Inside a Shopify Plus Agency: How We Solve Enterprise eCommerce Challenges

This video has been sponsored by Affler and Retainful.

Hey Shopify fam, welcome to another episode of the One Shopify Podcast. I'm your host, Sambit, and today we are getting into the real backend of high-volume Shopify stores. You know the ones, Scaling fast, complex integrations, global logistics, the 7-figure flash sales— these brands need more than just a pretty storefront. They need infrastructure, strategy, and execution at scale. And that's where today's guest comes in. Hitesh Matlani is the founder of Avidbrio, a Shopify Plus partner agency that helps some of the biggest DTC brands solved the most complicated e-commerce problems. From performance tuning to headless builds to advanced tech stack, Hitesh has seen it all. Hey, hi Hitesh.

Hi Sambit.

So how are you doing?

I'm doing well, thank you so much. How are you?

Yeah, I'm fine. I'm good to have you here today.

Pleasure.

So now let's dive in into what it really takes to support enterprise brands on Shopify Plus. So Hitesh, welcome to the show. So you work with enterprise merchants every day. So what makes their tech needs so different from a regular Shopify store?

Right, so regular Shopify stores generally would need like a theme design, maybe some apps and stuff, right? Enterprise clients need much more. They need scalability, they need prob— like they need solutions to their custom problems, to their complex problems. They're dealing with multiple systems, they're dealing with a high volume of orders, right? They're dealing with a lot of things at the same time in terms of the processes, in terms of the automations that they need into different aspects of their store, right? So we help them solve those problems. Okay.

So Hitesh, let's talk about customization. What are some key tech solutions like enterprise clients ask for that's a standard, that standard theme can't handle?

Standard themes are basically for someone who is into small or mid-market, right? They might go with a standard theme, customize some things here and there, and that might work into their needs, right? But the Enterprise client needs much more. Like they need customizations to support their pricing rules, to support their checkout customizations, to support their payment-related solutions, right? So they need all sort of solutions for different aspects to make a customizable customer journey, right? So they don't need a standard customer journey, they need a customizable one. So that's where Uh, the things come into picture for enterprises.

So Hitesh, like, you come across a lot of clients in your day-to-day life. So can you walk us through like one recent client case where you had to go deep on integrations or performance?

Yes, so we recently worked with a client in UK. Right? The client had a custom haircare brand, right? So they used to provide solutions to customers, but it was not just UK that they wanted to expand to. They wanted to get into US and Mexico as well, right? So they divided the whole client base into American region and non-American region, right? Where they needed different products to be shown on each region. different payment gateways to be applied to each region, different shipping providers, right, different catalogs, different pricing for each catalog. So we handled it through Shopify B2B, through the custom Shopify functions, Shopify Flows, checkout extensibility. We used it all to manage their custom needs in this case.

Okay, that's great to know, Hitesh. So Hitesh, my next question is like, For brands doing global commerce, what are some technical complexities they should be prepared for?

When people are doing global commerce, mainly they need to take care of the compliances. Each and every country has their own compliances that you need to be aware of, right? So that you can prepare for those solutions beforehand, before you get global, right? Sometimes the compliance could be tariffs, right? Sometimes the compliance could be tax rates. Sometimes it could be custom duty or regarding payment or foreign exchange, right? So we need to be prepared for all those aspects when we're getting global.

So Hitesh, what does a successful agency and client relationship look like at the Plus level? Like, what should merchants not expect?

The merchants should not expect the agency to just code, right? Because an enterprise agency needs to be doing much more than coding, right? It should be an agency who provides solutions to their problems, right? So if you listen to their problems and if you try to understand what their problems are, you'll be so excited and you'll be so, um, happy to know like you could provide a solution to those problems, right? Wherein the— and these guys faced a lot of problems during their day-to-day operations because the processes and the operations are quite difficult at an enterprise level.

Okay, so it is like you work in such a technical environment, but how important is brand understanding in what you build?

Brand understanding is very important, right? So we need to be really understanding the brand before we jump into providing them solutions. So brand is not just some fonts or colors. Brand is much more than that. Brand is something you need to understand their vision, their, uh, like their overall story behind the brand. And make sure that brand value shows up on the website. So it's really important that we really carry the brand right from the beginning of the customer journey till the end of the process. Everywhere it should reflect like it's a part of the same brand and we're carrying the same value.

Okay, that is a great answer, Hitesh. So you may come across a lot of myths regarding the Shopify Plus Agency that you might have heard. So what's that one myth you want to bust about working with a Shopify Plus agency?

Yeah, people tell us like working with Shopify is like installing a theme, doing some customization, adding some apps, and that's it, right? They don't really understand the theme behind it wherein if you're working with an enterprise client, we have to integrate multiple systems, right? We have to integrate multiple software to the Shopify account or Shopify Plus store, right? So that everything runs smoothly, the processes are automated, the traffic is handled, right? We use some of the softwares for enterprise-grade security like Cloudflare, right? We use the like New Relic for analytics to make sure if there is an issue that is coming up, we should be well aware of the issue before it actually comes up. Right. So those are some of the things that I really want to clear the air about, right? That we are not just theme developers or we are not just app integrators, right? We are much more than that. We do Shopify custom functions, we do custom apps based on the client need, we do checkout extensibility, all of that.

Okay. So Hitesh, let's future gaze a bit. What trends are you seeing with Shopify Plus brands in 2025 and ahead?

Shopify brands are leaning towards more of the AI architecture. They really want to get most of their processes streamlined through AI where the manual intervention was previously in place. So let's say there's an order that comes in, somebody, someone has to check whether that's a fraudulent order or that's not a fraudulent, right? So you'd rather Use an AI agent to make sure that it ticks all the boxes to make sure it's it's a it's a genuine order, right? Sort of fraud order, right? So they are relying more on AI and personalization. Personalization is equally important because they don't want traffic to be coming to their website. They need actually to provide a personalized journey to the customers once they arrive to the site and make sure their journey is smooth. And enjoyable.

So, Hitesh, if a founder is listening right now and is scaling into plus territory, what's one fundamental piece they should invest in today?

I would say we need to invest in the right architecture right from the beginning. If you build your foundations right, it's going to help you scale down the line quite easily, right? So the architecture is really very, very important. The second thing is you need to build your processes. So if your architecture is right, the next thing is your process. The way you process your orders, the way you process different information to different systems that have been integrated with your site, that really matters, right? So if the systems are correct, the processes are streamlined, It's all gonna work like magic.

Yeah, definitely. Architecture plays a very important role. So, Hitesh, my final question before we go is like, what excites you the most about solving problems in this space?

We get to see a different challenge each day.

Yeah, right.

So when we get to a client, the challenge that we face yesterday with some other client might be different, and this client would have altogether a different challenge, right?

Yeah.

We really love understanding the challenges they're facing. We really love understanding how they cater to their brands differently. Each one of them have their own way of dealing with the customers. Their branding strategy is different, right? So we love understanding these brands and how we can solve their problems, right? And that's the part that really excites me, right? Working with different clients, different people from across the globe and understanding what their issues are and making sure we have a solution.

Hitesh, this was a so insightful session.

Thank you.

Hitesh, you really brought a sharp and strategic lens to what it means to scale smart on Shopify Plus.

Yeah, I'm sure it helped a lot of people who are going to watch this podcast.

Yeah, it's going to help them a lot. So for everyone listening, whether you're growing fast or dreaming big, don't just say, just chase sales. As Hitesh says, like, build systems that can handle them. Thanks for tuning in to the One Shopify Podcast. If you learned something new today, forward this to your tech lead or your founder friend. Until next time, keep scaling smart and sustainable.

Thank you.

And thank you once again, Hitesh, for joining us.

You're welcome. Thank you so much for hosting. Thank you. Thank you.