Find the fault before replacing the store
Show us where the store lets you down: an order missing from reporting, a product page that hangs, a promotion you cannot get live. We start there. These are starting hypotheses, checked against your store before we recommend any changes.
| What you see | Usual cause | What we do |
|---|---|---|
| Sales tracking stops matching orders after a checkout change | A tracking setup left unchecked during the change | Follow a test order from checkout to reporting and locate the break. |
| Product pages feel slow on mobile | Product media, theme code or app elements to investigate | Inspect the affected pages, isolate the heavy elements and measure each repair. |
| Apps keep accumulating | Several apps supplying the same functions, or old features nobody uses | Find overlapping functions and test whether the store still needs each app. |
| US buyers see the wrong currency | Market settings that do not match the intended audience | Review market configuration and walk through the purchase from product to payment. |
| Paid visitors arrive but rarely add to basket | An advert and product page that make different promises | Check the landing product, variant, information and offer against the advert. |
| Staff need help for every catalogue update | Product templates or editing routines that no longer fit the range | Separate routine edits from code changes and simplify the work your team repeats. |
For checkout tracking, there are two dated changes to check. Shopify's non-Plus upgrade guide says Additional scripts became view-only on 28 August 2025. The same guide says 26 August 2026 was the deadline for non-Plus stores to upgrade their Thank you and Order status pages. That deadline has now passed. The dates prompt an inspection of your setup; testing establishes whether the tracking is working.
For international selling, Shopify says Markets customisations control currency, product availability, theme content, domains, languages and taxes. We review the relevant settings, then check what a buyer actually sees. The output is a repair list with an order of priority and a way to check each fix.
Chofa: the store had to hold before the ads started
Chofa's pieces were already selling on Etsy in September 2025. The Shopify store had problems to resolve before any paid traffic arrived.
We fixed the store first. No ads until it held. So when the ads started, the store was ready to take the orders. The Chofa Jewelry case study follows the work through to its commercial results.
For your store, the same decision starts with a test purchase. Follow the product someone wants through the basket and checkout, then check that the order appears in reporting. A failed product page or payment step becomes the immediate repair.
Once that works, we choose which products to advertise and how to measure the spend. We also check that each store fix actually helped buyers.
A monthly plan built around what you can sell
Ongoing Shopify work starts with your catalogue and orders. We agree which products to promote, what stock is available and what the margin can support. You bring the trading priorities, including launches, slow stock and products you want to stop discounting. We turn those into the month's work across the store, ads and email.
Before promoting a collection, we check its product pages, variants, images and route to checkout. A missing size detail or a confusing bundle gets a specific correction. If the problem needs testing, our conversion rate optimisation work defines the change and the buying behaviour to measure. That might mean additions to basket or completed purchases.
For paid media, we review the advert alongside its landing page: the pictured item, the offer and the available variants. If stock changes, the campaign and destination need a decision together. You should not have to brief a store fix separately from the advert that depends on it.
Email works from the same trading plan. Through our email marketing service, we plan campaigns and automated messages around the range and the purchase journey. We check the products and links inside those messages as part of the work. We agree who should receive a collection launch email and what useful follow-up comes after a purchase.
Measurement separates store repairs from acquisition. We agree how to read Shopify orders, refunds, advertising spend and channel reports before comparing months. We check each store change against what it was meant to fix, and we report ad spend and ad sales separately. For a conversion test, we record what changed and what happened to the chosen measure. For a fault, we show the repaired behaviour working.
The monthly review puts the completed work beside its measured effect. Any unresolved questions carry into the next review. The next plan follows those findings and your stock position. Sometimes that means another campaign. Sometimes it means resolving a product-page problem before giving it more traffic.
Two of the stores we look after show the two shapes this takes. With Vai Swim the monthly work sat beside two summer seasons of ads and creator content, and sales grew 40 per cent year on year. With Elspiri Swimwear we held the existing store steady first and only redesigned it once there was a reason to. Neither of those numbers is a payment for store work: they are what the whole arrangement produced, and the store's job was to stop leaking what the ads brought.
When to rebuild the Shopify store
A rebuild becomes a sensible option when the changes you need no longer fit the store you have. Perhaps the catalogue has outgrown its structure. Perhaps maintaining a heavily altered theme takes more work than replacing it. We compare targeted repairs with a new build against those requirements. The rebuild brief must identify the structure or maintenance problem that a new store would resolve.
For a new Shopify store, we start with how people will find and choose products. That covers collection structure, navigation, product information and the pages needed to make a purchase. We design and build those pages, using theme customisation or a fully custom build to suit the scope. Analytics and an SEO foundation belong in that scope too.
App integrations serve specific functions: Klaviyo for email, reviews where you need them, subscriptions where they fit the product. Before launch, we review checkout and the conversion path. You check that the store represents the range correctly and that your team can run it.
At handover, we show your team how to manage the catalogue, inventory and routine checkout changes, and note the setup. We also flag changes that need development work so those boundaries are clear.
The wider design and build service covers the work around a store, including identity and packaging. Here, the brief stays with the shop: what it needs to sell, what needs repairing and what you need to manage yourself.
