Need a Shopify feature built? Custom Shopify functionality

The four places a Shopify feature can live

"Can Shopify do this?" is rarely a yes-or-no question. The useful question is where the feature has to live, because that decides the effort, the plan you need and who can maintain it afterwards.

Many features use two layers. A minimum-order rule, for example, is shown as a message in the cart by the theme and enforced by a validation Function, so that it holds even when the cart page is skipped.

Feature requests and how each is built

The table lists requests merchants make often and the usual route for each, as of October 2026. It describes how the feature is built on Shopify's platform; it is not a list of delivered projects. Effort is relative: small is configuration or a contained theme change, medium is a new theme section or an app with one job, large is an app with its own backend, data and admin screen.

Two notes for Indian stores. Cash on delivery in Shopify is a manual payment method, so COD orders are marked unpaid until someone marks them paid; any COD rule or reconciliation has to account for that. And if a feature involves recurring payments, check the gateway first: Razorpay's documentation for its Shopify integration lists Subscriptions as not supported, as of October 2026. The Shopify subscriptions page covers the options.

What depends on your plan

Three rules account for most of the surprises.

1. Functions in your own app need Plus. Shopify states that stores on any plan can use public App Store apps that contain Functions, and that only Plus stores can use custom apps that contain them. On Basic, Grow or Advanced, checkout-time logic therefore comes from an existing app or is moved earlier, into the cart.
2. Checkout UI on the main steps needs Plus. Checkout UI extensions for the information, shipping and payment steps are available only on Plus. The cart page is open to every plan, which is why delivery pickers and gift notes usually live there.
3. B2B does not need Plus. Shopify's help centre states that B2B is available on all plans, with limits such as the catalogue cap above and a few features reserved for Plus. Wholesale pricing may therefore be configuration, not development. See B2B and wholesale on Shopify.

The details of each checkout tool are on the checkout customisation page.

How WavX scopes a feature request

1. One sentence per rule. "Customers tagged wholesale see catalogue prices and can pay on credit." Vague requests produce vague quotes.
2. Find the layer. Does the rule only need to be shown, or must Shopify enforce it? Does data leave Shopify? The answers place the feature in the first table.
3. Check the plan and the existing apps. If a setting or a free Shopify app covers it, WavX says so and the job becomes configuration.
4. Build it so it survives updates. Theme features are added as their own sections and blocks instead of edits inside existing files. Shopify carries theme editor settings across a theme update and includes code edits only where they do not conflict, so isolated code is the code that survives.
5. Test with real settings. Features near checkout are tested with the store's actual payment methods, shipping zones, discount codes and a COD order, on a duplicate theme or a development store.
6. Hand over. The merchant receives the code, a note on where each setting lives, and what to check after a theme or app update.

Where the feature needs a backend, the work follows the process on the custom Shopify app page.

When an existing app is the right answer

More often than merchants expect. Use an App Store app, and do not commission a build, when:

• The request is in the table above with "listed as free" beside it.
• The feature is a commodity: reviews, wishlists, back-in-stock alerts, pop-ups, shipping labels.
• You are on Basic, Grow or Advanced and the rule has to run at checkout. Shopify gives you no other route.
• You are still testing whether shoppers want the feature. Rent it for three months first.

A custom build is worth quoting when the app that almost fits forces a change in how you sell, when three or four apps are each doing a slice of one job, or when the feature depends on your own data. Each extra app can also add code to the storefront, and installed apps are one of the three things Shopify names as affecting store speed. See why a Shopify store is slow. The post on custom apps against App Store apps goes through the trade-off.

What cannot be built

It is better to hear these before scoping.

• The checkout page's own markup. Checkout UI extensions run in a sandbox with Shopify's components and no access to the page's HTML or to payment details.
• More than three options on a product. A product can have up to three options and up to 2,048 variants. Anything beyond that is a workaround using line item properties or separate products.
• A different URL structure. Paths such as /products and /collections are fixed by Shopify.
• Enforcement from the theme alone. If a rule matters commercially, it needs a Function or a server-side check.

If your requirement is not in the table, send it through the custom requirements page. WavX will reply with the layer it belongs to and whether an existing app already covers it.