![Which Niche Should Your Shopify Agency Target? [332K Study]](/images/blog/shopify-agency-niche-guide.webp)
Which Niche Should Your Shopify Agency Target? [332K Study]
We ranked 15 Shopify verticals by tech gaps, contact accessibility, and budget signals. Data-backed guide to picking your agency's niche.
We analyzed 331,692 Shopify stores to map where the B2B opportunity is. 73,510 Plus stores, massive tech gaps, and how to prospect them.

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Shopify B2B is the fastest-growing segment on the platform. B2B GMV grew 96% in 2025, nearly doubling the consumer side. Shopify has shipped wholesale pricing, custom catalogs, net terms, company accounts, and AI-powered B2B tools in rapid succession.
But nobody has mapped what this means for the people selling to these stores: agencies, SaaS companies, app developers, and consultants.
Every article about Shopify B2B recycled the same Gartner stats ("$36 trillion market by 2026") or described feature announcements. None of them answered the questions that actually matter if you sell to Shopify merchants: How many stores are B2B-ready? Which verticals? What are they missing? How do you reach the decision-makers?
We used our database of 331,692 Shopify stores to find out.
We scanned 331,692 live Shopify stores using automated headless browsers that detect themes, apps, tracking pixels, and platform signals. Each store gets a snapshot of its complete tech stack.
For this analysis, we used Shopify Plus as the proxy for B2B-readiness. Native B2B features (wholesale pricing, company accounts, custom catalogs, volume discounts) are exclusive to Shopify Plus. While some standard stores use third-party wholesale apps, Plus is where Shopify is concentrating its B2B investment.
What we measured: Plus status detection, app installations by category, pixel/advertising platform adoption, contact availability (email, phone, LinkedIn), decision-maker roles, and theme usage. All data is from March 2026.
Limitations: We detect apps through client-side signals (scripts, DOM elements, theme app blocks). Backend-only apps and custom integrations are invisible to our scanner. Our Plus detection uses checkout URL patterns and Shopify API signals, which covers the vast majority but may miss some custom implementations.
Shopify has been quietly building one of the most capable B2B commerce platforms on the market. The numbers tell the story:
| Quarter | B2B GMV Growth (YoY) |
|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | 109% |
| Q2 2025 | 101% |
| Q3 2025 | 98% |
| Q4 2025 | 84% |
| Full Year 2025 | 96% |
Shopify's Winter 2026 Edition shipped wholesale-specific features: Sidekick AI that creates B2B companies from unstructured data, store credit at the company level, Shopify Balance for wire/ACH payments, B2B checkout customization with PO numbers, and EDI purchase order sync.
Enterprise brands like Carrier (HVAC), Russell Hendrix (foodservice equipment), and Sonepar (electrical distribution) are moving their wholesale operations to Shopify Plus. Russell Hendrix reported a 43% increase in B2B online orders and 24% revenue growth within 12 months of migrating.
For agencies and service providers, this creates a three-part opportunity:
Our scan found 73,510 Shopify Plus stores out of 331,692 total. That's 22.2% of stores on the enterprise tier.
These aren't small operations. Every Plus merchant pays at minimum $2,000/month for the platform alone, signaling real revenue and budget for services.
| Traffic Tier | Total Stores | Plus Stores | % Plus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 50K visitors/mo | 267,701 | 23,112 | 8.6% |
| 50K - 200K | 61,457 | 47,956 | 78.0% |
| 200K - 1M | 2,489 | 2,397 | 96.3% |
| 1M - 5M | 38 | 38 | 100% |
| 5M - 20M | 7 | 7 | 100% |
Two patterns stand out:
Every store above 200K monthly visitors is on Plus. At that traffic level, the platform's checkout optimization and lower transaction fees make Plus pay for itself. If you're prospecting high-traffic stores, you're already prospecting Plus stores.
The sweet spot is 50K-200K. This tier holds 65.2% of all Plus stores (47,956). These merchants have outgrown basic Shopify, have real revenue, and are actively investing in growth. They're also the most likely to need agency help: big enough to have budget, but not big enough to have a full in-house team.
The 23,112 Plus stores under 50K traffic are worth attention too. These are likely newer brands on Plus for B2B features specifically, or established businesses with lower web traffic that sell primarily through wholesale channels.
Not all categories have equal Plus adoption. The distribution reveals which verticals have the most enterprise-scale stores and, by extension, the most B2B activity.
| Category | Plus Stores | % of All Plus | Plus Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fashion | 15,692 | 21.3% | 21.1% |
| Home & Garden | 9,716 | 13.2% | 20.9% |
| Other / Specialty | 8,048 | 10.9% | 22.8% |
| Food & Beverage | 6,650 | 9.0% | 22.4% |
| Beauty | 6,353 | 8.6% | 28.4% |
| Hobby | 5,233 | 7.1% | 17.9% |
| Health & Wellness | 4,816 | 6.6% | 28.7% |
| Jewelry | 3,919 | 5.3% | 18.6% |
| Sports & Fitness | 3,615 | 4.9% | 22.9% |
| Outdoor & Adventure | 2,541 | 3.5% | 24.1% |
| Electronics | 1,974 | 2.7% | 21.9% |
| Baby & Kids | 1,875 | 2.6% | 26.9% |
| Pets | 1,463 | 2.0% | 25.2% |
| Automotive | 1,204 | 1.6% | 18.6% |
| Travel & Luggage | 409 | 0.6% | 22.9% |
Fashion dominates by volume with 15,692 Plus stores, but its Plus rate (21.1%) is below average. Fashion has many smaller stores pulling the average down.
Health & Wellness (28.7%) and Beauty (28.4%) have the highest Plus adoption rates. Nearly three in ten stores in these categories are on Plus. These verticals skew toward higher-margin products, subscription models, and DTC brands that outgrow basic Shopify quickly. Both are also strong B2B candidates: supplement brands wholesale to gyms and clinics, beauty brands wholesale to salons and boutiques.
Baby & Kids (26.9%), Pets (25.2%), and Outdoor (24.1%) also have above-average Plus rates. These are niche-focused verticals where brands tend to professionalize faster.
For agencies choosing where to specialize, Health & Wellness and Beauty offer the densest concentration of Plus stores relative to competition. Fashion offers the largest absolute market. Food & Beverage is worth watching because of natural B2B demand: restaurants, grocery chains, and food service companies ordering in bulk.
Plus stores don't just pay more for Shopify. They invest significantly more across their entire tech stack.
| Metric | Shopify Plus | Standard Shopify | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avg apps installed | 5.63 | 1.47 | 3.8x |
| Avg pixels/platforms | 8.64 | 3.78 | 2.3x |
| Avg lead fit score | 95.6 | 54.2 | 1.8x |
Plus stores run nearly 4x more apps than standard stores. They're running Klaviyo for email, Judge.me or Yotpo for reviews, Gorgias for support, Rebuy for upselling, and Smile.io for loyalty. Their tech stacks are more mature, and they expect tools that integrate cleanly.
The pixel gap is equally telling. Plus stores run 2.3x more tracking pixels, meaning they're investing in paid advertising, attribution, and retargeting at a higher rate. These are stores with marketing budgets, not bootstrapped side projects.
Their lead fit score of 95.6 (vs. 54.2) means Plus stores are, on average, nearly twice as qualified as leads. They have the traffic, the tech investment, and the budget. For a deeper breakdown of what makes a store qualified, see our Shopify ICP framework.
The adoption gap between Plus and standard stores shows where enterprise merchants prioritize:
| App Category | Plus Adoption | Standard Adoption | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reviews | 51.8% | 15.4% | +36.4pp |
| Email Marketing | 48.2% | 25.6% | +22.6pp |
| Customer Support | 20.4% | 2.4% | +18.0pp |
| Payment Options | 84.1% | 68.6% | +15.5pp |
| Loyalty & Rewards | 15.2% | 3.5% | +11.7pp |
| Upsell & Cross-sell | 9.2% | 0.4% | +8.8pp |
| Analytics & Attribution | 8.6% | 0.4% | +8.2pp |
| Notifications | 8.4% | 1.0% | +7.4pp |
| Page Builder | 9.3% | 2.1% | +7.2pp |
| Popups | 10.7% | 3.9% | +6.8pp |
| SEO | 6.3% | 1.0% | +5.3pp |
| Subscription | 4.7% | 1.3% | +3.4pp |
The biggest gaps are in reviews (+36pp) and email marketing (+23pp). Plus stores are 3.4x more likely to have a reviews app and 1.9x more likely to have email marketing. These categories have clear ROI, and Plus merchants adopt them first.
Customer support (+18pp) is the third-biggest gap. At the Plus level, stores get enough support volume that dedicated helpdesk tools like Gorgias become necessary. Standard stores handle support through email or Shopify inbox.
Despite investing 3.8x more in apps, Plus stores still have enormous tech stack gaps. These gaps are where the money is for agencies and SaaS sellers.
| App Category | Plus Stores Missing It | % of Plus Missing |
|---|---|---|
| Upsell & Cross-sell | ~66,800 | 90.8% |
| Analytics & Attribution | ~67,200 | 91.4% |
| Loyalty & Rewards | ~62,300 | 84.8% |
| Customer Support | ~58,500 | 79.6% |
| Email Marketing | ~38,100 | 51.8% |
| Reviews | ~35,400 | 48.2% |
| Subscription | ~70,000 | 95.3% |
| Popups | ~65,600 | 89.3% |
| SEO | ~68,900 | 93.7% |
Read those numbers again. Over 90% of Plus stores have no upsell app, no analytics/attribution tool, and no subscription functionality. These are stores paying $2,000+/month for their platform.
The email marketing gap is especially striking. 51.8% of Plus stores (about 38,100) have no detected email marketing app. For agencies that sell email marketing services, that's 38,000 stores with proven budget and no email infrastructure.
The reviews gap tells a similar story. 48.2% of Plus stores have no reviews app. Social proof is one of the highest-ROI tools in ecommerce. If you're pitching CRO services, "you're a Plus store with no review system" is a strong opener. See our Shopify CRO checklist for the full list of conversion levers.
For a detailed look at which services stores need most, see What Services Do Shopify Stores Actually Need?.
Understanding what's already in the tech stack tells you what integrations to support and which competitors you'll face.
| Rank | App | Category | Plus Adoption |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shop Pay | Payment | 72.4% |
| 2 | Klaviyo | Email Marketing | 33.9% |
| 3 | Apple Pay | Payment | 30.9% |
| 4 | Judge.me | Reviews | 19.6% |
| 5 | Mailchimp | Email Marketing | 11.7% |
| 6 | Cart Drawer | Cart | 11.0% |
| 7 | Yotpo Reviews | Reviews | 7.8% |
| 8 | Privy | Popup | 5.8% |
| 9 | Gorgias | Support | 5.8% |
| 10 | PageFly | Page Builder | 5.7% |
| 11 | Afterpay | Payment | 5.3% |
| 12 | Smile.io | Loyalty | 5.2% |
| 13 | Loox | Reviews | 5.0% |
| 14 | Swym Wishlist | Wishlist | 4.7% |
| 15 | Klarna | Payment | 4.2% |
| 16 | Omnisend | Email Marketing | 3.9% |
| 17 | Rebuy | Upsell | 3.9% |
Klaviyo dominates email marketing on Plus at 33.9%, making it the clear market leader for enterprise Shopify. Judge.me leads reviews at 19.6%, beating Yotpo (7.8%) and Loox (5.0%).
If you're an app developer, these are the apps your target audience already uses. Build integrations with Klaviyo, Judge.me, and Gorgias first. For a deeper analysis of how to market a Shopify app and what drives installs, see our app marketing guide.
| Theme | Plus Stores | % of Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Dawn | 7,217 | 9.8% |
| Impulse | 3,722 | 5.1% |
| Prestige | 3,655 | 5.0% |
| Debut | 1,850 | 2.5% |
| Symmetry | 1,736 | 2.4% |
| Ella | 1,526 | 2.1% |
| Custom | 1,294 | 1.8% |
| Broadcast | 1,234 | 1.7% |
| Turbo | 1,178 | 1.6% |
| Impact | 1,172 | 1.6% |
Dawn leads at 9.8%, which is notable because it's Shopify's free default theme. Nearly 1 in 10 Plus stores, paying $2,000+/month, are still on the free theme. That's a redesign opportunity for agencies. Our guide to finding stores that need a redesign covers how to prospect these.
Impulse and Prestige are the top premium themes, each around 5%. These are the stores that have already invested in design. For a full breakdown of theme market share, see our theme study.
Data only matters if you can act on it. Here's how contactable Plus store decision-makers are compared to standard stores.
| Metric | Shopify Plus | Standard Shopify |
|---|---|---|
| Stores with any contact | 86.8% | 70.0% |
| Avg contacts per store | 2.13 | 1.15 |
| Stores with email | 85.8% | 69.2% |
| Stores with phone | 54.8% | 37.9% |
| Stores with LinkedIn | 15.9% | 3.3% |
86.8% of Plus stores have at least one contactable person, compared to 70% for standard stores. Plus stores average 2.13 contacts per store, nearly double the standard rate. The LinkedIn coverage gap is dramatic: 15.9% vs. 3.3%, making LinkedIn prospecting far more viable for Plus stores.
| Role | Contacts Found | Unique Stores |
|---|---|---|
| Founder / Owner / Co-Founder | 8,429 | 6,673 |
| Manager (Marketing, Ops, GM, Store) | 9,776 | 2,728 |
| Director (Creative, Managing, etc.) | 4,083 | 2,430 |
| CEO / President | 2,081 | 1,988 |
| Head of Department | 1,502 | 987 |
| VP | 1,068 | 768 |
| COO | 264 | 257 |
| C-Suite (other) | 209 | 198 |
| CFO | 165 | 163 |
| CMO | 118 | 118 |
We identified 8,429 founders across 6,673 Plus stores. These are the decision-makers who can green-light agency engagements and app purchases without a procurement process.
The 2,081 CEOs at 1,988 Plus stores are particularly valuable for ABM campaigns. At the Plus level, CEOs are often founder-CEOs of mid-market DTC brands. They're reachable through direct outreach and value personalized pitches that demonstrate you understand their business.
For outreach templates that work, see our cold email templates for Shopify stores and outbound sales stack guide.
Here's how agencies, SaaS sellers, and app developers can use these findings.
Target: 7,217 Plus stores running Dawn (the free theme).
Pitch: "You're paying $2,000/month for Shopify Plus but running the free theme. A custom or premium theme could improve your conversion rate by 15-30%. Here's what your competitors in [vertical] are running."
How to find them: Filter by Shopify Plus + Dawn theme in the StoreInspect dashboard. Add traffic tier and category filters to narrow further.
Target: ~38,100 Plus stores with no email marketing app.
Pitch: "You're driving 50K+ visitors/month but have no email capture or automation. Email typically drives 20-30% of revenue for DTC brands. You're leaving money on the table."
Who to reach: Founders and marketing managers. Focus on Beauty and Health verticals where email is highest-ROI.
Target: ~35,400 Plus stores with no reviews app.
Pitch: "52% of Plus stores in your category run a reviews app. You don't. Product reviews increase conversion rates by 3-18% depending on category. Let me show you how Judge.me or Yotpo would integrate with your current stack."
Where it works best: Fashion and Home & Garden, where social proof drives purchase decisions.
Target: Plus stores in Food & Beverage, Electronics, and Automotive that don't yet have wholesale pricing set up.
Pitch: "Shopify just shipped company accounts, net terms, and custom catalogs for Plus. Your competitors are already selling wholesale through their Shopify store. We can set up your B2B channel in 2-4 weeks."
Why now: Shopify's Winter 2026 Edition made B2B setup dramatically easier. Many Plus stores don't know they have these features.
Target: Plus stores in your app's category that are missing your app type.
Pitch: Instead of cold emailing random stores, target Plus stores that already run complementary apps but are missing your category. A store running Klaviyo + Judge.me but no loyalty app? They're already investing in retention. They just haven't closed the loop.
How to scale: Use StoreInspect's app filters to find stores by what they run and what they're missing. Export contacts for the stores that match. For a complete guide, see how to market a Shopify app.
The fastest way to act on this data:
For the complete prospecting workflow, read How to Find Shopify Clients for Your Agency and our qualifying leads playbook.
Shopify Plus is the only major platform that combines DTC and B2B on a single storefront. BigCommerce offers B2B on lower tiers but lacks Shopify's app ecosystem. Magento (Adobe Commerce) has deep B2B features but requires significant development investment. Shopify's advantage is the hybrid model: run DTC and wholesale from one admin, one inventory, one theme.
For native B2B features (company accounts, custom catalogs, volume pricing, net terms), yes. Shopify Plus starts at $2,000/month. Standard Shopify stores can use third-party wholesale apps like Wholesale Gorilla or B2B Wholesale Hub, but these lack the native integration depth. The Plus investment makes sense for stores doing $500K+ in annual revenue.
Shopify doesn't disclose the exact number, but we know B2B GMV grew 96% in 2025 across approximately 47,000 Plus merchants. Our database contains 73,510 Plus stores. Not all of them activate B2B features, but all of them have the capability. The B2B adoption rate within Plus is growing rapidly.
Plus stores run an average of 5.63 apps and 8.64 tracking pixels. The most common stack includes Klaviyo (34%), a reviews app like Judge.me (20%), and payment options beyond Shop Pay. Compare that to standard stores at 1.47 apps and 3.78 pixels. See our full Shopify tech stack analysis for more.
Health & Wellness and Beauty have the highest Plus adoption rates (28-29%), meaning the highest density of enterprise stores. Fashion has the most Plus stores by volume (15,692). Food & Beverage has strong natural B2B demand because restaurants and retailers buy wholesale. The best vertical depends on your service. Email agencies should target Beauty and Health. Design agencies should target Fashion.
You can use StoreInspect to filter stores by Plus status, category, traffic tier, and installed apps. For manual detection methods, see our guide on how to identify Shopify Plus stores. You can also spot Plus stores by their checkout URLs: Plus stores use checkout.shopify.com while standard stores use [store].myshopify.com/checkouts.
Based on our tech stack gap analysis: customer support setup (80% missing), loyalty programs (85% missing), upsell and cross-sell tools (91% missing), and analytics/attribution (91% missing). Even foundational tools like email marketing are missing from 52% of Plus stores. See what services Shopify stores need for the full gap analysis.
Plus stores have larger budgets than standard stores. They're already spending $2,000+/month on their platform, plus an average of $300-600/month on apps (based on our app spending data). Agency retainers for Plus stores typically range from $3,000-10,000/month. For project work, expect $5,000-50,000 depending on scope. See our Shopify agency pricing guide for detailed benchmarks.
The 96% growth in 2025 came from a small base. Shopify noted that "B2B represents a very small portion of total GMV." The deceleration from 109% (Q1) to 84% (Q4) suggests the growth rate is normalizing, but even 50-60% growth would be remarkable. The global B2B ecommerce market is projected at $36 trillion by 2026 (Gartner), and Shopify's share is still tiny.
Our Plus identification guide covers how to detect whether a specific store is on Plus. This post maps the entire Plus landscape as a B2B opportunity: which verticals, what they're running, what they're missing, and how to prospect them at scale. Think of the identification guide as the "how" and this post as the "where and why."
| Finding | Number | What It Means for You |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify B2B GMV growth | 96% YoY (2025) | The market is doubling. Agencies that build B2B expertise now will lead the next cycle. |
| Plus stores in our database | 73,510 | That's your total addressable market for B2B services on Shopify. |
| Avg apps on Plus stores | 5.63 | These stores invest in tools. They have budget and expectations. |
| Plus stores missing support apps | 79.6% | Nearly 59,000 Plus stores have no helpdesk. That's a concrete pitch. |
| Plus stores with founder contacts | 6,673 | Direct access to decision-makers who can say yes without a committee. |
| Plus stores on Dawn (free theme) | 7,217 | Stores spending $2K/month on a free theme. The redesign pitch writes itself. |
| Top Plus vertical (by rate) | Health & Wellness (28.7%) | Highest density of enterprise stores. Strong B2B potential (wholesale to gyms, clinics). |
Search by niche, traffic, and tech stack. Export with verified founder contacts.Search stores by niche, traffic, and tech stack. Export with verified founder contacts so you can skip the research.
![Which Niche Should Your Shopify Agency Target? [332K Study]](/images/blog/shopify-agency-niche-guide.webp)
We ranked 15 Shopify verticals by tech gaps, contact accessibility, and budget signals. Data-backed guide to picking your agency's niche.
![Shopify App Spending: What 120K Stores Pay [Data]](/images/blog/shopify-app-spending.webp)
We analyzed 120,017 Shopify stores to reveal what they actually spend on apps. Breakdown by traffic tier, niche, and category.

Build a 4-layer outbound sales stack for Shopify prospecting. StoreInspect + Clay + Apollo + Instantly wired together step by step.