Shopify
The store works. Your back office does not
You get the custom apps, integrations and internal tools that make a Shopify store run a real business, without touching the checkout that already converts.
The short version
4 things that decide this
- 01Shopify handles storefront and checkout better than a custom build would, so the work worth paying for sits in the systems around it.
- 02Most Shopify pain reported as a platform limit is actually an integration gap, where stock, pricing or orders live in a system the store cannot see.
- 03A custom Shopify app is the right answer when your logic must run on Shopify's events rather than on a schedule somebody remembers to check.
- 04We will tell you when an app from the Shopify App Store does the job, because paying us to rebuild a listed app is a poor trade.
The spreadsheet that runs your store
Somewhere in your business there is a spreadsheet holding the store together. It reconciles orders against the warehouse, or works out trade pricing, or tracks which supplier owes what.
One person maintains it, usually whoever has least time. It breaks quietly when they are on holiday. And every month it takes a day nobody has budgeted for.
That spreadsheet is the brief. It tells us exactly which logic your store cannot express, in the words of the person who does the work. We would rather read it than run a discovery workshop.
What we will and will not touch
We do not rebuild Shopify's checkout. It handles payment edge cases, fraud signals and card data in ways we would reproduce badly. Keeping card data off your servers also carries real compliance consequences.
Where your commerce genuinely cannot live on Shopify, our ecommerce development page covers the custom route: held funds, computed pricing, marketplace flows. Most stores never need it.
- 01We build: custom apps, ERP and warehouse sync, pricing and quoting logic, internal operations tooling, reporting.
- 02We extend: themes, admin workflows, customer accounts, subscription behaviour.
- 03We leave alone: the checkout, unless you are on a plan where customising it is supported and there is a real reason.
What is running now
Counted, not estimated
22
production systems we have shipped and can name
4
storefront platforms Maidily integrates with, Shopify included
7
payment and billing integrations across our builds
9
of our systems with AI doing real work inside
What we build around a Shopify store
Named problems, not capability nouns.
What we will talk you out of
- A custom app duplicating something already on the Shopify App Store and maintained by somebody else.
- Leaving Shopify because of a problem that lives in your ERP integration rather than in Shopify.
- A headless rebuild justified by page speed alone, before anyone has measured what is actually slow.
- Order placedShopify emits the event.
- App reactsYour logic runs, not a nightly script.
- DeduplicateWebhooks arrive twice. Expect it.
- Sync stockOne system owns the truth.
- ReconcileStore against accounts, on a schedule.
- AlertA failed sync pages a person.
The third station is where quiet damage happens. Shopify may deliver the same webhook more than once, and a handler that assumes otherwise will eventually double-count an order in your ERP.
Deciding which system is allowed to be right
Your store says eleven units. Your warehouse system says nine. Both updated correctly, and now somebody has to decide which one a customer sees.
Two-way sync without a named owner produces exactly this, and it gets worse as volume rises. So we settle it before writing code. One system owns each field, the other follows, and conflicts resolve by a rule your operations team agreed rather than by whichever update arrived last.
- Each field has one owning system, written down before the build.
- Sync failures raise an alert instead of leaving two quietly different numbers.
- Every sync run is logged, so a discrepancy can be traced rather than guessed at.
- The store is allowed to show less stock than reality. It is never allowed to show more.
What we build on
Shopify
Build
Connected systems
Run
Commerce operations we have shipped
Maidily
Integrated operations platform for residential cleaning businesses.
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TomoDomo
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WorkMateAI
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Little Tree Confections
n8n + AI meeting-to-action automation for an artisan bakery.
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“I am extremely happy with the results and would highly recommend Hashlogics to anyone.”
Daniel Khin · CEO, PremiumAudit.io
The usual Shopify agency against us
Most Shopify work is design and theme. Ours starts where that stops.
| Criterion | The usual approach | How we build |
|---|---|---|
| Where the work happens | Theme, design, conversion tweaks. | Apps, integrations and the systems behind the store. |
| Stock in two systems | A nightly export, and hope. | One owner per field, event-driven, alerted on failure. |
| Duplicate webhooks | Processed twice, silently. | Expected and deduplicated. |
| The checkout | Rebuilt, because it was asked for. | Left alone, and we explain why. |
| Month-end reconciliation | A manual export somebody owns. | A report that ties the store to your accounts. |
| After launch | The contract ends at go-live. | An agreed service level, or a documented handover to your team. |
01Do we need a custom app, or is there one on the App Store?
Check the App Store first, and we will do that check with you before quoting. A listed app that fits is cheaper to buy and somebody else maintains it through Shopify's platform changes. Custom wins on logic specific to your business, on anything that must run on Shopify's events, or where it has to reach a system no app knows about.
02Can you connect Shopify to our ERP or warehouse system?
Yes, and the design decision that matters is which system owns each field. We agree that before writing code. Two-way sync with no named owner is how a store ends up showing stock it does not have. Every sync run is logged so a discrepancy can be traced rather than argued about.
03Should we go headless?
Usually not, and rarely for the reason given. Headless is justified by needing a front end Shopify's themes genuinely cannot express, not by a page speed number nobody has profiled. It also moves work you currently get for free onto your own team, permanently.
04Will you touch our checkout?
No, in almost every case. Shopify's checkout handles payment failures, fraud signals and card data better than a custom build would. Keeping card data off your own servers also changes which PCI questionnaire applies to you. If your plan supports checkout customisation and there is a real reason, we will discuss it on the evidence.
05Can you take over an app another agency built?
Often, and this is what the diagnostic is for. Scoping conversations cost nothing. Where we have to go inside an existing codebase to answer honestly, a paid two-week diagnostic comes first. It ends in a written assessment and a fixed price.
06What happens when Shopify changes its API?
Shopify versions its Admin API and retires old versions on a published schedule, so this is planned maintenance rather than an emergency. What decides whether it hurts is whether anyone is watching. Under an agreed service level we track deprecations for your apps, and under a handover we document what to watch for.
07Can AI do anything useful for a store?
Where there is a specific repetitive job, yes. Drafting product descriptions from a spec sheet, routing supplier email, summarising support tickets by theme. Little Tree Confections runs an n8n and AI pipeline that turns every meeting transcript into department tasks, which is the same shape of problem. A general store assistant with no defined job is the version we would talk you out of.
08We are a small store. Is this only for Shopify Plus?
No, and a single well-chosen integration is often the whole project at smaller volume. What decides the value is how many hours a month the spreadsheet costs you. Larger merchants get the same work plus access control, audit expectations and integration into finance systems.
Related
- Ecommerce development →When the commerce genuinely cannot live on a platform.
- API integration →Connecting the store to the systems behind it.
- Business process automation →The manual steps around the store.
- What PCI scope actually means →Why keeping card data off your servers matters.
- Idempotency key →Why a duplicate webhook must not double-count an order.
