Announcing Shopify Partner Academy — A Certification Program to Help You Succeed

Growing a web design or development business comes with a lot of challenges. Between the Herculean task of managing day-to-day operations or dreaming up groundbreaking long-term strategies, it can be difficult to keep track of what information you need to know for your business to thrive.

And with ever-changing product updates and business trends, it’s critical now more than ever to stay in the know.

In an effort to help you find success as a business owner, we built Shopify Partner Academy, a collection of courses, study guides, and exams that will help you and your team develop critical commerce skills, test your knowledge, and demonstrate your expertise as a Shopify Partner.

Why take these courses?

Last year, Shopify Partners and Experts told us they wanted educational resources tailored to learning about Shopify products, the technical skills needed to work with Shopify, and on how to successfully run a business.

Enter Shopify Partner Academy.

The interactive content found within each course will help you further develop and deepen your knowledge of Shopify, as well as uncover new ways to advance your business strategy.

Your enhanced quality of work will also better prepare you to tackle new business ventures, build trust with prospective clients, and ultimately help merchants find success.

The perk of this certification program is that it’s flexible; you learn what you want, when you want. Access courses in any order, and complete them within a timeframe you define.

I learned a ton about Shopify I didn't know before, even after several years working with the platform, and am excited to use that knowledge to help my agency grow.

And if you’re already a master at the course topics outlined below, consider Shopify Partner Academy a tool to help you onboard new hires or educate members of your team that need more context.

11 courses to deepen your knowledge

Shopify Partner Academy is made up of eleven fundamental courses developed by Shopify. These online courses are broken down into two overarching themes: Product and Business.

Each theme has five to six course offerings (outlined below), complete with a formal exam associated to each course. Passing an exam proves your knowledge in each of these fundamental areas of the Shopify ecosystem.

To view a list of all eleven courses, see the Shopify Partner Dashboard, under the Resources section.

Product fundamentals

The first category of courses focuses on grasping the nuances of Shopify’s platform. These introductory courses teach valuable knowledge related to Shopify, and provide guidance on how to build exemplary commerce experiences.

• Shopify Fundamentals— From storefronts to analytics, become familiar with Shopify’s core features and functionality. Learn how the platform’s benefits set Shopify apart and uncover the vast support network available to partners and merchants.
• Shopify Plus Fundamentals—Learn how Shopify Plus offers a scalable, customizable, and secure solution for high-volume merchants. Discover the many ways partners can help Shopify Plus merchants with migrations, automation, and integrations.
• Design and Theming Fundamentals—Build striking commerce experiences by leveraging Shopify’s front end development tools and frameworks. Learn the basics of installing, customizing, and developing themes as you familiarize yourself with Liquid, theming APIs, and the Slate framework.
• Development Fundamentals—Whether you build products or offer client services, the Shopify ecosystem has endless resources to get you started. Get to know the business opportunities and technical tools available to designers, app developers, and software specialists.
• Store Operations Fundamentals—Learn the basics of what it takes to set up and manage an online store. Guide your clients through the nuances of store operations to help them succeed as entrepreneurs.

Business fundamentals

The second course category focuses on learning the fundamental aspects of business in order to succeed as a Shopify Partner and expand your professional expertise. These introductory courses share valuable insights into how to identify new opportunities for growth and build the proper foundations for a successful and sustainable business.

• Partner Program Fundamentals— Explore the various opportunities and perks available to partners, and learn how you can maximize your development with the Shopify Partner Program. Identify how to leverage your skills and experience to grow your business as a Shopify Partner.
• Sales Fundamentals—Develop a thorough understanding of Shopify’s unique selling proposition and key differentiators. Perfect how you sell your services, find the right plan for clients, and pitch the Shopify platform to expand and refine your sales funnel.
• Marketing Fundamentals—From branding to positioning, learn how to market yourself as a Shopify Partner. Gain tactical knowledge of outbound marketing, content strategy, and social networking to differentiate your offering from your competition.
• Project Management Fundamentals—Familiarize yourself with project management methodologies and principles that can positively impact all types of Shopify projects. Discover how to set goals, mitigate risk, manage stakeholders, and set expectations to make every project a success.
• Revenue and Pricing Fundamentals—Explore various pricing strategies to discover the best fit for your business. Gain practical tips to choose your pricing strategy, set your rates, and ensure you are paid fairly.
• Affiliate Marketing Fundamentals—Learn the basics of affiliate marketing and the benefits of the Shopify Affiliate Program. Learn the content marketing and social media tactics that entrepreneurs, tastemakers, influencers, and visionaries use to promote Shopify and earn commission.

Each course takes roughly 30 minutes to complete, and can be accessed in any particular order, so if you’re an expert on Shopify but need to brush up on pitching Shopify Plus, you’re able to access the course materials based on your needs.

Learn what you want, when you want

Shopify Partner Academy can help you level up your business by developing your technical skills and providing opportunities to diversify your service offering.

And while these eleven courses are at the fundamental level, we’ll be launching more advanced technical material in the future. Be sure to keep an eye out for our Theme Development certification exam, and an upcoming series of courses on Designing for Conversion.

What educational courses or exams would you like to see next? Tell us in the comments section below.