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Not everyone can be a Shopify Expert, nor should they be. That’s where Shopify Agencies like us come into play. Let’s look at a few reasons why you should work with expert Shopify Website Builders and recognised Shopify Partners like us.
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Shopify was founded on the ethos that anyone can set up a business and start making sales online in the same day. Fast forward to today, and that’s a statement they stand by: marketing themselves as the ecommerce platform for entrepreneurs.
Equally, Shopify has become the go-to ecommerce platform for enterprise businesses looking to scale their online operations. So, from small, family-owned businesses to industry-leading enterprise retailers, more people than ever are using Shopify. However, not every business can make the most of the platform without outside help.
A Shopify Agency is a specialised website development firm, specifically focused on the design and development of ecommerce stores on the Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce platforms.
If a business markets itself as “a Shopify Agency,” they will typically be a registered Shopify Partner, meaning they’re officially recognised by Shopify to help brands move to and make the most of the Shopify platform. They’ll be able to fulfil the needs of their clients' ecommerce needs and will potentially offer additional ecommerce services alongside their web development services, such as SEO and PPC.
At Cake Agency, we’ve been a recognised Shopify partner since 2021 - officially recognised by Shopify to help ecommerce brands on Shopify. We specialise in footwear and fashion brands, but we’re not the only Shopify Agency out there. So let’s look at the reasons you should partner with a Shopify Agency.
No matter what your business looks like, there are plenty of reasons to work with a team of Shopify experts. Let’s look at our top reasons
Starting off with the most obvious reason. Partnering with a Shopify Agency to grow your ecommerce business gives you a direct line to a team of dedicated Shopify experts - who’ll have been working on the platform for years.
While you’ll know the ins and outs of your business - from product sourcing to product development to fulfilment and more - a Shopify Agency will know the ins and outs of the Shopify platform back to front.
This knowledge means they’ll know exactly how to bring your website to life online, and the best practice specificities that maximise your Shopify website’s ability to convert. Beyond just possessing this knowledge, though, Shopify Agencies will typically assign each brand they work with a dedicated account manager, who’ll be able to translate the technical jargon into digestible information you can make sense of. It means you can be confident that all of the work being actioned is actually in line with your goals.
Unlike your typical “web development” agency, Shopify Agencies tend to have skills outside of just building and designing websites. In fact, it’s more common for Shopify Agencies to be full-scale ecommerce agencies than for them not to be.
This means a Shopify Agency partner can help your business from a variety of angles. From boosting visitors to your site with tailored SEO strategies to getting you an established customer base through paid social and performance marketing - if you need help with more than just your Shopify Store, you need just ask.
After you’ve completed a project with a Shopify Agency, some agencies will offer long-term support models that allow you to constantly refine your website and build upon its success. If you’ve chosen this model for your business, you’ll have a direct line to a dedicated team of industry experts.
Whether something goes wrong on your website or you just need best practice advice from a team you trust, having a direct point of contact means that you can run your ecommerce operation with confidence.
Having constant support means you can pivot what you get out of a Shopify Agency, too. If you need to divert attention away from CRO to bug fixes or would rather the agency spend a month looking at SEO optimisations, you just need to ask
Shopify Agencies like us know exactly what it takes to run a successful retail business. After all, we’ve done it before. It requires excellent knowledge of the industry you operate in, procurement, and financial acumen. However, you can often miss out on the wider context of ecommerce as an industry and what’s required for a business using an ecommerce platform - either as its central business hub or as an extension of their brick-and-mortar operations - to succeed.
If you aren’t familiar with Shopify as a platform or even typical ecommerce functionalities, you may not know which avenues are open to your business on Shopify. And with so many to choose from, Shopify’s tech ecosystem can seem overwhelming to those who aren’t up to speed on the ins and outs.
Shopify has a wide range of tools to help ecommerce businesses expand and a Shopify Agency can look deep into your business and your online store and assess the best course of action to build out your tech stack. Whether you need a robust ERP to keep track of stock or flexible fulfilment tools to make checking out a breeze, they can help create a bespoke solution that works just for you!
Front-end enhancements are just as crucial. Agencies can help bolster your page’s conversion rates by integrating the latest tools, whether that's subscriptions with Recharge, a loyalty scheme with Loyalty Lion, or increasing upselling and personalisation on-site with Octane AI and Rebuy.
One of the main reasons businesses partner with Shopify Agencies is to make the move to the platform from another ecommerce platform.
From partner agencies to marketing to internal product development teams, no other ecommerce platform comes close to Shopify’s presence on the wider ecommerce stage. However, that has not always been the case, and many ecommerce brands are still using other platforms.
Whilst it may have seemed like the correct decision to choose a different platform at the time, there’s a reason why Shopify is as prolific as it is today.
If you trade on a different ecommerce platform and want to know how it compares to Shopify, check out our breakdown of every ecommerce platform vs Shopify.
A Shopify Migration is one of the main services offered by a Shopify Agency. So, if you’re planning a major overhaul of your ecommerce operation, and know that your current ecommerce platform is holding you back, partnering with a Shopify Agency should be your first port of call.
One of the biggest unsung benefits of working with a Shopify Agency is how much they can speed up processes and enable your internal teams. If they aren’t built with your specific business requirements in mind, the back end of your ecommerce store can often be a mess of clunky inputs, unintuitive workarounds, and puzzle pieces that don’t fit together as they should. Processes like these can cost your team time and, on a smaller scale, just be frustrating to use.
Any Shopify Agency worth their salt will take the time to understand what your business needs from your website and build it in a way that empowers your team, not hampers them.
Equally, perhaps you're spending excess time on the daily operations of your ecommerce store - time you know is better spent on the areas of the business you can drive value in. To this end, a Shopify Agency can do the heavy lifting for you - letting you focus your time where it’s needed most.
We’re sure many business directors will agree: In a perfect world, all business projects would be completed in-house, without having to reach out to a third-party service provider. However, there are specific considerations that actually make hiring a Shopify Agency a preferable option in the long run.
Whilst your website should be treated as a living entity, you’re constantly maintaining and optimising - a large portion of the work is done on a project basis. That means you don’t need a dedicated development team outside of the project scope.
Which is a massive benefit to brands everywhere, as hiring is a lengthy, often expensive process. If the need for a full-time development team is only temporary, a Shopify Agency emerges as a cost-effective, quick-to-implement solution.
Equally, with their knowledge of Shopify and the wider ecommerce ecosystem, working with an agency will prevent you from making costly mistakes that could cost your business thousands.
We already have a full guide on how to choose the right Shopify Agency for your business, but let’s quickly look here at some of the key things you should be thinking about.
The first step in choosing the right Shopify agency for your business is to outline exactly what you want to get out of the partnership. It doesn’t matter if you’ve seen a cool website with a referral link or a case study has piqued your interest if the agency’s processes and ways of working don’t line up with your own.
You can’t expect an agency partnership to go smoothly if your goals don’t line up with the scope of the projects they deliver.
So, once you’ve outlined exactly what you want your partnership to achieve, you’ll be able to start making a more informed decision.
Take a look at the agency’s prior projects and their experience working with brands like yours.
You won’t be able to perfectly pin down what an agency’s ideal client looks like, but from spending some time on their website and looking through previously delivered projects, you’ll be able to get a general sense as to whether your business lines up.
Some questions you should be asking yourself
If you do see yourself needing additional services once your Shopify project is complete, have a look at what services the agency offers. From ecommerce marketing to branding and design work, the final details can be what makes all the difference - make sure they’re making the difference for your brand!
From accessing specialised expertise and ongoing support to freeing up your internal resources and avoiding costly mistakes, the benefits extend far beyond the initial build. Whether you're migrating from another platform, looking to scale your operations, or simply want to ensure your Shopify store is optimised for conversion, the right agency partnership can be the catalyst that takes your ecommerce business to the next level.
Learn about the essential GEO strategies that your brand needs.
Read: A guide to GEO for Ecommerce brands.
Don’t let all that work on your website go to waste. Start building an ecommerce marketing funnel that converts with our guide.
Read : How to Build an Ecommerce Marketing Funnel That Converts
