How to Hire a Shopify Expert
So you need a website to showcase your amazing brand or service? You may have done some research on different website platforms to build on and have decided on Shopify. Now you need a Shopify expert to design and/or develop your website to attract new customers or clients. Where do you start?
1) Determine what kind of help you need with your Shopify website. (We know this may be hard, especially if you have never launched a website!) Do you need help with designing, development, or maintenance? Knowing your requirements will help you find the right Shopify expert for the job.
Let’s break that down further.
Designing: A Shopify designer will design the layout of the page (front-end). This is what the page looks like when someone types in your website address into the search bar or googles you. A designer can create these layouts in a number of software options like Figma, Adobe Photoshop, etc. You may still need someone else to make that design come to life if the designer is not a developer as well.
Developing: A Shopify website developer will work on the back end of the website, setting up all the sections so that your design can shine. They will most often utilize a design you as the client provide.
Both Designing and Developers: They are individuals and agencies who specialize in both. Called full-stack (referring to both the front and back end of the website) they can design websites and develop them so that you have a working website. (Renaissance Labs can do both but more on that later.)
Maintenance: This is updating, refreshing, and optimizing a website that already exists. Maybe you want a visual refresh to look more modern or you want to improve your onsite conversion rate? A Shopify expert can help with this as well.
2) When selecting the right Shopify expert, look at the individuals’ experience in developing and customizing Shopify websites. Ask for a portfolio of their previous work and go to those websites and check them out. Click around on the links and images. Is the site something you as a consumer would like to shop? Is it easy to navigate? Is the site visually pleasing?
3) Contact the Shopify expert you are interested in. Schedule an interview to discuss your project requirements, timelines, and budget. Use this opportunity to assess their communication skills and work approach to your website.
4) Once you have a Shopify expert you want to hire, align on the project details like how many web pages you need and the scope of work, who will be developing the content (images and copy), expected milestones, timeline, and deliverables. The Shopify expert should also be able to tell you what is and isn’t achievable given your constraints.
5) Sign a contract based on theagreeable uponn timelines, budget, and scope of work discussed. This will ensure that both parties have a clear understanding of the project scope and expectations.
If you are in need of a Shopify expert please get in touch via the contact form or by emailing info (at) renaissancelabs.nyc. We have built countless high-converting websites from scratch (meaning front-end design and back-end development to make it appear online) and worked to improve the optimization of large corporation websites like DIRECTV.
