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What Is A Shopify Development Company?

Shopify developers specialize in creating high-performing online stores with user-friendly interfaces, customized storefronts and multiple payment options using the top-rated platform.

They offer a range of services that often go beyond website building.

In fact, most of them can act as full-service digital partners, covering different areas, from branding to marketing.

These specialized companies have experience in delivering captivating designs that yield intuitive user experiences, engage visitors and guide them to checkout.

They understand the connection between design and sales funnels well. Therefore, they combine their technical and creative skills to develop products that help brands:

  • Generate brand awareness
  • Establish a strong online presence
  • Create engaging UI/UX
  • Attract traffic
  • Boost conversions
  • Increase sales

What Services Do Shopify Development Companies Provide?

Some of the most common service offerings include:

  • eCommerce strategy: This includes conducting market research to get info on the target audience and key competitors, as well as recommendations for must-have content and messaging direction.
  • Template customization: This refers to making specific design tweaks to an existing theme to meet the needs of a specific business or store.
  • Custom design: For brands that have more complex requirements or don’t want to use templates, the designers can also create fully customized online stores.
  • App development: These experts can also develop custom eCommerce apps or use a theme based on the individual brand’s objectives.
  • Content migration: The developers can assist you with content migration from an existing website to a new one, though this service usually comes at an additional cost to the client.
  • Digital marketing: Many of these specialists operate within larger digital agencies. In these cases, the agency may also handle digital marketing needs including SEO, PPC, social media marketing and content marketing.
  • And more
person browsing an eCommerce shop created with Shopify on a tablet
 Shopify is an all-in-one eCommerce solution

How Much Do Trusted Shopify Partners Charge For Their Services?

The most common pricing structures are:

  • The fee per hour
  • The fee per project

When it comes to the fee per hour, trusted Shopify partners usually price their services on time estimates.

The cost approximately varies between $50 and $150 per hour and typically depends on:

  • Project scope and complexity
  • Project deadline
  • Agency stature
  • Agency size
  • Agency location

The cost per project also ranges from agency to agency, so you may come across firms that accept projects valued between $1,000 and $50,000.

In addition, the platform offers several pricing options as well. So, businesses can choose between these packages: 

  • Basic ($29/month)
  • Shopify ($79/month)
  • Advanced ($299/month)
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Why Should You Hire Shopify Development Agencies?

Reason #1: Stand Out From The Crowd

While there are hundreds of templates that almost everyone can set up to create an online store, it takes hiring an expert to deliver a high-performance platform.

So, the key reason why you should invest in a professional agency is quality.

There are 7.1 million companies around the world that sell online. (etailinsights)

But what does it mean for you?

Well, it means the number of websites that you compete with is huge.

To stand out from the crowd and outperform your competition, you need to have a captivating digital storefront that captures your audience and engages them.

In fact, as many as 73% of companies invest in design to differentiate themselves from the competition.

These niche developers not only have the creativity to create compelling sites, but they also have the knowledge to study user needs and behavior.

So, they know what it takes to process your vision as well as ensure the best possible shopping experiences.

Reason #2: Get Ongoing Support

90% of users leave websites because of poor design. (Sitejet)

As businesses grow and industry trends change, online stores need to be updated so that they prevent being stuck in a time warp.

These companies can provide you with support and maintenance continuously. They will implement trends as they emerge and make the necessary updates so that they create an engaging user experience at all times.

Reason #3: Optimize For Search Engines

87% of consumers look for products online. (Retail Dive)

But how will you make sure that your products are visible to them and pop up in the search engine results pages (SERPs)?

The answer is SEO.

It truly doesn’t matter how compelling your online store or products are if digital shoppers cannot find them.

For your store to stay accessible and competitive, your developers will pay attention to key elements like:

  • Website structure
  • Website security
  • Google verification
  • Website navigation
  • Keywords usage
  • And more

Unlike other popular platforms on the market, this eCommerce platform also offers a set of marketing, analytical and selling tools that your partner will leverage to:

  • Minimize cart abandonment
  • Boost your store performance
  • Drive more conversions and sales

Reason #4: Minimize Cart Abandonments 

The number of cart abandonment is relatively high and reached a massive 76% in 2019. (OptinMonster)

The top three industries affected by cart abandonment are finance (83,6%), travel (81.7%) and retail (72.8%).

With the Shopify Abandoned Cart Recovery Tool, you can review abandoned checkouts and send personalized emails with a link to the abandoned cart. This will help you encourage them to complete the purchase.

Your agency partner will guide you through this process, help you increase the number of closed deals and boost your profit.

Reason #5: Offer Easy Payments

This complete commerce platform integrates with over 100 third-party payment providers across the globe.

It also has its own payment gateway – Shopify Payments (Stripe). It is quite easy to use and allows consumers to shop without paying any additional fees. Additionally, it doesn’t require using a merchant account, which ultimately provides users with an easy payment experience.

The company you hire will make sure the payment system you choose is integrated properly.

What Type Of Businesses Should Invest In Shopify Development Companies?

Shopify is a powerful but easy-to-use eCommerce solution.

It is a hosted platform, meaning that everything a business needs to set up an online store is available out of the box.

Hosted eCommerce solutions differ from eCommerce content management systems like WordPress, WooCommerce or Magento which require separate installation and/or development and hosting.

Think of it as an all-in-one eCommerce solution. As such, it’s an attractive option for small online stores.

It doesn’t necessarily require additional design or development (though we’ll talk about custom design later), so costs are lower than with other eCommerce solutions.

There is a monthly fee to run a shop on this platform, but there are a lot of useful features included in the price.

For example, web hosting with unlimited bandwidth and 99.99% uptime is included. The platform is level 1 PCI-compliant, which means merchants can be confident in the security of their stores. Such features are a major benefit to small businesses.

It's a good eCommerce solution for businesses that need to get to market quickly because setting up the store is fairly easy.

Working with a theme, it’s possible to get a site up and running within a few hours (or less). Quick setup, ease of use and approachable entry costs are among the key benefits.

Custom Shopify Website Design vs. Shopify Themes: Which One Should You Choose?

The platform boasts over 100 themes available. There are free themes as well as premium ones, most of which cost less than $200.

Having a store that’s fully functional on mobile plays a key role in the modern eCommerce environment and many themes meet this demand by offering responsive layouts.

Still, not everyone will be satisfied with a theme-based design. Customers have the option to work with qualified designers to create a custom layout and visual design for their site - a preferred option for more experienced retailers with more complex needs.

The choice between using a theme or going with a custom design usually comes down to price versus flexibility.

Themes will always be the more cost-effective option, but the custom design is invariably more flexible and allows businesses to build their online stores to their precise specifications.

What Is Shopify Plus?

It's the platform's enterprise eCommerce solution and the answer to competitive eCommerce content management systems like Magento.

According to Shopify:

“Traditional enterprise eCommerce is broken: costly builds, crashed sites, and infrastructure that burns through development resources. Shopify Plus gives you a multi-channel platform with unmatched scalability so you can grow your business, instead of worrying about your website.”

It is still a hosted eCommerce platform, which means that technical support, hosting and implementation are handled by them as opposed to an external developer or third-party vendor.

It’s a competitive product to Magento’s hosted enterprise solution, Magento Commerce.

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How To Choose The Best Specialists For Your Business

This robust eCommerce platform combines ease of use with powerful functionalities.

Though many small businesses choose to launch an online store with a theme, a partnership with a specialized agency allows for greater customization to meet a business’s specific needs.

These are the key factors to consider to choose the best Shopify development company for your brand:

  • Communication: Communication plays a key role in delivering a successful project. For that sake, you should think about how clearly the potential partners answer your questions or reply to your calls and emails. Make sure the company you hire defines the communication channels and contact person from the beginning of the project. This will ensure an easy flow of information.
  • Expertise: Portfolios and case studies are great sources of information that will reveal these companies’ proven experience with the platform. Feel free to ask the potential partners what projects they have worked on and whether they have expertise in your industry.
  • Client feedback: Read the reviews of every company to get an insight into their reliability and credibility. It truly matters what past clients say to understand how these agencies deliver their projects, whether they meet deadlines and how flexible and transparent they are.

15 Questions To Ask Shopify Development Companies

Here are the top 15 questions you should ask potential agencies to make the right choice:

  1. Can you show us some of your best examples of online stores developed from scratch?
  2. Have you ever served businesses in the same or similar industry? What was the outcome?
  3. Based on our goals, should we use a template or get a customized website?
  4. What features will you incorporate and why?
  5. What platforms or tools does the platform integrate with?
  6. What plugins are available within the tool?
  7. What payment gateways does the platform support?
  8. What processes do you have in place to ensure secure transactions?
  9. How will you optimize our pages and products for search engines?
  10. Will our store be mobile responsive?
  11. Do you offer post-launch support?
  12. According to you, which of the pricing plans would be the best option for us?
  13. How will we communicate during the project and how often? Who will be the main point of contact?
  14. How are we going to be involved?
  15. How do you charge and how much will the project cost us?

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