Shopify Partners are experienced Shopify experts who have been accredited by Shopify directly to support Shopify brands with a variety of services that help them run and grow their businesses. Anyone can sign up to become a Shopify partner giving them access however only those who have been vetted by Shopify can appear publicly on the
Shopify Partner Directory and call themselves a 'Shopify Partner. Shopify Partners typically can support in most areas of running a Shopify store including designers, web developers, marketing and the operational areas of the business.
The Shopify Partner ecosystem is skill rich and pretty damn large now, so it can be confusing at first to understand what types of skills that Shopify Partners can offer you. Luckily the Shopify Partner Directory has a list of service filters to help you filter down the list to find the perfect partner for you. Shopify partners can support with the following key areas:
Store Setup & Management - including migrations, design & build & customisations.
Development & Troubleshooting - technical experts who can help resolve any coding problems on your store.
Marketing & Sales - such as SEO, paid media & email marketing.
Strategic Guidance - including business strategy & consultation.
Content Creation - including imagery, product description & creative direction.
The services and areas that a Shopify partner can support with will depend on the skills that the partner has within their team. Shopify partners will typically have some of all of the following types of skilled experts within their team to deliver the services to your business.
Shopify Developers - Shopify developers can use code to build Shopify themes, new features, apps, app development and sections across your store.
Shopify Designers - Designers are in charge of the UI and UX of your store and will typically produce wireframes and high-fidelity designs that Shopify developers will then follow when building on your store.
Shopify Marketers - marketers are skilled professionals who can provide services such as SEO, paid advertising, content marketing, social media marketing or marketing strategies to help Shopify brands to find new customers and also keep then coming back.
Shopify Agencies - many of the Shopify partners are agencies offering multiple services with a large team of experts and typically can manage more complex and larger scale merchants.
Shopify Freelancers - Individuals and entrepreneurs can also be found within the Shopify Partner ecosystem who can offer specialised services and assistance for your brand.
Shopify Partners spend every day working across a large number of Shopify brands gaining invaluable experience that can be shared with you and your business. Benefits of working with a Shopify partner include their experience, expertise, time-saving, customisability, increased sales, access to advanced tools and more! So let's dive into the benefits in a little more detail.
Expertise & Experience in Shopify
Undoubtedly, the fact that Shopify Partners have years of experience under their belt and their expertise is accredited by Shopify is one of the biggest benefits of working with them. Shopify Partners have to demonstrate their skillsets to be publicly visible on the Shopify Partner Directory, giving you the trust of skill and experience. Shopify Partners have in-depth knowledge of how Shopify works, the platform features, and capabilities which can help guide you in growing your brand. Shopify Partners not only delivers high-quality designs, development and features for your store but also helps you to establish the best approach, using the best apps, integrations and more to maximise the performance of your store.
Time Savings & Efficiency
Creating a managing a Shopify store can be incredibly time-consuming, especially if you don't have the experience of doing it before. Shopify Partners have been there and done that meaning they can deliver your desired much faster than an inexperienced hand. Brands choose Shopify Partners to deliver skills that otherwise they'd need to learn to do themselves which may be physically impossible for all businesses. You can focus on the important parts of your business and leave Shopify Partners to deliver tasks such as setting up your store, web design, web development, on-site optimisation and marketing services. Brands can then focus on key elements like their product, business operations and supply chain.
Customisability & Advanced Solutions
The features you can use within Shopify and your Shopify theme are limited to how the store was built in the first instance, there may be apps that you can use, however, sometimes you'll need to skills of a Shopify partner to customise your store and deliver an advanced solution. Every business is different and Shopify partners can help you to deliver a feature or functionality on your store that is unique to your business. Examples might include entirely custom
Shopify themes or designs that match your brand's style. Shopify Partners can also help brands to create their brand identity, and on-site experiences such as loyalty experiences or upsells. Using a Shopify Partner to build custom on-site features can help brands to stand out from the competition and in turn maximise the sales you receive only.
Increased sales & performance
Working with Shopify Partners has shown to maximise the growth of ecommerce brands who are using the Shopify platform. Shopify Partners have proven experience and strategies that help ecommerce brands to grow online such as delivering online experiences that convert more customers. Other key services that Shopify Partners can offer include SEO, email marketing, upselling, merchandising, paid advertising, retention strategies and more which all contribute to helping brands increase their sales. Shopify Partners will typically use a data-centric approach to helping brands grow with tools such as
split A/B Testing or using benchmarks to identify areas for growth. Key strategies will focus on reducing cart abandonment and maximising conversions and average order value.
Ongoing support & Understanding
Long-term relationships between brands and Shopify Partners are a vital element to a successful and fruitful strategy. Shopify Partners can typically provide ongoing support to maintain the online experience for your customers. There are key benefits of maintaining an ongoing relationship in that your partner will gain experience and understanding regarding the nuances of your brand, and also you can establish a fruitful way of working together. Shopify Partners can provide training on how to use the Shopify dashboard and update key elements such as products and configuring features. Having a trusted support partner with a
Shopify Retainer can be a great way to ensure you have support for maintenance and updates.
Access To Advanced Tools
Shopify Partners will typically have access to professional level tools that otherwise you might have access to allowing you to gain deeper insights and run your business in the most efficient way. For example Shopify Partners may use specialised tools for writing and deploying code, or have advanced design tools to create the very best UI and UX for your customers.
Multi-disciplinary skills for growth
Many Shopify Partners are teams of people who all have different skills, allowing brands to tap into a wide and diverse range of skill sets that otherwise would cost significant amounts to hire. For example, for a small retainer, you may be able to gain experienced strategies, designers, developers and more.
Partnered with Shopify
Last but not least, a key benefit of a Shopify Partner is the obvious fact that they have a direct partnership with Shopify. Shopify Partners will typically receive information about future updates through their dedicated partner events. Shopify Partners will often have dedicated contacts at Shopify who can provide support when needed. Shopify Partners are the most experienced teams of Shopify experts who can help you deliver the best experience to your customers.
Shopify Partners typically have a wealth of experience in setting up and creating brand-new stores on the platforms. This might range from using themes from
Shopify's Theme Library or alternatively building an entirely
bespoke Shopify theme. The initial process of creating a Shopify store can be timely, especially when the platform if new to you. Shopify partners can support brands to create new stores, set up payment gateways, integrate third-party apps, and configure store settings such as shipping. Shopify Partners can also provide support with content-related activities such as creating product collection pages, adding products and associated data. When brands move to Shopify from alternative platforms then it may be necessary to
migrate data into the Shopify platform. Of course, beyond the setup and launch of your Shopify store, it may well be necessary to recruit growth-driven services to ensure you have a solid marketing strategy.
Many Shopify Partners offer
website design services to allow you to deliver the most engaging, conversion-centric and memorable online experiences. The competition for ecommerce brands grows continuously, so creating online experiences that showcase the beauty of your brand, and products and allow customers to shop with ease is vital. Shopify Partners will offer to have dedicated and specialised web designers within their teams who can deliver beautiful designs that can then be translated by developers by building new elements on your store. Shopify Partner designers will typically work with brands to understand their goals, competitors and brand identity before diving into creating new online experiences for your customers. Shopify Partners will typically use tools such as Figma to wireframe and create designs and also prototype designs to see how they'll look when they are built. Shopify Partners can help you to deliver an experience online that is memorable and inline with your brand identity to stand out from the competition.
Shopify Partners can support Shopify brands by offering web development services to build new features, layouts and designs within a Shopify store.
Shopify developers should use modern code practices when building new stores and features, in line with Shopify's documentation. Shopify Partners can typically advise the best approach when coding with Shopify considering best practices, site speed and SEO too. Developing requires a keen eye for detail to ensure that designs are translated pixel-perfect during the build phase of a project. Shopify development services may include integrating third-party partners or building
custom Shopify apps too. Shopify Partners with developers can support you with troubleshooting, bugs and fixing problems too. Finally, if you are a
Shopify Plus customer then you may rely on Shopify developers to customise the checkout experience or complex functionality too.