The Shopify ecosystem is a huge playground that seems to be a great opportunity for almost everyone who’s a part of it: from web developers and designers to big service agencies. Have you ever wondered where exactly you are in that playground?
To be more specific, do you know what types of services that you and your competitors are doing? What are the top Shopify merchants’ demands when it comes to store development and optimization? What is the right direction to grow your development services?
To answer these questions, in today's article, we are going to list the 8 most popular Shopify development services and introduce to you the top 12 examples of certified Shopify Partners and Experts.
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8 common types of Shopify development services
If you perform a search, you’ll find that there are a wide variety of custom ecommerce development services. We’ve grouped them into 8 main types of Shopify development services that you are, or will soon be, providing to your clients.
1 - Shopify theme development and customization
Having a proper Shopify theme for one’s online store is important because the backbone of any visual brand. A theme is the initial layout of a store’s presence, and so they should fit with one's brand identity from the very start.
Accordingly, there's such a great supply of Shopify theme designs and customizations on the market. Many theme developers or agencies offer services such as building Shopify themes, UX/UI theme design or Shopify theme modification. Some of the big names to mention are Pixel Union and Liquify.
2 - Shopify store setup and customization
To customize Shopify stores in the long run, obviously there must be coding and technical stuff involved. Not every merchant is tech-savvy or has a skillful development team. That's why web developers and agencies usually support store setup and customization services to unravel merchants’ problems.
Some of the main activities you can easily see are creating Shopify stores from scratch, building pages (landing pages, homepages, etc.), modifying existing Shopify pages, Shopify cart customization and page conversion rate optimization. A professionally designed Shopify contact us page can enhance your brand’s credibility and encourage more inquiries from potential clients.
For example, SellerSmith is a certified Shopify Expert that provides store development services such as theme customization and landing page design. PageFly, the top Shopify page builder app, is one of SellerSmith’s biggest projects. It can help Shopify merchants customize their own pages without the need for technical knowledge.
3 - Shopify app development and customization
This type of service will require a longer time in a project because it's more inclined to high-tech and specialized requests. Some clients will ask you to create a whole new private app, add more features or functions in existing Shopify apps, or integrate with another 3rd-party app.
An example of this is Apolomultimedia.com, who are certified Shopify Experts located in the US. They have had many projects related to app development and customization, the quality of which is proven in nearly one hundred 5-star reviews from their clients.
4 - Shopify migration
There are many clients that don't initiate their eCommerce journey with Shopify. Maybe they start with Etsy, Wix, WooCommerce and so on. If they want to switch, Shopify supports migrating store data from those platforms, and there are plenty of Shopify Experts and agencies that can professionally carry it out in a short time, along with services to migrate new clients to Shopify Plus.
Credit: Litextension
Litextension and IT-Geeks are two great examples of Shopify Experts that provide channel migration services. For Shopify Plus partners, Swanky has years of experience in migrating complex websites from such platforms like BigCommerce or Magento.
5 - Shopify store updating and maintenance
When talking about the long-term factors of a sustainable online store, you can’t miss updating and maintenance. Shopify merchants who have no experience or knowledge of coding or technology would be more likely to hire a team to optimize and maintain their stores on a regular basis.
Some common services in this field involve back-end maintenance, Shopify update support, site security audit and data optimization. The Monthly Shopify support retainers from Liquify are a great example for this.
6 - Shopify SEO service
You can see that many agencies or developer companies will include Shopify SEO and marketing services, along with other development services. That is because SEO is not only a strategy for increasing conversion rate and getting organic traffic, but also a pedal to optimize one's online store within itself.
SEO services are diverse. They could be improving SEO options, giving marketing and SEO advice to boost conversion rate, implementing XML sitemaps and Google Analytics, doing content audits and keyword research, or optimizing page titles. WhiteCap SEO is a Shopify Expert example of providing such SEO solutions.
Credit: WhiteCap SEO
7 - PSD to Shopify theme conversion
Photoshop is a common tool to sketch and create a design when building a Shopify theme. To convert the photoshop design (PSD) to a functional Shopify page, merchants must have CSS/HTML knowledge in addition to knowing the customization settings of Shopify. However, a lot of Shopify web design companies will offer this kind of service for merchants.
That’s why there is a service called ‘PSD to Shopify theme’. You can refer to agencies like 99coders or even big Shopify Plus agency Eastside Co.
8 - Shopify Plus enterprise services
For Shopify Plus enterprises, types of development are not that different, just bigger in scale. Shopify Plus merchants have a huge store database, and they need highly-skilled and top-tier service agencies to handle their stores' development and customization.
Some notable Shopify Experts, such as JumpStart, Liquify and Eastside Co, all have years of experience in working with Shopify Plus merchants.
Top 12 Shopify development service companies
#1 - Liquify
#2 - Eastside Co
Credit: Eastside Co
This eCommerce agency is reputed as a world-class Shopify Experts and also Shopify Plus partner. They’ve undertaken big projects for huge companies like Nike, Unilever or Hera. Eastside Co offers a wide range of eCommerce services from Shopify web design and app development to marketing solutions such as SEO, PPC, email and content marketing, etc.
#3 - WhiteCap SEO
Credit: WhiteCap SEO
As mentioned earlier, WhiteCap SEO is a US-based Shopify Expert that specializes in providing cutting-edge SEO strategies. Their solutions have helped many merchants increase their store's organic traffic to 104%, even of such large companies like Custom Ink or Bucketfeet.
#4 - ZAGO Sweden 
Credit: ZAGO
ZAGO is a Swedish Shopify Plus agency. They are a certified Shopify Expert since 2016 that provides a variety of Shopify services such as graphic design, Shopify store setup and development, marketing and SEO strategy for Europe and global leading brands. They've been partnering with Shopify, Storetasker, Yotpo and many more.
#5 - JumpStart
Credit: JumpStart
Jumpstart has been providing top-rated Shopify development services for Shopify Plus merchants for so many years. They have 15 years of experience in eCommerce strategy, UX design and development, custom integrations and store migration. JumpStart is one of the leading Shopify agencies in Asia.
#6 - uncap
uncap (previous is Pivofy) is a popular Shopify service agency that has actively worked with many Shopify Plus partners. They focus on sales-oriented web development solutions and help migrate merchants from other platforms to Shopify.
#7 - IT-Geeks
Credit: IT-Geeks
IT-Geeks is a big developer agency and a Shopify Expert since 2016 that supports Shopify merchants in many services such as web designing and development, digital marketing consultancy and mobile application.
#8 - Hextom
Credit: Hextom
This agency has been helping more than 40,000 Shopify merchants and they are a certified Shopify Expert. Their main services include building and customizing Shopify apps and setting up Shopify stores as well as custom themes.
#9 - Expert Village Media
Credit: Expert Village Media
Expert Village Media is one of the early Shopify Experts, since 2014, and were a certified Amazon partner before that. They’ve been creating 11 public Shopify apps and working with more than 20,000 Shopify merchants. Expert Village Media provides web design and store development services.
#10 - Corra
Credit: Corra
Corra is one of the popular eCommerce agencies with US and UK-based Shopify merchants and they have been supporting many Shopify Plus clients such as Faherty, Totes or International Military Antiques. Their services are diverse but for Shopify development, the main one could be mentioned are CX strategy and design, back-end integrations and custom store development.
#11 - Mageplaza
Credit: Mageplaza
With 10 years of experience in the eCommerce strategy industry, Mageplaza has become one of the leading Shopify development companies. Their dedicated team of experts provides top-tier solutions for merchants who want to create a Shopify store. Leveraging their expertise, Mageplaza has successfully completed more than 1,500 projects, resulting in over 119,000 satisfied customers. Some of their key services include Shopify & Shopify Plus Development, Shopify Theme Development, Shopify Store Set Up, Shopify Support & Maintenance Service, etc.
#12 - BSS Commerce
Credit: BSS Commerce
BSS Commerce is a Shopify Technology Partner that accompanies global online merchants with comprehensive Shopify-related solutions. Since their establishment in 2012, BSS Commerce served 21,000+ clients worldwide, worked on 500+ projects, and delivered the highest degree of customer satisfaction.
Besides Shopify Store Development, BSS provides ongoing support, testing, maintenance, and optimization services. They also offer several Shopify apps and wholesale solution packages that help B2B and B2C merchants grow their businesses.
Conclusion
As mentioned from the beginning, joining the Shopify community is like swimming in an open sea. There are many chances for you as a web developer, designer or eCommerce agency, but, obviously, the competitive level is substantially high. However, if you invest time and money in excelling knowledge and skills in your mastery, and choose the right services to expand your business, the path to success will be much shorter.
