Shopify Support & Maintenance Retainers
SLA-backed support for mission-critical Shopify and Shopify Plus storefronts — theme maintenance, Checkout Extensibility upkeep, Shopify Functions builds, performance monitoring, and incident response from a named engineering team.
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Who It's For
Shopify Support That Treats Your Store Like Revenue
Shopify support gets messy when it's split across a freelance Liquid developer, an app vendor's chat queue, and a Shopify-side ticket nobody's following. We run it as one engineering team with a named lead, defined severities, and the Shopify Plus Partner escalation path when a platform-side issue is in play. Need new feature work? Loop in our Shopify developer bench, Shopify designers, or Shopify SEO team without re-onboarding a vendor.
TL;DR
What you get on a Shopify support retainer
- ›Named Liquid / Hydrogen engineer + delivery lead
- ›Defined P1 / P2 / P3 / P4 severities and targets
- ›Theme, app, and Functions maintenance
- ›Checkout Extensibility (post-Scripts) upkeep
- ›Core Web Vitals monitoring + monthly report
- ›B2B on Shopify, Markets, Hydrogen coverage
- ›Shopify Plus Partner escalation path
- ›30-day stabilization before SLA clock starts
Three Retainer Tiers
Match the Tier to the Risk
Most clients start on Maintenance or Growth and step up to Mission-Critical SLA ahead of a Plus launch, a replatform, or peak season. Tiers move both directions.
Maintenance
Steady-state coverage for stable Shopify stores. Theme updates, app deprecation watch, monthly Core Web Vitals review, and a named Liquid engineer who already knows your stack.
- ›Dawn / Horizon / custom theme patching
- ›App update + deprecation watch
- ›Monthly CWV (LCP, INP, CLS) report
- ›Business-hours response window
Growth
Maintenance plus a roadmap. Reserved sprint capacity each month for PDP iterations, metaobject systems, Shopify Functions builds, Checkout Extensibility work, and integration changes alongside ongoing ops.
- ›Reserved sprint capacity each month
- ›Quarterly platform audit + roadmap
- ›Same-day response on priority issues
- ›Shared backlog with the engineering lead
Mission-Critical SLA
For Shopify Plus storefronts where downtime is measured in lost revenue. Defined severities, response and resolution targets, after-hours pager rotation, and Shopify Plus Partner escalation into Shopify's merchant success team.
- ›P1 response targets under one hour
- ›After-hours and weekend coverage
- ›Quarterly incident review + chaos drill
- ›Plus Partner escalation to Shopify
What's Covered
Day-to-Day Shopify Coverage
Theme & Section Maintenance
Online Store 2.0 theme patching across Dawn, Horizon, and custom themes. JSON template regression checks, section / app block compatibility, metaobject schema drift detection, and Liquid lint passes when Shopify ships theme API changes.
Checkout Extensibility Upkeep
All Plus stores must be on Checkout Extensibility by August 2025 — Scripts and checkout.liquid are deprecated. We keep your UI extensions, post-purchase pages, branded checkout, and Shopify Functions current as the extensibility API evolves.
Shopify Functions Builds
Discount, shipping, payment customization, cart transform, fulfillment constraints, and order routing Functions — built, deployed, and versioned. Functions replace Scripts after the August 2025 deprecation and we own the migration.
App Maintenance
Klaviyo, Recharge, Shopify Subscriptions, Yotpo, Judge.me, Okendo, Smile.io, LoyaltyLion, Klevu, Algolia, Searchspring, Nosto, Rebuy, Gorgias — tracked centrally so you don't learn about an app deprecation at checkout.
Performance Monitoring
Real-user Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS), synthetic checks on PDP / PLP / cart / checkout, image and asset budget enforcement, app-footprint audits, Liquid render-time profiling, and CDN cache hit analysis on Hydrogen / Oxygen.
B2B on Shopify, Markets & Multi-Storefront
Coverage extends across native B2B on Shopify (Catalogs, Company hierarchies, draft orders, payment terms), Shopify Markets, and Plus expansion stores — including channel-aware content and shared catalog updates.
Incident Response
Defined P1 / P2 / P3 severities with response and resolution targets, structured incident logs, root-cause writeups, and post-incident remediation tickets so the same outage doesn't happen twice.
Hydrogen Headless Support
Hydrogen on Oxygen support — Storefront API, Customer Account API, edge config, secret rotation, ISR cache behavior, and deploys. Same severity model as themed Shopify, tuned to React + edge rendering.
Post-Launch Handoff
Most retainers start as post-launch handoffs from a build engagement — ours or someone else's. We onboard with a stack audit, a documented runbook, and a 30-day stabilization period before SLA clocks start.
Mission-Critical SLA
Defined Severities, Defined Targets
Severity definitions and targets are written into the retainer so there's no ambiguity when something breaks at 2am.
P1 — Storefront down, checkout broken, or Shop Pay failing
Under 1 hour
Mitigation under 4 hours
P2 — Core feature degraded (search, filters, PDP variants, Functions misfire)
Under 4 business hours
Fix or workaround under 1 business day
P3 — Non-blocking issue (cosmetic, single template, single SKU)
Next business day
Triaged into the next sprint
P4 — Roadmap request or enhancement
Next business day
Scoped + prioritized with you
Shopify Plus Coverage
Plus-Specific Surfaces We Own
Plus retainers go deeper than themed Shopify — Functions, Checkout Extensibility, B2B Catalogs, Markets, expansion stores, and the Customer Account API are all maintained as first-class surfaces, not afterthoughts. The Scripts → Functions migration is one we ship every month; if you're still carrying checkout.liquid debt, we'll scope the unwind.
- Shopify Functions builds and version management
- Checkout Extensibility UI extensions and post-purchase pages
- B2B on Shopify (Catalogs, Company accounts, payment terms)
- Markets configuration and international tax / pricing
- Shopify Flow automations and triggers
- Expansion store governance and shared theme strategy
- Hydrogen + Oxygen headless storefront upkeep
- Customer Account API and new login flow maintenance
Onboarding & Lifecycle
How We Take a Shopify Store Over
The first 30 days are stabilization — audit the stack, document the runbook, and surface anything that'll break before it does (including any Scripts still in checkout). SLA clocks start after handoff, not at contract signature.
- Stack audit + runbook handoff
- Theme + app inventory with deprecation timeline
- Core Web Vitals baseline + target budgets
- Integration health checks (ERP, OMS, CRM, PIM, email)
- Admin user, Shopify Access scope, and API token audit
- Checkout Extensibility migration assessment (Scripts → Functions)
- Monthly health report and stakeholder review
- Quarterly platform roadmap session
- Incident postmortems with remediation tickets
Shopify Support — Quick Answers
What does a Shopify support retainer actually cover?
Theme and app updates, Checkout Extensibility upkeep, Shopify Functions builds, Core Web Vitals monitoring, defined incident response, B2B on Shopify / Markets / Hydrogen coverage, and a named Liquid engineer with context on your stack. Growth and Mission-Critical tiers add reserved sprint capacity for feature work and after-hours pager coverage.
How fast do you respond when something breaks?
On Mission-Critical SLA, P1 incidents (storefront down, checkout broken, Shop Pay failing) get a response under one hour and mitigation targets under four hours, with after-hours pager coverage. Growth tier is same-day for priority issues. Maintenance is business-hours response. Every tier has clear severity definitions written into the retainer.
Can you take over a Shopify store another agency built?
Yes — most retainers we run start that way. We open with a stack audit, document a runbook, and run a 30-day stabilization period before SLA clocks start. If we find structural problems during onboarding (a checkout.liquid build still on the deprecation path, an undocumented Functions tangle), we scope remediation separately so support stays support.
Related Shopify Services
Before, During, and After Support
Shopify Support FAQ
What's the Scripts → Shopify Functions deprecation and how do you handle it?
Shopify deprecated checkout.liquid and Scripts for all Plus merchants in August 2025. Functions replaced them across discounts, shipping, payment customization, cart transform, fulfillment constraints, and order routing. We audit your remaining Scripts surface area, prioritize by revenue impact, and ship Functions equivalents — versioned and reversible — without interrupting checkout.
Do you support Hydrogen (headless) storefronts?
Yes. Hydrogen on Oxygen has a different operational profile from themed Shopify — React, edge rendering, Storefront / Customer Account APIs, edge config, secret rotation — and we run support for it the same way we run theme support, with severity-tagged response targets and Core Web Vitals tuned to SSR / edge rendering. Same engineering bench works across both.
How does Shopify Plus Partner escalation work?
As a Shopify Plus Partner we have direct lines into Shopify's merchant success and engineering teams. When a platform-side issue is in play — a Plus account misconfiguration, a Shopify-side API regression, an emergency Functions deployment — we escalate on your behalf rather than handing you a generic support ticket number.
Do you handle Shopify app and platform version updates?
Yes. Theme API version transitions, JSON template schema updates, Shopify CLI upgrades, Hydrogen / Remix major versions, Customer Account API migrations, app deprecations, and Plus feature rollouts are all tracked centrally so your storefront doesn't silently fall behind.
Do you cover B2B on Shopify?
Yes — native B2B on Shopify (Catalogs, Company accounts and locations, payment terms, draft orders, B2B checkout) is included on Growth and Mission-Critical tiers. We also support B2B + DTC dual-store setups using Plus expansion stores when that's the right architecture.
What if we only need help during a launch or peak season?
We run short-term hyper-care engagements — typically four to twelve weeks around a launch, replatform, or Black Friday — with the same severity-tagged response model as a standing retainer. After the window we either roll into a standing retainer or fully hand off.
How is Shopify support priced?
Maintenance tiers are flat monthly retainers; Growth tier adds reserved sprint capacity priced per hour; Mission-Critical SLA is priced on response targets and after-hours coverage. You'll see a band on the first call after we audit the stack.
Will we have a named engineer or just a ticket queue?
Named Liquid / Hydrogen engineer with a named backup, plus a delivery lead who owns the retainer. The queue is internal infrastructure — you talk to the same two people every week.
Need a Shopify team that answers the pager?
Tell us your storefront, your stack, and where it hurts — we'll come back with a retainer scope and SLA.