What to Ask a Shopify Agency Before You Hire Them
Most brands evaluate a Shopify agency on the wrong things. The portfolio looks great, the pitch is sharp, the case studies show recognizable logos, and none of it tells you what the relationship will actually feel like once the contract is signed and the pitch team moves on to the next prospect.
The most useful questions to ask a Shopify agency before hiring are not about the work in the room. They're about who will do yours, whether they'll still be there in a year, and whether the way the agency is built points its people toward your growth. Those answers are harder to dress up in a pitch, and they predict the outcome far better than a portfolio does.
Here are the questions worth asking, and what the answers tell you.
What should I ask a Shopify agency before hiring them?
The questions that actually predict a good engagement are about people, incentives, and continuity. Ask these, and pay as much attention to how directly they're answered as to the answer itself:
Who will run my account day to day, and can I meet them now?
Agencies often staff the pitch with senior talent and the delivery with someone junior. Ask to meet the actual team, not just the leads in the pitch. A vague answer here is the answer.
How long do your clients stay?
Client tenure is the hardest number to fake. Multi-year relationships tell you something a portfolio can't: brands keep choosing to stay after the shine of launch wears off.
How long has that team been at the agency?
Ask about the agency's own employee retention, not just its client results. A team that stays together is the thing that makes senior continuity real. High turnover means the person who learns your brand this year may be gone the next.
Who owns my agency, and has that changed recently?
A number of established agencies have been acquired into private equity and holding-company structures over the past year, and ownership shapes priorities. It's a fair question to ask directly, and the answer tells you how stable the partnership you're signing up for really is.
What happens after launch?
A site going live is the start of the work, not the finish. Ask who owns optimization once the store is live, and listen for whether they describe a partnership or a support queue.
How to verify what an agency tells you
The way to check an agency's claims is to look for proof that lives outside the agency's own website: third-party recognition, verifiable tenure, and named client results.
Anyone can call themselves a top Shopify agency. What's harder to manufacture is being named by the platform itself or by independent industry sources. When you're vetting, look for:
Third-party recognition, not self-ranking. Plenty of "best agency" lists are written by the agency sitting at the top of them. Independent recognition carries more weight. 1r was named one of Shopify's 10 best website design companies on Shopify's own blog, and was listed among the top web development agencies for Shopify Plus and enterprise by Simple Bundles, which noted 1r's 15 years in operation and over 100 site launches.
Verifiable tenure, on both sides. How long has the agency operated, and how long do its people and its clients stay? Longevity is a signal a newer or higher-churn shop can't reproduce.
Named results you can trace. Look for specific outcomes tied to real brands, not vague "we drove growth" claims. Case studies with named clients and real metrics are the corroboration that matters.
Why the team behind the agency matters more than the portfolio
The reason to ask about staffing and retention is that in ecommerce, judgment is the product, and judgment lives in people who have seen the problem before.
A senior person has already made, or watched someone make, the mistake you're about to. They know which redesign choices quietly cost conversion, why a promotion can train the wrong buying behavior, and when a feature isn't worth the load time. A beautiful site built by someone learning on your account is more expensive than it looks. You pay for it later, in the results that never show up.
That's why the two retention numbers matter so much. An agency whose own people stay can put genuinely experienced hands on your brand and keep them there. An agency whose clients stay is showing you that the model actually works over time. The two reinforce each other: stable teams build lasting client relationships, and lasting relationships are what let a team get better at your business every year instead of restarting.
1r builds Shopify experiences designed to convert, staffed by senior people, experts in their lane rather than generalists, who stay on the brands they start with. We're independently owned, which means our team's focus is our clients' growth, with no outside targets pulling against it. That operating model is the reason clients stay. We've built long-term relationships with brands that have grown and evolved alongside us.
Westman Atelier has been a 1r client since 2019, and the relationship has grown from enhancing its original ecommerce experience to redesigning and rebuilding its Shopify 2.0 site for a global audience, with ongoing strategy, development, SEO, and managed services along the way, leading to continued digital growth year over year.
We’ve seen really tremendous growth since we launched and one of the most rewarding things is seeing the team grow and our capabilities.
David Neville, Cofounder of Westman Atelier
WS Development has been a 1r partner since 2016, and that relationship is a good example of what continuity can actually look like. Over the years, we've worked across the business on everything from building and maintaining content-driven sites for Boston Seaport, to loyalty apps and microsites, to ongoing digital innovation. Most recently, we built Seaport Loop, a custom AI-powered experience that helps visitors navigate the neighborhood through natural conversation and real-time information.
Through the years, 1r Agency has been our digital backbone, crafting and maintaining our website. The client services team's dedication is unparalleled—a true partnership of trust and success. I couldn't imagine our journey without them.
Katelyn Lorry, Associate Director, Digital Engagement, WS Development
How 1r is built to answer these questions
Maison Louis Marie has partnered with 1r since 2023, and that relationship has expanded well beyond the initial growth challenge that brought us together. We've worked across paid media, SEO, email and SMS, loyalty, and the brand's ecommerce experience, ultimately redesigning and rebuilding its digital flagship. The result was a more connected experience across storytelling and commerce, with a 16% increase in gross revenue, 7% increase in AOV, 10% decrease in bounce rate, and 134% increase in add-to-cart actions.
One of the biggest advantages of working with an integrated partner is having every part of the business moving in sync. From paid media and website development to creative, email marketing, and SEO, every channel is approached with the same strategic and brand perspective. That level of alignment creates a more cohesive customer experience, streamlines execution internally, and ultimately allows us to focus more deeply on long-term brand growth.
Matthew Berkson, CEO & Co-Founder, Maison Louis Marie
How 1r is built to answer these questions
These relationships aren't defined by a single launch or deliverable. They're built over time, as we learn the business, understand the customer, and continue solving the next problem together. That's what we mean when we talk about partnership.
And the continuity isn't just on the client side. Vanessa Bellitto, Director of Accounts, Yang Li, VP of Engineering, and Melissa Speranza, VP of Growth & Marketing, have each been at 1r for 10 years. When we say our clients get senior people who stay close to the work, we mean it. You're not meeting a senior team during the pitch and then handing the relationship off to a revolving door of new faces. The people leading the work have been building their experience, relationships, and understanding of how we work together for years.
You can see the same senior-led continuity across brands we've partnered with as they've scaled, from VIOLET GREY in beauty to Silver Oak Cellars in wine and Norma Kamali in fashion. Different categories, same operating model: senior, independent, and accountable to the brand's growth.
If you're evaluating agencies and want a straight conversation about what working together would actually look like, we're happy to talk. No deck, no pressure. Reach out at hello@1r.agency.
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