How to Choose a Shopify Development Agency

Choosing a Shopify development agency is about more than finding a team that knows how to build an ecommerce website.

For a straightforward store, an off-the-shelf theme and a carefully selected collection of apps may give you everything you need. But as an ecommerce business becomes more complex, the technical decisions become more important.

Should functionality be handled natively by Shopify, through an app or with custom development? How will Shopify integrate with your ERP, CRM or warehouse systems? What happens to your organic search visibility during a migration? How will the store perform once you’ve added analytics, reviews, personalisation and other third-party technology? And who fixes things when something breaks after launch?

These are the questions that help distinguish a genuinely capable development partner from an agency that simply knows its way around a Shopify theme.

At ZEAL, we think technical decisions should start with the commercial and customer problem rather than the technology itself. Custom development isn’t automatically better. Neither is installing another app because it’s quicker.

The right solution is the one that meets your requirements without introducing unnecessary complexity, cost or technical debt.

So, if you’re comparing Shopify development agencies, this guide explains what to look for, what technical questions to ask and how to assess whether a prospective partner can support your ecommerce operation beyond launch day.

What Is a Shopify Development Agency?

A Shopify development agency specialises in the technical design, development and maintenance of ecommerce stores built on Shopify.

Services can include:

• Bespoke Shopify theme development
• Theme customisation
• Shopify Plus development
• Store migrations
• Custom functionality
• App configuration
• Custom app development
• API integrations
• ERP and CRM integrations
• International ecommerce
• B2B functionality
• Performance optimisation
• Technical SEO
• Analytics implementation
• Quality assurance
• Ongoing technical support

Some Shopify development agencies focus almost exclusively on engineering.

Others combine development with UX, web design, ecommerce strategy, SEO and digital marketing.

Neither model is inherently better.

What matters is whether the agency has the capabilities your project actually requires.

When Do You Need a Shopify Development Agency?

You don’t need an agency every time you want to change something on Shopify.

One of the platform’s strengths is that merchants can accomplish a great deal using existing themes, apps and Shopify’s native functionality.

Specialist development becomes more valuable when complexity increases.

You might need a Shopify development agency if you’re:

• Building a bespoke ecommerce experience
• Migrating from another platform
• Moving to Shopify Plus
• Replatforming an established store
• Integrating Shopify with business-critical systems
• Building custom functionality
• Operating across multiple markets
• Combining B2B and DTC requirements
• Working with a large or complex product catalogue
• Experiencing performance problems
• Accumulating technical debt
• Replacing an inflexible existing theme
• Looking for ongoing technical development capacity

The key word is complexity.

The more your ecommerce website interacts with the rest of your business, the more important technical architecture becomes.

Shopify Agency vs Shopify Development Agency: What’s the Difference?

The terms are often used interchangeably, but there can be a useful distinction.

A Shopify agency may offer a broad range of ecommerce services including strategy, branding, UX, design, marketing and development.

A Shopify development agency usually places greater emphasis on technical implementation.

That might mean deeper expertise in:

• Liquid
• Theme architecture
• APIs
• Custom apps
• Integrations
• Data migration
• Performance
• Deployment
• Complex Shopify Plus requirements

If you’re primarily looking for brand strategy and visual design, development depth may be one consideration among several.

If you’re migrating a high-volume store connected to an ERP, warehouse, CRM and multiple international systems, it becomes much more important.

Start With Your Technical Requirements

Before approaching agencies, document what your ecommerce operation needs to do.

You don’t need to provide a complete technical specification.

In fact, a good development partner should help you define the architecture.

But you should identify known requirements and constraints.

These might include:

• Number of products and variants
• Existing ecommerce platform
• Shopify plan
• Countries and currencies
• Languages
• B2B requirements
• Subscription functionality
• Product configuration
• Customer accounts
• ERP
• CRM
• PIM
• WMS
• Payment providers
• Loyalty programme
• Reviews platform
• Email marketing
• Analytics
• Existing custom applications

Also explain what isn’t working today.

That’s often more useful than a shopping list of requested features.

1. Ask About Their Shopify Development Experience

Start with the fundamentals.

How much Shopify development does the agency actually do?

A general web development team may be technically capable, but specialist Shopify experience helps teams understand how to work with the platform rather than unnecessarily fighting against it.

Ask about experience with:

• Shopify theme development
• Liquid
• Shopify APIs
• Shopify CLI and development workflows
• Metafields and metaobjects
• Shopify Markets
• Shopify Plus
• B2B
• Custom apps
• Checkout extensibility
• Third-party integrations
• Store migrations

The exact requirements will depend on your project.

You’re not looking for somebody who can recite every Shopify feature.

You’re looking for evidence that they’ve solved technical problems comparable to yours.

2. Ask Whether They Build Bespoke Shopify Themes

“Custom Shopify development” can mean several different things.

One agency might create a completely bespoke theme around your requirements.

Another might purchase an existing theme and customise its settings, styling and templates.

Both approaches can be appropriate.

But you should understand which one you’re paying for.

When Does Bespoke Theme Development Make Sense?

A bespoke theme may be appropriate when:

• Your UX requirements are distinctive
• Your brand requires a highly tailored experience
• Existing themes impose unwanted limitations
• You have complex merchandising requirements
• Performance needs close control
• Your internal team needs specific CMS flexibility
• The store has unusual functionality

A custom theme gives developers greater control.

But greater control also means greater responsibility for maintaining what has been built.

When Is an Existing Theme Enough?

Not every business needs bespoke development.

If your requirements are relatively standard, an established theme can be a sensible and cost-effective foundation.

A trustworthy Shopify development agency should be prepared to tell you that.

Custom development shouldn’t exist simply to increase the project scope.

3. Ask How They Decide Between Native Shopify, Apps and Custom Development

This is one of the most useful questions you can ask.

When you present a requirement, how does the agency decide whether to:

• Use Shopify’s native functionality
• Install an existing app
• Customise the theme
• Build a custom app
• Integrate another system

The correct answer will vary.

What’s important is the reasoning.

Native Functionality

Where Shopify already provides a reliable solution, using it can reduce complexity and maintenance.

Apps

An established app can be much more economical than recreating mature functionality from scratch.

But apps can introduce recurring costs, scripts, dependencies and limitations.

Custom Development

Custom development gives you greater control over functionality built specifically around your requirements.

But it generally involves higher initial cost and greater responsibility for testing and maintenance.

A strong development agency should explain these trade-offs clearly.

If every problem requires a custom build, question why.

If every problem requires another app, question that too.

4. Understand Their Approach to Integrations

For established ecommerce businesses, integrations are often where Shopify development becomes significantly more complex.

Your store might need to exchange information with:

• ERP systems
• CRM platforms
• Warehouse management systems
• Product information management systems
• Accounting platforms
• Email marketing tools
• Loyalty platforms
• Customer service systems
• Review providers
• Fulfilment services
• Marketplaces

Ask prospective agencies about relevant integration experience.

Get Specific About the Data

Saying “we need an ERP integration” isn’t enough.

What data needs to move?

In which direction?

How often?

For example:

• Products
• Pricing
• Inventory
• Customers
• Orders
• Fulfilment status
• Refunds
• Discounts

You also need to understand which system owns each piece of information.

Is Shopify the source of truth for inventory?

Or is your ERP?

These architectural decisions can affect how reliable the entire ecommerce operation becomes.

5. Ask How They Handle APIs

Complex Shopify projects often rely on APIs to allow systems to exchange data or extend functionality.

You don’t need to become an API specialist to appoint an agency.

But the development team should be able to explain:

• Which APIs are required
• What data will be exchanged
• How authentication is handled
• How failures are managed
• What happens when rate limits are encountered
• How integrations are monitored
• What happens when APIs change

Ask What Happens When Something Fails

This is an especially useful question.

Imagine an integration responsible for sending orders to your fulfilment system stops working overnight.

What happens?

Does somebody receive an alert?

Are requests retried?

Can failed data be replayed?

Is there logging?

Or do you discover the problem when customers begin complaining?

Robust development considers failure as well as success.

6. Check Their Shopify Plus Experience

If you’re already using or considering Shopify Plus, establish whether the agency has relevant experience.

Your requirements might involve:

• B2B ecommerce
• International operations
• Complex integrations
• Automation
• High transaction volumes
• Advanced checkout requirements
• Multiple stores
• Organisational complexity

Don’t simply ask:

“Do you work with Shopify Plus?”

Ask what they’ve actually built.

Request examples involving technical challenges similar to yours.

7. Ask About Checkout Development

Checkout is one of the most commercially sensitive parts of an ecommerce website.

Small changes can affect conversion, analytics, payments and operational processes.

Ask your development agency how it approaches checkout requirements and which capabilities are available for your Shopify setup.

They should be comfortable explaining what can be customised, what shouldn’t be customised and what alternatives exist when a requested solution isn’t appropriate.

A good developer won’t promise something simply because it sounds possible during a sales meeting.

8. Evaluate Their Approach to Performance

Shopify itself can provide a strong ecommerce foundation, but individual stores can still become unnecessarily heavy.

Common contributors include:

• Large images
• Video
• Excessive JavaScript
• Third-party tracking
• Apps
• Custom fonts
• Personalisation platforms
• Review widgets
• Poorly implemented custom code

Ask how the agency considers performance throughout development.

Performance Shouldn’t Be a Final Fix

It’s much easier to build performance into a website than to optimise an unnecessarily heavy implementation afterwards.

Developers should consider the cost of technical decisions as they’re made.

Does this app load scripts across every page?

Does this animation justify the additional JavaScript?

Can an image be delivered more efficiently?

Does this feature need to load immediately?

Performance is a series of decisions, not a plugin you install at the end.

9. Ask How They Approach Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals provide metrics relating to aspects of real-world website experience, including loading, responsiveness and visual stability.

A capable development team should understand the technical factors that influence these metrics.

But be wary of agencies promising perfect scores on every page.

Real ecommerce websites use third-party services, analytics, payment tools and dynamic functionality.

The goal should be a fast, stable user experience, not chasing a screenshot of a perfect test score at the expense of commercial functionality.

10. Make Sure Technical SEO Is Included

Technical SEO should be considered throughout a Shopify build or migration.

It shouldn’t appear as a surprise task immediately before launch.

Development decisions can affect:

• Crawlability
• Indexation
• URL structure
• Canonicalisation
• Internal linking
• Structured data
• Page performance
• Redirects
• XML sitemaps
• JavaScript rendering

This is particularly important when you’re replacing an established ecommerce website.

Ask Who Owns SEO During the Project

Does the development agency have SEO specialists internally?

Will your existing SEO agency be involved?

Who signs off redirect mapping?

Who checks indexability before launch?

Who monitors organic performance afterwards?

Clear ownership prevents important tasks from falling between teams.

11. Ask About Migration Experience

Moving an established store to Shopify is much more complicated than creating a blank store.

Data may need to be migrated, including:

• Products
• Variants
• Customers
• Orders
• Collections
• Content
• Reviews
• Metadata
• Images

At the same time, the project needs to consider:

• URLs
• Redirects
• Search rankings
• Integrations
• Analytics
• Customer accounts
• Order history
• Tracking

Ask How They Validate Migrated Data

A migration isn’t complete because an import process finished successfully.

Data needs validating.

For example:

• Did every product migrate?
• Are variant relationships correct?
• Are prices accurate?
• Is inventory correct?
• Are images attached to the right products?
• Are redirects working?
• Did customer data transfer as expected?

The more commercially important the data, the stronger the validation process should be.

12. Ask About Data Protection and Security

Your ecommerce store processes commercially and personally sensitive information.

Ask how the agency handles:

• Access permissions
• Development accounts
• API credentials
• Customer data
• Production access
• Passwords and secrets
• Backups
• Third-party services

Developers should only have the access they genuinely require.

Credentials shouldn’t be passed around casually in spreadsheets or chat messages.

Security needs to be part of professional development practice rather than an afterthought.

13. Understand Their Development Workflow

You don’t need to dictate how developers work.

But you should understand whether there’s a repeatable process behind the code.

Ask about:

• Version control
• Development environments
• Staging
• Code review
• Testing
• Deployment
• Rollbacks
• Documentation

Version Control

Code should generally be managed through version control.

This provides a history of changes and supports collaboration between developers.

Staging

Significant changes should normally be tested somewhere other than your live store.

You don’t want developers experimenting directly on a website processing real orders.

Code Review

For larger teams and projects, code review can help identify mistakes and maintain development standards.

Deployment

Ask how changes move from development into production.

A defined deployment process reduces the risk of avoidable surprises.

14. Ask How They Test Shopify Development

“Testing” can mean very different things.

Ask what’s actually included.

A robust QA process might consider:

• Major browsers
• Desktop
• Mobile
• Different screen sizes
• Navigation
• Search
• Filtering
• Product variants
• Basket functionality
• Checkout
• Forms
• Customer accounts
• Integrations
• Tracking
• Promotions
• Error handling
• Accessibility

For ecommerce, testing realistic journeys is particularly important.

Don’t only check whether a button works.

Complete an order.

Test discount codes.

Try an unavailable product.

Trigger an error.

Test different payment methods where relevant.

The unusual journeys are often where bugs hide.

15. Ask About Automated Testing

Not every Shopify project needs an enormous automated testing suite.

But for complex, business-critical functionality, automated tests can help identify regressions when code changes.

Ask whether the agency uses automated testing and where it believes automation provides value.

The best answer isn’t necessarily:

“We automate everything.”

It should demonstrate that the agency understands which processes are important enough to protect repeatedly.

16. Ask About Accessibility

Accessibility is both a design and development responsibility.

Even an accessible visual design can become inaccessible through poor implementation.

Developers should understand considerations such as:

• Semantic HTML
• Keyboard navigation
• Focus management
• Form labels
• Error messages
• ARIA implementation where appropriate
• Interactive components
• Image alternatives
• Heading hierarchy

Ask how accessibility is tested.

Ideally, the answer should involve both automated tools and manual checks.

Automated tests can identify useful issues.

They cannot determine whether an entire experience is genuinely usable.

17. Ask Who Owns the Code

This is a question businesses sometimes forget to ask.

Establish what happens to the code and assets created during the project.

Ask:

• Who owns bespoke code after payment?
• Will we have repository access?
• Will we receive documentation?
• Can another developer maintain the store?
• Are any components licensed?
• Are there ongoing dependencies on your agency?

You don’t necessarily need to eliminate every dependency.

But you should understand them.

Avoid Being Unnecessarily Locked In

A healthy agency relationship should continue because it’s valuable, not because you’re technically unable to leave.

Your store should be documented and maintainable enough that another competent Shopify developer could understand it if necessary.

18. Ask About Documentation

Documentation isn’t exciting until you need it.

For a complex Shopify build, useful documentation might cover:

• Theme architecture
• Custom functionality
• Integrations
• Custom apps
• Deployment
• Configuration
• Known dependencies
• Content management

Internal teams may also need practical CMS documentation explaining how to manage common content without developer assistance.

Good documentation reduces reliance on individual people remembering how everything works.

19. Understand the Agency’s Approach to Apps

Shopify’s app ecosystem is enormously useful.

It can also become messy.

A store can gradually accumulate apps for:

• Reviews
• Search
• Filtering
• Loyalty
• Subscriptions
• Upselling
• Personalisation
• Analytics
• Pop-ups
• Returns
• Customer service

Each one may solve a legitimate problem.

Collectively, they can create cost, performance and maintenance concerns.

Ask for an App Audit

If you’re redesigning an existing store, ask the agency to review your current app stack.

For each app, establish:

• What does it do?
• Do we still need it?
• Does Shopify now provide this functionality natively?
• Is there duplication?
• What’s the recurring cost?
• What does it load on the frontend?
• What happens if we remove it?

Don’t migrate technical clutter simply because it already exists.

20. Find Out Who Will Actually Develop Your Store

Agency sales processes can involve senior technical people.

Ask whether those same people will remain involved after the project starts.

Understand:

• Who is the technical lead?
• Who writes the code?
• Is development in-house?
• Are external developers used?
• Who reviews the work?
• Who handles complex problems?
• Who supports the store after launch?

Outsourcing isn’t automatically a problem.

Lack of transparency is.

You should know who is responsible for the technical quality of your store.

21. Ask How Developers Work With Designers and UX Teams

Development shouldn’t begin after designers throw a collection of finished files over the wall.

Technical input can improve design decisions before they become expensive.

For example, developers can help assess:

• Whether an interaction is technically sensible
• How a component should behave responsively
• Whether an animation creates performance concerns
• How content will be managed
• Whether functionality already exists natively
• What accessibility implications exist

The best digital teams collaborate across disciplines.

That usually produces a better website than a sequence of disconnected handovers.

22. Ask About Analytics and Tracking

A technically successful ecommerce website still needs measurement.

Establish who is responsible for implementing and validating analytics.

Depending on your setup, this might involve:

• Ecommerce tracking
• Conversion events
• Marketing pixels
• Consent management
• Tag management
• Product data
• Checkout events

Don’t assume tracking survived a migration simply because pages look correct.

Test it.

Without reliable measurement, you may launch a better store and lose the ability to prove it.

23. Understand the Launch Process

Ask the agency to explain exactly what happens when the store goes live.

A launch plan might include:

• Final content checks
• Data migration
• DNS changes where required
• Redirect implementation
• Indexability checks
• Analytics validation
• Checkout testing
• Integration checks
• Search Console checks
• Live QA

You should also understand what happens if something goes wrong.

Is there a rollback plan?

Who makes the decision?

Who is available during launch?

For a revenue-generating ecommerce business, “we’ll see how it goes” isn’t a launch strategy.

24. Ask About Post-Launch Support

The development relationship shouldn’t become vague once the website goes live.

Clarify what support is available.

That might include:

• Bug fixes
• Monitoring
• Security
• Theme updates
• App support
• New functionality
• Performance optimisation
• Integration maintenance
• Technical consultancy

Ask How Support Is Prioritised

Not all requests have equal urgency.

A spacing issue on an information page isn’t equivalent to customers being unable to check out.

A support process should distinguish between:

• Critical incidents
• Bugs
• Routine changes
• Feature requests

Ask what response times apply and who you contact when something genuinely urgent happens.

25. Ask About Ongoing Shopify Development

Your requirements won’t stop changing after launch.

A strong Shopify development partner should be able to help the store evolve.

Future work might involve:

• New functionality
• International expansion
• B2B
• Performance improvements
• Conversion optimisation
• New integrations
• App replacement
• New campaign components
• Platform changes

Ask how ongoing development is managed.

Is there a monthly retainer?

A development backlog?

Blocks of time?

Individual projects?

The right model depends on how frequently your ecommerce operation changes.

26. Review Relevant Case Studies

Don’t judge technical agencies purely by screenshots.

A development case study should explain what made the project difficult.

Look for information about:

• Technical requirements
• Integrations
• Migration
• Custom functionality
• Performance
• Scale
• Constraints
• Outcomes

Ask the agency to talk you through a project.

What went wrong?

What changed during development?

Which decision was particularly difficult?

How did they solve it?

A detailed conversation can tell you much more than a portfolio grid.

27. Speak to Existing Clients

For a significant investment, references can be extremely useful.

Ask previous or existing clients about:

• Technical quality
• Communication
• Reliability
• Budget management
• Problem solving
• Launch
• Ongoing support

One particularly useful question is:

What happens when something goes wrong?

Every long-term technical relationship encounters problems eventually.

How an agency responds to those moments tells you more than how it behaves when everything is straightforward.

28. Compare Shopify Development Agency Proposals Properly

Two development proposals can have very different prices because they contain very different things.

Compare scope carefully.

Don’t simply compare the figure at the bottom.

Make sure you’re comparing equivalent scopes.

29. Red Flags When Choosing a Shopify Development Agency

Technical procurement can be difficult if you aren’t a developer yourself.

But there are warning signs anybody can look for.

They Recommend Custom Development for Everything

Bespoke isn’t automatically better.

Good developers use the simplest reliable solution that meets the requirement.

They Recommend an App for Everything

The opposite extreme creates its own problems.

Your Shopify store shouldn’t become a collection of monthly subscriptions held together by JavaScript.

They Can’t Explain Technical Decisions Clearly

Expertise should make complex things easier to understand, not more mysterious.

If an agency can’t explain why it’s recommending something, ask again.

They Don’t Ask About Your Existing Systems

For an established ecommerce business, Shopify is rarely isolated.

Ignoring ERP, CRM, fulfilment, customer service or analytics requirements is a significant warning sign.

They Ignore SEO During a Migration

A migration can affect years of accumulated organic visibility.

SEO needs to be considered before URLs start changing.

They Develop Directly on the Live Store

Routine minor changes are one thing.

Significant untested development on a revenue-generating live environment is another.

Ask about development and staging workflows.

They Can’t Explain Their QA Process

“We test everything” isn’t much of an answer.

Ask how.

They Offer No Clear Support Model

If your store is commercially important, you need to know what happens when something breaks.

30. Questions to Ask a Shopify Development Agency

Before making your final choice, you should be able to answer the important technical questions.

Ask potential partners:

• How much of your work is Shopify development?
• Do you build bespoke themes?
• When would you recommend an existing theme instead?
• How do you decide between native Shopify functionality, apps and custom development?
• What Shopify APIs do you regularly work with?
• What experience do you have with Shopify Plus?
• Have you delivered integrations similar to ours?
• How do you handle integration failures?
• How do you approach performance?
• How do you test Core Web Vitals?
• How do you handle technical SEO?
• What is your approach to migrations?
• How do you validate migrated data?
• How do you approach accessibility?
• What does your development workflow look like?
• Do you use version control?
• How are code reviews handled?
• Where is work tested before deployment?
• What’s your QA process?
• Do you use automated testing?
• Who owns the code?
• Will we have access to the repository?
• What documentation is provided?
• Who will actually work on our project?
• Is development completed in-house?
• How do you approach analytics and tracking?
• What does the launch process involve?
• What happens if launch goes wrong?
• What support is available afterwards?
• How are urgent issues handled?
• How do you manage ongoing development?

You don’t need to ask all 30 in one intimidating meeting.

But you should understand the answers before trusting an agency with a business-critical ecommerce platform.

Shopify Development Agency FAQs

What does a Shopify development agency do?

A Shopify development agency provides technical services for ecommerce websites built on Shopify.

This can include bespoke theme development, custom functionality, integrations, app development, migrations, performance optimisation, testing and ongoing technical support.

How do I choose a Shopify development agency?

Look for relevant Shopify experience, strong development processes, experience with your required integrations, evidence of comparable projects and a clear approach to testing and ongoing support.

The agency should also be able to explain technical decisions clearly rather than recommending technology without justification.

Do I need bespoke Shopify development?

Not necessarily.

Many businesses can achieve what they need using Shopify’s native functionality, an established theme and carefully selected apps.

Bespoke development becomes more valuable when you have specific UX, technical, integration or scalability requirements that standard solutions can’t meet effectively.

What is custom Shopify development?

Custom Shopify development refers to functionality or code created specifically for a merchant’s requirements rather than relying entirely on an off-the-shelf theme or existing apps.

This might include bespoke themes, custom components, applications and integrations.

What programming language does Shopify use?

Shopify themes use Liquid, Shopify’s template language, alongside familiar web technologies including HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

More complex Shopify applications and integrations can involve other technologies depending on their architecture.

Can a Shopify development agency migrate my existing website?

Yes, many specialist agencies provide migration services.

A migration can involve transferring products, customers, orders, content and other data while also addressing redirects, SEO, integrations, analytics and technical validation.

The complexity depends significantly on the platform you’re leaving and the amount of data and custom functionality involved.

Can Shopify integrate with an ERP?

Yes, Shopify can be integrated with ERP systems, although the exact approach depends on the ERP, Shopify setup and data requirements.

Before development begins, establish which information needs to move between systems, which platform is the source of truth and how failures will be handled.

Should my Shopify development agency understand SEO?

Yes, particularly if you’re migrating or redesigning an established store.

Development decisions can affect URLs, redirects, internal links, structured data, crawlability, indexation and performance.

Your developers don’t necessarily need to lead the SEO strategy, but they need to understand and correctly implement its technical requirements.

Who should own custom Shopify code?

Ownership arrangements should be established contractually before the project begins.

Ask whether you’ll own bespoke code after payment, whether you’ll have repository access and whether another developer could maintain the store in future.

What support should a Shopify development agency provide after launch?

Support can include bug fixes, monitoring, performance work, integration maintenance, theme development and new functionality.

The right arrangement depends on the commercial importance and complexity of your store.

Ask about response times and escalation processes before launch rather than waiting for an emergency.

Choose a Development Partner, Not Just a Developer

The best Shopify development agency isn’t necessarily the team that proposes the most custom code.

And it isn’t the team that promises to solve every requirement with another app.

It’s the one that understands when to use Shopify as it comes, when to extend it and when bespoke development genuinely creates value.

That judgement matters.

Your ecommerce store can sit at the centre of a complicated ecosystem involving customers, products, inventory, payments, warehouses, marketing platforms and business data. Technical decisions made during a build can affect how reliably that ecosystem operates for years.

So ask difficult questions before appointing an agency.

Find out how they build.

Ask how they test.

Understand how integrations fail as well as how they work.

Clarify who owns the code.

Talk about performance and SEO before launch.

And make sure you know exactly who you’ll call if checkout stops working on your busiest day of the year.

At ZEAL, we approach Shopify development as part of the wider ecommerce experience, bringing technical development together with UX, design, SEO and digital performance. That means choosing technology because it solves a real problem, not because it’s the newest or most complicated option available.

If you’re planning a Shopify build, migration or technically complex ecommerce project and need a development partner who can help you make those decisions, get in touch with ZEAL.