Is my business too big for Shopify? The short answer is No!
But read on, to find out why we think Shopify can be perfect for everyone from independent boutique stores, all the way up to some of the biggest brands in retail. And to illustrate the latter, we’ll take a look at 13 of the biggest brands currently using Shopify.
There's No Such Thing as ‘Too Big for Shopify’
With more than one million businesses spread across 175 countries, Shopify has grown to become one of the world’s premier online commerce platforms. And it’s still growing – from 2019 to 2020, the number of shoppers who used the platform to buy goods and services went up by 52% (according to this February 2021 Shopify press release).
With its broad brand recognition, and ease-of-use that we believe is truly second to none,
Shopify has become the ultimate retail portal for small, medium and large businesses looking to set themselves up on square footing in the world of online commerce.
But along with this accessibility, there has developed something of a misconception.
Given all the Shopify success stories coming from small and independent stores, we have heard clients ask whether Shopify is still the best choice for larger, enterprise-level ecommerce stores. Sure, it looks great for indie brands and boutique retailers, they say, but can it handle big business?
But while Shopify certainly can cater to those sorts of businesses, we really want to stress that this model can scale up as big as you need it to be. So without further ado, we’d like to introduce some of the biggest brands on Shopify – just to demonstrate how the power and potential of a well set-up Shopify store can scale to meet the needs even of some of the largest retailers in the world.
10 of the Biggest Brands on Shopify
1. Heinz – heinztohome.co.uk
The H. J. Heinz Company is a household name with over a hundred years of history. Their food products and sauces are sold in over 200 countries and territories. They’re also a headlless Shopify solution to host their online store. During the Covid-19 lockdowns, with physical commerce disrupted, Heinz began pivoting towards ecommerce and a direct-to-consumer retail model – and they’re a fine example now of how there’s no such thing as being “too big for Shopify.”
2. Gymshark – uk.shop.gymshark.com
Gymshark is one of the UK’s premier and fastest growing gym and sportswear brands. We originally launched their rebranded Shopify store but unfortunately a few years of unprecedented growth they made the infamous switch to Magento that turned bad. After a 10-hour outage over Black Friday they decided to migrate back to the stable reliability offered by Shopify. Their new Shopify Plus store serves them very well… and we’re proud to have been part of their journey.
3. BBC – shop.bbc.com
Did you know that the BBC is on Shopify too? Like Gymshark, they moved from Magento to Shopify, and they use the platform now for selling merchandise from their Canada and US stores.
4. Saltrock – www.saltrock.com
Founded in 1988, Saltrock is a surfwear brand based in Devon, UK. That means they’re in our neighbourhood, and we are happy to say we have had the chance to work with them them as they've grown their brand on Shopify. A highly successful online clothing outlet that sells their quality products direct to consumers.
5. Red Bull – redbullshopus.com
When it comes to brand recognition, does it get any bigger than Red Bull? Since 2019 Red Bull has officially been the world’s leading energy drink, with a 38% market share. In fact, since they launched in 1987, they can now boast having sold more than 100 billion cans! While their drinks can be found in almost any corner shop in the world, Red Bull uses Shopify largely as an outlet for its US merchandise offerings.
6. Gym+Coffee – uk.gympluscoffee.com
Another big Shopify store we’ve had the opportunity to work with is Gym+Coffee. Having started off just selling comfortable hoodies, the brand soon began to expand and now caters to both leisure wear and sportswear – all delivering their trademark comfort and laid back style. We've been heavily involved in supporting Gym+Coffee roll out their new Shopify theme across their international markets.
7. Decathlon – www.decathlon.com
Another sportswear retailer making great use of the Shopify platform is Decathlon – a huge brand, with almost 1,700 stores and counting, spread across 60 countries and regions. From skiing to football, to fitness, the French company Decathlon is one of the world’s best known sports suppliers, and they’re making great use of the facilities offered by Shopify with a well-stocked and well-trafficked ecommerce store.
8. Avon – avon.uk.com
When you think of Avon, you might imagine door-to-door sales – and that’s certainly what the American-British cosmetics giant has been famous for in past decades. However, these days Avon have fully embraced the power of ecommerce, and specifically, they’re making excellent use of a Shopify Plus store. Avon’s online store caters to millions of customers per year, and in 2020, they reported a staggering $9.1 billion in worldwide sales.
9. IVC Evidensia: My Family Vets – www.myfamilyvets.co.uk
My Family Vets is part of the IVC Evidensia group, the global leaders in veterinary care. We helped them with migrate to Shopify Plus and take full advantage of Shopify’s advanced functionality options in order to offer membership systems, as well as a handy subscription model which allows buyers to sign up for regular automatic refills on consumable products like pet food.
10. Hasbro – hasbropulse.com
Here’s another strong example to close with – Hasbro, one of the world’s most famous manufacturers of toys and games. Beloved by generations, Hasbro has traditionally sold their products in physical stores. However, in recent years they have begun to embrace direct-to-consumer and ecommerce models, with much of this trade going through their highly successful Shopify Plus store.
Scalable Ecommerce Solutions with Shopify
So… are you still worried that your business might be too big for Shopify?
As the list above shows, some of the world’s biggest and most celebrated brands are already making full use of the Shopify ecommerce platform. If you feel that your business is likely to do greater volume than Red Bull, Heinz, and Gymshark, then maybe, Shopify actually isn’t going to cut it… and you need to build your own shop framework from scratch.
But for 99.9% of the world’s businesses, there’s a perfectly scalable solution on offer with Shopify.
You can see why we believe Shopify really is the best ecommerce platform going. Not just because it excels at handling volume, but we are also especially fond of its almost limitless potential for customisation.
If you’re thinking about making the move to Shopify, or upgrading your ecommerce store to Shopify Plus, then we would be very happy to help you with that process! We have already worked closely with some of the brands above – Gymshark, Saltrock, My Family Vets, and Gym+Coffee to name a few – and we are experts when it comes to bespoke customisation both in terms of visual design, and also unique app functionality.
So get in touch sometime, and let us know exactly what you want Shopify to do for you. You might be surprised what’s possible.
But this week, we thought we would just take a moment to address one question that we’ve heard a surprising number of times over the years:
