Shopify & e-commerce

Shopify Plus is the default for most UK e-commerce builds because the platform takes the hard problems off the table: PCI compliance, hosting, checkout optimisation, fraud, multi-currency. What Plus doesn't solve out of the box, trade pricing, complex variant logic, custom checkout flows, app-driven automation, is where the studio's work lives.

Shopify Plus by default, WooCommerce when it fits

Shopify Plus is our recommendation for most stores because it removes the boring-but-critical risks. It isn't the only option, though, and we don't pretend it is. Where a client is committed to WordPress, wants content and commerce in one place, or wants to own the stack outright, we build and customise WooCommerce too. SanData's thousand-plus course catalogue and booking run on WooCommerce. The platform follows the brief, not the other way round.

Where the work actually happens

Cart Transform Functions, Checkout UI Extensions, App Proxy automation and Shopify Functions are the patterns we reach for first because they execute at the checkout layer and stay auditable in Shopify's own logs. Theme-side discounts and validation get bypassed by direct checkout links and headless storefronts; the Functions and Extensions layer does not. Apps are built on Shopify's current Remix and React Router scaffold with Polaris for the admin, the same stack Shopify itself recommends.

Inventory and integrations

Most e-commerce pain isn't the storefront, it's the data behind it. We connect Shopify to the systems a real retailer runs on, warehouse management, ERPs, backend CRMs and point of sale, so products and stock stay accurate across every channel. For Power Vape Shop we built AI-assisted product import from a warehouse system and a CRM, then real-time stock sync across their physical shops and the online store over the Shopify API, so a sale at the till is reflected online and the other way round.

Trade pricing and B2B

B2B and trade tiers are where stock Shopify pricing runs out of road. We solve it at the checkout layer with Cart Transform Functions, so trade customers see and pay the right price end to end, even on direct checkout links that bypass theme-side discounts. For Calico Corners we shipped trade-tier pricing plus a Checkout UI Extension that reconciles guest orders against existing accounts, so customer history stays unified.

Migrations

WooCommerce, BigCommerce and Magento are still common in the UK SME base, and a good share of our e-commerce work is migration off one of them onto Shopify Plus. Migration day is judged entirely on what doesn't happen, no broken URLs, no lost rankings, no order data drift. Every migration ships with a verified 301 map, a staged content cutover, and a parallel-run period before DNS flips.

Lifecycle

Klaviyo is the default for email and SMS because the event model maps cleanly to Shopify's: abandoned cart, abandoned checkout, post-purchase, browse abandonment. ReCharge handles subscriptions where the catalogue suits it. Flows ship wired to real store events, not the "if email opened" guesswork that off-the-shelf templates rely on.