The Shopify agency behind 200+ webshops

Anyone looking for a partner for a webshop on Shopify runs into four terms that are used interchangeably. Shopify agency and Shopify bureau mean the same thing: a team that designs, builds and keeps developing webshops on the Shopify platform. One word is English, the other Dutch, and many agencies use both because their clients do. Webfluencer is a Shopify bureau in Amsterdam and a Shopify agency in New York, and it is the same team.

Shopify Partner is something else. It is the status of anyone enrolled in the Shopify Partner Program, from a freelance developer to an agency of dozens. The status says that someone works with the platform, not how many webshops they have delivered or how those perform. Official Shopify Plus Partner is Shopify's additional recognition for agencies that guide enterprise projects on Shopify Plus. It comes with direct access to Shopify's partner organisation and with experience in the parts that only exist on Plus: custom checkout extensions, expansion stores and higher API limits.

Shopify expert and Shopify specialist, finally, are not official titles. They usually refer to an independent developer or a small team. That can be an excellent choice, depending on the work at hand; the third chapter weighs the options.

• Shopify PlusWhat Plus adds and when it pays off, from checkout to expansion stores.

Building a webshop is only part of what a Shopify agency does. The work starts earlier, with the question of what the webshop should do for the brand, and it does not stop at launch. In practice it consists of these parts:

• 01Strategy and positioning: the role of the webshop, which markets, which customer groups (consumer, business or both), and which systems need to connect to it.
• 02Design and development: a custom theme or a configured premium theme, product pages and navigation shaped around the catalogue, and a checkout that fits the customer.
• 03Integrations: ERP, accounting, PIM, warehouse and marketing tools, so orders, stock and customer data move without manual work.
• 04Migration: moving products, customers, orders and URLs from Magento, Lightspeed, WooCommerce or another platform, with redirects and SEO preserved.
• 05B2B: company-specific price lists and catalogues, ordering on account and account structures, available on every Shopify plan since April 2026 and more extensive on Plus.
• 06Ongoing development: conversion optimisation, A/B testing, SEO and new features based on real data from the webshop.

Not every project needs all of them. A brand already running on Shopify usually does not need a new build, but an audit and a plan for further development. A brand coming from another platform has the migration, with its data and rankings intact, as the centre of gravity. The agency you choose should be able to hold both conversations and say honestly when a smaller project is enough.

• Shopify webshop developmentThe build itself: theme or custom, what it costs and how a project runs.
• Shopify migrationMoving from Magento, Lightspeed, WooCommerce and other platforms.
• Shopify B2BWholesale webshops with company catalogues and ordering on account.
• Shopify SEOVisibility on the platform: structure, speed and content.

The choice between an agency and an independent Shopify expert depends on the size and the risk of the work. For a contained job, such as a theme adjustment, an app that needs connecting or a set of product pages that should perform better, an experienced freelancer is often the fastest and most economical route. For a new webshop, a migration or a B2B extension, strategy, design, development, integrations, testing and a plan for after launch come together, and those parts have to fit.

The table sets the differences side by side. Neither column is better in every case; what matters is that the form fits what is at stake.

A hybrid is common too: an agency that does the strategy, the design and the build, and a freelancer or in-house team member who takes over day-to-day management afterwards. A good agency builds for that, with a theme that can be managed through the theme editor and documentation of what is custom.

Almost every Shopify agency shows cases and logos on its website. The difference lies in what happens in the first conversation. These eight questions quickly show whether an agency fits your project:

• 01Which webshops have you built that resemble mine, in catalogue, market or complexity, and may I speak to someone there?
• 02Who will work on my project, and are design and development in the same team?
• 03How do you handle integrations with my ERP, accounting or warehouse, and which have you built before?
• 04How do you preserve my data, URLs and rankings in a migration?
• 05Do you build a custom theme or configure an existing one, and when do you recommend which route?
• 06How is the quote structured: scoped up front, or hourly afterwards?
• 07What happens after launch: who watches conversion, speed and SEO, and how are new requests handled?
• 08Are you a Shopify Partner or an Official Shopify Plus Partner, and what does that mean in practice for my project?

In the answers, look for specifics above all. An agency that understands your situation names examples from comparable projects, points out what will be difficult, and sometimes recommends a smaller project than you asked for. That is the agency you will still want to call after launch.

The cost of a Shopify agency consists of the one-off project and the costs after launch. The one-off part is driven by five factors: the choice between a configured premium theme and a custom design, the number and complexity of integrations, whether a migration is involved and how large it is, whether the webshop also needs to sell to businesses, and how many markets and languages it launches in. A theme build for one market without integrations sits at one end; a custom Plus implementation with an ERP integration and several expansion stores at the other.

Then there are the costs of the platform itself: the Shopify subscription, transaction fees, paid apps and the theme if you buy one. Those go to Shopify and to app developers, not to the agency, but a good agency includes them in its advice so you know the full picture before you start.

Webfluencer works from a scoped quote instead of billing by the hour. After a first conversation about goals, catalogue and systems, you receive a proposal in which the components, the choices and the investment are fixed up front. What happens after launch, from ongoing optimisation to individual extensions, is agreed separately, so you know where you stand at every stage.

• What a Shopify project costsTheme or custom, the factors that drive the investment and how a build runs.
• Book a strategy callA first conversation about your goals, catalogue and systems, followed by a scoped quote.