Shopify Maintenance and Support for Australian Stores

Shopify runs the servers, hosting and platform security. Whatever you add to it is yours to look after: theme code, installed apps, checkout extensions, and the connections to Xero or MYOB, your warehouse, Afterpay or Zip, and couriers such as Australia Post and Sendle. Maintenance is the regular work of testing, updating and fixing those pieces, so a change in one does not quietly break another.

Because the platform keeps moving underneath your theme and apps, even though hosting is off your plate. Shopify puts out a fresh API version each quarter and keeps each one alive for at least 12 months, so custom apps and integrations need planned updates. Shopify Scripts were deprecated on 30 June 2026, and apps that still rely on script tags stop loading on storefronts from 1 March 2027.

A retainer is a monthly arrangement that sets aside developer hours for your store, with response times agreed in writing for when something breaks. Some brands want that certainty, especially before peak season. Others prefer to call on support only when they need it. With us a retainer is optional, there is no monthly minimum unless you ask for one, and every change is quoted and approved before work starts.

Weekly: place a test order, check Shopify’s status page and look for failed syncs to Xero, MYOB or your warehouse. Monthly: test theme and app updates on a copy of the theme, review Core Web Vitals and audit app subscriptions. Quarterly: check which API versions your custom apps call, read Shopify’s developer changelog for retiring features, and plan work ahead of EOFY sales, Black Friday and Christmas.

No. Theme work happens on an unpublished copy of your live theme and goes live only after testing, so customers keep buying the whole time. Integration changes are tested in a development store first wherever the connector allows it. Shopify posts platform incidents on its own status page, which covers the admin, checkout, storefront, APIs and point of sale, so you can tell a Shopify outage from a store fault.

Shopify’s Help Center offers chat on every plan. Phone lines are reserved for Shopify Plus, Retail and POS Pro stores, while email is open to Plus and Retail. Shopify says its team does not make outbound phone or video calls on any plan. For billing, account access or a platform fault, Shopify Support is the right first contact. For your theme, apps and integrations, it usually is not.

Rarely. Shopify’s Help Center puts most custom code problems outside Support’s scope for any store below Shopify Plus, and Support only looks after apps Shopify itself makes. A third-party app goes back to the company that wrote it, and a paid theme to the theme’s developer. Free Shopify themes get basic troubleshooting, plus up to 60 minutes of help with small design changes on Basic and higher plans.

Open shopifystatus.com first. Shopify reports nine parts of its service there, among them the admin, checkout, storefront, API and mobile, third-party services and point of sale. When all nine are green and your store still fails, look closer to home: a recent theme edit, a new app, an app update or an integration whose connection has lapsed. That is where we start looking when you call us.

According to Shopify’s Help Center, Plus stores get inbound phone, email and chat support, and Support can help with more custom code questions than on other plans. Shopify still does not become your developer. Checkout extensions, Shopify Functions, B2B price lists and your ERP connection are code you own, and someone has to test and update them each time Shopify changes the platform.

Scripts, the Ruby code Plus stores ran at checkout, reached deprecation on 30 June 2026, according to Shopify, which points stores to Shopify Functions instead. Separately, since 1 October 2026 Shopify’s Admin API has rejected new or edited script tags, and from 1 March 2027 Shopify stops loading script tags on storefronts. Apps must move to app embed blocks or web pixels. An app audit shows which of yours are affected.

Cost follows how much your store changes and how many systems it connects to. Page count barely moves it. The main drivers are custom theme code, the number of apps, integrations such as Xero, MYOB, Cin7 or a 3PL, Shopify Plus features and peak trading. FactoryJet quotes support as a fixed price in writing after a short review of your store. Shopify’s own plan fees are listed in AUD on its Australian pricing page.

Shopify cost in Australia guide ↗

Every quote is in Australian dollars and states on its face how GST is treated, so your finance team can compare it with other quotes line for line. Shopify’s plan fees, app subscriptions, Shopify Payments fees and Afterpay or Zip merchant fees are billed to you by those providers directly. They are never bundled into our quote or marked up.

Usually apps. Each paid app adds its own subscription, and stores collect them over years: a reviews app, a bundle app, a second reviews app nobody removed. Removing an app ends its billing, yet the snippets it added to your theme can keep loading on every page and slowing it down. Our app audit lists each app, what it costs, whether a native Shopify feature now does the same job, and what code it left.

Not automatically. A retainer suits stores with steady change: weekly campaign pages, frequent product drops, several integrations. A store that changes twice a quarter often spends less paying per job. Before signing any retainer, ask what happens to unused hours and how urgent faults are handled outside them. We tell you which model fits after reading the last six months of changes in your store.

Ask each one the same five things. Which live stores do they look after, and who does the work? How do they get into your store? A collaborator request is right, an owner login is not. How do they test, and do they use an unpublished theme copy and real test orders? What happens to unused retainer hours? And how fast does a named person reply when checkout fails on a Saturday? Write the answers side by side.

Pick a freelancer when the store has few integrations and the work comes in small, clearly described pieces. Pick a Shopify agency when orders flow into Xero, MYOB, Cin7 or a 3PL, because one fix touches several systems and someone must cover holidays and sick days. In-house makes sense when the store changes every week and you already have a technical lead. Many established Australian brands pair one internal person with an agency.

Yes, and most support work starts that way. The first job is reading what the last team left: theme edits, app settings, connector logins and any private apps. You get a written list sorted into urgent, fragile and healthy. One thing we check early is any Xero or 3PL connector that no one has owned since launch. You keep the documentation we write, whether or not you keep us on afterwards.

Yes. We look after Plus checkout extensions, the Shopify Functions that replaced Scripts, native B2B with company accounts and price lists, and the extra Plus stores brands open for New Zealand shoppers or trade buyers. Multi-store setups need extra care, because a theme or app change in one store often has to be repeated in the others. We keep a single change log across all of them so nothing drifts.

Shopify Plus agency in Australia ↗ Shopify Plus and B2B builds ↗

No. We send a collaborator request, which you approve inside your Shopify admin using your store’s collaborator code. You choose the permissions, can limit access to specific apps and channels, and can remove us at any time. Shopify also expires collaborator access after 90 days without a login. Store ownership, the domain and your Xero or MYOB logins stay in your business name.

Urgent means customers cannot buy: the store shows an error, checkout fails, or card, Afterpay or Zip payments decline across the board. High priority means buying still works but something important has stopped, such as orders not reaching your warehouse or Xero. Everything else, from a new landing page to a layout bug on one phone, is scheduled work. We agree response times for each level in writing.

We work through collaborator access limited to what each job needs, and never ask for an owner login. That matters under Australian privacy law. The OAIC says organisations covered by the Privacy Act 1988 must notify affected people and the OAIC when a data breach is likely to cause serious harm. Narrow access and a record of who changed what lower that risk for your store.

We plan backwards from your biggest dates: EOFY sales in June, Black Friday on 27 November 2026, Christmas posting cut-offs for Australia Post and StarTrack, and Boxing Day. A few weeks before each one we test discounts, checkout, Afterpay and Zip, shipping rates and integrations with real test orders, then hold theme and app releases until the peak passes, unless something is broken.

The most useful brief lists your store URL, Shopify plan, installed apps, connected systems such as Xero, MYOB, Cin7 or a 3PL, what has broken in the last six months, and your peak trading dates. An RFP (a formal request for proposal) works too, sent as it is. Send your name and work email through the form on this page, then attach the brief on the next step. The founder replies within 24 hours.

Yes. The store, theme code, custom apps and documentation are yours, and the code we write lives in version control you can access. There is no monthly minimum and no lock-in. If you move to another agency or hire in-house, we hand over the change log, the app list with costs and the integration notes, then remove our collaborator access.