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Theory Road.
E-commerce

Shopify builds, migrations and growth for brands that sell online.

We build, migrate and grow Shopify stores.

We also run Shopify stores for our own brands, so the theme decisions, app choices and tracking setups we recommend are ones we pay for ourselves every month. Most of our work is for product brands doing real volume that have outgrown a template or a first agency: a store that got slow under a pile of apps, a replatform from WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento or Squarespace that has to keep its rankings, or a move to Shopify Plus for checkout extensibility and B2B. We handle the build, the redirect map, the Klaviyo and Merchant Center connections, and the server-side events that make ad platforms trust your revenue numbers. Then we either run growth with you or hand the store over documented.

Questions this page answers

  • Shopify agency for a growing product brand
  • How to migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify without losing SEO
  • Custom Shopify theme vs premium theme
  • Is Shopify Plus worth it for B2B and wholesale
  • Why is my Shopify store slow
  • Who can set up Shopify Markets for international selling
  • Shopify marketing agency that also handles tracking

Step 1 of 2

How can we help you get found?

What do you need help with?

Next: name, email and budget. That’s it.

How Shopify really works

Where Shopify pays off, and where it stalls.

Shopify is the easy part of e-commerce until it is not. A store launches on a premium theme in a few weeks, then grows by accretion: a reviews app, a bundles app, an upsell app, a subscription app, a popup, a quiz, two tracking pixels someone pasted into theme.liquid. Each one adds scripts to every page. Online Store 2.0 gave merchants sections and blocks on every template, which is good, but it also means a store can carry dozens of half-used sections that nobody remembers adding. By year two, most stores we open are slower, harder to edit and harder to measure than the day they launched.

The expensive mistakes happen at transitions. A replatform from WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento or Squarespace forces every URL into Shopify's fixed patterns, /products/ and /collections/, and without a line-by-line 301 map the old rankings and backlinks simply vanish. A move to Shopify Plus gets sold on features, then checkout customizations break because checkout.liquid is gone and everything now runs through checkout extensibility and Shopify Functions. Tracking breaks quietly too: ad platforms lose purchases to browser blocking, so Meta and Google optimize on partial data while the dashboard in Shopify says something else entirely.

We work in a fixed order. First we audit the store as it is: theme code, installed apps and what each one injects, Core Web Vitals on real templates, the redirect table, and how purchases reach Google, Meta and Klaviyo. Then we decide theme versus custom build on evidence, not taste. Migrations get a full crawl of the old site, a mapped redirect import and a post-launch check of every high-value URL. Tracking moves server-side through Shopify's customer events and the native channel apps. Only then do we turn up spend, because growth on a leaky store just buys more leaks.

Where Shopify sits in your stack

Feeds it

  • Product catalog
  • Theme and apps
  • Legacy store data
  • Customer events
Shopify

It feeds

  • Shopify orders
  • Ad platform conversions
  • Klaviyo flows
  • Merchant Center feed
  • Weekly scoreboard

Every connection is built on your accounts and documented, so the data survives any change of vendor.

What we do

Shopify builds, migrations and growth, scoped to the result.

Scope it with us →
  • Theme build or custom build

    We extend a proven Online Store 2.0 theme when it fits and build custom sections or a custom theme when the merchandising demands it, with clean section schemas your team can edit.

  • Replatform migration

    Products, variants, customers, order history and content moved from WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento or Squarespace, with a crawled 301 redirect map imported and verified after launch.

  • Speed and app cleanup

    We inventory every app and script, remove leftovers from uninstalled apps, replace heavy apps with theme code where sensible, and measure Core Web Vitals before and after on real templates.

  • Shopify Plus implementation

    Checkout extensibility with UI extensions, Shopify Functions for discounts, shipping and payment rules, B2B company accounts with catalogs and payment terms, and multi-store or expansion store setups.

  • Markets and subscriptions

    Shopify Markets for currencies, languages, duties and domain or subfolder structure, plus subscription app selection and setup with the portal, dunning and Klaviyo events wired correctly.

  • Analytics and server-side events

    GA4, Meta Conversions API and Google Ads conversions sent through Shopify customer events and the native channel apps, deduplicated, with a monthly reconciliation against Shopify orders.

What usually goes wrong

Where Shopify setups break.

The problems we are most often hired to fix, in the order they tend to cost money.

  • App bloat that never leaves

    Uninstalling a Shopify app often leaves its snippets in the theme. Stores keep loading scripts for apps removed years ago, and every page pays for it in speed and in conversion rate on mobile.

  • Migrations without a redirect map

    Old URLs like /product-category/ or /shop/item.html do not match Shopify's /collections/ and /products/ paths. Without a mapped 301 import, rankings and backlinks built over years drop within weeks of launch.

  • Plus bought for features nobody builds

    Brands upgrade to Shopify Plus for checkout extensibility, Functions and B2B, then never implement them. The contract costs more and the checkout still runs on defaults with old script-based hacks removed.

  • Pixels that double count or miss orders

    A browser pixel pasted into the theme plus a channel app plus a tag manager container can fire purchase three times, or zero times when a browser blocks it. Ad bidding then learns from bad numbers.

What we connect it to

Shopify, wired into the rest of the business.

  • Klaviyo

    Native integration for catalog, orders and onsite events that drive flows and segments.

  • Google Merchant Center

    Product feed through the Google and YouTube app, with supplemental feeds for titles and labels.

  • Meta Commerce Manager

    Catalog sync and Conversions API through the Facebook and Instagram channel app, deduplicated with the pixel.

  • Google Analytics 4

    Ecommerce events from Shopify customer events, checked against actual Shopify orders every month.

  • Recharge

    Subscription contracts, customer portal and billing events passed through to Klaviyo for lifecycle flows.

  • Judge.me

    Product reviews in the theme and in product structured data without heavy extra scripts.

  • ShipStation

    Order and fulfillment sync so tracking numbers and shipping events feed customer messaging.

  • Gorgias

    Helpdesk tied to Shopify orders so support can see and edit orders in place.

How an engagement runs

From audit to running it.

  1. Audit.

    We review theme code, every installed app and its injected scripts, Core Web Vitals on key templates, redirects, and how purchases reach Google, Meta and Klaviyo. You get a ranked list of fixes.

  2. Fix or build.

    We remove dead code and apps, rebuild slow sections, or run the full build or migration on a development store, with content and redirects staged before anything goes live.

  3. Connect.

    We wire Klaviyo, Merchant Center, Meta and GA4 through the native apps and customer events, deduplicate purchases, and prove the counts against Shopify orders before spend goes up.

  4. Run or hand over.

    We run growth month to month with a weekly scoreboard, or hand over a documented store with a theme guide, app list, redirect file and tracking map your team can own.

A good fit

  • Product brands already selling on Shopify that feel the store has become slow, cluttered or hard to measure.
  • Brands replatforming from WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento or Squarespace who cannot afford to lose organic traffic in the move.
  • Growing brands weighing Shopify Plus for checkout extensibility, B2B wholesale or multiple storefronts and wanting it built properly.
  • Teams that want one firm owning the store, the tracking and the paid media instead of three vendors blaming each other.

Probably not a fit

  • Brand new sellers with no product or sales yet; a good premium theme and a few weeks of selling will teach you more first.
  • Anyone who needs a listed Shopify Partner directory agency for procurement reasons, since we are independent and not in that program.
  • Stores that need deep custom ERP middleware for complex manufacturing, where a dedicated systems integrator is the better hire.
What it costs

Pricing, plainly.

Shopify charges a monthly plan fee that rises with the plan tier, from the entry plans up to Advanced, and Shopify Plus is sold on its own contract for high-volume merchants. Card processing rates improve on higher plans, and stores that use a third-party payment gateway instead of Shopify Payments pay an extra transaction fee. Apps and premium themes are billed separately and add up fast. Our work starts with a fixed-scope audit or a fixed-scope build or migration, quoted after a short call once we have seen the store. After launch, we either run growth on a monthly retainer, month to month after an initial term, or hand the store over documented.

Perspectives

Reading on Shopify.

All perspectives
Questions

Hiring help with Shopify.

Q01
Are you a certified Shopify Partner?
No. We are independent and not a member of the Shopify Partner program or its agency directory. We build and run Shopify stores for our own brands and for clients. For you it means we recommend the plan, theme and apps that fit your store, and we are not paid to push you to Plus, sell app installs or earn referral revenue from your subscription.
Q02
Should we use a premium theme or a custom build?
Most brands should start from a well-built Online Store 2.0 theme and extend it with custom sections. A full custom theme makes sense when merchandising, bundling or content needs are unusual, or when the premium theme is carrying too much code you do not use. We decide after measuring speed and mapping what your templates actually need.
Q03
How do you migrate to Shopify without losing SEO?
We crawl every indexable URL on the old site, map each one to its new Shopify URL, and import the 301 redirects through the admin redirect table before launch. We keep titles, meta descriptions, content and image alt text, then check high-value URLs, Search Console coverage and rankings for weeks after the switch.
Q04
Is Shopify Plus worth it?
It is worth it when you will use what it adds: checkout customization through checkout extensibility, Shopify Functions for discount, shipping and payment logic, fuller B2B tooling, expansion stores and higher automation limits. If you only want lower card rates or a badge, the math often does not work. We model it with your volume before recommending it.
Q05
Why is my Shopify store slow?
Usually apps. Each app can inject scripts on every page, and uninstalled apps often leave code behind in the theme. Large unoptimized images, heavy sliders, video heroes and several tracking pixels loading at once are the other usual causes. We inventory every script, remove what is dead, and measure Core Web Vitals on real templates.
Q06
Can you run the marketing after the build?
Yes. Many clients keep us on to run Google Shopping and Performance Max, Meta, Klaviyo and SEO on the store we built, because the tracking and feed are already set up correctly. If you have an in-house team, we hand over a documented store and stay available for development work.
Work with us

Let’s get Shopify working for you.

A short note on where the business is and where it needs to go. A senior partner replies within one business day.

t@theoryroad.com