Where the real cost of a growing store hides
Stock levels typed into Shopify after a delivery arrives. Orders keyed into the accounts package at month end. Tracking numbers pasted from the courier portal into customer emails. None of it is hard, and all of it adds up to a person's week, every week.
Apps and integrations are how you get that week back. Sometimes the answer is an App Store app, configured properly. Sometimes it is a custom app built for the way your business actually runs. We will tell you which, and we will build either.
Custom Shopify apps: custom or public?
Shopify lets a Partner build two kinds of app. A custom app is installed on your store only. It is the right choice for almost every retailer who needs something bespoke: a connection to your stock system, a pricing rule the platform cannot express, a back-office tool for your staff. It is quicker to build, cheaper to run and never has to go through Shopify's public review process.
A public app is listed on the App Store for any merchant to install. You only need one if you plan to sell the app itself. We build both, but most retailers who ask for a public app need a custom one, and the saving is considerable. Either way it is built on current Shopify APIs, given access only to the data it needs, and documented so you never depend on us to understand it.
The integrations we build most
Stock, warehouse, EPOS and ERP
If you sell in a shop as well as online, or hold stock in a warehouse on its own system, Shopify needs to know what is on the shelf. We build two-way stock sync with EPOS and warehouse systems, and connect Shopify to ERPs where orders, products, stock and customers flow between the two.
Xero and QuickBooks
A Shopify Xero integration or Shopify QuickBooks integration should mean your accountant never asks for a Shopify export again. Daily sales summaries or individual invoices, fees and payouts reconciled against the bank, VAT handled properly, refunds and gift cards accounted for rather than fudged. An off-the-shelf connector where one does the job, a sync we build ourselves where it does not.
Couriers and fulfilment
Labels printed from the order, tracking pushed back to the customer, delivery options at checkout that reflect what the courier can actually do. We integrate Shopify with UK couriers, shipping platforms and third-party fulfilment warehouses, so an order placed at lunchtime leaves the building without anyone retyping an address.
Automation with Shopify Flow and webhooks
Not every automation needs an app. Shopify Flow handles a surprising amount on its own: tagging high-value customers, holding orders that look risky, emailing the warehouse when stock runs low. We set these up on almost every project: cheap, reliable and yours to edit.
When Flow runs out of road, webhooks pick up. A webhook is Shopify telling another system the moment something happens, such as an order being paid. We build the small, well-tested services that listen for those events and act on them.
Headless and Hydrogen, only when it earns its place
Headless means a storefront built as custom code talking to Shopify's APIs rather than a theme. Hydrogen is Shopify's own framework for it. It can be the right call: content-heavy brands with editorial teams, a buying journey a theme cannot express, one catalogue feeding several sites or apps.
For most growing UK retailers it is not. Headless costs more to build, more to change and more to keep running, and it takes the theme editor out of your staff's hands. Ask us and you will get a straight answer, and if it is yes we build it properly.
Fewer, better apps
Every app you install adds code to your storefront, a fee to your monthly bill and another company with access to your data. Stores that have traded for a few years often carry dozens of apps, several doing overlapping jobs. An app audit goes through every one: what it does, what it costs, what it adds to page weight and whether Shopify now does the same thing natively. Then we consolidate. Fewer apps, a faster storefront and a bill you understand.
How an integration project runs
- Map the data. Which systems, which direction, which one wins when two disagree. Agreed before any build.
- Build and test against real data. Your actual products, orders and awkward cases: the bundle, the pre-order, the refund on a partial return. That is where integrations break.
- Go live with monitoring. Every integration logs what it did and tells us when something fails, so a missed order is caught the same day, not at month end.
- Hand over. Documentation, credentials in your name, and a care plan if you want us to keep watching it.
Who this is for
Retailers with a store that works and a back office that does not keep up: a shop and a website sharing stock, an accountant chasing exports, staff retyping between screens. If that sounds familiar, an integration is usually the highest-return project we can do for you.
The engineering behind these integrations is the same engineering we use to build bespoke software: client portals, B2B ordering systems and internal tools. If what you need is bigger than an app, that is where to look next.
Questions we get asked
Do I need a custom app, or is there already one in the App Store?
Often there is one, and we will tell you if so. The App Store is good at common jobs: reviews, bundles, loyalty, basic courier links. It is poor at anything specific to how your business trades. If we can solve your problem by configuring an existing app well, that is what we will quote for. A custom app is for when nothing on the shelf fits, or when the apps that nearly fit would cost more in subscriptions over a couple of years than building your own.
Can you connect Shopify to Xero or QuickBooks?
Yes. For straightforward setups we configure one of the established connectors and check the first month of postings with your accountant. For anything more involved, such as multiple sales channels, part-payments, trade customers on account or VAT handling the connectors get wrong, we build a sync that matches how your accounts actually work.
What happens when Shopify changes its API?
Shopify versions its APIs and retires old versions on a published schedule, so nothing breaks without warning. Anything we build is written against a current version, and on a care plan we handle the upgrades within your tracked hours. If you are not on a care plan we will still tell you when something needs attention, and quote a fixed price for it.
Should we go headless?
Probably not, and we say that as a team that builds headless stores. A modern Shopify theme is fast, editable by your own staff and far cheaper to maintain. Headless earns its place when you need a storefront a theme genuinely cannot produce, or one catalogue serving several sites or apps. Ask us and you will get a straight yes or no with the reasoning.
Our store is slow and we think it is the apps. Can you help?
Usually, yes. An app audit is a fixed-quote piece of work: we list every app, what it costs, what it adds to the page and whether it is still needed, then remove or replace the ones that are not earning their keep. Fewer apps almost always means a faster store and a smaller monthly bill.