- Click Create a New Function.
- Set conditions (e.g., 10% off orders over $150).
- Deploy using Shopify CLI and test functionality.
- Refine based on customer response.
Why It Matters: Shopify Scripts will be deprecated in 2025, and Shopify Functions is the future of checkout customization, offering flexibility and scalability.
Read more: "Endless ways to customize and extend Shopify with apps."
What It Does: Shopify’s global Content Delivery Network (CDN) reduces page load times and enhances performance.
How to Leverage It:
- Implement lazy loading for images.
- Preload key website resources.
- Enable Shopify’s Automatic Image Compression.
Example: A DTC footwear brand cut its bounce rate by 30% by optimizing assets and implementing lazy loading.
To check if your store has access to the built-in CDN:
- Open your Shopify Admin Panel.
- Go to Settings → Plan.
- Review the CDN capabilities included in your current plan.
- Once on, upload your files to the Shopify CDN.
Why It Matters: Faster load times improve SEO, reduce cart abandonment, and enhance the shopping experience.
What It Does: Hydrogen allows brands to build fast, fully customized headless storefronts while retaining Shopify’s backend management tools.
How to Leverage It:
- Design unique, high-performance storefronts using React.js.
- Create highly personalized shopping experiences.
- Optimize performance and SEO by controlling front-end architecture.
Example: A high-growth electronics brand reduced page load time from 4 seconds to under 1 second, which increased conversions by 25%.
Implementation Steps: This one is a little more complicated, so here is a link to “Getting Started with Hydrogen and Oxygen”
Why It Matters: A headless approach provides better performance, enhanced flexibility, and scalability for growing brands.
What It Does: Shopify Analytics provides detailed reports and dashboards to help brands make data-driven decisions and optimize store performance.
How to Leverage It:
- Track Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) trends.
- Identify high-converting customer segments.
- Analyze sales trends, traffic sources, and product performance.
Example: A subscription-based coffee brand improved supply chain efficiency by analyzing customer purchase trends through Shopify’s built-in analytics tools.
Implementation Steps:
- Navigate to Shopify Admin > Analytics.
- Select Reports to access predefined and custom reports.
- Use filters to analyze key metrics like repeat purchase rate and conversion rate.
- Apply insights to refine marketing and inventory strategies.
Why It Matters: Shopify Analytics offers real-time insights that help brands refine their marketing, pricing, and inventory strategies to maximize growth. Note that if you’re using ShopifyQL Notebooks, this will be shut down on May 15, 2025. Here is an article to help you migrate.
✔ Over-Automation: Ensure workflows enhance, not replace, human interactions.
✔ Neglecting Site Speed: Regularly optimize assets and scripts.
✔ Ignoring A/B Testing: Continuously test checkout flows and offers.
✔ Overlooking Checkout Extensibility: Brands often fail to use Shopify’s latest checkout customization tools.
✔ Underutilizing Customer Data: Regular ShopifyQL analysis helps fine-tune marketing and retention strategies.
Pixi Beauty’s existing Shopify Plus site faced several challenges. Slow site speed and mobile responsiveness were affecting user experience, while an outdated design failed to reflect the vibrancy and story of the brand. Updating custom code required developer assistance, making agility difficult for their team. Additionally, the site lacked robust tools for product discovery and cross-category upselling, limiting its potential to engage and convert customers fully. And with over 200 SKUs to showcase—60 of which include makeup products with up to 18 shades each—our work required meticulous attention to structure and navigation.
Case study: Pixi Beauty
💄 Enter UN/COMMON. Our team collaborated with Pixi Beauty to redesign and relaunch their US and UK eCommerce sites. The solution centered around a custom Shopify 2.0 build engineered to address the brand’s pain points and deliver a seamless shopping experience. We prioritized enhancing mobile UX and site speed, ensuring a smooth and responsive journey for users.
The results spoke volumes. After launching new US and UK sites in Q4 '24, Pixi Beauty saw a positive response in all significant conversion metrics: total conversion rate, add-to-cart rate, and average order value. These exceptional outcomes were achieved without compromising Pixi’s aesthetic or brand integrity, reinforcing its position as a leader in skin-loving innovation. 🔗 Read the full story 🔗
Key Takeaways:
✅ Use Shopify Flow to automate customer engagement & order management
✅ Optimize checkout with Shopify Functions for seamless discounts & promotions
✅ Boost site speed with Shopify’s CDN and lazy loading
✅ Go headless for high-performance storefronts
✅ Leverage Shopify Analytics for advanced reporting & insights
Our unique approach to elevating eCommerce brands' digital presence involves strategic redesigns and seamless replatforming. We don't just optimize user experience or perform full-scale Shopify Plus migrations and redesigns. We create high-converting online stores that blend innovation with performance, ensuring your website is functional, scalable, future-proof, and optimized for conversion at every touchpoint in the long run.
Want to maximize your Shopify Plus experience? Let’s talk. 🚀