Shopify development guides
Everything we publish on building, extending and maintaining Shopify stores. Written in house, reviewed on a schedule, free to read.
25 guides
Is Shopify Plus worth it?
Plus is justified by specific features and card rates at volume, not by ambition. Do the arithmetic before the demo.
Keeping a Shopify store healthy after launch
Stores do not decay because the code breaks. They decay because the platform moves and nobody is scheduled to keep up.
Migrating to Shopify without losing traffic
The redirect map is the project. Everything else is data entry with a deadline.
How to hire a Shopify developer or agency
The useful questions are about constraints and failure, not about portfolios. Ask what they refused to build.
What a Shopify build really costs
Two numbers matter and teams usually budget only the first. The build is a project; the store is a subscription.
Selling in several markets without doubling the work
Currency is the easy part. Tax, delivered cost, returns addresses and translated content are what make a second market real work.
Analytics you can actually trust
Shopify, your analytics tool and your ad platforms will never agree. Pick one source of truth for money and stop reconciling the rest.
Conversion fixes that actually move the number
Shipping cost surprises and a slow product page cost more than any button colour ever will. Fix the funnel in order.
The SEO work Shopify does not do for you
Shopify gives you clean technical foundations and a URL structure with known quirks. The catalogue architecture and the content are yours.
Shopify theme speed on real phones
Images and third-party scripts are almost always the answer. Everything else is rounding error until those two are handled.
Checkout extensibility: what you can and cannot change
You can add to checkout in defined places. You cannot rewrite it — and knowing exactly where the hooks are prevents a lot of expensive optimism.
Connecting Shopify to an ERP or fulfilment system
Decide which system owns each field before writing any code. Most integration pain is two systems believing they own stock.
The Admin API and webhooks in practice
Read with the API, react with webhooks, and assume both will occasionally lie to you. Idempotency is the whole job.
When to build a custom Shopify app
Install when the job is standard and boring. Build when the logic is specific to how you sell — or when per-order pricing makes buying absurd.
Choosing Shopify apps without accumulating them
Every app is reasonable on the day it is installed. The monthly bill and the page weight are decided by the ones nobody removed.
Headless Shopify and Hydrogen: when it is justified
Headless buys you control over the storefront and hands you a front-end application to maintain forever. That trade is right for some stores and wrong for most.
Online Store 2.0: sections, blocks and metafields in practice
Sections everywhere and structured metafields changed how themes should be built. Most stores still build them the old way.
Liquid basics for developers coming from elsewhere
Liquid is small, deliberately limited, and renders on Shopify's servers. The constraints are the point — and knowing them saves a week of fighting.
Theme customisation that survives updates
Where you put a change decides whether the next theme release is a merge or an archaeology project.
Choosing a Shopify theme you can live with
The theme you can still update in a year beats the one that demos better today. Judge the vendor, not the screenshot.
When Shopify is the wrong choice
Most stores fit. These are the cases where they do not — and finding out before the build is worth more than any feature list.
Shopify against the alternatives, without the sales pitch
Hosted convenience, open-source control or a custom build. The right answer depends on how unusual your rules are, not on which platform is fashionable.
A realistic Shopify setup checklist
Most setup guides list settings. This one puts them in the order that stops you redoing work — data first, theme last.
Shopify plans and fees, added up honestly
The plan is the small number. Transaction fees and app subscriptions are what actually decide your monthly cost.
What Shopify development actually involves
Themes, apps and integrations are three different jobs with three different risk profiles — and the platform boundary decides which of your requirements are even possible.