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Shopify Development Agency

Shopify Development — custom themes, Hydrogen, Plus migrations.

Custom Shopify themes, Hydrogen storefronts, Shopify Plus customisations and app integrations — by certified Shopify Partners who've scaled brands from launch to $50M+ ARR.

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  • Certified Shopify Partners since 2018
  • Custom themes + Hydrogen + Plus migrations
  • Top-decile mobile conversion benchmarks
What is Shopify Development?

Shopify Development — explained without the jargon.

Shopify is the right platform for 80% of D2C brands launching today. The challenge isn't Shopify — it's knowing which version (Liquid, Hydrogen, Plus) to use, which apps actually move metrics versus add bloat, and how to customise without locking you out of theme updates. Our team has shipped 90+ Shopify stores, includes certified Shopify Partners, and works on builds from launch-day MVPs to $50M+ ARR Shopify Plus operations.

Why it matters

Three things most teams get wrong about shopify development.

01

Shopify scales further than you think

Most "Shopify can't handle this" complaints come from theme limitations, not platform limitations. Custom themes solve most of it.

02

App stack matters as much as code

Most stores have 30+ apps eating performance, conflicting with each other and bleeding budget. App audit is half the job.

03

Liquid → Hydrogen is real

For brands at $5M+ ARR, Hydrogen (React-based) opens up custom UX that Liquid can't match — without leaving Shopify.

What's included

Everything we ship under Shopify Development.

01

Custom Shopify themes

Built from scratch in Liquid. Lightweight, fast, designed for your brand.

02

Hydrogen storefronts

React-based headless storefronts with Shopify backend. For brands that have outgrown Liquid.

03

Shopify Plus customisation

Plus-specific features: B2B, multi-store, custom checkout via Checkout Extensions, Scripts.

04

App stack audit & integration

Reduce app bloat, integrate the ones you need (Klaviyo, Recharge, Loop, Stamped) without performance hit.

05

Checkout extensibility

Custom checkout UI for Shopify Plus. Upsells, address validation, discount logic.

06

CRO retainers

Ongoing experimentation, A/B testing, mobile checkout optimisation, AOV growth.

Our process

How we deliver shopify development.

A predictable 5-step engagement — no surprises, no scope creep, no theatre.

  1. 1

    Discovery

    Catalogue, app stack, integration map, design direction.

    Week 1
  2. 2

    Theme design

    Brand design system, key templates, mobile-first.

    Weeks 2-3
  3. 3

    Theme engineering

    Liquid or Hydrogen build, 2-week sprints.

    Weeks 3-8
  4. 4

    Migration / QA

    Migrate from current theme, test checkout, payment, shipping flows.

    Weeks 8-9
  5. 5

    Launch + CRO

    Launch, monitor, begin CRO retainer for ongoing optimisation.

    Week 10+
Tools we use

Battle-tested stack.

Shopify CLI Liquid Hydrogen Oxygen Shopify GraphQL API Storefront API Klaviyo Recharge
Industries we serve

Vertical expertise.

D2C Beauty
Fashion & Apparel
Home & Furniture
Food & Beverage
Supplements
Pet Products
Subscription Boxes
Print on Demand
Shopify Development · Case Study

D2C food brand: Liquid → Hydrogen, +71% mobile conversion

A D2C food brand at $8M ARR was stuck at PageSpeed 38 on mobile due to 32 installed apps and a heavily customised Out of the Sandbox theme. We replatformed to Hydrogen, kept their Shopify backend, rebuilt the storefront in React, integrated only the 8 apps they actually needed, and shipped in 6 weeks. Mobile conversion +71%, AOV +41% via better cross-sell logic.

See all case studies
+71%
Mobile CVR
<1.4s
LCP
+41%
AOV
6 wks
Migration time
Why Hitman Digital

Four reasons clients choose us for shopify development.

Certified Shopify Partners

Direct Shopify Plus relationships, early access to platform features, deep platform knowledge.

Hydrogen specialists

We've shipped 18 Hydrogen storefronts and counting. Most agencies have shipped zero.

App stack rationalisation

Half of every Shopify project is reducing app bloat. We know which apps to keep.

CRO + technical together

Theme build + ongoing CRO under one team. No "your dev agency vs your CRO agency" politics.

FAQ

Questions you were going to ask anyway.

Liquid vs Hydrogen — which?
Liquid for stores under ~$5M ARR or with simple UX needs. Hydrogen for stores with complex interactivity, design systems that exceed Liquid's patterns, or where mobile performance is critical. Hydrogen costs 1.5-2× more to build but unlocks differentiation Liquid can't.
Should I be on Shopify Plus?
If you're doing $1M+ ARR, probably yes — Plus unlocks Checkout Extensions, Scripts, B2B, multi-store, and better support. Standard Shopify is fine below that. We'll model the ROI per business.
How long does a custom Shopify theme take?
6-10 weeks for a Liquid custom theme. 10-16 weeks for a Hydrogen storefront. Plus migrations: add 2-4 weeks for the platform move.
Can I keep my existing apps?
Most likely. As part of the rebuild we do an app audit — keep what drives revenue, remove what adds bloat. Average brand drops 40-60% of installed apps.
Do you do Shopify SEO?
Yes — see Ecommerce SEO Services. Shopify SEO is a specialised sub-discipline due to faceted nav handling, /products/ URL constraints and theme-level optimisation needs.
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