Shopify Development & Automation
For stores that have outgrown what the app store sells. Themes, custom apps and integrations, built to the current Shopify platform, not the 2019 one.
What Gets Built
Most Shopify problems are one of three things: the theme cannot do it, the apps do not talk to each other, or a human is doing something the platform could do. Each has a fix.
Theme customization
Liquid sections and blocks for Online Store 2.0 themes, metafield-driven product pages, custom collection logic, B2B and wholesale views. Changes ship on a duplicate theme with a preview link before they go live.
Custom apps
Private or custom apps on the Admin GraphQL API with webhooks, admin UI extensions and background jobs. Used when no app store app does the thing, or when three apps are doing it badly. REST has been legacy since October 2024; new work is GraphQL only.
Integrations
Store to ERP, accounting, CRM, email platform, 3PL or Google Sheets. Orders, customers, inventory and fulfilment kept in sync with idempotent jobs and clear ownership of each field.
Store automations
Shopify Flow where it fits, custom code where it does not: order tagging and routing, fraud rules, inventory alerts, customer segmentation, review requests, back-in-stock notices, wholesale approvals.
Migrations
Products, variants, metafields, customers, orders and redirects moved from WooCommerce, Magento, Squarespace or another Shopify store, with a redirect map so search rankings survive the move.
Speed and SEO
Core Web Vitals work on themes weighed down by apps, structured data for products and collections, redirect cleanup, and crawlable collection and filter URLs.
How It Works
Store work starts with an audit of the theme, the installed apps and the manual processes around them, because the cheapest fix is often removing something.
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Audit
Collaborator access to the store. I review the theme, the app stack, the order flow and whatever spreadsheet is holding it together, and write up what I find.
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Scope and fixed quote
A written scope that says what changes, what gets removed, what gets built, and what it costs. Ranked so you can do the highest-value part first.
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Build on a duplicate theme or dev store
Theme work happens on a duplicate with a preview link. App and integration work runs against a development store or a staging app before touching production.
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Deploy with rollback and handover
Go-live at a quiet hour with the previous theme one click away. Documentation for your team, and a retainer if you want ongoing changes.
Proof, Not Promises
E-commerce data is where most of my public work lives: eBay sold-listing analytics, Etsy revenue estimation, marketplace price monitors and product-image quality checks run as Apify actors with 2,500+ users between them. The same discipline (typed schemas, idempotent jobs, monitoring) goes into store integrations.
Store work is done under client accounts and is not showcased publicly, by agreement. Ask for references on the scoping call.
Who This Is For
Shopify is easy until the store is doing real volume with real operations behind it. That is when custom work pays for itself.
Scaling DTC brands
The theme is fighting the apps, checkout conversion is slipping, and ops is spending hours on tasks the platform should handle.
B2B and wholesale merchants
Customer-specific pricing, approval flows, net terms and catalog visibility that need more than a wholesale app can offer.
Agencies
Reliable development capacity for the Liquid, app and integration work that sits outside your design team's comfort zone.
Merchants with fifteen apps
Each app solves one problem and creates two. Consolidating into one custom app or a handful of Flow automations cuts cost and page weight.
FAQ
Do I need a custom app, or is there an app store app for this?
Often there is an app, and I will tell you which one when that is the better answer. Custom apps make sense when no app does the exact thing, when you are paying for three apps to approximate it, when the data needs to flow into a system the app store does not cover, or when app fees at your order volume exceed a one-time build.
Do I need Shopify Plus?
Not for most theme, app and integration work. The Admin API, webhooks, metafields and Online Store 2.0 are available on standard plans. Plus adds checkout extensibility, B2B features and higher API limits, which matter for some projects. If your project needs Plus, the scope will say so.
How do you get access to the store?
Through a collaborator request from a Partner account, scoped to the permissions the work needs. You never share your password, and you can revoke access at any time. App development happens against a development store first.
Can you migrate my store to Shopify?
Yes. Products, variants, metafields, customers, order history and URL redirects are migrated with scripts against the Admin GraphQL API, tested on a development store, then run against production. The redirect map is the part most migrations skip and the part that protects your search traffic.
What does Shopify development cost?
Fixed quote per project after the audit. A focused theme change or a single integration is typically a few days of work; a custom app or a multi-system integration is several weeks. Ongoing hosting for custom apps is small and passed through at cost.
Do you use the REST Admin API?
Only to maintain existing integrations. Shopify marked REST legacy on 1 October 2024 and requires GraphQL for new public apps since April 2025. New work here is GraphQL Admin API with typed queries, which also means fewer requests and better rate-limit behaviour.
Got something worth building?
One email. One call. Written scope and a fixed quote.
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