Shopify stores for independent shops and makers
Online shops for independent businesses
A shop that is simple to run on a quiet Tuesday and easy for Google to understand, built on Shopify for retailers, makers and local producers between Henley and Windsor.
Who it's for
Independent businesses that sell things
This is for owner-run businesses with something to sell. A high street shop in Marlow or Henley with loyal local customers and a growing number of people asking whether it posts. A maker who wants customers to buy direct. A local food or drink producer whose regulars would happily order the next case online.
It also suits businesses stuck on an old platform, where the checkout loses people on a phone or the admin is so awkward that nobody adds new products. We move the shop across and keep what already ranks.
If you sell a service, web design is the better place to start.
Why Shopify
The dull and risky parts, handled
We build online shops on Shopify. It handles the parts of a shop that are dull to run and costly to get wrong, such as taking card payments securely, keeping stock counts honest, setting delivery rates and giving staff accounts that open only what each person needs.
The person running the shop is usually also the person packing the parcels. Adding a product, changing a price and refunding an order all happen in an admin screen built for owners to use.
Shopify cannot decide how your shop looks, how your products are described or how Google reads them. That part is ours. Shopify charges its own monthly subscription and payment fees, paid direct to Shopify and separate from our prices. The care and hosting page explains what we look after once the shop is live.
What's included
Everything a shop needs to sell and be found
A theme designed for your brand
Colour, type, photography and layout drawn around what you sell. You see the design before anything is built.
Product and collection pages written for search
Every product gets a title, description and details written for the question a buyer types, in a structure Google can follow. Imogen Pryce writes the copy with you.
Product schema
Price, availability and product details are marked up as structured data, so Google can show them in results. We test the markup before launch.
Collections that match how customers browse
People shop by occasion, ingredient, room or budget, rarely by your supplier's names. Each collection follows that, and gets a page that can be found in its own right.
Delivery and click-and-collect
Delivery rates by weight or order value, and collection from your premises, so a local customer can order on a phone and collect on the way home.
A Google Merchant Center product feed
Your products are sent to Google Merchant Center so they can appear in Google's shopping results, with prices and stock matching the shop.
Migration from an old shop
Products, collections and customer lists move across, and every old address that mattered redirects to its new home. We record what ranks before we touch anything.
Training, so you can add products yourself
A session on your own shop covering how to add a product, change a price, deal with an order and update a collection.
Dev Malhotra owns the migration work and sets out the method in Redesigning your website without losing your rankings.
How it works
From a first call to a shop that takes orders
A call about what you sell
We talk through the products, how many there are and how they reach customers. This is also where we find out whether you need a shop at all.
A plan for the catalogue
Before any design, we plan the collections and what has to move from an old shop, recording every address that ranks or has links pointing at it.
Design and build with real products
A shop that looks lovely with three placeholder items can fall apart with two hundred real ones. We build with your actual stock in it, and you review the result on a phone first.
Launch, then the weeks after
We place a test order from basket to confirmation, check the redirects and watch Search Console once the shop is live. Then you run it, with The Form behind you if you want it.
What it costs
Quoted after a call, because shops differ
Prices are before VAT.
A shop has no fixed price here, as a brochure site does. The cost depends mostly on the number of products and on how much needs migrating from an old shop, so we quote after a call, once we have seen the catalogue. You can ask for one on the contact page, and the quote is in writing.
The Form
from £95 a month
Small changes, a monthly health check and a person who knows your shop to ask. Shopify hosts the shop itself, so this covers the care around it.
SEO retainers
from £650 a month
Monthly local or content-led SEO, reported in plain English. It suits a shop that is live and wants new collections and buying guides written and tracked.
Questions
What people ask about online shops
Do I need Shopify, or would a simple page do?
If you sell a few things a year or take orders by message, a good page with an enquiry form may be enough, and we will say so. Once you take card payments, track stock or post parcels regularly, a proper shop saves time. We build shops on Shopify.
Can you move my existing shop?
Yes. Products, collections and customer lists move across, and old addresses redirect to their new homes. We record what ranks before we start and check Search Console after launch.
Can I add products myself?
Yes, and the training is there for that. Adding a product, a photograph and a price is a form in the Shopify admin. Bigger changes to the design can come to us through The Form.
Will my Google rankings survive a move?
A move can cause a short wobble, and we will not promise otherwise. We redirect every address that matters, keep the pages that already rank and watch for any that do not recover.
Do you do product photography?
No. We can recommend photographers and tell you which shots each product page needs, but we do not shoot photographs ourselves. A phone in decent daylight is enough to start.
Start a shop
Tell us what you sell
A short note is plenty. Tell us what you sell and roughly how many products there are, and you'll get a straight answer within a working day, even when the answer is that you don't need one.