Maze, a dynamic digital marketing and ecommerce systems integration company, has grown substantially under the leadership of Vince Santo since 2020. Initially a small team of 8, Maze has expanded to 50 professionals dedicated to providing strategic guidance for digital businesses.
But something shifted over the past two years. The Maze team began noticing that the clients they originally put on Salesforce Commerce Cloud were moving—or exploring a move—to Shopify. We sat down with Vince to uncover why he thinks that is, as well as why Maze believes so strongly in their partnership with us.
Maze Facts
- 70-80% of Maze’s business uses Shopify to service its clients
- Agency has grown from 8-50 people since 2020
Four ways Shopify stands out
A more nimble, agile platform like ours is what clients are looking for to keep up with the changing pace of the market. Our platform mostly comes out of the box, with no burden on the client to upgrade manually to a newer version. In contrast, the ability to innovate on Salesforce is “a bit more cumbersome,” according to Vince.
He believes the shift of Maze’s clients choosing Shopify is due to the following reasons:
- Pace of innovation: We strive to be better for our customers and expand on what we can do. That’s why we’ve invested billions into enhancing our platform. In fact, we’ve rolled out more than 800 new features and improvements since 2020.
- Speed to market: We launch new commerce functionality frequently and are often first to market. This lets businesses on Shopify respond to changes in the market quickly and stay ahead of the curve.
- Modern ecommerce architecture: Our platform has an API-based architecture, which helps clients make the most out of Shopify by boosting its features with the use of apps and other integrations.
- Total cost of ownership (TCO): Clients are intrigued by our platform pricing at first, but they soon realize you get more features, capabilities, and value out of your investment by going with a more modern architecture, faster pace of innovation, and better TCO on Shopify.
With Shopify, integrations are made simple
But what if a client already has multiple Salesforce products like CRM or Marketing Cloud? Vince explains that on our platform, the client has options. Other Salesforce products can be added to their Shopify solution through systems integrations. Since our platform has an API-based architecture, it can integrate with programs such as enterprise order management, product information management systems, or ERPs.
Vince assures that, based on his extensive experience in technology, there hasn't been any system—whether homegrown or commercial—that Maze couldn't integrate with Shopify, which simplifies processes. For clients that aren’t ready for a full migration, Maze works side-by-side with us on innovative integrations that still creates wins for them.
Clients see better results on Shopify
Coty, a prominent player in the beauty industry, teamed up with Maze to modernize the digital presence of their various brands. Maze is proud to have partnered with us on the launch of a storefront for Infiniment, a Coty brand based out of Paris. “We got the opportunity to build this new brand on the Shopify platform based on all of the excellent Shopify implementation and support work that we have been doing for Coty over the last few years,” says Vince. After testing the new site’s fast speed score and seeing how aesthetically beautiful it turned out to be, Vince knew the Infiniment team were going to be delighted.
Once the launch became official, Maze had much to celebrate about. Vince shared feedback Maze received from the Infiniment team stating, “They've never seen as beautiful of a site that performed as well as it does.” Seeing as this site was a net-new build for Infiniment, this was a win-win experience for Maze and the agency’s Shopify implementation expertise.
Shopify and Maze’s partnership
Not only is Maze part of our partner ecosystem, but we share a specific vision in common: to make commerce better for everyone. Maze often works with us and has the Shopify Partner team review their work, provide them with feedback, and validate their architecture and development decisions. Shopify migrations have become more frequent for Maze—with approximately 10–15 successful implementations under their belt. At first, the agency grappled with the idea of being needed less for the administrative tasks of their client’s storefronts, since our platform is made to be accessible for any role within a business.
But Vince soon realized that our platform makes their client’s lives better, and that’s a victory for Maze in and of itself. “I believe in karma. If you do the right thing for a client, you help them, they will make you whole whether it's bringing you back or giving you additional work,” says Vince.
Vince expressed his appreciation to our partner team for navigating Maze through critical migration projects: “The Shopify Partner team and its architects have been excellent to work with. We’ve used the team as both a sounding board to exchange ideas and also as an insurance policy for our clients.”
In a recent partnership project with us, Maze is building out a core site theme that will be deployed across over 100 sites for their clients—confirming that with the help of our partner team, anything is possible.
Maze’s commitment to migration transparency
Not all clients are fully on board with making a switch to Shopify at first, but as the ecommerce industry continues to increasingly become more competitive, Vince doesn’t think it takes much for clients to realize that they need to migrate to a more modern and agile ecommerce platform. “I would say two years ago, I heard that a lot more than I do today.” He explained that the main concerns of his clients were if our platform was going to meet their needs at the enterprise level.
“Shopify is legitimately an enterprise platform,” says Vince. “Its feature functionality is at parity or exceeds what Salesforce and some of the other platforms provide, and it’s enterprise ready.” Maze strives to stay transparent with their clients when it comes to migrations. This includes guiding them through a road-mapping session that can help identify how our platform will meet their business goals. Maze also identifies any gaps and areas that may not work exactly the way the client wants it to when it comes to a new platform.
“We explain what the options are. So again, it's just full transparency. We're experts with the platform. We're experts in ecommerce. We listen to what their business needs are. We map the platform to the needs and identify where there's a good overlap and a great fit,” says Vince.
Over the last few years, we’ve enhanced our platform to support enterprise clients’ needs. Vince believes it’s more capable than ever to support high volume seasonal and flash sales. He also mentioned these consistent platform improvements make enterprise customers feel that we have the best solution for their business.
“Shopify increased the number of product variants that may be supported, enhanced its product bundling capabilities, and support for cross-border global commerce with its Markets capability.” These are important capabilities that matter to enterprise clients, according to Vince.
A Shopify partnership that keeps on flourishing
Positioned at the forefront with our platform, Maze has a keen eye for meeting their clients’ needs. The agency seizes innovative opportunities such as becoming a part of our partner ecosystem during a time where the digital marketplace is advancing rapidly.
However, where the playing field between Shopify and Salesforce was once an even split, Vince told us the tides have turned for business at Maze. Shopify continues to grow as a larger percentage of the agency’s ecommerce implementation and migration projects. This shift shows the effectiveness of joining our partner ecosystem and using our evolving set of ecommerce capabilities to sustain any business size—no matter if it’s a growing business or an established enterprise.
Learn more ways Shopify stacks up against Salesforce Commerce Cloud
