Real lessons from building Shopify stores.
What we learned building and scaling stores across Turkey, Finland, the UK and Italy. No marketing filler — decisions, numbers and trade-offs you can act on.
Topics
Articles grouped by subject — each topic page carries a short overview and the questions it answers.
All articles
WooCommerce to Shopify migration: what moves, what you rebuild and how to keep your rankings
Products, customers, orders and blog posts move across. Plugins, variable products with many attributes, subscriptions and URLs need decisions. The step-by-step plan we use, and the redirect map that protects your traffic.
Connecting Shopify to an ERP or inventory system: Linnworks, Brightpearl, NetSuite and the decisions that matter
Which data should flow between Shopify and your ERP or inventory system, which side owns what, how connectors differ, and the edge cases — bundles, partial shipments, refunds, multi-currency — that break integrations in practice.
Shopify and Google Merchant Center: setting up free listings and Shopping ads without disapprovals
Free product listings and Shopping ads both run on Google Merchant Center. How to connect Shopify properly, which fields the feed needs, and how to fix the disapprovals — price mismatch, missing GTIN, shipping — that hide products.
How to update a Shopify theme without losing your customisations
Shopify's one-click theme update keeps your theme editor settings but not your code edits. What carries over, what does not, and a safe routine for updating a customised theme without breaking the live store.
Selling subscriptions on Shopify: apps, checkout and cancellation rules
How subscriptions work on Shopify, how to choose between Shopify Subscriptions, Recharge, Appstle and Loop, what the checkout must show, and the UK and EU rules on reminders and easy cancellation.
Why GA4 and Shopify Analytics never show the same numbers — and which to trust
Orders, revenue and sessions differ between GA4 and Shopify in almost every store. The nine usual causes, which numbers to trust for what, and how to tell a normal gap from a tracking bug.
BigCommerce to Shopify migration: what moves, what changes and how to keep your rankings
Products, customers and orders move across cleanly. Options, customer groups, reviews and URLs need decisions — here is what changes and the redirect plan that protects your traffic.
Shopify Plus partner, agency or expert: what the label means and how to choose one
Plus partner, Plus agency, Plus expert — three labels that are not the same thing. How to verify the status, what Plus is actually bought for, and the questions that separate experience from a badge.
Shopify retainers: what a monthly support plan should include — and what it costs in the UK
Hours, response times, ownership and reporting: what to get in writing before you sign a Shopify retainer, real monthly prices, and when ad-hoc support is the better deal.
Shopify plans compared (UK, 2026): Basic vs Grow vs Advanced vs Plus
Prices, card rates, staff accounts and B2B limits for every plan on Shopify's UK price list — and the monthly sales at which each upgrade pays for itself.
What Shopify theme is this? How to find any store's theme
Three ways to identify the theme behind any Shopify store — a detector, the page source and the browser console — and how to read what you find.
How to see what apps a Shopify store uses — and what they cost in speed
A detector, the page source and the Network tab show most of a store's app stack. What they reveal, what they miss, and how to price each app in page speed.
How much does a Shopify store cost in the UK? Real 2026 prices
One-off build costs, monthly running costs and the line items quotes tend to leave out — with our published prices rather than a range from £500 to £50,000.
Shopify SEO checklist 2026: 30 checks for technical SEO, content and AI search
The checklist we run on every Shopify store — duplicate product paths, filter URLs, collection copy, structured data and visibility in AI answers — in the order we check it.
Selling online in the UK in 2026: the rules your Shopify store has to meet
Cancellation rights, the DMCC Act's bans on drip pricing and fake reviews, cookie consent, VAT and pricing — what a UK Shopify store needs in place and how to set it up.
Moving from Squarespace or Wix to Shopify without losing traffic
Products, customers and orders export cleanly; URLs, blog content and SEO settings are where these migrations go wrong. The plan that keeps your traffic.
Selling through ChatGPT and AI assistants with Shopify: agentic commerce explained
Shopify can now surface your products inside ChatGPT, Copilot, Google AI Mode, Gemini and Meta. How agentic storefronts work, what you control, and what decides whether your products are chosen.
Selling to the US from the UK after de minimis: duties, DDP and Shopify settings
Since 29 August 2025 every parcel into the US is dutiable, whatever its value. What that changes for UK Shopify stores, and how to price, ship and collect duties without refused parcels.
The EU withdrawal button on Shopify: what has applied since 19 June 2026
Every online store selling to EU consumers now needs a two-step electronic withdrawal function. Shopify does not ship one. What the rule requires, and how to add it properly.
GPSR on Shopify: the product safety information EU listings must show
Since December 2024 the EU General Product Safety Regulation requires manufacturer, responsible-person and safety details on every online listing. How to model it cleanly in Shopify.
Shopify Scripts are switched off: what Shopify Functions now have to replace
Scripts stopped running on 30 June 2026. Which checkout logic that affected, what replaces it, and how to check whether your store silently lost a discount or payment rule.
Shopify development day rates in the UK: what you should actually pay in 2026
What a Shopify developer costs in the UK, why the range is so wide, and how to tell an underpriced quote from a good one.
When should an agency hire a Shopify developer vs. outsource?
The break-even is not where most agency owners think it is. A working model based on utilisation, not headcount cost.
Shopify Markets for UK brands selling into the EU after Brexit
IOSS, duties at checkout, currency and the country-specific payment methods that decide whether an EU customer completes the order.
Shopify vs WooCommerce: The Real Total Cost of Ownership (2026)
WooCommerce is 'free' and Shopify is 'expensive' — until you add up hosting, plugins, developer time and downtime. A line-by-line comparison over three years.
EU VAT and OSS for Shopify: Selling Cross-Border Without Nasty Surprises
Distance selling thresholds, One Stop Shop registration, correct tax display and what changes when you cross €10,000 in EU sales.
Klarna, PayPal or Stripe? The Payment Mix That Converts in Europe
Payment preferences change dramatically by country. The wrong mix quietly costs you double-digit conversion — here is what to offer where.
Magento 2 to Shopify: The Complete Migration Checklist
Magento's maintenance burden pushes many merchants to Shopify. Here is how to move products, customers, orders and — critically — rankings without losing anything.
Shopify Markets: Running Multiple Countries From One Store
Pricing, currencies, languages, domains and tax per market — without maintaining five separate stores.
Core Web Vitals for Shopify: The Technical Playbook
LCP, CLS and INP fixed one metric at a time, with the specific Liquid and JavaScript changes that move each number.
Is Shopify Plus worth it? A straight answer for growing brands
Plus is priced per month, not per feature. Here is what actually changes when you upgrade, what does not, and the four situations where it pays for itself.
How to choose a Shopify agency: nine questions
Three quotes for the same brief rarely describe the same work. These questions make proposals comparable — scope, handover, revisions and post-launch support.
Shopify collection architecture and organic traffic
Most search demand is category-level, not product-level. How to build collections for search rather than for the navigation menu.
Why your Shopify store is slow: eight real causes
The theme is rarely the culprit. App scripts, leftover code, images, fonts and tracking tags — what each one actually costs you.
Metafields or metaobjects? A working rule for Shopify data
Both extend Shopify's data model, but they solve different problems. The rule that decides it in one question, and the mistakes that force a rebuild later.
checkout.liquid is gone: what actually replaces it
Shopify retired checkout.liquid in favour of checkout extensibility. What the replacement architecture is, what you can and cannot customise, and where the old customisations went.
Product schema on Shopify: what search engines actually read
Most Shopify themes emit product structured data, and most of it is subtly wrong. What the markup needs to contain, the errors that suppress rich results, and why answer engines raise the stakes.
Filters and faceted navigation: the quiet crawl budget leak
Shopify filters generate near-infinite URLs. Which ones deserve to be indexed, which should never be crawled, and how to tell the difference without guessing.
Migrating to Shopify without losing rankings: the redirect plan
Most replatform traffic losses are not caused by Shopify. They are caused by a redirect map built after launch instead of before it. What the map has to cover, and in what order.
Getting a Shopify store cited by AI search
Answer engines read stores differently from search engines. What makes a page quotable, why structured data matters more than it did, and which habits actively exclude you.
Custom Shopify theme or premium theme? The honest test
A premium theme costs a few hundred pounds; a custom theme costs thousands. The question is not budget — it is whether your store has a requirement a theme cannot meet.
Headless Shopify: when Hydrogen actually earns its cost
Headless is not faster by default and it is not a growth strategy. The three situations where it genuinely wins, and what you take on when you choose it.
Shopify B2B on every plan: running wholesale in the same store as retail
Since April 2026, company profiles, payment terms and up to three B2B catalogues come with every Shopify plan. What Plus adds, and what still needs building.
Shopify accessibility: what selling into the EU now requires
Accessibility moved from good practice to a compliance question for e-commerce in the EU. What that means for a Shopify store, and the fixes that carry most of the weight.
Custom Shopify app or public app? Choosing the right build
Most merchants who need an app need a custom one, and most who ask for a public one have not decided what business they are in. The distinction, and what each costs to run.
Selling in several countries: domains, subfolders or subdomains?
Shopify Markets supports all three URL structures. They are not equivalent for search, and the choice is hard to reverse once traffic accumulates.
Winning product research: what works and what does not
A winning product is not a secret list. It is validated demand, workable margin and solved sourcing. The method, step by step.
Cookie consent on Shopify: what Consent Mode v2 changes
Consent banners are not just a legal checkbox. Since Consent Mode v2, the signal your banner sends decides whether conversion tracking works at all in the EEA.
What actually breaks in a Shopify migration
Migration problems rarely come from the data that moves. They come from what nobody noticed was not moving. The pre-launch checklist.
Third-party scripts: the performance cost nobody budgets for
Most Shopify speed problems are not the theme. They are the accumulated scripts of apps, pixels and tools nobody has reviewed since installing them.
Selling where Shopify Payments is unavailable
Shopify Payments does not operate in every market. What changes when you use a local provider, what it costs, and what to check before choosing one.
Chargebacks on Shopify: prevention beats disputing
Most chargebacks are won or lost before the order ships. What causes them, which evidence actually works, and the settings that prevent the avoidable ones.
VAT for UK Shopify stores: registration, tax settings, zero-rated products and MTD
When a UK Shopify store must register for VAT, how to set it up, how to treat zero-rated products and delivery, and what Making Tax Digital needs.
UK shipping on Shopify: Royal Mail, Evri, DPD, lockers and free delivery thresholds
Which UK carriers to offer, how to set zones and rates in Shopify, where lockers fit, what free delivery threshold to set and how the 14-day rule works.