12 questions to ask a Shopify agency before you hire

1. What problem are we solving first?

Ask the agency to restate your problem without using “modern”, “premium” or “conversion focused”. A useful answer might be that shoppers cannot compare variants, the team cannot publish landing pages, or mobile product information is hard to find. That answer should determine the first deliverables.

If the solution arrives before anyone asks about your catalogue, customers or current systems, slow down. Bring examples of support questions and operational friction. An agency does not need your entire business history to make progress, but it does need enough context to avoid designing around the wrong constraint.

2. Which templates and states are included?

Count unique templates, not just pages. Ten products may share one template, while a product with subscriptions, bundles or complex options may need distinct design and development work. Ask for an explicit inventory that includes collection, search, product, cart, content and customer account requirements where relevant.

Then ask about the less attractive states: unavailable variants, empty search results, long product titles, missing images and validation errors. They affect real purchases. A quote that covers only the ideal screenshot leaves these decisions to late development, when they are harder to discuss.

3. Why this theme or architecture?

Ask what a licensed theme can already do, what will be customized and what needs separate development. The agency should explain the tradeoff in language your team can use: editor flexibility, maintenance, integration constraints and ongoing cost.

For headless proposals, request a specific reason the standard storefront cannot meet your needs. For a custom app, ask which existing options were considered and why they failed the requirements. Technical ambition is useful when it solves a business problem you actually have.

4. Who provides the content?

List product copy, collection introductions, photography, translations, specifications and policy text separately. Name the owner and review date for each. “Client supplies content” can conceal a large internal project.

Ask what happens when content arrives late and whether the designs are tested with actual material. A page built around three short placeholder lines can collapse when your real product description needs a diagram, a compatibility table and delivery exceptions.

5. Who is doing the work?

Ask who owns discovery, design, development and quality assurance. Understand whether specialists or subcontractors are involved and who is accountable for their output. You are looking for clear responsibility, not a particular company size.

Also ask how decisions are recorded. A shared issue list, named decision maker and agreed review windows can matter more than the number of meetings. Confirm who can approve scope changes and how those changes affect price and timing.

6. What evidence is relevant to our project?

Choose a portfolio example with a similar problem and ask what the agency actually delivered. A wholesale enquiry page does not prove delivery of company pricing and payment terms. A custom web application does not automatically demonstrate Shopify checkout expertise.

For claimed performance improvements, ask about the measurement period, baseline, traffic changes and other work happening at the same time. Results without context are difficult to interpret. Client permission and confidentiality matter, so useful evidence may be a walkthrough rather than access to private analytics.

7. How will existing SEO be protected?

Ask for the landing-page inventory, URL policy, redirect responsibility and launch checks. Establish who verifies page titles, canonical tags, structured data and indexability. A migration needs a plan for content and internal links as well as redirects.

A promise to preserve every ranking is not a technical deliverable. Google explicitly cautions against guaranteed first positions. Prefer a proposal that names controllable work, describes uncertainty honestly and explains how search performance will be monitored after release.

8. What does testing actually cover?

• Representative mobile and desktop journeys, including product selection and checkout handoff.
• The apps and integrations needed to place and fulfil an order.
• Keyboard interaction, clear form labels and understandable error messages.
• The content editor tasks your staff must complete without a developer.
• Launch checks for redirects, analytics events, product availability and payment configuration.

9. What do we own, and what is licensed?

Separate bespoke code and design files from theme licences, fonts, app subscriptions and other third-party assets. Ask which accounts the merchant controls and what another developer would need to maintain the store.

Request a handover inventory: repository access where applicable, design files, theme documentation, configuration notes and integration ownership. Put the agreed terms in the contract. Ownership language should describe the actual assets and licence restrictions, rather than promise that every dependency becomes yours.

10. What happens after launch?

Ask how the agency distinguishes a defect from a new request, how issues are prioritized, and which support terms apply. Get the response arrangements, exclusions and escalation contact in writing. Do not assume “support included” means unlimited work or round-the-clock availability.

Binevi publishes ongoing support from CAD 1,600 per month, along with blocks of hours for smaller changes. Those are different buying arrangements. Compare the work and availability you need against the current written scope, rather than treating a retainer as mandatory for every store.

11. How should we compare two prices?

12. What would you advise us not to build?

This question reveals whether the agency can prioritize. A useful answer identifies work that can wait and explains the consequence of waiting. It might be a configurator before product data is ready, an app before demand is proven, or a full rebuild when one template would solve the problem.

Finish by asking for a written proposal that reflects the discussion. The goal is not to extract free architecture work from every agency. It is to establish that the team understands your project well enough to price and deliver the next agreed stage.