How Much Does it Cost to Hire a Shopify Expert?

How much does it cost to hire a Shopify expert? If you’ve been looking for support launching a new store, help designing the perfect theme, or assistance with SEO, marketing, and maintenance, this is a question you may have asked.

Hiring an expert can be a great way to optimize your store’s performance, and pave the way for growth.

However, the cost of expert assistance can vary drastically, depending on factors from the expert’s experience to the scope of your project, and your specific needs. Here, I’ll break down everything you need to know to budget effectively.

Key Takeaways:

• Hiring a Shopify expert can significantly improve the appearance and performance of your online store, and even save you time on handling day-to-day operations yourself.
• The cost of hiring a Shopify expert varies depending on the scope of work, the expert’s location and experience, and other factors.
• On average, you can expect to pay anywhere between $500 and $10,000, depending on your specific project.
• Conducting extensive research before hiring will ensure you can keep costs low, and get the best return on your investment.

Typical Cost Ranges for Shopify Experts

Although it’s difficult to know exactly what you’ll pay for a Shopify Expert before you contact a specialist and ask for their prices, my research into common costs for different types of Shopify support has revealed some common price ranges.

For instance:

• Basic Services: $500-$2,000
• Intermediate services: $2,000- $5,000
• Advanced services: $5,000- $10,000+

Notably, alongside paying for packages, you may also choose to pay your expert on an hourly basis. Rates here usually range from $50 to $200 per hour, depending on where you source your expert.

What Do You Get for Your Money?

So, what can you expect to get for your money from each Shopify expert package? Again, this varies depending on the expert you choose, their location, and their level of experience. For the most part, here’s what you can expect to access from different package levels:

Basic Packages

Basic Shopify expert packages generally include the fundamental support you’ll need to get your store up and running, and make tweaks to its performance or appearance. You might get assistance with initial store setup, such as creating product pages and collections.

Many experts will also help you with theme installation, and help you make minor tweaks to your store, like adjusting page layout, changing color palettes, or adding your branding.

Intermediate Packages

Intermediate packages can include some of the services mentioned above, but they generally focus on slightly more advanced needs. Custom theme development may be offered by some intermediate-level experts, although they’ll generally use an existing Shopify theme as a foundation.

Many experts can also help with advanced SEO strategies, implementing technical optimization efforts and keywords. Plus, they can assist business leaders with integrating marketing tools with their Shopify store, to set up things like automated email campaigns and social media strategies.

Advanced Packages

The most advanced packages offered by Shopify experts are usually intended for companies that want to create a fully custom store. Experts can help you design the perfect ecommerce site from scratch, designing apps and themes on your behalf.

They can create and implement extensive marketing strategies for you, and provide ongoing support with maintenance, technical troubleshooting, and store upgrades.

Why Hire a Shopify Expert?

Shopify is a convenient and user-friendly platform which most business owners can use without the need for a lot of additional support.

However, hiring a Shopify expert can be a valuable way to optimize the performance of your store, and facilitate growth.

Shopify experts understand the intricacies of Shopify development, design, and even marketing, which can give you a significant boost if you want to take your store to the next level.

They can help with a range of tasks, including:

• Improving store design and user experience: Shopify experts can transform the functionality of your store, helping with everything from site structure to navigation and even page loading times, ensuring your customers get the best possible experience.
• Enhancing site functionality: A Shopify expert will be able to integrate new tools with your website, create apps and themes that have unique features, and ultimately transform what your store can do, giving you an edge over the competition.
• Boosting SEO and marketing efforts: Shopify experts can assist with everything from technical search engine optimization, to building marketing campaigns, and optimizing your pages for SEO. This can help you to attract and convert more customers.
• Saving time and effort: With an expert by your side, you can save time on managing and maintaining your store, and potentially avoid common technical headaches. This means you can focus more on growing your business.

Factors Influencing the Cost of Shopify Experts

Answering the question, “How much does it cost to hire a Shopify expert?” is complex, because there are so many factors that play into the equation. The most significant components that will influence your costs are:

Experience and Reputation

In any industry, an expert’s experience will influence how much they charge for their services. Shopify developers with years of experience and advanced skills in everything from web development to design will likely charge more than entry-level professionals.

As an example, freelance developers on channels like Upwork typically charge $15 per hour as beginners. Intermediate experts charge $35+ and advanced specialists can charge over $95 per hour.

The Scope of Work

Many Shopify experts charge in one of two ways: they either sell “packages” of services for a set price, or charge clients by the hour. In both cases, the more work you need your expert to do, the more you’ll pay. If you’re just asking for a few design tweaks for your Shopify theme, you’ll spend less.

If you need help with everything from search engine optimization (SEO) to marketing strategies, theme development, and store maintenance, you’ll spend a lot more.

Project Complexity

Many Shopify experts can make basic tweaks to your store with minimal effort, which means they won’t charge as much for their time or expertise. However, if you have a particularly complex project, you can expect to pay extra. For instance, you might spend a lot more on full store development projects, headless store creation, or app and theme design.

Assessing the complexity of your project carefully should help you to determine exactly how much you can expect to spend overall.

Geographic Location

It’s common to see a difference in Shopify expert prices when you’re hiring specialists from different regions.

The difference here is due to variations in the cost of living in different countries, market demand, and other factors. For instance, hiring a Shopify expert from the USA is usually more expensive than hiring someone in an Asian country, due to the cost of living.

If you want to keep costs low, consider outsourcing your tasks to someone in a country with a lower cost of living.

How to Find the best Shopify Expert for Your Budget

To hire the best Shopify expert for your needs (and your budget), you’ll need to be prepared to do some research and planning. Since Shopify is one of the most popular ecommerce platforms, there are a lot of experts out there to choose from.

Here are some tips to help you make the right decision:

• Read reviews: Most Shopify experts will share reviews on their portfolios, profiles, and on freelance marketplaces like Upwork, and Fiverr. These reviews should give you an insight into the quality of their work. Ask for references if you can’t find any.
• Consider a range of sources: There are various places to look for Shopify experts, from freelance platforms like Fiverr, to the Shopify Experts marketplace. It’s worth reviewing experts from all of these environments to compare them effectively.
• Ask for portfolios: Most Shopify experts should be able to give you insights into their previous work with examples. If you can’t find an expert’s portfolio, ask for examples of their work, and ensure it matches your expectations.

One other thing to consider is whether you want to work with an agency, or a freelancer. Often, working with a freelancer is the more affordable choice, as you’ll be paying for support from a single expert.

However, depending on the scope of your project, you may need to hire a range of experts with different skills in design, development, SEO, and other areas.

An agency can be more expensive, as you’re essentially hiring a team to work with you. However, they can give you access to a wider range of skills and more consistent support.

Pros and Cons of Hiring a Shopify Expert

Hiring a Shopify expert can make sense if you need extra support developing, growing, or managing your store. However, there are still both pros and cons to consider.

Pros:

• Expertise and experience: Most business owners won’t have all of the expertise they need to build and run an incredible store. Shopify experts can bridge the gap, allowing you to access the skills you need for web development, design, marketing, and more.
• Customization: Customizing your Shopify store can be difficult on your own, particularly if you need to dive into code. An expert can help tailor your store to your specific needs, ensuring your brand stands out in a competitive online environment.
• Time and resource efficiency: Working with a Shopify expert means you can outsource some of the more complex parts of managing your business to a professional. This means you have more time to focus on growing your business.
• Risk mitigation: With a Shopify expert, you’ll have someone available to help you troubleshoot technical problems and ensure your store runs smoothly. This can protect you from unnecessary downtime, lost sales, and damage to your reputation.

Cons:

• The Cost: Great service won’t always come cheap. The more experts you need to hire, and the more complex your project is, the more you can expect to pay.
• Dependence on external teams: Working with external teams and professionals can be complex. You’ll need to communicate frequently with your experts, keep track of their performance, and ensure they’re delivering the right results.

Is Hiring a Shopify Expert Worth It?

Hiring a Shopify expert can be worthwhile. It gives you instant access to the expertise, experience, and skills you need to enhance your store’s performance, improve customer experience, and even boost your chances of higher sales.

Choose the right expert, and you could end up with bigger profits, and a stronger brand reputation.

However, it is important to conduct extensive research to ensure you’re hiring an expert that not only matches your budget, but can also deliver the results you need.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)