Ecommerce · Shopify
Shopify stores that look like your business, not a template.
A Shopify web designer should tell you honestly when Shopify is the right platform, and build a store that is fast and distinctive when it is. For standard products and a team that wants the simplest possible day-to-day, it is hard to beat, and a custom theme makes it yours.
When Shopify is the right call.
And when it isn’t.
Shopify is a hosted platform: it runs the servers, the security, the updates and the checkout, and you pay a monthly fee for the privilege of never thinking about any of it. The admin is clean, works beautifully on a phone, and nothing breaks on a Tuesday because a plugin updated. For a small shop selling standard physical products, that peace of mind is worth a great deal.
The trade-offs are real: a monthly fee that grows with the apps you add, transaction fees unless you use Shopify Payments, a store that lives on Shopify’s rules rather than yours, and limits that bite when the selling gets unusual. That is why my default recommendation is WooCommerce, and why I still build on Shopify for the shops it suits. You get the honest comparison before choosing.
What you get.
A Shopify store set up properly and designed to convert.
- Custom theme designDesigned for your products and customers, built to Shopify’s theme standards, fast and distinctive.
- Store set-upCollections, products, variants, inventory, markets, taxes and shipping profiles configured correctly.
- Checkout and paymentsShopify Payments, Apple Pay, PayPal and the checkout settings that reduce abandonment.
- Apps kept to a minimumOnly the apps that earn their place; a custom app where that is lighter or does the job better.
- Product copy and photographyDescriptions that sell and rank, and advice or a photographer for images that do the products justice.
- Shop SEO foundationsCollections and products structured for real searches, product schema, redirects from any old store.
- Emails and automationOrder, dispatch and abandoned-basket emails branded and working from day one.
- MigrationProducts, customers and orders moved in from WooCommerce or elsewhere, with nothing lost from Google.
- TrainingA walk-through at launch so you run the store from your phone without me.
How a Shopify project runs.
Plan the collections.
Collections mapped to what people search for, product data agreed as a template, shipping profiles and taxes written down. Shopify rewards a clear structure and punishes a muddled one, so this comes first.
- Collection plan
- Product data template
- Shipping and tax profiles
Design and build the theme.
A theme designed on a phone first and built to a performance budget, with product pages that answer every question before the basket. Apps are added only where they earn their place.
- Custom theme
- Product pages that convert
- Minimal apps
Launch and hand over.
Test orders through the live checkout, redirects from any old store, domain and emails switched over. Then the store is yours to run, with me a phone call away for changes, apps and the search work that brings buyers.
- Test orders before launch
- Redirects and domain
- Support when you need it
Shopify in practice.
Shopify is one of two platforms I build shops on; the ecommerce websites page covers what every shop needs regardless of platform, and I have written up the choice honestly in WordPress or Shopify for a Torbay shop? Once the store is live, ecommerce SEO is what fills it with buyers.
Often paired with.
Ecommerce Websites
Online shops on WooCommerce or Shopify that are fast, easy to run and built to sell.
Learn more about ecommerce websitesSearch Engine Optimisation
Technical, local and content SEO that moves you up Google and Bing for the searches that matter.
Learn more about search engine optimisationBrand Design & Strategy
Logos, identity and the visual rules that make a business look like one.
Learn more about brand design & strategyCopywriting
Words that explain what you do, answer what customers ask and give pages a reason to rank.
Learn more about copywritingShopify questions, answered.
When the day-to-day matters more than ownership: standard physical products, a small team that wants to add stock from a phone between customers, and nobody who ever wants to think about updates or hosting. For that shop Shopify is excellent. When the selling is unusual or you want to own everything, I steer you to WooCommerce instead, and say why.
A well-chosen paid theme, set up properly, is an honest starting point for a small shop. A custom theme is worth it when the business has character that a template flattens, when the product pages need to work differently, or when speed and conversion matter enough to be designed rather than inherited. I do both, and tell you which fits.
Yes, when the platform’s own options run out: custom pricing, product configurators, integrations with your other systems or a storefront feature no app quite does. See custom plugins.
Shopify’s hosting is fast; themes and apps are what slow stores down. A theme built to a performance budget and apps kept to the few that earn their place keep a store green on Google’s speed test, which most Shopify stores are not.
Both. Products, customers and orders are migrated, every old address is redirected so nothing is lost from Google, and the old shop stays live until the new one is proven.
Shopify ranks well when the structure is right, though its fixed URL patterns need working with rather than against. Collections and products are set up to target real searches, product schema is in place for prices and reviews, and ecommerce SEO grows it from there.
Talk about your Shopify store.
Tell me what you sell and who will run the store day to day. I’ll say honestly whether Shopify is the right platform for it and, if so, what a Shopify web designer would build for you and what it would cost.
- 1You send a few lines.What the business does and what the website needs to do.
- 2I reply, personally.Usually the same day, with questions and a time for a call.
- 3You get a written proposal.Scope, stages and price for exactly that. No obligation, no hard sell.
Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. The person who answers is the person who builds.