Shopify website design
Shopify website design for UK businesses
We build Shopify stores that load quickly, are simple to run once we hand them over, and stay yours whatever happens next. The price is agreed before any work starts. There is no rolling contract and no lock-in, and the store, the domain and the accounts are in your name from day one.
Selected work
Live sites you can open and judge for yourself
Trades, clinics, shops, transport firms and professional services. More than 200 websites since 2022, for businesses from one person trades to teams of fifty. Open any site below on your phone, see how fast it loads and how it reads. That is the standard your site gets.
Keegan ElectricalElectrical contractorOpen the live site →
Static SolarSolar installationOpen the live site →
Offsite GroupConstructionOpen the live site →
Your Family MedicalMedical practiceOpen the live site →
Dr Bella MarkerHealthcare practitionerOpen the live site →
Mindful MosaicCounsellingOpen the live site →
Precision Paralegal SupportLegal supportOpen the live site →
Wealth Way CapitalFinanceOpen the live site →
One Drop FMFacilities managementOpen the live site →
Pelican ServicesTrade servicesOpen the live site →
Piano PickupSpecialist removalsOpen the live site →
Moments by MRPhotographyOpen the live site →
Jordan BS MediaMedia productionOpen the live site →
Next SwingSport and leisureOpen the live site →
Dane ThornburghPersonal brandingOpen the live site →Most of the work above sits with clients in Australia. We work with businesses across the UK on exactly the same basis, and you deal with the two of us either way.
Is it the right platform
When Shopify is the right choice, and when it is not
Shopify is a very good platform for a certain shape of business and a poor one for others. We would rather say so at the enquiry stage than build you something you will want to move off in a year.
Shopify suits you when
You are selling physical products and want the selling side handled for you.
- You want hosting, security and checkout maintained by the platform rather than by you
- You sell in person as well as online and want stock counted in one place
- You ship to more than one country and need tax and currency handled
- You want to add products yourself without breaking the layout
- You would rather pay a monthly platform fee than manage updates
Shopify is the wrong tool when
The store is not really the point, or the checkout needs to behave in an unusual way.
- Most of your traffic comes from articles, guides or a large content library
- You sell services or take bookings and have nothing to post
- You need the checkout itself heavily customised on a small budget
- Your pricing depends on complex customer-specific rules
- You want to own and host every part of the system yourself
If that second list sounds more like you, WordPress development or a WooCommerce build is usually the better answer.
The platform cost
What Shopify costs you before we charge a penny
Our build fee is one cost. The platform is another, and it carries on every month after we hand over. Most agencies leave you to find this out later, so here it is up front, taken straight from Shopify UK.
Basic
£19/mo
billed yearly, or £25 monthly
2% + 25p online card rate
2% third-party gateway fee
No extra staff accounts
10 inventory locations
Grow
£49/mo
billed yearly, or £65 monthly
1.7% + 25p online card rate
1% third-party gateway fee
Up to 5 staff accounts
10 inventory locations
Advanced
£259/mo
billed yearly, or £344 monthly
1.5% + 25p online card rate
0.6% third-party gateway fee
Up to 15 staff accounts
Live third-party shipping rates
Plus
£1,800/mo
from, on a term commitment
1.3% + 25p online card rate
0.2% third-party gateway fee
Unlimited staff accounts
Fully customisable checkout
Figures verified against the Shopify UK pricing page in August 2026. Shopify changes these from time to time, so check the current rate before you commit. Bar lengths show the online card rate relative to the Basic plan.
Almost every UK shop we build starts on Basic or Grow. Advanced only starts paying for itself at real volume, and Plus is an enterprise product. If anyone tells you a new store needs Advanced on day one, ask them to show you the arithmetic.
The fee nobody mentions
The fee most UK shops miss until the invoice arrives
If you take payments through anything other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds a third-party transaction fee on top of whatever your payment provider already charges. It is 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus.
Here is what that one line costs a store turning over £10,000 a month, before card fees.
Set up on Shopify Payments and the fee disappears entirely. That is a ten minute job during the build, and it is one of the first things we check on any store we take over.
Included as standard
What is included in a Shopify build with us
A store is not finished when it looks right. It is finished when someone can buy from it on a phone, on a poor signal, and the order reaches you correctly. Every build covers the following.
Theme chosen for your catalogue
We pick the theme around how many products you have and how they need browsing, not around which demo store looked best.
Product and collection templates
Set up once, properly, so every product you add later inherits the same layout without you touching the design.
Checkout tested end to end
We place real test orders on a phone and a desktop and follow them through to the confirmation email before launch.
Payments configured correctly
Shopify Payments set up where it suits you, so you are not paying the third-party gateway fee for no reason.
Shipping and postage rules
Royal Mail bands, courier rates, free delivery thresholds and click and collect built around how you actually post things.
UK VAT handled from the start
Rates set correctly for UK sales, and for elsewhere if you ship abroad, so the numbers on your orders are right.
Apps kept to a sensible minimum
Every app is a monthly cost and a speed penalty. We use the ones that earn their place and no more.
Analytics and Search Console
Connected and verified on day one, so you have real data from the first week rather than starting again in month three.
Migrating in
Moving to Shopify from another platform
Most people who ask us about Shopify already have a store somewhere else. The worry is never the design. It is losing rankings, losing order history, or being offline on a Tuesday morning with no warning. Here is how a move actually runs.
Every page and product mapped first
Before anything is built we list every URL on the current site and decide where it lands on the new one, so search results and old links keep working.
Your store built and tested in private
The new store is built on a password-protected address. Nothing changes on your live site while the work happens.
A short, planned switchover window
You get a date and a time. The domain points at the new store, we watch it, and we confirm when it is done.
Orders and customer data brought across
Products, customers and order history are migrated so your records do not start from zero on launch day.
A walkthrough, not just a login
We sit with you and go through adding a product, editing a page and processing an order, then you keep the recording.
The process
How a Shopify build runs
Four stages, each with something you can look at before the next one starts. You are never waiting weeks wondering what is happening.
Products and structure
We work out how the catalogue is organised, what a customer needs to see to buy, and what your postage rules really are.
Store built in private
Theme set up, templates built, products loaded. You get a private link and can look at progress whenever you want.
Payments, postage, test orders
Everything on the money side is configured and tested with real orders before a single customer sees the store.
Launch and handover
The store goes live on your domain, analytics is verified, and you get the walkthrough and the logins.
Platform choice
Shopify or WooCommerce, honestly
We build both, so we have no reason to push you either way. The honest summary is that Shopify costs more each month and asks less of you, and WooCommerce costs less each month and asks more.
Monthly cost
A plan fee every month, from £19 upward, plus any paid apps.
No platform fee. You pay for hosting, and for plugins you choose to license.
Who keeps it running
Shopify handles hosting, security and platform updates.
You or your agency handle updates, backups and hosting. That is what a maintenance plan covers.
Checkout
Fast and proven, but you can only customise it so far below Plus.
Fully under your control, which is useful for unusual pricing or ordering rules.
Content and blogging
Workable, but not its strength.
Stronger, because it is WordPress underneath.
Getting out later
Products and customers export cleanly, but themes and apps do not come with you.
You own the whole thing including the database, so a move is a server move.
More on the WooCommerce side is on our ecommerce page, and the platform itself is covered under WordPress development. Either way, ongoing care is handled by our website maintenance plans.
Coverage
Where we work
We build Shopify stores for businesses anywhere in the UK, and a good share of the work is done over a call and a shared screen. Our UK business partner is based in County Durham, so if you are in the North East and would rather sit down with someone, that is straightforward to arrange.
Pricing
How much does a Shopify store cost to build?
A first Shopify store starts at £350 plus VAT. Beyond that the price follows the catalogue, so a larger store or a move from another platform is quoted once we know what is involved. Whatever the figure, it is agreed in writing before we start. If the scope changes we tell you the cost before we do the work, not after. Shopify charge you for their own plan directly, so nothing is marked up through us.
Starter store
From £350A first Shopify store with a straightforward catalogue.
- Theme setup and brand applied
- Up to 25 products loaded
- Payments, postage and VAT configured
- Test orders and launch
- Handover walkthrough
Full store
QuoteA larger catalogue, or a business already selling and wanting better.
- Everything in Starter store
- Larger catalogue with collections
- Custom product template work
- Discounts and abandoned cart set up
- Analytics and Search Console
Migration
QuoteMoving an existing store onto Shopify without losing ground.
- Full URL mapping and redirects
- Products, customers and order history
- Private build and planned switchover
- Post-launch checks
- Handover walkthrough
Shopify plan fees, paid app subscriptions, premium themes and card processing charges sit outside these figures and are paid by you directly to the provider. We tell you what they come to before you commit.
Looking after the site afterwards starts at £25 a month. Updates, backups, monitoring and security, billed monthly with no minimum term.
See care plansQuestions
Common questions about Shopify builds
You do. The Shopify account, the domain and the payment accounts are all in your name. We work as a collaborator on your store, and you can remove that access at any point without anything breaking.
A straightforward store is usually a few weeks from the point we have your products and content. A migration takes longer because the mapping work has to be done properly first. We give you a date range before we start.
Yes. Our fee covers the build. Shopify charge you their plan fee monthly and their card rate per sale, paid directly to them. We do not add anything on top of that.
Almost always Basic or Grow. Basic is fine for a new store. Grow is worth it once you have staff who need their own logins or your card volume makes the lower rate pay for itself.
That is what the URL mapping stage is for. Every old address gets a redirect to the right new one. Rankings can wobble briefly after any platform move, but a mapped migration protects the work you have already done.
Yes, and that is the point of setting the templates up properly. Adding a product is filling in a form. You will not need us for day to day changes, and the handover walkthrough covers it.
Only if you want one. Shopify handles hosting and platform updates itself, so a Shopify store needs less ongoing care than WordPress. If you want us on hand for changes, our maintenance plans cover that.
Tell us what you sell and we will tell you what it costs
Send us a rough idea of your product range and where you are selling now. You will get a straight answer on whether Shopify is the right fit, and a fixed price if it is.
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