Ecommerce Consulting Services for Shopify Brands
Strategy from people who also build. Platform decisions, growth roadmaps, and replatforming advice, grounded in 14+ years on Shopify, not slide decks.
Most ecommerce consulting is a slide deck of best practices you could have found online, delivered by someone who has never shipped a store. Ours is different for one reason: we also build. That means every recommendation comes with a realistic sense of what it costs, how long it takes, and whether it is worth doing at all.
We have built exclusively on Shopify for 14+ years, with ex-Shopify engineers on the team and three of our own apps in the App Store. So when you engage us for ecommerce consulting, you get strategy grounded in execution, not theory, and the option to have the same team carry the plan out or hand it cleanly to yours.
Consulting That Turned Into Results
Real clients, named where they allow it.
Plan, then phased buildManual order routing, eliminated
A team with limited technical background needed a plan before code. We phased the automation into digestible workstreams with weekly calls, then built routing on metaobjects, live carrier rates per origin and automated label dispatch.
See the Swiss Water project →Every setting audited, top to bottom
Jenna Barclay's first brand. A full audit of store settings across user experience, shipping, taxes and conversion, delivered as a clear, prioritized fix list her team could act on.
See the HOMEROOM project →“Victoria Garland brought invaluable Shopify expertise and helped us streamline our process. They’ve truly been a great partner, and we continue to work with them.”
Who you'll work with
You scope the project with the people who build it. The developer on the kickoff call is the developer on launch day.
Book a Consulting Call
Tell us where the business is, what's blocking the next stage, and who's on the team. We'll come back with an honest read and, if it fits, a plan with phases and a fixed price.
Ecommerce Consulting Services We Offer
Consulting can mean anything (we cover what an ecommerce consultant actually does, and what one costs in the blog), so here is what it means with us. Every engagement is scoped around a decision or a problem, not a block of hours.
- Store diagnostic and roadmap. A fixed-price review of the store, the funnel and your real numbers, ending in a ranked plan. Most engagements start here, and for some brands it is the only thing they need.
- Replatforming consulting. Whether to move to Shopify, when Shopify Plus earns its fee, whether to go headless, and how to plan a migration around revenue and search traffic rather than the data export alone. Including when the answer is do nothing yet.
- Ecommerce strategy consulting. Where the next dollar of revenue actually comes from across acquisition, conversion and retention, with the low-value work cut out.
- Operations and integrations. Whether the store, the ERP, the warehouse and the accounting system agree with each other, and what it would take to make them. Our integration work is where that plan gets built.
- Build versus buy. When a custom app is justified and when one from the App Store will do. We build apps, so we can tell you honestly when to skip one.
For an initial numbers check, our free Shopify margin calculator and Shopify fee calculator make the cost assumptions visible before a consulting call.
Why a Shopify Specialist, Not a Generalist
A generalist ecommerce consultant gives you advice that applies to everyone, which means it is specific to no one. A Shopify ecommerce consultant who knows the platform from the inside can tell you which of Shopify’s quirks you can use to your advantage and which ones will quietly cost you. After 14+ years on the platform, that knowledge is the difference between a roadmap that works and one that looks good in a deck.
Consulting Firm, Agency or Independent Consultant?
Search for ecommerce consulting and you will find three kinds of provider, staffed and priced very differently.
Large ecommerce consulting firms bring research teams and enterprise process. They are built for retailers with enterprise budgets, and a brand doing a few million a year is rarely their priority.
An independent consultant is often excellent and affordable, but you get one person’s experience, and when the advice turns into a build you need to find someone else to carry it out.
An ecommerce agency can execute, but many agencies offer consulting mainly as a way to sell the build they already had in mind.
We sit deliberately between them: a small senior team that advises first, builds when that is the right call, and hands off cleanly when it is not. For a longer comparison of the options, including freelancers and fractional CTOs, see our guide to choosing between a consultant, agency, freelancer or fractional CTO.
Where Consulting Connects to the Work
Consulting is the front door. Behind it sits the execution: custom design and development, Shopify SEO, email and retention, and migrations. If your need is mostly technical leadership rather than strategy, a fractional CTO engagement may fit better, and we will point you to the right one rather than the one that bills the most.
Book a Consulting Call
If you are about to make an expensive ecommerce decision and want a senior, honest read first, book a consulting call. We will tell you what to fix, what to skip, and whether you even need us, or browse our portfolio to see the work behind the advice.
What's included
- Platform and replatforming strategy
- Growth, conversion, and retention roadmaps
- Vendor, app, and build-vs-buy decisions
- Advice you can execute, with or without us
How it runs
- 1Discover
We learn the business, the numbers, and the goals, then look at the store and stack with fresh eyes.
- 2Diagnose
An honest read on what is holding growth back, ranked by impact rather than by what is easiest to sell you.
- 3Roadmap
A prioritized plan you can hand to your team or to us, with the low-value work cut out.
- 4Support
Ongoing advice as you execute, or a hand-off if your team can run with it.
Guarantees
Advice from people who actually build on Shopify
Recommendations ranked by impact, not by our margin
Plain language, no jargon or vanity metrics
We will tell you when you do not need a consultant
FAQs
What does an ecommerce consultant do?
An ecommerce consultant gives you an outside, senior read on what is holding your store back and what to do about it, across platform, conversion, growth, and operations. The honest version is not a slide deck of best practices. It is a prioritized plan tied to your actual numbers, telling you what to fix first and what to ignore. Because we also build on Shopify, our recommendations come with a realistic sense of what they cost and how long they take. We wrote a longer answer, with typical costs, in [what an ecommerce consultant does](/blog/what-does-an-ecommerce-consultant-do/).
Are you an ecommerce consulting firm or an agency?
Both. We work as an ecommerce consulting firm when you need a senior read and a plan, and as a Shopify agency when you want the same team to build it. Most consulting companies only advise, and most agencies only execute. One team doing both means the plan is scoped by people who know what it costs to ship, and nothing gets lost in a hand-off between the strategist and the builder.
What do your ecommerce consulting services include?
The core engagements are a store diagnostic with a ranked roadmap, replatforming and Shopify Plus decisions, growth and retention strategy, and build-versus-buy calls on apps and integrations. Each one ends in a written plan your team can execute. Ongoing advisory is available as a retainer if you want a senior sounding board while the plan is carried out.
How is an ecommerce consultant different from an agency?
An agency executes a defined scope. A consultant helps you figure out what the scope should be in the first place. We do both, which means our consulting is grounded in execution reality rather than theory, and we are honest when the answer is build it yourself or hire someone cheaper. Plenty of consultants only advise, then disappear when it is time to ship. We can stay and build, or hand off cleanly.
Do you offer Shopify-specific consulting?
Yes, and it is our core. As a Shopify ecommerce consultant, we cover platform decisions, Shopify versus Shopify Plus, app and integration strategy, theme and performance, and the migration questions that come up when you outgrow your current setup. We have built exclusively on Shopify for 14+ years, so the advice is specific to the platform, not generic ecommerce theory.
What does ecommerce consulting cost?
It depends on scope. A focused diagnostic and roadmap is a fixed project. Ongoing advisory runs as a retainer sized to how often you need senior input. We scope it on a call, and we will tell you honestly if a one-time engagement is all you need rather than selling you a standing retainer.
Can you help with a replatform decision?
Yes. Whether to move to Shopify, when to upgrade to Shopify Plus, or whether to stay put is one of the most common, and most expensive, decisions we are brought in for. We give you an honest read, including when the answer is do not migrate yet. See our [migration service](/services/migrations/) for how we handle the move itself once the decision is made.
Are you more of a strategy consultant or a hands-on expert?
Both, and that is the point. A strategy consultant who has never shipped gives you advice that ignores reality. A hands-on developer without the strategic view fixes the wrong things efficiently. We sit in the middle: senior enough to set direction, technical enough to know it will actually work.
