Shopify

Shopify stores that are quick, and whose email actually arrives.

Shopify removes most of the infrastructure work, which is why the problems that remain cluster in two places: theme performance once a dozen apps are installed, and notification email that fails authentication because the sending domain was never configured. We work on both.

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You might need this if

  • Order confirmations and shipping notifications are landing in customers’ spam folders.
  • The store sends from a Shopify address instead of your own domain — or from your domain, and fails DMARC.
  • Page speed collapsed after installing apps, and nobody knows which one is responsible.
  • Theme customisations were made directly in the live theme with no version history.
  • Abandoned-cart and marketing email share a reputation with transactional order mail.
  • You are migrating from another platform and worried about URLs, redirects and rankings.

What the work covers

Not every engagement includes all of this. The scope is agreed in writing before anything starts.

  • Store setup and configuration

    Products, collections, variants, shipping zones, taxes, payment providers and checkout settings configured to match how the business actually operates.

  • Notification email and deliverability

    Sender domain authentication for Shopify notifications, including the DNS records Shopify requires, with DMARC alignment verified rather than assumed. This is the part most stores skip.

  • Theme development and customisation

    Liquid theme work done in a development theme under version control, so changes can be reviewed and rolled back instead of edited live.

  • Performance tuning

    Auditing installed apps for the scripts they inject, deferring what can be deferred, fixing image sizing, and removing the apps no longer earning their load cost.

  • App and system integration

    Connecting Shopify to the tools you already run — email platforms, accounting, fulfilment, analytics — through supported APIs rather than brittle workarounds.

  • Platform migration

    Moving to Shopify from WooCommerce or another platform, with product and customer data mapped and a full redirect map so existing search traffic survives.

How we approach it

  1. 01

    Audit the live store

    Installed apps and their script cost, theme state, email configuration and the current Core Web Vitals, measured rather than estimated.

  2. 02

    Fix deliverability first

    Order confirmations that do not arrive cost more than a slow homepage. Sender authentication is usually the fastest meaningful win on a Shopify store.

  3. 03

    Work in a development theme

    All theme changes happen in a duplicate theme, reviewed on a preview URL, and published only once approved.

  4. 04

    Measure app impact

    Before recommending that an app be removed, we measure what it actually costs in blocking scripts and bytes.

  5. 05

    Document what changed

    A written record of theme changes, DNS records added and apps removed, so the next person is not starting from scratch.

What you end up with

  • A configured store with checkout, shipping and tax settings verified against real orders
  • Authenticated notification email sending from your own domain, with DMARC alignment confirmed
  • Theme changes delivered through a development theme with a rollback path
  • Before-and-after performance measurements for the pages that matter
  • An app inventory listing what each one costs in page weight
  • A redirect map, where the project is a migration

Technologies involved

Tools and standards this work is carried out with — listed because they are what the job uses, not as a claim of vendor partnership.

  • Shopify
  • Liquid
  • Shopify CLI
  • Shopify Admin API
  • Klaviyo
  • SPF / DKIM / DMARC
  • Cloudflare DNS
  • Lighthouse

What this will not do

Shopify controls parts of the sending path for notification email. We can authenticate your domain correctly and align DMARC, but we cannot change how Shopify’s own infrastructure is treated by a receiving provider.

On client examples: we do not publish case studies, logos or testimonials without written permission from the client, and we have none cleared for publication yet. If you need evidence of relevant work before engaging, ask — we will share what we can, appropriately redacted, and say plainly where something was a lab build rather than a client engagement.

Questions about this service

Why are our Shopify order confirmations going to spam?

Most commonly because the sender domain was never authenticated. Shopify sends notification mail on your behalf, and unless you complete the sender-domain setup — publishing the DNS records Shopify provides — the message fails DMARC alignment at any provider that checks it. It is a DNS fix, not a Shopify setting.

Can you tell which app is slowing the store down?

Yes. Installed apps inject scripts into the theme, and a performance trace shows what each one costs in blocking time and transferred bytes. We measure it rather than guessing, because the app people assume is responsible frequently is not.

Will theme changes be made on the live store?

No. Work happens in a duplicate development theme with a preview URL you can review. Nothing is published until you have seen it, and the previous theme stays available to roll back to.

Can you migrate us from WooCommerce without losing search traffic?

Products, collections and customer data map across with care. The part that decides whether traffic survives is the redirect map — every old URL pointing at its new equivalent, prepared before the switch rather than patched afterwards when the rankings have already dropped.

Store email going to spam, or pages loading slowly?

Run the free email health check on your store domain, then send us the result along with your store URL. We will tell you which problem is costing you the most.

Get in touchHow an engagement works

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