Top 10 Shopify Agencies in the UK

Choosing a Shopify agency is one of the more consequential decisions an ecommerce business makes, and the UK market gives you no shortage of options. The difficulty is not finding an agency. It is working out which one is built for the problem you actually have.

A design led studio producing beautiful direct to consumer storefronts and an engineering heavy Plus partner handling enterprise integrations are both good agencies. They are not interchangeable, and hiring the wrong type costs about as much as hiring nobody. This guide lists ten UK Shopify agencies, explains what each is built to do well, and sets out how to verify an agency's claims before you sign.

A note on our own position. Why Matters is a Shopify agency and we appear in this list, labelled as our agency. Our guides to WordPress agencies, Magento agencies and PPC agencies are written from outside those markets. This one is not, and we have said so plainly rather than leaving you to work it out.

Key Takeaways

• The numbers in this list are not a ranking. The right agency depends on your project, stage and budget, not on who appears first.
• Shopify retired the Experts brand in December 2023 and the standalone Shopify Plus Partner programme in December 2024, so an agency still advertising either is quoting a badge that no longer exists.
• Shopify's partner tiers measure commercial impact, meaning revenue brought to Shopify and merchants acquired, not build quality.
• Almost every performance figure agencies publish about themselves is unaudited, so treat project counts and sales totals as marketing.
• Ask how an agency handles redirect mapping before you ask to see its portfolio: it separates a build shop from an ecommerce partner.
• Speak to two or three agencies. Most of our clients tell us they spoke to three before appointing us.

Quick Answer

There is no single best Shopify agency in the UK; the best one for you has the specialism your project needs. For enterprise Shopify Plus builds and complex international work, Eastside Co, We Make Websites and Velstar have the deepest delivery experience. For design led direct to consumer work, Charle and Underwaterpistol are strong. For migrations where organic traffic must be protected, Fourmeta and Kubix Media are worth shortlisting. For merchants who want design, development, SEO, email and subscriptions handled by one specialist team, Why Matters is built for that model. Shortlist two or three and compare how each would approach your project, not just the price.

Table of Contents

• How We Selected These Agencies
• Why Matters
• Eastside Co
• Charle
• Swanky
• We Make Websites
• Kubix Media
• Blubolt
• Fourmeta
• Velstar
• Underwaterpistol
• Quick Comparison Table
• What Do Shopify Partner Tiers Actually Measure?
• How Do You Choose the Right Shopify Agency?
• What Should a Shopify Agency Cost in the UK?
• Why Matters Perspective
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Final Thoughts
• Related Articles

How We Selected These Agencies

We selected agencies on four things: Shopify specialism rather than Shopify as one service among many, a published body of relevant work, a clearly identifiable strength that makes them the right answer for a particular kind of project, and a verifiable UK base. The numbering is for navigation only.

We have also left out the performance figures that usually fill agency roundups, such as project totals, cumulative merchant sales and award counts, because none of them are audited. We describe what each agency is built to do, link to its own website so you can check the details, and explain how to verify the rest yourself. Every claim here about Shopify's own programmes is sourced to Shopify's published documentation.

1. Why Matters (our agency)

Location: Brighton. Specialism: Shopify design and development, SEO, Klaviyo email, paid media and Recharge subscriptions. Notable clients: Halo Coffee, Gunna, Mama Bamboo.

Why Matters is a specialist Shopify ecommerce agency that combines design and development with in house Shopify SEO, Klaviyo email marketing, PPC, social media and Recharge subscriptions. We work only on Shopify, so nobody on the team splits their attention across platforms.

What separates us from most Shopify agencies is scope. Many focus on design and build, then refer SEO and email elsewhere. We run the growth stack in one team, and we work from our own numbers: across the 265 Shopify stores we audited in the 12 months to September 2026, the median conversion rate was 1.7%, and our migrations average about one month from kick off to launch.

We are a Shopify Select partner with Verified Skills across development and marketing, and a Klaviyo, Recharge, Awin, Meta and TikTok partner. On our own terms, since this guide asks you to demand transparency: our pricing is published on our website, retainers start from £650 a month, clients are billed one month in arrears and are not tied into long contracts, and development projects carry a 3 month guarantee. Video reviews from clients are on our homepage. See our Shopify packages.

Best for: merchants who want design, development, SEO, email, paid media and subscriptions handled by one specialist team.

2. Eastside Co

Location: London and Birmingham, with offices in Germany and the US. Specialism: Shopify Plus development, UX, enterprise builds and international ecommerce. Notable clients: Volkswagen, Unilever, Chelsea Football Club, Tropic, Carex. Website: 2. Eastside Co website.

Eastside Co is one of the longest established Shopify specialists in the UK and one of the largest by headcount. It says it has built more than 500 Shopify sites, and its team spans strategy, UX, development, migrations, international ecommerce and optimisation.

That breadth suits enterprise and mid market brands with complicated requirements: multi market selling, large Plus migrations, or ERP and PIM integration, where a project needs a deep team rather than three people stretched across it.

Best for: enterprise and mid market brands needing complex Shopify Plus builds, multi market stores and large migrations.

3. Charle

Location: London. Specialism: design led Shopify and Shopify Plus, UX, conversion and organic search. Notable clients: Cambridge Satchel, 111SKIN, Billionaire Boys Club, Vollebak, Candy Kittens. Website: 3. Charle website.

Charle has built its reputation on design led Shopify work for brands where visual identity is a commercial asset. It treats the storefront as a product, considering brand, UX, conversion, discovery, mobile behaviour and merchandising together, and builds search and AI visibility into the project rather than after launch.

Best for: direct to consumer brands where design quality matters as much as the commerce underneath.

4. Swanky

Location: Exeter, with offices in France and Australia. Specialism: Shopify Plus, internationalisation and conversion optimisation. Notable clients: Hotel Chocolat, Camden Town Brewery, John Cotton. Website: 4. Swanky website.

Swanky is one of the longest standing Shopify Plus agencies, with a strong reputation among mid market brands. Internationalisation is its clearest strength: pricing, content, shipping, promotions and tax usually differ by market, and the complexity grows with every market added. It also has particular depth in subscription commerce.

Best for: mid market brands expanding internationally, or wanting conversion work integrated with development.

5. We Make Websites

Location: London, with an office in New York. Specialism: Shopify Plus, large builds, global ecommerce and headless. Notable clients: Huel, Purina, Dune London, Dymag. Website: 5. We Make Websites website.

We Make Websites was an early UK adopter of Shopify and is known for large, complex projects for established consumer brands, including headless builds. Its reputation rests on delivery discipline: strong project management and predictable process where a delayed launch costs weeks of trading.

Best for: large brands that want dependable, well managed Shopify Plus delivery.

6. Kubix Media

Location: Birmingham. Specialism: Shopify Plus, migrations, email and paid search. Notable clients: Hoodrich, Lisa Yang, Chickidee. Website: 6. Kubix Media website.

Kubix Media keeps technical delivery and marketing in one agency, covering email, paid search and ongoing growth alongside builds and migrations. Shopify's Partner Directory lists it as a Premier partner. Keeping both disciplines together removes the handover where a build team finishes and the marketing team has to work out how the new store behaves.

Best for: brands migrating to Shopify who want one team for the migration and what happens commercially after launch.

7. Blubolt

Location: UK. Specialism: creative Shopify Plus delivery for established retailers. Notable clients: established retail brands. Website: 7. Blubolt website.

Blubolt moved into Shopify Plus from a broader ecommerce background and is known for creative delivery for recognised retail brands. Traditional retailers moving further into direct to consumer bring brand recognition, customer expectations, internal systems and store processes that all need reflecting in the build.

Best for: established retailers moving onto Shopify Plus while keeping a strong creative identity.

8. Fourmeta

Location: London. Specialism: migrations from Magento, WooCommerce and bespoke platforms. Notable clients: Josh Wood Colour. Website: 8. Fourmeta website.

Fourmeta has built its position around complex projects and platform migrations rather than design portfolios, and its Shopify Partner Directory profile shows it has been a partner since 2012. That suits merchants whose main risk is moving an existing business safely, where rankings, URLs, data and integrations matter more than the homepage.

Structured data is the risk most often missed: 90% of the migrations we take on arrive with it broken or missing, which quietly removes price and availability from how search engines read product pages.

Best for: merchants migrating from complex platforms who need search preservation handled as its own workstream.

9. Velstar

Location: Liverpool, with further UK hubs and a US presence. Specialism: Shopify Plus builds, replatforming and conversion. Notable clients: French Connection, Avon. Website: 9. Velstar website.

Velstar is one of the largest Shopify specialists outside London, with strategy, design, engineering, SEO and conversion work under one roof. Its model is conversion led: builds begin with a data audit and baseline, so design decisions follow stated hypotheses. It also runs a substantial replatforming practice for WooCommerce and Magento moves.

Best for: established brands wanting an enterprise scale Plus partner outside London, especially for large replatforms.

10. Underwaterpistol

Location: UK, with team members in several locations. Specialism: design led Shopify Plus for fashion and lifestyle. Notable clients: fashion, lifestyle and premium consumer brands. Website: 10. Underwaterpistol website.

Underwaterpistol says it has built ecommerce sites since 2001 and now focuses on creative Shopify Plus work. In fashion, lifestyle and premium products, a store that looks like a lightly restyled template undermines the brand it is meant to carry.

Best for: brands wanting a visually distinctive Plus store and prepared to invest in creative direction.

Quick Comparison Table

What Do Shopify Partner Tiers Actually Measure?

This is the part of agency selection most often misunderstood, including by agencies. Shopify has retired three programme brands that are still in wide circulation: the Shopify Experts brand and Experts Marketplace in December 2023, the standalone Shopify Plus Partner programme in December 2024, and the Plus Certified App Program and Technology Track tier brands in December 2025. Shopify's Partner Program overview states these brands should not be used after those dates.

That gives you a free buyer test. Some well known agencies still use the retired names on their own websites. That does not make them bad agencies, but it does tell you how closely they follow platform changes, which is exactly what you pay a specialist for.

What exists now is one programme with five tiers: Registered, Select, Plus, Premier and Platinum. Registered is the entry point, everything above it is earned, and tiers are recalculated every quarter. Shopify's Partner Program Tiering Guide sets the thresholds on commercial impact:

Figures are from the Q3 2026 guide. Standard plans means Basic, Grow and Advanced, and Shopify has waived credential requirements for 2026, so only commercial activity counts this year. Notice what is absent: no measure of build quality, client satisfaction, design or code. A Platinum agency has driven a very large amount of revenue to Shopify, which usually means scale. It does not mean it will do better work on your project than a Select partner with ten years in your category.

For completeness: Why Matters is a Select partner. The Shopify Partner Directory is not a complete list of good agencies either, because Plus is the minimum tier for guaranteed listing. Use it to confirm a tier claim, not to build a shortlist. Our guide to the Shopify Partner Program covers this in more detail.

How Do You Choose the Right Shopify Agency?

Our full guide is how to choose the best Shopify development company. The short version:

• Do they specialise in Shopify? Specialism matters most for Shopify Plus, checkout extensibility, Markets, B2B, custom apps and migrations.
• Have they done your specific thing? Ask for evidence of your kind of project, whether that is a migration from your platform, subscriptions, B2B or international selling.
• How do they handle redirects? It is the fastest diagnostic question. Of the 80 stores we have migrated, 75 arrived with no redirect map, so ask how an agency builds and tests one, and who signs it off.
• What does the quote include and exclude? Check discovery, design, content, apps, SEO, analytics, testing, training and launch support, then ask what is left out.
• What happens after launch? Project shops and retainer agencies suit different businesses. Ask what support is included and for how long.
• What are the terms? Ask whether pricing is published, the minimum term, the notice period, and whether you are billed in advance or in arrears.

What Should a Shopify Agency Cost in the UK?

Treat these as indicative ranges: complex migrations, custom apps and enterprise integrations push projects beyond them. Premium themes in the Shopify Theme Store are priced in US dollars, commonly $250 to $500, about £185 to £370. Our own retainers start from £650 a month and our pricing is published. For fuller breakdowns, see how much it costs to build a Shopify store and how much a Shopify migration costs.

Why Matters Perspective

The depth of genuine Shopify expertise varies a great deal across UK agencies. Some are deeply specialised; others added Shopify to an existing service list. The difference is invisible on a homepage and obvious the moment a project gets complicated. If design and brand are your priority, Charle and Underwaterpistol are particularly strong. For large Plus and enterprise delivery, Eastside Co, We Make Websites and Velstar have the depth. For migrations with search at stake, Fourmeta and Kubix Media belong on the shortlist.

Why Matters sits somewhere different, combining design, development, SEO, email, paid media and subscriptions in one Shopify team. That model exists because of a pattern we see in merchants who come to us: when clients leave a previous agency, the reason is almost never technical competence. It is that they stopped trusting it, stopped hearing back, or wanted a closer working relationship. Most tell us they spoke to three agencies before appointing us, and we would recommend the same comparison to anyone reading this.

That shapes how we operate. Our pricing is published on our website, retainers start from £650 a month, clients are billed one month in arrears and are not tied into long contracts, and development projects carry a 3 month guarantee. Video reviews from clients are on our homepage. If you would like to talk through a build, a migration or ongoing growth, see our ecommerce agency or email us.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a Shopify agency cost in the UK?

A project ranges from around £2,000 for theme customisation to £50,000 and above for a custom Shopify Plus build, with custom builds typically between £5,000 and £20,000. Ongoing retainers usually run from about £650 to £3,000 and above a month. Design complexity, integrations and migration work are the biggest cost drivers.

Is Shopify Plus Partner still a valid status?

No. Shopify retired the standalone Shopify Plus Partner programme in December 2024, and the Shopify Experts brand and Experts Marketplace in December 2023. The current programme has five tiers: Registered, Select, Plus, Premier and Platinum.

What do Shopify partner tiers actually measure?

Commercial impact, not build quality. Shopify's Q3 2026 tiering guide sets thresholds on revenue brought to Shopify and a minimum number of new merchants. Select needs at least $100,000 in new referral revenue or $500,000 from existing merchants; Platinum needs $5,000,000 or $25,000,000. Nothing in it measures design, code or client satisfaction.

Do I need a Shopify Plus agency?

Not necessarily. On a standard plan with straightforward requirements, a strong Shopify specialist is usually enough. A Plus focused agency is worth the premium for B2B and company accounts, checkout extensibility, multiple storefronts, enterprise integrations or high volume trading.

How do I verify what a Shopify agency claims about itself?

Confirm any tier in the Shopify Partner Directory, remembering that Plus is the minimum tier for guaranteed listing. Ask for two references with projects like yours and call them. Treat published project counts and cumulative sales figures as unaudited marketing.

How many agencies should I speak to before choosing?

Two or three. Most of our clients tell us they spoke to three agencies before appointing us, which is enough to see how differently agencies answer the same brief without turning the process into a tender.

Final Thoughts

The best Shopify agency in the UK is not the biggest, the cheapest or the one with the most recognisable logos. It is the one whose experience, services, terms and working style match what your business needs next. Use this guide to build a shortlist of two or three, then ask each how it would handle redirects, what its quote excludes, and what happens if you want to leave in six months.

If you would like to talk through a Shopify project, see our ecommerce agency, our Shopify packages or our portfolio.

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• What Is the Shopify Partner Program?
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