Payments + tax handled
Shopify Payments, Stripe, Braintree, PayPal, Klarna, Afterpay — supported out of the box. Tax handled in 70+ jurisdictions without bolt-ons.
Shopify Development
Shopify Development Built for Conversion and SEO
We build Shopify and Shopify Plus stores — themes, headless Hydrogen storefronts, custom apps, B2B catalogs — engineered for green Core Web Vitals, schema coverage, and a content model your merchandising team can ship from without a developer.
200+
Shopify stores shipped
theme + headless
40%
Median CR uplift
90 days post-launch
<2.5s
LCP target
product detail / collection
99.95%
Uptime
Shopify Plus tier
What "Shopify development" means here
Shopify development at SeoMata covers theme customisation, headless Hydrogen storefronts, custom apps, payment + ERP integration, B2B catalogue work and merchandising automation. We default to keeping you on standard Shopify (or Plus) when that fits the use case, and only go headless when there is a clear reason — usually a custom catalogue, content-heavy storefront, or multi-region B2B story.
Every store we ship lands with: a documented content model, green Core Web Vitals on real devices, full schema (Product, Offer, Review, BreadcrumbList, Organization), GA4 + server-side tagging, and a runbook for your merch + marketing teams.
0
Theme drift
we version themes; no edit-in-admin
100%
Schema coverage
product + collection
< 1d
New product page
merchandiser → live
Why Shopify
Six reasons we default to Shopify for DTC + service-product hybrids
Predictable performance
Hosted infrastructure, edge caching, image CDN. We do not lose nights to "your VPS is overloaded" alerts.
Liquid + checkout API
Liquid lets us ship the right markup for SEO; checkout API (Plus) lets us own the conversion flow when the standard checkout limits us.
App ecosystem
Klaviyo, Recharge, Yotpo, Gorgias, Loop returns, Postscript — every app you would ever need has a battle-tested integration.
Hydrogen + Oxygen
When the storefront needs custom UI or shared content with a marketing site, Hydrogen on Oxygen gives us full React control without losing Shopify checkout.
Reporting + ShopifyQL
Cohort, RFM, attribution-segmented reporting. ShopifyQL queries pulled into Looker or PostHog when finance needs a single source of truth.
Services
Six Shopify services we ship in production
Theme build / customisation
Custom Online Store 2.0 themes built from scratch or premium-theme customisation. Sections + blocks for merchandiser flexibility.
Headless Hydrogen
Full React storefront on Oxygen edge, sharing content with your marketing site. Used when SEO + custom UX justify the lift.
Shopify Plus checkout extensions
Checkout UI extensions, Functions API for shipping / payment / discount, Web Pixels for analytics. Plus-only territory.
B2B catalogue
Company accounts, multi-tier pricing, net-payment terms, quote-to-cart, custom catalog scoping per buyer.
Subscriptions + recurring
Recharge, Skio, or native Subscriptions API integration, with merchandising for one-time + subscription hybrid catalogs.
Integration layer
Klaviyo, Postscript, Triple Whale, Gorgias, NetSuite / Shipstation / DEAR / Cin7 — wired with retry + dedupe, owned by us not by an app.
Process
Six-stage Shopify build process
Audit + plan
Crawl, GA4 + Shopify analytics review, conversion funnel, merch flow, integrations inventory. Output: brief + priority list.
IA + content model
Collection structure, product field model, metafield strategy, URL plan, redirect map for replatforms.
Theme / Hydrogen build
Sections + blocks (Liquid) or routes + components (Hydrogen) on staging URL from week one.
Integrations
Klaviyo, Recharge, Yotpo, analytics, ERP, ATS — wired against test creds, named owners both sides.
QA + perf
Cross-device, Lighthouse ≥ 90, axe-core, full checkout test on all payment methods, content QA on every templated page.
Launch + 30 days
Cutover, GSC + Sitemap, monitoring; weekly checkpoints; runbook handoff at day 30.
Decision aid
Premium theme vs SeoMata custom build
| Premium theme (Dawn / 3rd-party) | SeoMata custom build | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to launch | 2–4 weeks | 8–14 weeks |
| Up-front cost | Low | Medium |
| Merch velocity | Good if catalogue fits theme assumptions | Excellent — sections + blocks designed around your catalogue |
| SEO ceiling | Capped — schema, URL pattern, content modules fixed | Unbounded — IA + content model designed for your topical map |
| Performance | Often degrades with app stack | Lighthouse ≥ 90 on launch, monitored |
| Plus features (Functions, Checkout) | Limited | Full — design + checkout owned |
For < USD 500k GMV / year stores we often recommend Dawn + 2-week customisation, plus a year-2 upgrade path.
Scope
What ships with the standard scope
Audit + content model
Crawl, analytics, merch flow review, content model with metafield strategy.
Theme or Hydrogen build
Custom OS 2.0 theme or Hydrogen storefront on Oxygen edge.
Schema coverage
Product, Offer, Review / AggregateRating, BreadcrumbList, Organization — validated in CI.
GA4 + server-side tagging
GA4 events for view_item / add_to_cart / begin_checkout / purchase; SST optional.
Integrations
Klaviyo, Recharge, Yotpo, Gorgias, ERP — your stack, our wiring.
Checkout QA
Every payment method (Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Stripe, PayPal, Klarna) tested before launch.
Editor training
Merch + marketing video walkthrough + runbook in repo.
30-day post-launch care
Weekly checkpoints, hotfix budget, full uptime + error monitoring.
Portfolio
Recent Shopify and ecommerce work
Perf + SEO
How we hold ecommerce Core Web Vitals green
Shopify themes are notorious for shipping bloated. Most stores we audit are running 12–20 apps, each injecting JS into the storefront. By launch day, the median INP is well over 500 ms and LCP over 4 seconds. Both numbers tank rankings on competitive product queries.
Our default approach: a strict app budget (every app must justify its JS cost), deferred or fully-removed analytics tags that double up with Shopify's native ones, image policy enforced via Shopify's native image CDN, and a theme/Hydrogen build that ships hero + first-fold in HTML so the LCP element is never JS-mounted. We measure on real devices in CI and block merges that regress beyond 5 points.
On SEO: schema is assigned per template (Product, AggregateRating, BreadcrumbList, Organization), JSON-LD shipped at build time, and validated in CI. Collection pages get proper H1 (not just the collection title), filter URLs are managed (canonical or noindex depending on intent), and pagination is `rel="next/prev"` plus crawlable. Internal-link patterns mirror what we ship on non-commerce builds — hub-and-spoke with related-product modules.
Common Shopify scoping questions
Theme or Hydrogen?
Default to theme unless one of these is true: (1) you need a fully custom storefront UX that does not fit Sections, (2) you are merging marketing site + store into one stack, (3) you have a multi-region or multi-tenant story where Hydrogen on Oxygen makes a real difference. Otherwise stay on theme — it is faster, cheaper, and the Plus checkout is the same.
Can you migrate us from BigCommerce / Magento / WooCommerce?
Yes — full product, customer, order, redirect, and SEO migration. We have shipped 30+ migrations; the playbook keeps organic traffic within 2% of baseline through cutover in most cases.
Do you handle apps like Klaviyo and Recharge?
Yes — those plus Yotpo, Gorgias, Postscript, Recharge, Skio, Loop, ReConvert and the standard ERP integrations. Each comes with a custom wiring that bypasses default theme integrations to keep performance green.
How long does a build take?
8–14 weeks for a typical 100–500 SKU store including 3–5 integrations. Larger Plus / B2B / Hydrogen builds run 14–22 weeks.
Do we keep our existing apps?
We audit them at kickoff. Most stores can drop 4–6 apps because the functionality is duplicated, native to Shopify, or absorbing performance budget for marginal value.
Will the new theme work with our existing inventory / ERP?
Yes — that is the integration layer. We rebuild the wiring on launch, with named owners on both sides and a contract test suite so an ERP change does not break the storefront.
Ready to scope a Shopify build?
Start with a free 30-minute Shopify audit. We will look at the current theme, the app stack, the conversion funnel, and write back with a prioritised opportunity list — usually within 3 business days.
Related services
Explore related services
Next step
Get a Free Shopify Store Audit
Start with a free Shopify audit. SeoMata will identify the storefront, SEO, performance, and conversion gaps holding your store back — and benchmark them against best-in-category Shopify Plus builds.