Why Top Brands Migrate from Salesforce Commerce Cloud to Shopify Plus

Why Top Brands Are Migrating from Salesforce Commerce Cloud to Shopify Plus

“You buy a platform thinking that is what you need to do to scale, but what you don’t necessarily know is the associated costs that go with that,not only the costs of getting onto a massive platform.”

These words from The Cambridge Satchel Company’s owner, who decided to migrate from Salesforce Commerce Cloud to Shopify Plus (read their case study), capture the very reason why so many brands are rethinking their E-commerce platforms today.

The complexities, the fees, and the limited agility are just a few of the reasons why a platform once seen as the go-to choice for fast-growing brands is now being left behind in favor of Shopify Plus.

And these are only a few of the reasons. Global names like Dollar Shave Club, Decor Steals, MZ Wallace, Bauer, and many others are choosing to migrate from Salesforce Commerce Cloud to Shopify Plus for its scalability, flexibility, and cost-efficiency.

Before diving deeper into why this shift is happening, let’s start with the basics.

What Is Salesforce Commerce Cloud? A Brief Salesforce Commerce Cloud Overview

Salesforce Commerce Cloud is an enterprise E-commerce platform designed for large retailers that need advanced customization and scalability.

At first glance, it seems like a great choice for businesses, offering powerful integrations and global reach. But over time, many retailers realize the hidden drawbacks, such as high licensing costs, longer development timelines, and a heavy reliance on technical teams, that begin to cut into their revenue pipeline.

These challenges are a key reason why so many brands eventually migrate from Salesforce Commerce Cloud to Shopify Plus (hyperlink - https://www.itgeeks.com/migration/salesforce-to-shopify-plus), which offers the same enterprise-level power while adding the agility, flexibility, and cost-efficiency modern businesses need.

What Is Shopify and Shopify Plus? A brief Overview

Shopify is a leading cloud-based E-commerce platform that enables businesses of all sizes to create, manage, and scale online stores without the hassle of hosting, server maintenance, or software upgrades. Its ease of use, mobile accessibility, and vast app ecosystem have made it the go-to platform for millions of merchants worldwide.

Shopify Plus (Hyperlink - https://www.itgeeks.com/services/shopify-plus) is the enterprise-level solution built on Shopify’s core strengths, but tailored for fast-growing and high-volume brands. It provides advanced Shopify Plus features like a fully customizable checkout, automation through Shopify Flow, international storefronts, dedicated account management, and API access, giving enterprises the flexibility to scale globally while maintaining ease of use.

It is also the perfect backend engine for headless commerce, as it handles everything critical to smooth E-commerce operations: inventory, payments, taxes, fraud protection, and secure checkout.

Read more at - https://www.shopify.com/plus 

In short, Shopify Plus brings enterprise-grade power to the familiar Shopify environment, making it a more agile and cost-effective alternative to legacy cloud commerce platforms like SFCC.

What brands are on Shopify Plus?

Shopify Plus powers some of the world’s most recognizable and high-performing enterprise brands. From global startups to established leaders, the platform enables businesses to scale quickly, operate internationally, and experiment without limits.

Leading Brands Across Industries

Some of the major brands using Shopify Plus include: - Tesla, Budweiser, MVMT, Kylie Cosmetics, Decathlon, Rare Beauty, Westside, Jennifer Aniston’s LolaVie, Gymshark, Heinz, Allbirds, and more. 

Industries like Food & Beverage and Apparel are leading the adoption of Shopify Plus, with multiple global brands leveraging the platform to grow their online presence.

Notable Case Studies 

Here’s how Shopify Plus has helped fast-growing brands achieve massive results: 

• Kylie Cosmetics: Generated $420M in just 18 months, including $10M in sales in a single day. 

• MVMT:Grew from a startup to $71M in revenue over four years and was later sold for up to $200M. 

• Decathlon: Manages E-commerce for over 1,750 stores worldwide, handling complex operations efficiently.

These examples highlight why enterprise and high-volume merchants choose Shopify Plus, not just for its features, but for the freedom to move fast, scale globally, and innovate continuously.

Read more at here.

Salesforce vs Shopify Plus

As a Shopify Platinum Partner, we’ve helped over 3,000 stores make the move from Salesforce Commerce Cloud to Shopify Plus (Hyperlink - https://www.itgeeks.com/migration/salesforce-to-shopify-plus). Why are so many businesses switching? The reasons are clear: higher conversion rates, lower total cost of ownership, faster innovation, and the ability to scale more efficiently.

Here’s a closer look at the key factors driving these migrations:

Shopify Converts Better

Shopify consistently outperforms Salesforce Commerce Cloud in checkout conversions, by up to 36%.

A neutral, data-backed study conducted in partnership with one of the Big Three global management consulting firms confirmed that Shopify outperformed major competitors, including Salesforce, by an average of 15% in checkout conversions. For enterprise brands, even a 1% lift can translate into millions of dollars in additional revenue.

Alt text for Image - Bar chart illustrating checkout performance, highlighting Shopify's 36% higher conversion rate over Salesforce Commerce Cloud. 

Why Shopify drives better conversions:

• Integrate digital wallets like Apple Pay in clicks, not months.

• Customize checkout appearance and workflow.

• Extend or replace backend functionality easily.

• Collect rich customer data to optimize marketing and sales.

Lower TCO and Higher ROI 

When you migrate from Salesforce Commerce Cloud to Shopify Plus can reduce total cost of ownership by up to 35% compared to Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

Key cost advantages:

• Lower licensing fees: The plan starts at $2,300/month, including enterprise-level features. Salesforce licensing often costs 1-3% of gross merchandising value.

• Affordable development: Shopify developers are widely available, allowing brands to choose partners based on budget, expertise, and portfolio.

• Reduced dependency on developers: Business users can take more control, reducing ongoing maintenance costs.

Alt Text for Image - Image of the acronym ROI, representing the concept of return on investment when you migrate from salesforce commerce cloud to Shopify Plus. 

Implementation speed:

• Shopify reduces setup time from months to weeks or even days, enabling faster go-to-market and revenue growth.

Revenue-driving features:

• Point of Sale (POS)

• Managed Markets

• Shop Pay & Shop Pay Installments

• Shopify Audiences

• The Shop App

These features help enterprise brands increase sales, optimize operations, and scale globally without the limitations often encountered on Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

Faster Innovation with Shopify Plus 

This platform is built for businesses that want to scale quickly, offering native tools for B2C, B2B, and retail, all on a unified infrastructure.

Alt text - Image of a light bulb showing faster innovation with Shopify. 

In contrast, Salesforce Commerce Cloud was assembled through multiple acquisitions, creating a platform with mixed architectures. This often requires more integrations, custom development, and ongoing technical support just to keep up with business goals.

Why Shopify’s innovation matters:

• Continuous updates: Shopify introduces thousands of engineers and releases hundreds of updates yearly, including AI-driven features and omnichannel selling tools.

• Agentic commerce: Shopify recently introduced AI agents to discover products, build carts, and complete checkouts, sometimes without the customer visiting a traditional webpage. Features like the Universal Cart, advanced catalog search APIs, and Checkout Kit are pioneering this new era where “agents become the storefront.”

• B2C & enterprise-ready: Unlike Salesforce, whose commerce innovation has shifted away from B2C (Demandware), Shopify continues to focus on modern enterprise and DTC needs.

Everything Simplified: Empowering Teams & Reducing Costs 

One of the biggest frustrations with Salesforce Commerce Cloud is the heavy reliance on specialized developers, even for simple updates. Changing a homepage banner or enabling a new payment method often requires long wait times and high costs.

Shopify Plus flips this experience, enabling non-technical teams to manage everyday updates:

• Theme customization

• Promotions and campaigns

• App configuration

• Basic storefront updates

Alt text - a chart explaining the benefits of shopify plus, such as lower cost, faster campaigns, compatibility, and more. 

Analysts back this up: Shopify was named a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Commerce (2023 & 2024), with 73% of the top 800 global DTC brands already on Shopify.

How Choosing Shopify Plus Means Future-Proofing Your Business

Migrating to Shopify Plus isn’t just about solving today’s challenges, it’s about setting your business up for tomorrow. 

→ With enterprise-grade security and compliance (PCI DSS Level 1, SOC 2, GDPR-ready), you get peace of mind that your store is built on a platform trusted by the world’s fastest-growing brands.

→ Native B2B tools like custom catalogs and company accounts make wholesale as seamless as direct-to-consumer, while Shopify POS and Markets connect your brand globally.

→ And when it comes to scalability and performance, Shopify Plus is battle-tested, handling over 40,000 checkouts per minute during Black Friday Cyber Monday with 99.99% uptime. 

→ Add to this Shopify’s pace of constant innovation, from AI-driven personalization to agentic commerce, and you have a platform designed to evolve with the future of commerce.

In short: with Shopify Plus, you’re not just migrating, you’re investing in a foundation that keeps your business competitive no matter how fast the industry changes.

Our Two Cents 

Now that we have discussed how Shopify can support your business grow and how it holds upper hand in terms of cost, agility, reliability and performance, you can analyse your current platform’s capabilities on these parameters - and if you feel your platform isn’t supporting your growth - it's high time to consider a shift.

If you need help understanding your analysing your businesses’ current performance and capabilities - we can help you. At IT Geeks, we hold the value of business supporting the businesses and hence, we stay true to our words - we provide you with honest analysis - not fluff to get you migrated. 

With 3,000+ successful migrations under our belt and the honor of being a Shopify Platinum Partner, we don’t just talk about results, we’ve delivered them. You can explore our case studies (hyperlink the word “case studies” - https://www.itgeeks.com/case-studies) to see how we’ve helped brands like yours scale smarter with Shopify Plus.

When you’re ready, we can join hands to map out your growth, together.
Book a Strategy Call with our experts, and we’ll walk you through where you stand today, what’s holding you back, and how Shopify Plus can become the growth engine your business needs.

FAQ Section

1. Why do businesses migrate from Salesforce Commerce Cloud to Shopify Plus?
Many businesses switch to Shopify Plus for its faster innovation cycle, lower total cost of ownership, and a more user-friendly platform that enables quicker scaling and better conversion rates.

2. Is Shopify Plus more cost-effective than Salesforce Commerce Cloud?
Yes. Shopify Plus typically reduces licensing and development costs while providing enterprise-grade features out of the box, offering better value for growing brands.

3. How does Shopify Plus handle scalability for large businesses?
Shopify Plus supports unlimited bandwidth, high traffic volumes, multi-currency, and international storefronts, making it easy for large enterprises to scale globally with strong performance and reliability.

4. Does migrating from Salesforce to Shopify affect SEO?
If the migration is carefully planned with proper 301 redirects, structured data, and content preservation, SEO can be maintained or even improved, protecting search rankings through the transition.

5. What is the typical timeline for migrating from Salesforce to Shopify Plus?
Most migrations take between 6 to 12 weeks, depending on the complexity of the store, with proper planning enabling a smooth and efficient transition.