Shopify Plus Consulting
The independent Shopify Plus consultant not selling you the build
Upgrade evaluation, replatform decisions, headless architecture review, agency selection, and proposal review — scoped and priced separately from delivery, so the recommendation isn't a sales document.
- The fee does not depend on what we recommend
- Doing nothing is evaluated as a real option
- Written recommendations with the reasoning and the uncertainties
- We will point you to another agency when that is the right answer
Why independence matters
Most Shopify Plus advice comes from people who benefit from a particular answer
Most Shopify Plus advice comes from people who benefit from a particular answer. Agencies benefit from projects existing. Platform vendors benefit from upgrades. App companies benefit from apps. None of that makes the advice dishonest, but it does mean the incentive rarely points toward the smallest sufficient solution.
Consulting is the part of our work where nobody is paying us to build anything. The engagement is scoped and priced on its own, and the recommendation is not contingent on us executing it. That separation is the entire value — it is what makes it possible to say that a replatform is not justified, or that headless would be a mistake, or that the right next step is a different agency.
The decisions that warrant this are the ones with long consequences: whether to upgrade to Plus, whether to replatform, whether to go headless, how to structure expansion stores, which agency to trust with the build. Getting these wrong is not usually visible as failure. It shows up as a year of roadmap spent on something that did not move the business.
The useful question at the start of each of them is almost always the same: what specifically will this let us do that we cannot do now, and is that the thing currently constraining us? A surprising number of large projects do not survive that question.
When people call us
The decisions that warrant an independent read
These are the situations where the cost of getting it wrong is high and the available advice is structurally conflicted.
A replatform proposed as the answer to everything
Rebuilds get commissioned to fix conversion, speed, merchandising, and brand perception at once. A rebuild reliably fixes none of those on its own, and it consumes the year in which you could have fixed them directly.
A Plus upgrade nobody can justify specifically
If the answer to which Plus-only capability your roadmap depends on is vague, the upgrade is probably premature. The capabilities are well-defined; the justification should be too.
Proposals that cannot be compared
Three agencies quoting different scopes against a loose brief, with prices that vary by a factor of four for reasons nobody can articulate. The problem is usually the brief, not the agencies.
A build that has stalled without explanation
Deadlines moving, scope arguments, and no shared account of what went wrong. Usually it is an integration nobody scoped properly, or ownership that was shared without being defined.
Internal team and agency in deadlock
Two credible groups disagreeing on architecture, with no neutral party to resolve it. This stalls roadmaps for months and is often settled quickly once someone independent looks at it.
Headless bought on ambition
Commissioned because it sounds like where serious brands are going, rather than because of a front-end requirement Liquid cannot meet. The costs arrive later, as a merchandising team that can no longer change a page.
Engagements
What we advise on
Defined engagements with a written output, or retained days for teams that want independent judgement available as decisions arise.
Platform assessment
An honest written account of the current state — theme, apps, integrations, data, performance, SEO, and release process — with prioritised recommendations and a view on sequence.
Shopify Plus upgrade evaluation
Whether the capabilities you would be paying for are the ones your roadmap actually depends on, and what the alternative looks like on your current plan.
Replatform decision support
Whether a rebuild is justified, what it would need to deliver to pay for itself, and what could be achieved without one.
Headless and architecture review
An independent read on whether Hydrogen or headless is the right trade, including the operational costs that tend to be left out of the pitch.
Agency selection
A brief specific enough to produce comparable proposals, a shortlist, technical evaluation during pitches, and an assessment weighted toward what predicts delivery.
Proposal review
Independent review of scope, architecture, timeline credibility, and commercial terms — including saying when a proposal is good.
Project rescue diagnosis
Where a build has stalled: what actually went wrong, what is recoverable, and what the realistic options are from here.
Roadmap and sequencing
What to do in what order, given your team, budget, and trading calendar. Sequence is frequently worth more than the individual items on the list.
App stack rationalisation
What each app is actually doing, what overlaps, what is costing performance, and what could be replaced by native platform capability.
Expansion store strategy
Whether additional storefronts are the right structure for new markets or brands, and what should be shared between them versus genuinely local.
B2B strategy
Whether B2B on Shopify fits your wholesale model or whether the two businesses are different enough to warrant separation.
Retained advisory
Ongoing access for decisions as they arise, typically a few days a month, for teams that want independent judgement available rather than assembled per crisis.
Process
How a consulting engagement runs
Framing the decision
What is actually being decided, who has to agree, what has already been tried, and what a good outcome would look like twelve months out. Decisions are often framed too narrowly at the point someone asks for help.
Evidence gathering
Analytics, Search Console, the storefront, the theme and app stack, integration documentation, and any proposals on the table. Where the data is unreliable, that itself is a finding.
Stakeholder interviews
The internal team, the current agency where appropriate, and the commercial owners. The disagreements surfaced here are usually more informative than the documentation.
Analysis
Options assessed against cost, risk, time to value, and what each would actually change. Including, explicitly, the option of doing nothing.
Written recommendation
A document with the recommendation, the reasoning, the alternatives considered, and an honest account of what remains uncertain. Written, so it survives the meeting.
Presentation and challenge
Walked through with the people who have to act on it, with time set aside to argue. A recommendation that has not been challenged has not been tested.
Execution support
Optional: brief writing, agency selection, or acting as technical counterpart during delivery so the decisions made in the assessment survive contact with the build.
Consultant vs. agency
Two different things to buy
Both are legitimate. The mistake is buying the second when you needed the first, which is how most unjustified rebuilds start.
Who we work with
Where independent advice earns its fee
The common factor is a decision large enough that the cost of being wrong exceeds the cost of getting a second opinion.
Scaling DTC brands
Past the point where the original build holds up, deciding whether to invest in the current store or start again. Almost always the former, more often than the proposals suggest.
Brands on legacy platforms
Magento, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, or a custom build, weighing a move to Shopify Plus. Migration cost and risk are usually underestimated on both sides of the argument.
Multi-brand groups
Several storefronts and a question about consolidation, shared infrastructure, and where central control helps versus where it slows brands down.
Wholesale-led businesses
Established B2B operations adding DTC, or DTC brands formalising wholesale. The question is usually whether one instance can serve both honestly.
International expansion
Deciding between Markets on one store and expansion stores per region, with tax, fulfilment, and content implications that outweigh the technical ones.
Private equity and investor-backed
Technical due diligence on an ecommerce asset, or post-acquisition assessment of what the platform can actually support against the growth plan.
Brands with internal engineering
Teams that can build but want an independent read on architecture, or a neutral party to resolve a disagreement with an external agency.
Post-failed-project
Where a build has stalled or been delivered badly, and the priority is an accurate account of what happened before deciding what to do next.
Deliverables
What you get
Scope varies by engagement. This is the shape of a full platform assessment and decision-support engagement.
Assessment
- Written platform assessment with prioritised findings
- Current-state architecture documentation
- App stack audit with consolidation opportunities
- Integration landscape and failure-mode review
- Performance and SEO position summary
- An explicit account of what is uncertain
Decision support
- Options assessed on cost, risk, and time to value
- The do-nothing option evaluated seriously
- Written recommendation with reasoning
- Alternatives considered and why they were not chosen
- Sequencing plan
Agency and vendor
- Requirements brief specific enough for comparable bids
- Shortlist with evaluation criteria
- Technical participation in pitches
- Proposal review covering scope, architecture, and terms
- Commercial terms review
Ongoing
- Retained advisory days
- Technical counterpart during delivery
- Architecture decision review
- Roadmap review against results
Why Conversion
How we work
The fee does not depend on the answer
Consulting engagements are scoped and priced separately from any build. The recommendation is not contingent on us executing it, which is the only arrangement under which it can be trusted.
We recommend doing nothing when that is right
The most valuable engagements often end with a smaller project, or none. That outcome is harder to sell and considerably more useful.
Practitioners, not career advisors
We build and run Shopify stores. The advice comes from having delivered the work and seen what actually goes wrong, not from a framework.
Written, so it survives the meeting
Recommendations are documented with reasoning, alternatives, and uncertainties. Decisions made in a room get relitigated; decisions written down get executed.
We work with your internal team
Internal teams usually know what is wrong. An assessment that talks over them does not get implemented, however correct it is.
We will point you elsewhere
If the work needed is outside our strength, we will say so and help you find a better fit. That costs us a project and keeps the advice worth having.
Questions
Shopify Plus consulting, answered
What does a Shopify Plus consultant do?
How is a consultant different from an agency?
Should we upgrade to Shopify Plus?
What does a Shopify Plus consultant cost?
When is the right time to bring in a consultant?
Can you give a second opinion on an agency proposal?
Do you help select an agency?
What does a platform assessment cover?
Should we go headless?
Can you work alongside our internal team?
What if your advice is that we should not do the project?
Do you take the build after the consulting?
Related
Explore related services
Where the advice leads to delivery, these are the areas it usually points at.
Shopify Plus Agency
Delivery on the Plus platform once the decision is made.
ExploreShopify Plus Development
Checkout extensibility, Functions, B2B, and ERP integration.
ExploreShopify Migration Agency
Replatforming without losing search equity.
ExploreShopify Hydrogen Agency
Headless storefronts, and honest advice on whether you need one.
ExploreShopify CRO Agency
Testing programmes that answer questions a rebuild cannot.
ExploreShopify Plus Pricing Guide
What Plus costs and what the platform fee actually covers.
Explore