eCommerce Build · 2 of 3

Shopify under the hood. A store that's actually yours on top.

Two ways in: a headless storefront when speed, brand and freedom matter, or a custom Shopify theme when time to launch does. Both fast, both editable by your team, both built in Sydney.

Tell us what you need built See pricing
Spec ticket No. 02
Runs on
Shopify checkout, always
Storefront
headless · or custom theme
Typical build
3–10 weeks
After launch
care plan optional
Price
see the price list

Fixed quote after one call.

Made in Sydney

  • <1s

    every page

    POP Local · 343 makers, from 20 seconds

  • 33%

    conversion rate

    Made Quiet · headless Shopify, built in six days

  • AU+NZ

    one theme, every store

    Constellation Brands

  • 2 → 1

    two platforms, one store

    Growing Spaces · WordPress + Shopify

What's the Problem?

Most stores are slowest where it costs the most.

Product and collection pages carry the weight: apps stacked on a theme, a script from every tool you ever trialled, images nobody resized. POP Local's category pages were the slowest thing on the site, and those are the pages people shop from. Karis Life's and Kea Health's WooCommerce stores fell over under the traffic they'd worked to earn. A store that's slow at the moment of buying is paying for visitors it can't convert.

Pick One

Two ways to build it.

We'll recommend one after a 20-minute call. Both keep Shopify's checkout, and both are yours.

01 sub-second

Headless storefront

Pick this when speed and brand are the point, you want custom features a theme can't do, you have a lot of content around the products, or the store is one part of a bigger site.

  • A custom storefront on a modern JS framework, pre-rendered and served from the edge. Sub-second product pages.
  • Shopify keeps cart, checkout, payments, inventory and orders. Nothing customers trust gets rebuilt.
  • Content in Sanity with live preview; products stay in Shopify. No overlap, no confusion.
  • No theme limits on layout, search or filtering. If you can draw it, we can build it.
  • Stack
  • modern JS framework
  • Shopify Storefront API
  • Sanity
  • Cloudflare

Running at: POP Local (343 makers, under a second on every page, moved from Square with the point of sale) · Made Quiet (designed and built in under a week) · Quitine (off a Shopify theme, now edited by asking Claude)

02 weeks to launch

Custom Shopify theme

Pick this when you want to launch in weeks, your team lives in Shopify admin, and the design fits inside what themes do well.

  • Built from a clean base, not a marketplace theme with your logo on it.
  • Sections and blocks your team rearranges in the theme editor without calling us.
  • Only the apps that earn their place. Every app is another script on your product page.
  • Multi-region and multi-currency through Shopify Markets when you need it.
  • Stack
  • Shopify
  • Liquid
  • theme editor

Running at: Constellation Brands: one enterprise theme across their Australian and New Zealand stores, dozens of custom sections, all editable by their team.

Side by Side

Headless or theme?

Side by Side
Headless or theme?
Compared onHeadlessCustom theme
SpeedHeadless Sub-second by designCustom theme Fast for a theme; each app added costs a little
Time to launchHeadless 6–10 weeksCustom theme 3–6 weeks
Design freedomHeadless AnythingCustom theme Within what sections and Liquid allow, which is a lot
EditingHeadless Sanity for content, Shopify for productsCustom theme Shopify's theme editor, all in one admin
Apps and integrationsHeadless Shopify apps for checkout and back office; storefront features built by usCustom theme The whole Shopify app store, drop-in
Best forHeadless Brand-led stores, custom features, content-heavy catalogues, stores inside a bigger siteCustom theme Teams who want everything in one admin and a launch in weeks
Our verdict

Go headless when you want freedom: any layout, search and filtering built your way, content around the products, sub-second pages. Pick a theme when launching in weeks inside Shopify admin matters more.

Baked In

Whichever way, you get this.

  • Shopify checkout.

    Payments, fraud, tax, shipping and Shop Pay, handled by the platform that processes billions. We don't rebuild the part customers trust.

  • Speed measured, not promised.

    Core Web Vitals checked before launch and in every care-plan report.

  • Built to be found.

    Product structured data, clean collections, fast pages: what Google Shopping and AI shopping answers reward.

  • Migration handled.

    Products, customers, orders and URLs moved across; old links redirected so nothing you've earned is lost.

  • Connected to the back office.

    Accounting, shipping, email, reviews and point of sale.

  • Yours to keep.

    Theme code in your repository, store in your Shopify account. Any Shopify developer can take over.

Fresh Out

Stores we've shipped.

Fresh Out
Constellation Brands website
Constellation Brands An enterprise Shopify theme across Australia and New Zealand, cleared to US corporate standards.
POP Local website
POP Local 343 Australian makers, under a second on every page, and a portal that pays them.
Made Quiet website
Made Quiet A headless store designed and built in six working days. First sale in week one, 33% conversion rate.
Quitine website
Quitine A Shopify theme replaced by a headless store the client runs by asking Claude. Double-digit sales growth since.
Growing Spaces website
Growing Spaces WordPress for content and Shopify for sales became one store.
Karis Life website
Karis Life A WooCommerce store that kept crashing, replaced with one that doesn't.
Kea Health website
Kea Health A store that buckled under demand, rebuilt to keep up with it.
See all work
The Process

Scope. Design. Build. Launch.

  1. Step 1 · week 0

    Scope.

    A 20-minute call, then a fixed quote. Headless or theme, and why, in writing.

  2. Step 2 · weeks 1–3

    Design.

    Home, collection, product and cart designed on your real products, not placeholders.

  3. Step 3 · weeks 3–8

    Build and migrate.

    Storefront built, apps connected, catalogue and customers moved across, checkout tested end to end.

  4. Step 4 · week 8+

    Launch and after.

    Redirects, analytics, Search Console, and a month of watching the numbers. Then a care plan if you want one.

Price List

Ranges.

Price List
Headless storefront
from $15,000 typically $18–35k
Custom Shopify theme
from $9,000 typically $9–16k
Care plan monitoring, updates, small changes, monthly performance snapshot
from $250/month

What moves the price within those ranges:

  • catalogue size and how much moves across
  • number of custom sections or page templates
  • integrations (accounting, shipping, email, reviews, POS)
  • multi-region or multi-currency

Fixed quote after a scoping call. No calculator; the interesting variables are never on a form.

Fair Questions

Ask away.

Six things people ask before they book. Still one missing? Ask us.

Do we have to use Shopify?

No. We've built on BigCommerce, and custom setups on Stripe and Square. Shopify is the default because it's the one we'd pick for ourselves: checkout, payments and fraud handled by a platform that does it at scale.

We're on WooCommerce, Squarespace or Wix. Can you move us?

Yes. Products, customers, orders and URLs come across, with redirects so you keep your rankings. Karis Life and Kea Health both came from WooCommerce stores that couldn't take the load.

Headless or theme?

Headless when you want freedom over layout, search, filtering and custom features, when there is a lot of content around the products, or when the store lives inside a bigger site. A theme when launching in weeks inside Shopify admin matters more. We'll tell you which on the first call.

Can we start with a theme and go headless later?

Yes. The store, products, orders and customers stay where they are. Headless replaces the storefront, not the shop.

Will our team be able to update it?

Yes. Theme builds use Shopify's editor. Headless builds use Sanity for content with live preview, and Shopify admin for products, the way your team already works.

Why is our current store slow?

Usually apps. Each one adds scripts to every page. We audit what's installed, keep what earns its place, and rebuild the rest into the storefront. Then we measure it.

Also on the menu
Made to Order

Tell us what you sell and where it's slow.

Two lines is enough. You'll get a headless-or-theme recommendation and a fixed quote within a business day of the call.

Made to Order