Choosing a Shopify agency: your questions answered

I’m Tom Locke. I ran a Shopify agency for ten years, and now I help ecommerce brands find the right agency partner and work with them as a Fractional Ecommerce Director. These are the questions brands ask me most, from finding and paying for an agency to how my introductions and Facilitated Search work.

Can’t see your question? Book a free discovery call or email hello@noughtsandones.com.

Finding a Shopify agency

  • Start with your brief, not with agency portfolios: your budget, timeline, platform (Shopify or Shopify Plus) and what success looks like. Then compare 2 to 3 agencies that fit that brief, rather than 10 that look similar. Noughts & Ones does this for free: an independent discovery call, a shortlist of 2 to 3 vetted UK Shopify agencies, and direct introductions.

  • Yes. Noughts & Ones is an independent UK service that matches ecommerce brands with vetted Shopify agency partners. It's free for brands, run by Tom Locke, who spent ten years running a Bristol Shopify agency.

  • There isn't one best agency, only the best fit for your brand, budget and stage. A £20k theme rebuild and a £90k Shopify Plus replatform need very different partners. An independent shortlist helps you avoid agencies that are excellent but wrong for you.

  • There are hundreds of agencies and freelancers listed in the Shopify Partner Directory for the UK alone, and most present themselves in near-identical ways. That's why brands increasingly use independent advisors to narrow the field.

  • It's a useful starting list, but it can't give you insight on important factors like: how they build on the platform, how an agency handles scope creep, who actually works on your account, or how they behave when things go wrong. That's the vital knowledge an independent shortlist adds.

  • Missed deadlines that keep repeating, no proactive ideas, the senior people disappearing after the sale, and results you can't explain. Sometimes the problem is the brief or the setup, not the agency, which is why an outside view helps first.

Agency shortlisting

  • Going direct means you judge agencies on their pitch, and the best pitcher isn't always the best partner. A shortlisting service judges them on delivery, team, culture and fit, using knowledge you can't get from a website. It also saves you weeks of calls with agencies that were never right.

  • Yes. Noughts & Ones charges brands nothing for a shortlist and introductions. If you appoint one of the agencies, that agency pays a standard referral fee.

  • Through a referral fee paid by the agency you choose, if you choose one. Every agency on the roster is on identical terms, so there's no incentive to steer you towards one over another. Brands who want hands-on help through the whole process can pay a fixed fee for Facilitated Search instead.

  • It would if agencies paid different rates or paid to be listed. They don't: every partner is on the same terms, and no agency can pay for a place on a shortlist. Recommendations are based on fit, and I'll tell you if none of my partners are right for you.

  • Agencies set their own prices, so I can't promise a referral fee never shapes a quote. But the fee is modest and paid by the agency, and a well-matched introduction saves money on both sides. You skip weeks of calls and pitches with agencies that were never right, and the agency avoids the cost of chasing and pitching for work it was unlikely to win. In practice, those savings tend to outweigh the fee.

  • A free introduction gives you a shortlist of 2 to 3 agencies and you run the conversations yourself. Facilitated Search is a fixed-fee service where I help write the brief, run the shortlist, sit in on pitches, help you compare proposals and check in 30 days after you appoint.

Facilitated Search

  • Facilitated Search is a fixed-fee, end-to-end agency selection service for ecommerce brands that are looking for a Shopify agency partner. It covers the brief, shortlist, pitches, proposal comparison and a 30-day check-in after appointment.

  • A free shortlist usually takes 3-4 days after the discovery call. A full Facilitated Search typically runs anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks from the briefing workshop to appointment, depending on your decision-makers, capacity and how many pitch rounds you want.

  • The fee for Facilitated Search is £3,000 excluding VAT. If you appoint an agency from my roster, that agency also pays me a modest referral fee, on the same terms as every other partner. Your fixed fee covers the extra time and support of the full process: the brief, pitches, proposal comparison and 30-day check-in.

  • Brands about to make a significant agency decision: a replatform to Shopify, a Shopify Plus build, a full redesign, a project with complex technical requirements, or replacing an agency that isn't working. It suits teams without in-house ecommerce leadership who want an experienced, impartial voice in the room.

  • Yes, absolutely! I've run searches for national media, household-name retail brands and early stage start-ups. The process scales from founder-led brands to in-house ecommerce teams with procurement requirements.

Selecting an agency partner

  • Ask who will actually work on your project, what happened on their last project that went over budget, how they handle change requests, and who you can speak to at a past client who left them. The answers tell you far more than the portfolio.

  • A pitch led by people you'll never work with, vague estimates with no assumptions written down, no questions about your commercial goals, no questions about your operational and technical integration requirements, and reluctance to give client references.

  • Cover your goals, current platform and pain points, budget range, timeline, integrations (ERP, PIM, 3PL, subscriptions), and who decides. A good brief gets you comparable proposals.

  • Larger agencies bring breadth and resilience; smaller studios often give you senior people throughout. The right answer depends on your culture, team make-up, budget, complexity and type of agency partner that you’re looking for. That’s where an outside view helps.

  • Not necessarily. Shopify Plus is Shopify's top-tier plan, not a separate platform, so any experienced Shopify agency can work on a Plus store. Plus unlocks extra features such as B2B, advanced checkout customisation, expansion stores and more complex automation, so it's worth choosing an agency that has used the ones you need. You don't need an officially accredited Plus partner to get that. Shopify's partner tiers largely reflect how many brands an agency has moved onto Plus, which says more about sales than platform expertise or delivery. In my experience, some of the best agencies for Plus brands aren't the most prominent official partners, and that's exactly where an independent shortlist helps.

  • It depends on agency size, technical requirements and how much content is involved, so there's no single figure. As a rough guide, theme-led customisation projects tend to run from £15k to £50k, and fully bespoke design and build or replatforming projects from £60k to £100k. Retainers range from around £500 a month for ad hoc support to £10k a month for proactive, growth-focused work. A good agency will ask about your budget early, so don't be afraid to share it. Because I know roughly where each agency on my roster sits on price, I can save you conversations with agencies that are far too expensive, or too cheap to deliver what you need.

  • Agencies make different assumptions about scope, design, integrations and contingency. Two quotes for "the same" project often aren't for the same project at all. Comparing them line by line is a core part of Facilitated Search.

About Noughts & Ones

  • Tom Locke is a UK ecommerce consultant. After ten years running Noughts & Ones as a Shopify agency in Bristol, he now works as an independent ecommerce consultant with brands in two ways:

    1. As a Matchmaker. Helping them find the right Shopify agency through introductions and facilitated search.

    2. As a Fractional Ecommerce Director. Helping brands build their ecommerce strategy, scope technical projects, support delivery, get the most from Shopify (and its ecosystem), stay on top of compliance, make their store more sustainable and build stronger agency partnerships.

    Often that means taking a brand from defining the strategy, to finding the right partners, guiding the delivery, and supporting the ongoing growth.

  • Noughts & Ones is an independent UK ecommerce consultancy. It offers free Shopify agency shortlisting, fixed-fee Facilitated Search, and Fractional Ecommerce Director support for brands.

  • Noughts & Ones is based in Frome, Somerset – working with brands across the UK and internationally.

  • No. It was a Shopify agency until 2026 and is now an independent consultancy. It doesn't build stores; it helps brands find the agency that should.

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