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For agencies
Senior Shopify Plus development for agencies.
For design agencies, marketing agencies and development shops with more Shopify work than senior capacity, or without Plus depth in-house. Fifteen years on Shopify, part of the front-end team at a Shopify Plus agency on builds for Gymshark and Victoria Beckham, and now building for Brew Tea Co, Feel Reformed and Miller Harris.
How it works
Four ways agencies use me.
- 01
Overflow on a live project
You have the work and the deadline, and not enough senior Shopify capacity to hit it. I pick up defined pieces of the build in your repository, to your standards, without needing the whole project explained first.
- 02
Fractional senior developer
A set number of days each month, reserved for you. Useful when the pipeline is steady but not enough to justify a Plus-level hire, and when you would rather the same person kept the context between projects.
- 03
Technical lead on a full build
You own the design, the strategy and the client relationship. I own the build: architecture, the Liquid and JavaScript, the Functions, the integrations, and the technical calls that come up along the way.
- 04
White-label under your name
Same work, your brand on it. I stay off the client calls unless you want me on them, and anything client-facing goes out as your team. Plenty of the work I do is never attributed, which is fine.
- Custom Liquid and JavaScript builds, from a design or from an existing theme
- Shopify Functions, and Scripts to Functions migrations before the deadline
- Cart Transform for bundles, and the cart logic that used to need workarounds
- Shopify Markets setup and consolidating regional stores into one
- Integrations: ERP, PIM, subscriptions, loyalty, search, and the awkward ones
- Plus feature work: B2B, checkout extensibility, customer accounts
- Performance work, including being straight about which apps are costing you
Working together
What it's like day to day.
In your Slack, not on an email thread with a ticket reference.
Estimates before the work, and a message when something is going to move.
Your repository, your branching model, your review process.
Code your team can pick up, because one day someone will have to.
No surprises on invoicing, and no line items you have to query.
If something is a bad idea, you hear it from me before your client does.
In practice
Cult Gaia, with ToyFight
Fashion & luxury · Shopify Plus
How a design agency and a Shopify Plus developer split a build
Cult Gaia's Shopify Plus store was built by two studios: ToyFight on design and front end, Graftstudio on Shopify Plus architecture and implementation. This is how the work was divided, where the handoffs sat, and why the split produced a better store than either would have made alone.
Client feedback
“Richard has been an invaluable resource for us as we transitioned from another agency. His communication and responsiveness have kept up with our various complex needs. Highly recommend!”
Ben TwinehamPaxton & WhitfieldOfficial cheese supplier to the Royal Family since 1850“I'd never go back to working with a large agency after working with Graftstudio.”
Niamh RussellSteamline LuggageLuxury luggage used by Margot Robbie and Reese Witherspoon“Richard will always recommend a better or simpler way of achieving a goal, something we find very valuable.”
Phil KirbyCo-founder, Brew Tea CoTea brand acquired by Luxmi Group with 10,000+ active monthly subscribersQuestions
What agencies ask first.
Do you work under our name?
Yes. White-label is the default for agency work. Your brand on the deliverable, your team on the client calls, and I stay in the background unless you want me introduced. I am happy to sign your NDA, and to be named as a subcontractor where a client requires that.
Whose accounts does the work live in?
Yours, or your client’s. Code goes in your repository, the Shopify access is granted to me rather than owned by me, and everything is documented as it is built. Nothing depends on me still being around, which is the point.
Can you work in our repository and follow our standards?
That is the normal arrangement. Your branching model, your review process, your linting and your conventions. If you have a house theme structure or a component library, I work in it rather than importing my own way of doing things.
What do you need to scope a piece of work?
Access to the store or the repository, the design if there is one, and a conversation about what the client actually needs rather than what has been written down. Most scoping calls take under an hour and the estimate follows in writing.
Do you speak to our client directly?
Only if you want me to. Some agencies prefer everything routed through their producer, some would rather I join the technical calls so nothing gets lost in translation. Both work. It is worth deciding at the start rather than midway through.