Choosing a Shopify agency for a new fashion brand in the UK
Questions to put to any agency before signing. Published by ANCC Studio, a London studio that builds Shopify stores for fashion brands and is one of the agencies a new brand might meet.
A new fashion brand needs an agency that has launched stores at the same stage. The store and its imagery should be planned together, and the schedule, the scope and the ownership of the store belong in writing before work starts. The questions below test for each, and they work on any agency, this one included.
What should the first email to an agency say?
The launch date, the markets the brand will sell in, what already exists (identity, products, images) and the budget. An agency can answer well only when it has all four.
Which stores has the agency launched for brands at this stage?
Flagship builds for established names show craft, and a launch-stage brand has a different problem. It has no customer base, little imagery and often no finished identity. The agency should be able to name stores it launched for brands in that position, say how long each took from the first call to launch, and say what the brand supplied along the way. A founder can judge each one by opening it on a phone: the first screen of a good launch store makes the product clear to a visitor who has never heard of the brand.
What does the quote cover, and what does the brand supply?
A launch can include the identity (name, wordmark, typefaces, colour), the store design and build, product photography and product copy. Some agencies take on all of it. Others start from a finished brand and a finished set of images. Each item should be marked as the agency's or the brand's, because launches slip in the gaps between the two.
Does the brand need a custom design or a customised theme?
A theme is a ready-made store layout that the agency adapts to the brand's identity. It gets a brand live sooner and leaves fewer pieces to maintain. A custom design makes sense when the product or the identity needs a layout no theme offers, such as unusual product pages or a distinctive menu. The agency should say which it recommends and why, in terms of the brand's range and launch date. A recommendation that is the same for every brand is a sales line.
Who plans the photography, and when?
Each template in a Shopify store decides how its pictures are framed: portrait or square, tight or wide. Pictures shot before the store is designed get cropped to fit it. Pictures shot once the templates exist can be framed for them. The agency should say who art directs the shoot and when it is planned in relation to the design. When photography sits with a separate supplier, someone has to own the handover between the two.
What should the store do on its first day?
Product pages show sizing, delivery and returns information without a click. Collections filter by size and category. Checkout works on a phone. The launch also needs a way to collect email addresses from visitors who are not ready to buy. The agency should say which of these are in the build and which would cost extra.
What is in the price, and what costs extra?
Templates, integrations (the services the store connects to, such as shipping and email), markets and currencies, product migration and photography all move the total. Each belongs on its own line of the proposal. Two proposals compare fairly only when they list the same items, and a single lump sum hides the differences.
How will the store sell outside the UK?
A brand that plans to sell abroad should ask how the store handles currencies, duties and shipping rates in each market, and who sets that up. Shopify has tools for selling in several markets, and the agency should say which of them the build uses.
Who owns the store when the project ends?
The Shopify account, the domain, the theme code and the customer and product data should sit in the brand's own name from the start. That includes the admin logins, so the brand can remove the agency's access when the project ends. Ask for all of it to be written into the contract at the start.
What happens in the first weeks after launch?
Trading turns up small faults and requests. The proposal should say whether launch fixes sit inside the project, who the brand writes to, and whether later work runs as a monthly retainer or project by project. It should also say who watches the store during the first week of trading.
Does it matter that the agency is in the UK?
A UK agency works the brand's hours and can be at the shoot in person. Agencies elsewhere can do good work, and the same questions apply to them.
How should the brand compare the agencies on its shortlist?
Put the same questions to every agency and keep the answers side by side. Ask each for a reference from a brand that launched with it, and speak to that brand's founder directly. Ask for a schedule worked backwards from the launch date, with the points where the agency needs files, approvals and decisions from the brand. A proposal that lists those dates with names against them is a plan the brand can hold the agency to.
About the publisher
ANCC Studio is a London studio that makes brand identity, Shopify stores and launch imagery for fashion brands. It is a Shopify Partner. How it works with new brands is set out at ancc.studio/new-fashion-brands.