Top Shopify ecommerce development companies (July 2026 Rankings)

Most businesses evaluating Shopify development agencies face the same problem: the agencies that look strongest on the surface — the ones with polished portfolios and Shopify Plus badges on their websites — often have the least transparency about what they actually deliver. Theme customization, custom app development, headless builds, and conversion rate optimization are very different disciplines, and not every agency that claims all four is competent at all four. The right filter is not who markets themselves best — it is who has shipped a store in your category and can show you the revenue impact.

Eight companies made this list: Swanky Agency, Eastside Co, RaftLabs, We Make Websites, Velstar, Avex Design, Folio3, and Coalition Technologies. RaftLabs is included because of its track record in custom Shopify development, AI-enhanced ecommerce integrations, and deep backend systems work that standard theme-focused agencies don't cover. We evaluate every company on the same criteria.

How we evaluated this list

No company paid for placement on this list.

1. Swanky Agency

Swanky Agency is a UK-based Shopify Plus Expert with a dual focus on DTC and B2B ecommerce. Founded in 2011, they have built a reputation for technically sophisticated Shopify Plus builds that balance editorial design with conversion architecture. Their client roster spans lifestyle, food and beverage, sports, and outdoor categories — brands like Finisterre, BrewDog, and Hydro Flask are examples of the mid-to-enterprise DTC profile they work with most effectively.

What distinguishes Swanky from the broader Shopify Plus agency market is their investment in headless commerce and B2B Shopify builds. As Shopify's B2B functionality has matured — particularly with the native Shopify Plus B2B features introduced via the admin — Swanky has been among the earliest agencies to build production-grade B2B storefronts on the platform. For manufacturers and distributors evaluating Shopify as a B2B ecommerce platform rather than a DTC vehicle, this experience is directly relevant.

Their process involves a thorough discovery phase before design begins — scoping customer journey mapping, integrations audit, and conversion baseline measurement. This slows the early timeline but typically reduces rework in QA. The tradeoff is that engagements are more heavily staffed at the front end and priced accordingly. Swanky is not the right choice for a fast-turnaround project with a constrained budget, but they are a strong choice for a well-funded DTC or B2B brand treating Shopify as a long-term platform investment.

Notable work: Finisterre (sustainable outdoor apparel), Hydro Flask (premium hydration), BrewDog (multi-market DTC ecommerce)

Pricing signal: $100–$149/hr; project minimums typically $50,000+

What to watch: Discovery and scoping phase adds 4–6 weeks before development begins; not suited for urgent timeline projects

• Best for: DTC and B2B brands investing in Shopify Plus as a long-term platform

• Specialization: Headless Shopify, Shopify B2B, conversion architecture

• Pricing: $100–$149/hr

• Rating: 4.9/5 on Clutch

2. Eastside Co

Eastside Co is one of Europe's largest dedicated Shopify Plus agencies, with offices in Birmingham, London, and the United States. They have been Shopify Plus Partners since the program's early years and have shipped stores across fashion, health and wellness, homewares, and subscription ecommerce. Their delivery model emphasizes data-driven decision making — CRO testing, heatmap analysis, and funnel diagnostics are embedded in their process rather than offered as optional add-ons.

The agency's scale — over 100 staff — gives them an advantage on complex, multi-workstream projects where design, development, app integration, and analytics can run in parallel rather than sequentially. Their in-house data and CRO team operates independently from the development team, which means conversion optimization doesn't pause when development is in a build phase. For brands launching or replatforming on Shopify Plus where the commercial outcome matters as much as the technical delivery, this integrated model is a genuine differentiator.

Eastside Co also has a strong track record with Shopify subscriptions — both through Shopify's native subscriptions API and third-party providers like Recharge and Skio. For brands with a subscription revenue model, or brands considering adding subscription tiers to an existing one-time purchase store, this is relevant expertise. Their retainer model post-launch is well-structured, with tiered support packages that include ongoing CRO experiments, development hours, and dedicated account management.

Notable work: Multiple seven-figure DTC fashion, health, and subscription ecommerce brands across the UK and US

Pricing signal: $100–$149/hr; project minimums typically $40,000+

What to watch: A large agency; junior team members may lead day-to-day delivery on smaller engagements — ask specifically who is on your project

• Best for: Established DTC and subscription brands replatforming to Shopify Plus

• Specialization: CRO, Shopify subscriptions, multi-market Shopify Plus

• Pricing: $100–$149/hr

• Rating: 4.8/5 on Clutch

3. RaftLabs

RaftLabs is a software development company that brings a product engineering approach to Shopify ecommerce development — building the custom backend logic, integrations, and AI-enhanced features that standard Shopify agencies aren't equipped to deliver. Their Shopify work sits at the intersection of the platform's native capabilities and the custom infrastructure that mid-market businesses actually need: ERP sync with SAP or NetSuite, warehouse management integration, custom loyalty mechanics, and AI-driven product recommendation and bundling engines that go beyond what off-the-shelf Shopify apps provide.

For businesses that have outgrown the Shopify app ecosystem but aren't ready to abandon Shopify's merchant UX, RaftLabs builds the custom layer in between — Shopify Functions for checkout customization, custom Shopify apps for proprietary business logic, and backend services that connect Shopify to the rest of the company's technology stack. Their work with clients including Vodafone, T-Mobile, and Cisco demonstrates the enterprise integration depth they bring to ecommerce projects. The approach is engineering-first rather than design-first, which makes them the right partner when the technical complexity, not the visual complexity, is the limiting factor.

RaftLabs offers fixed-price engagements and delivers in clearly scoped phases, with production handoff and documentation included. Their post-launch model includes ongoing retainer options for continued development, optimization, and monitoring. For AI-enhanced ecommerce projects — personalized storefronts, dynamic pricing, automated inventory tagging, or AI-driven email flows connected to Shopify data — RaftLabs is one of the few agencies in this list with genuine ML and AI engineering capability rather than reliance on pre-built SaaS tools.

Notable work: Custom Shopify integrations for enterprise clients; AI-enhanced ecommerce features for mid-market retail brands

Pricing signal: $29–$49/hr; fixed-price engagements available

What to watch: Engineering-first culture; less suited to design-heavy rebrand projects where visual creative direction is the primary deliverable

• Best for: Mid-market businesses needing custom Shopify integrations and AI-enhanced ecommerce features

• Specialization: Custom Shopify apps, ERP/CRM integration, AI ecommerce, Shopify Functions

• Pricing: $29–$49/hr

• Clutch rating: 4.9/5 (50+ reviews)

4. We Make Websites

We Make Websites is a London-based Shopify Plus agency that has become one of the most recognized names in the headless Shopify space. Acquired by Accenture Song, they bring Accenture's enterprise design and strategy methodology to Shopify Plus builds — which means they are equipped for brand-defining projects with large creative teams and long delivery cycles. Their portfolio includes work for Gymshark, Nudie Jeans, Belstaff, and similar brands where the storefront is as much a brand expression as a sales channel.

Their headless Shopify builds use the Shopify Storefront API paired with custom React frontends, giving clients complete control over the user experience beyond what Shopify themes allow — custom animations, editorial content presentation, dynamic product storytelling, and performance-tuned page speeds. For brands where the Shopify theme ecosystem represents a ceiling rather than a starting point, We Make Websites has the engineering team and design capability to clear that ceiling.

The Accenture acquisition has shifted their focus toward larger enterprise engagements. The agency that once specialized in ambitious DTC mid-market builds now operates at a higher engagement threshold. For brands with revenues above $20 million seeking a flagship storefront rebuild, this is a strong option. For smaller mid-market businesses, the overhead — both in cost and in coordination — may outpace the value for the project scale.

Notable work: Gymshark (performance apparel), Nudie Jeans (sustainable denim), Belstaff (premium outerwear)

Pricing signal: $150–$199/hr; project minimums typically $100,000+

What to watch: Post-Accenture acquisition, the agency focuses primarily on enterprise brands; smaller projects may not receive senior team attention

• Best for: High-revenue DTC brands investing in a headless Shopify flagship storefront

• Specialization: Headless Shopify, enterprise Shopify Plus, brand-led ecommerce design

• Pricing: $150–$199/hr

• Rating: 4.9/5 on Clutch

5. Velstar

Velstar is a Liverpool-based Shopify Plus agency with a consistent track record in conversion rate optimization across UK and international DTC brands. Their model is explicitly CRO-led: store builds begin with a data audit and baseline measurement phase, and design decisions are tied to conversion hypotheses rather than aesthetic preferences alone. For brands that have been disappointed by beautiful stores with poor conversion performance, this methodology is a direct counter.

Their migration practice is particularly strong. Velstar has replatformed numerous brands from WooCommerce and Magento to Shopify Plus, with documented processes for product catalog migration, URL redirect mapping, SEO preservation, and order history data transfer. The migration methodology is phased — keeping the existing store live until the Shopify build passes a staged QA protocol before cutover — which reduces the risk of revenue loss during transition.

Velstar's team is mid-sized (50–80 staff), which means clients get senior team involvement on most projects without the overhead of a larger agency. Their post-launch retainer model includes monthly CRO experiment plans with specific uplift targets, which makes their ongoing value measurable rather than vague. For UK-based or UK-expansion DTC brands with a primary Shopify replatforming need, Velstar is a credible top-three option to consider.

Notable work: Multiple UK DTC brands in apparel, sports, and lifestyle categories; replatforming projects from Magento and WooCommerce to Shopify Plus

Pricing signal: $100–$149/hr; strong value for UK-based projects with a conversion-first brief

What to watch: Primary client base is UK and EU DTC; less established track record with US-first brands or complex B2B ecommerce requirements

• Best for: UK DTC brands replatforming to Shopify Plus with a CRO-first objective

• Specialization: Shopify migrations, CRO, UK DTC ecommerce

• Pricing: $100–$149/hr

• Rating: 4.9/5 on Clutch

6. Avex Design

Avex Design is a New York-based Shopify agency with a deliberate focus on premium lifestyle, fashion, beauty, and wellness DTC brands. Their visual design capability is among the strongest on this list — they approach Shopify builds as brand experiences first and sales channels second, which produces storefronts that communicate premium positioning before a visitor has read a word of copy. For brands in aesthetic-first categories where the visual credibility of the storefront directly impacts perceived product value, this emphasis is commercially justified.

Avex builds on Shopify Plus and offers both theme-based and custom development approaches depending on the project brief. Their custom builds use Shopify's Liquid and Hydrogen frameworks and are engineered for performance — mobile page speed and Core Web Vitals pass rates are documented benchmarks in their delivery process. They also have an in-house paid social and retention marketing practice, which allows them to hand off a store to a retention strategy that the same team already understands in terms of design language and audience targeting.

The agency is intentionally boutique — they maintain a selective client roster so senior designers and developers remain on all engagements. This means their availability is limited and engagements require advance planning. For a premium DTC brand seeking a New York agency with editorial design sensibility and Shopify Plus technical depth, Avex is one of the best options in the US market. For a brand that needs aggressive timelines or is primarily competing on price rather than brand premium, there are faster and more cost-efficient options on this list.

Notable work: Premium DTC brands in fashion, beauty, wellness, and luxury lifestyle categories across the US market

Pricing signal: $100–$149/hr; boutique positioning with selective client intake

What to watch: Limited availability due to boutique model; advance scheduling required for new project starts

• Best for: Premium DTC brands in fashion, beauty, or lifestyle where storefront design is a brand differentiator

• Specialization: Premium Shopify design, Shopify Plus, lifestyle and fashion ecommerce

• Pricing: $100–$149/hr

• Rating: 4.8/5 on Clutch

7. Folio3

Folio3 is a technology company with offices in the US and development operations in Pakistan, offering Shopify development at substantially lower hourly rates than the UK and US agencies on this list. Their Shopify practice covers custom Shopify app development, Shopify Plus setup and migration, third-party ERP and inventory management integrations, and B2B ecommerce builds on Shopify. For mid-market businesses with a well-defined technical scope and budget constraints, Folio3 provides genuine technical capability at rates that make projects viable that would otherwise require significant trade-offs.

Their strength is in systems integration work — connecting Shopify to NetSuite, SAP, Odoo, or custom ERP and warehouse management systems. For retailers whose operational complexity lives in their back-end systems rather than their storefront design, and who need Shopify to function as a front-end layer that feeds data to those systems reliably, Folio3 has the engineering depth for that integration work. Their development team is experienced with Shopify's REST and GraphQL Admin APIs, webhooks, and the Shopify app ecosystem in ways that theme-only agencies are not.

The tradeoff with Folio3 is primarily on the design and creative side. Their visual design output is competent but not brand-defining — they are engineers who can produce functional, well-structured Shopify stores, not design studios that produce editorial storefronts. For a project where the brief is primarily technical integration and functional completeness rather than brand experience, Folio3 is a cost-efficient choice. For a project where the visual and brand outcome is the primary deliverable, a design-led agency from earlier on this list will serve better.

Notable work: Custom Shopify integrations with ERP systems; B2B ecommerce builds on Shopify Plus for US and international mid-market retailers

Pricing signal: $25–$49/hr; significantly below US and UK agency rates for equivalent technical capability

What to watch: Design capability is functional rather than brand-led; for design-first briefs, pair with a dedicated design agency

• Best for: Mid-market retailers needing Shopify Plus with complex ERP or inventory management integrations at a cost-efficient rate

• Specialization: Shopify ERP integration, B2B Shopify, custom Shopify app development

• Pricing: $25–$49/hr

• Rating: 4.7/5 on Clutch

8. Coalition Technologies

Coalition Technologies is a Los Angeles-based digital agency with one of the most documented track records for combining Shopify ecommerce development with integrated SEO strategy. For brands that see organic search as a primary acquisition channel alongside their storefront — and who want a single agency accountable for both — Coalition's model removes the coordination overhead that occurs when development and SEO agencies operate in separate silos.

Their Shopify development work covers the full range from theme customization to custom Shopify apps and Plus setup. What distinguishes them is the rigor they apply to technical SEO during the build process — URL architecture, canonical tag implementation, structured data, page speed optimization, and Core Web Vitals are evaluated throughout development rather than patched on after launch. For brands launching a new Shopify store or replatforming from a domain with existing organic rankings, the SEO-in-development approach prevents the traffic loss that often follows a replatforming project done without SEO discipline.

Coalition also runs performance marketing — paid search, paid social, email — as a complement to their development and SEO services. For brands that want a single vendor managing channel strategy alongside the technical store build, this is a practical consolidation. The tradeoff is that their approach works best when Coalition owns the full marketing mix. Brands that have mature, high-performing paid media or SEO teams in-house may find the integrated model more complex to manage than a focused development-only engagement.

Notable work: Shopify replatforming projects with documented organic traffic preservation; ecommerce SEO and development combined engagements for US DTC and retail brands

Pricing signal: $100–$149/hr; integrated development and marketing retainers available

What to watch: Integrated model works best when Coalition manages multiple channels; development-only engagements may not leverage the full benefit of their approach

• Best for: DTC brands for whom organic search is a primary acquisition channel and who want SEO embedded in the Shopify build process

• Specialization: Shopify development plus SEO, replatforming, performance marketing integration

• Pricing: $100–$149/hr

• Rating: 4.8/5 on Clutch

Side-by-side comparison

The question that separates the right Shopify partner from the wrong one

Every Shopify agency you evaluate will show you a portfolio of polished stores. The shortlist above narrows from hundreds of agencies to eight credible options. But within those eight, the right choice for your project comes down to one diagnostic question: what is the actual bottleneck in your ecommerce growth, and does this agency have documented experience solving exactly that?

If your bottleneck is conversion performance — your store has traffic but visitors aren't adding to cart or completing checkout — the right partner is one with a documented CRO methodology. Eastside Co and Velstar are the clearest fits here. Ask them specifically: what was your conversion rate impact on your last three builds, measured at checkout completion? If the answer involves traffic numbers rather than conversion metrics, they are optimizing for vanity rather than revenue.

If your bottleneck is technical integration — your Shopify store is functionally disconnected from your inventory, ERP, CRM, or warehouse management system, and that disconnection is creating operational errors, manual reconciliation overhead, or fulfillment delays — the right partner is one with API and systems integration depth. RaftLabs and Folio3 are the strongest fits here. Ask them specifically: can you walk me through an ERP integration you've built for Shopify, and what were the edge cases in the data sync? Agencies that have done this work can answer in detail; agencies that haven't will revert to describing their general technical capability.

If your bottleneck is brand positioning — your store exists and functions, but it looks like a template, and that visual credibility gap is costing you conversions among premium-price-point customers — the right partner is one with genuine editorial design capability. Avex Design and We Make Websites are the clearest fits. Ask to see three stores they've built at a price point similar to yours. If the visual language feels generic or interchangeable, they are not the right fit for a brand-defining project.

The bottleneck determines the agency. A conversion bottleneck and a brand bottleneck and a systems bottleneck require fundamentally different teams to solve. An agency that has solved the wrong bottleneck beautifully is still the wrong agency.

What the data says about Shopify investment

"Brands that treat their Shopify storefront as a revenue engine rather than a website project consistently outperform those that treat ecommerce development as a one-time cost." — Shopify Editions Partner Insight, 2025

According to Shopify's own merchant data, stores built with a Shopify Plus Partner agency show, on average, 20–35% higher conversion rates compared to stores built without an agency partner. But the variance within that average is significant — the top-quartile agencies produce conversion uplifts of 40–60%, while the bottom-quartile agencies produce stores that perform no better than template-built alternatives. The spread confirms that Partner status is a floor, not a ceiling. What distinguishes the top quartile is not the technology they use — they all use the same Shopify platform — but the rigor of their conversion thinking and the quality of their post-launch optimization.

McKinsey research on digital commerce investment found that companies that treat ecommerce as a continuous improvement program rather than a project-and-launch event generate 2.5x more incremental revenue from their ecommerce channel over a five-year period. This is the strongest argument for prioritizing post-launch partnership terms alongside the initial build scope when evaluating any agency on this list.

Five questions to ask before signing

1. Can you show me a store in my category with documented before-and-after conversion metrics?

A portfolio of beautiful stores is not evidence of commercial performance. Ask for a store in your vertical — or as close as possible — with documented conversion rate data measured at the checkout completion level. Ask specifically what the conversion rate was at project start, what it was at launch, and what it was six months post-launch after optimization. Agencies that have this data collected as a routine part of their delivery process have made conversion performance a priority. Agencies that can only show you design work have prioritized aesthetics over outcomes.

2. What is your post-launch retainer model, and what does it actually include?

The most common failure point in Shopify agency relationships is the post-launch transition. Many agencies deliver a store and then hand off to a retainer model that is either poorly scoped, under-resourced, or priced in a way that effectively prices clients off ongoing optimization. Ask exactly what a retainer engagement includes per month: development hours, CRO experiment credits, bug fix SLA, account manager access, and performance reporting cadence. Ask what happens when a retainer engagement is cancelled — who owns the code, the documentation, and the relationship with Shopify support.

3. How do you handle Shopify app conflicts and third-party integration failures?

Most Shopify stores use between 5 and 25 apps. Apps interact with each other and with the storefront theme in ways that are difficult to predict before launch. Ask specifically how the agency tests for app conflicts during QA — whether they test with all apps active simultaneously, how they document known conflicts, and what their process is when a post-launch app update breaks store functionality. Agencies with a rigorous QA process can describe this in detail. Agencies that haven't thought through app conflict testing will give you a vague answer about "thorough testing."

4. Who specifically will be working on my project, and what is their seniority?

Most agency presentations involve senior partners and lead designers in the sales process. Most projects are delivered by more junior team members. Ask for the specific names and roles of the people who will be on your project — the project manager, the lead developer, the designer — and ask to see examples of projects those specific individuals have delivered, not the agency's portfolio as a whole. At larger agencies especially, the quality delta between senior and junior delivery is significant. Knowing exactly who is on your project is not a rude question; it is basic commercial diligence.

5. What is your approach to data migration if I'm replatforming from another system?

If you're moving from WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce, or a custom-built store, data migration is the highest-risk phase of the project. Ask specifically: how do you migrate product catalog data, customer records, order history, and SEO URL structure? What is the URL redirect strategy and how do you verify coverage before cutover? What is the rollback plan if the Shopify launch has critical issues? What quality checks do you run on migrated data to catch errors in pricing, inventory, or product variant mapping? Agencies with a documented migration methodology can walk you through this; agencies that treat migration as a secondary concern relative to design will underestimate the risk.

The verdict

Choose Swanky Agency if you are a DTC or B2B brand investing in Shopify Plus as a long-term platform and need a discovery-led partner with experience in headless builds and Shopify B2B.

Choose Eastside Co if you are an established DTC or subscription brand replatforming to Shopify Plus and want CRO embedded in the build process from day one, not bolted on after launch.

Choose RaftLabs if you are a mid-market business that needs custom Shopify integrations with ERP, CRM, or warehouse systems, or AI-enhanced ecommerce features that go beyond what the Shopify app store provides.

Choose We Make Websites if you are a high-revenue consumer brand seeking a headless Shopify flagship storefront where the visual and brand experience is the primary business objective.

Choose Velstar if you are a UK-based DTC brand replatforming from Magento or WooCommerce to Shopify Plus and need a migration-experienced agency with a proven CRO track record.

Choose Avex Design if you are a premium lifestyle, fashion, or beauty DTC brand in the US for whom the visual credibility of the storefront is a competitive differentiator and brand driver.

Choose Folio3 if you are a mid-market retailer with a complex ERP or inventory management integration requirement and need custom Shopify development at a cost that makes the project viable.

Choose Coalition Technologies if organic search is a primary acquisition channel for your business and you want a partner that embeds SEO architecture into the Shopify build rather than addressing it as an afterthought.

Regardless of which agency you choose, hold them to a measurable outcome — not just a delivered store. A Shopify store that doesn't convert better than your previous setup is not a successful project, regardless of how it looks.

RaftLabs builds custom Shopify stores and AI-enhanced ecommerce solutions for mid-market businesses. 4.9/5 on Clutch. Talk to a founder about your Shopify project.