As one of the top Shopify agencies working with mid-market and enterprise DTC merchants, Solo Media Group helps brands unlock the full potential of the platform. We build, migrate, and optimize stores for companies where ecommerce is the primary revenue channel, not a side channel.
Since 2018 we have delivered 75+ replatforms and custom builds, and we hold Platinum status, the top tier of Shopify's Service Track. One in-house team handles strategy, design, and engineering from first call to post-launch support.
Choosing a Shopify agency is difficult for a specific reason: almost every agency website says the same thing. Everyone builds scalable, high-converting stores. Everyone has a proven process. Everyone is a partner.
The details that would actually let you compare agencies — what tier they hold, how many migrations they have run, what they charge per hour — are the ones most agencies leave off the page.
A Shopify agency designs, builds, and maintains ecommerce stores on Shopify and Shopify Plus. In practice the work falls into four areas:
Custom themes, product configurators, checkout experiences, and the front-end architecture your brand runs on.
Moving a store from Magento, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Squarespace, or Wix onto Shopify without losing rankings, customer accounts, or order history.
Connecting Shopify to the systems the business already runs on: ERP, WMS, POS, CRM, subscription platforms.
Conversion rate optimization, site speed, and ongoing engineering after launch.
Most agencies do the first well and the other three unevenly. The gap usually shows up during a migration or an integration, which is where enterprise projects tend to fail.
This is the single most useful thing to understand when comparing agencies, and almost nobody explains it clearly.
Shopify's Service Track assigns tiers based on delivered work — revenue driven for merchants, project complexity, and client satisfaction. Tiers are granted by Shopify, not applied for, which makes them the one credential on an agency website you can verify independently.
| Tier | What it means | How common |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify Partner | Registered in the partner program | 100,000+ partners globally |
| Shopify Plus Partner | Approved to work on Shopify Plus | The standard tier for agencies serving enterprise merchants |
| Premier Partner | Above Plus, based on delivered results | Uncommon |
| Platinum Partner | Top tier of the Service Track | Held by a small number of agencies in the US |
Solo Media Group holds Platinum. You can confirm that on Shopify's own directory rather than taking our word for it.
Why this matters more than a portfolio: design work can be outsourced and screenshots prove nothing about what happened after launch. A tier reflects work Shopify verified.
Why it is not the only thing that matters: tier says nothing about whether an agency is right for your project. A Platinum agency running a $200k enterprise build is the wrong choice for a $15k theme refresh. Use the tier as a filter, not a decision.
Four questions surface more than any portfolio review.
Tiers are published on Shopify's directory and cannot be self-assigned. If an agency describes itself only as an expert or specialist without naming a tier, that is usually the answer.
Named systems, not a general claim about handling complexity. If they cannot produce three, they have not done many.
The correct answer is that every indexed URL is mapped and signed off before design begins. Treating redirects as a launch-week task is the single most reliable predictor of a post-migration traffic drop. We have seen brands lose a quarter of organic traffic to this specific mistake.
Agencies that will not answer tend to be the ones that scope loosely. Ours is $150/hour, published below.
We publish our rates rather than quoting them on request.
| Engagement | Cost |
|---|---|
| Hourly rate | $150/hour |
| Fixed-estimate projects | From $20,000 |
| Hour blocks | From $1,500 |
| Monthly retainers | From $3,000 (20 hours) |
What drives the number on a build: catalog complexity, the number of integrations, and how much custom business logic sits outside what Shopify does natively. Product count matters far less than people expect. A 40,000-SKU catalog with simple variants is cheaper to migrate than a 3,000-SKU catalog with four-option products and custom pricing rules.
What we tell brands who ask for a cheaper quote: offshore rework usually costs more than doing it correctly once. But if your project genuinely is a single defined task, a freelancer is better economics than any agency, and we will say so on the call.
Custom Plus builds, checkout extensibility, Shopify Functions, expansion storefronts.
75+ replatforms since 2018 from Magento, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Squarespace, and Wix, with redirect mapping treated as a design constraint rather than a launch task.
Gated portals, account-level pricing, net terms, ERP-connected ordering.
Structured testing and performance work. Client site speed scores have moved from 47 to 99, with conversion lifts in the 20–40% range.
Middleware connecting Shopify to the systems your operations already run on.
For brands that need full front-end control, with the honest caveat that most do not.
The top tier of Shopify's Service Track, granted on delivered work rather than application.
500+ Shopify merchants since March 2018, 75+ replatforms and net-new builds, and clients generating over $500M annually on stores we built.
A Shopify solution engineer on architecture, engineers on development and custom apps, ecommerce designers, a Klaviyo specialist and a project lead. The same people from discovery through launch, with no handoff to junior staff after the pitch.
The main structural difference between us and a consultancy. Our findings don't end up in a development backlog because we're the ones implementing them.
On the Shopify Partner Directory, across migrations, theme customization, custom apps and ongoing website management.
Mid-market and enterprise DTC brands across fashion, beauty, health and wellness, CPG, food and beverage, and multi-location retail.
Clients include Medik8, Manukora, and Wild Planet Foods.
We are headquartered in New York with offices in Miami and Los Angeles, serving brands across the US.
Beauty · Bundle builder and custom app
Beauty · Bundle builder and custom app
Food and beverage · Redesign and migration
Food and beverage · Redesign and migration
CPG · UX-driven redesign and subscriptions
CPG · UX-driven redesign and subscriptions
Most agency pages skip this section. It is the most useful one.
Designs, builds, migrates, and optimizes stores on Shopify and Shopify Plus. That covers custom theme development, platform migrations, ERP and POS integrations, conversion optimization, and ongoing engineering after launch.
It depends on scope. Our fixed-estimate projects start at $20,000, retainers at $3,000/month, and our hourly rate is $150. Enterprise migrations with complex integrations run considerably higher. Any agency that quotes a firm price before understanding your catalog structure and integration requirements is guessing.
Verify the partner tier on Shopify's directory. Ask which specific systems they have integrated. Ask how they handle redirects on migrations. Ask their hourly rate. Four questions, all of which have checkable answers, and most agency conversations end there.
The top tier of Shopify's Service Track, granted by Shopify based on delivered work rather than application. It sits above Plus Partner and Premier Partner and is held by a small number of agencies in the US. Solo Media Group holds Platinum, verifiable on the Shopify Partner Directory.
If you are on Plus or moving to it, hire a team with genuine Plus experience. Checkout extensibility, Shopify Functions, native B2B, and multi-store architecture are skills standard-Shopify agencies rarely exercise. If you are on Basic or Advanced and not planning to upgrade, a Plus specialist is likely overqualified for what you need.
Four to sixteen weeks depending on source platform and complexity. Wix and Squarespace migrations tend to run 4–8 weeks. Magento migrations run 12–16 weeks because of catalog structure and extension replacement. We publish detailed timelines on each migration page.
For most brands under $50M GMV, yes. One in-house salary buys one skill set. A retainer buys development, design, CRO, and strategy from a team that has shipped hundreds of stores. Above $50M, a hybrid usually works better — a lean internal team paired with an agency for platform-specific and high-stakes work.
New York (headquarters), Miami, and Los Angeles, serving brands across the United States.
