Signs you have outgrown a website builder
Wix and Squarespace are good first shops. The trouble starts when the shop becomes the business. You find yourself working around the platform instead of with it, and the workarounds take more of your week than the selling does.
- The checkout cannot be changed and you can see customers giving up in it
- Shipping rules you need, such as by weight, by region or by product, cannot be set up
- Stock is being tracked somewhere else because the platform cannot keep it straight
- You want to sell on a marketplace, Instagram or in a physical shop from the same stock
- Discounts, bundles, pre-orders or subscriptions need a workaround, or are simply not possible
- Reporting tells you how many orders you had, but not much else
- The site has become slow, and every new app or page makes it slower
If three or more of those sound familiar, you have outgrown the builder. That is a good problem. It means the shop is working.
What you gain on Shopify
Shopify is built for selling and nothing else, and it shows in the parts of the job you do every day.
- A checkout that converts. Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and Klarna, with a checkout that customers already trust from other stores.
- Shipping and discounts that match your business. Rates by weight, region and product, local delivery and collection, discount rules that combine the way you want.
- One stock count, everywhere. Sell on your site, in a shop with Shopify POS, on marketplaces and on social channels, with stock updating in one place.
- An app store built for retail. Reviews, loyalty, subscriptions, bundles, pre-orders and courier integrations that work together rather than fighting each other.
- Proper email marketing. Klaviyo plugs straight in, which means abandoned basket and welcome flows that recover sales automatically. See our email and Klaviyo service.
- Reporting that answers questions. Which products, which channels, which customers, and what a customer is worth over a year.
- Room to grow. The same platform runs the smallest shops and the largest retailers in the country. You will not move again.
What changes
Some things are different, and you should know them before you decide.
Editing the site works differently. Wix and Squarespace let you drag anything anywhere. Shopify's theme editor works with sections and blocks, so pages stay consistent and fast. You lose a little freedom and gain a site that does not fall apart when someone adds a paragraph. We train you on it, and most people prefer it within a week.
The design is rebuilt, not moved. There is no way to export a Wix or Squarespace design, so the storefront is designed fresh on Shopify. We take your brand, your photography and what was working, and build a storefront that sells better than the one you had.
Some features come from apps. Booking forms, pop-ups and reviews lived inside the builder. On Shopify they are apps, chosen for the job. We pick them with you so you do not end up paying for ten.
Your monthly costs change shape. You stop paying the builder and start paying Shopify plus whichever apps you keep. We set that out in the quote so there are no surprises.
How little disruption a good migration causes
This is the part people worry about most, and it is the part that is easiest to get right.
Your current site keeps trading while we build the new one on Shopify. Products, images, variants, customers, order history, pages and blog posts are exported from Wix or Squarespace and imported into Shopify, as far as each platform lets us take them. You review the new store on your phone, place test orders and tell us what to change.
On launch day we point your domain at Shopify at a quiet time, usually early in the morning. Redirects are already in place, so every old link and every Google result lands on the right page. The old site stays live for a while in the background in case anything needs checking. Customers get a short email, if they had accounts, inviting them to sign in. Orders carry on. From the outside it looks like you had a nice redesign.
What the project looks like
1. Look at what you have
Your products, customers, traffic and the things that are frustrating you. You get a written plan, a date and a fixed quote.
2. Design and build
A Shopify storefront designed for a phone first, reviewed with you before it is built, then built on a theme your team can edit.
3. Move the data
Products, customers, orders and pages imported and checked. Payments, shipping and VAT set up and tested with real orders.
4. Switch and settle in
Domain pointed at Shopify, redirects live, sitemap submitted, and training so you are comfortable running it yourself. A care plan is there if you would rather we stayed close.
Who this is for
Smaller UK retailers who started on Wix or Squarespace, have built real sales, and now spend too much time fighting the platform. You do not need a big catalogue or a big budget to justify the move. You need a shop that is growing and a platform that is holding it back. See our pricing page for how we quote.
Questions we get asked
Can I keep my domain?
Yes. Your domain is yours, whichever company you bought it through. On launch day we point it at Shopify instead of Wix or Squarespace, and your address stays exactly the same for customers and for Google. If your email runs through the same provider we check that first, so nothing about your inbox changes.
Will the new site look the same?
It will look like your brand, but it will not be a copy. Wix and Squarespace designs cannot be exported, so the storefront is built fresh on a Shopify theme, and that is a good thing: we keep what was working and fix the product and checkout pages that were holding you back. You see the design on a phone before anything is built.
Will I lose my Google rankings?
Not if the redirects are done, and we do them. Every product, collection and page address on the old site is mapped to its new Shopify address and redirected, so Google and any links pointing at you land in the right place. Smaller sites often gain ground after a move because Shopify stores are faster and better structured.
How much disruption will my customers notice?
Very little. The old site keeps taking orders while we build, the switch is a domain change at a quiet time of day, and the only thing customers might see is a short email inviting them to sign in to their new account. Most of them simply notice a better site.
Is Shopify worth it for a store my size?
If you are asking the question, usually yes. The signs are a checkout you cannot change, shipping rules you cannot express, stock you are tracking in a spreadsheet, or a feature you want that needs a workaround. If we think you are better off staying put for another year, we will say so.