The Shopify questions everyone asks, answered.

Hire a freelancer for small, well-defined tasks like a bug fix or one new section. Hire a studio when you need design, development, apps and launch handled together, with one accountable team. Our take: ask who actually designs and who writes the code, and whether they work in your accounts. A good studio gives you freelancer-level access to the people doing the work, plus a repeatable process.

It depends on scope: a theme setup, a custom-designed store, a migration and a B2B build are very different projects. Hourly rates vary widely by region and experience, so compare fixed-scope quotes, not rates. We don't publish fixed prices; we quote after a short discovery call once we understand your catalog, integrations and design needs. Book a call to get a scoped quote.

Shopify Partners are agencies and freelancers registered with Shopify to build and manage stores. Shopify places service partners in tiers (Select, Plus, Premier and Platinum) based on factors such as experience and track record on the platform. The Silver Arc is an official Shopify Partner at the Select Partner tier. You can compare partners in the Shopify Partner Directory.

You should, and with us you always do. We never host client sites: the store, theme, domain, apps and data are all set up under your own accounts. We work as a collaborator, and Shopify doesn't let collaborators take store ownership or the Administrator role. If you ever change partners, nothing needs to be transferred back to you.

Use a collaborator account, not your own login. In Settings > Users > Security you share a 4-digit collaborator code; the partner requests access and you approve only the permissions needed. Collaborators don't count toward your staff limit, must use two-step authentication, and you can remove them at any time. See Shopify's collaborator guide.

You fill in a design questionnaire, and we deliver the first design version in Figma in under a week. You get up to 3 revision rounds, then we develop the store in Shopify, test it and launch. We communicate by email or Basecamp, and the first step is a discovery call booked through silverarc.youcanbook.me.

We're a remote-first Shopify design and development studio working with brands worldwide, with a presence in Barcelona, Spain. Our founder, Karol Djana, leads Shopify development, and a partner designer creates the designs in Figma. We work asynchronously by email and Basecamp and schedule calls within your working hours.

Shopify Basic is $29/month billed yearly ($39 monthly), Grow is $79 ($105 monthly) and Advanced is $299 ($399 monthly). Shopify Plus starts at $2,300/month on a 3-year term. Budget separately for a paid theme if you use one, apps, and payment processing. Check current rates on Shopify's pricing page.

With Shopify Payments, online card rates are 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic, 2.7% + 30¢ on Grow and 2.5% + 30¢ on Advanced (US rates). If you use a third-party payment provider instead, Shopify adds a transaction fee of 2%, 1% or 0.6% depending on plan, and 0.2% on Plus. Rates differ by country.

Yes. Shopify currently offers a 3-day free trial with no credit card required, followed by $1/month for the first 3 months on an eligible plan. That's enough time to set up products, try themes and get a designer or developer working as a collaborator before you pay full price. Offers change, so confirm on Shopify's pricing page.

Start on Basic if you're launching or doing modest volume. Move to Grow when you need more staff accounts (5 extra) and lower card rates. Advanced suits higher volume with 15 staff accounts and the lowest standard-plan rates. Plus is for high-volume or complex brands. Our take: pick on fees and features you'll actually use, not on future plans.

For most brands that want to sell without managing servers, yes. Shopify is hosted, secure and updated for you; WooCommerce's core plugin is free and open source, but you pay for hosting, maintenance and many extensions, and you own the upkeep. WooCommerce makes sense if you need deep WordPress customization and have technical help. See Shopify vs WooCommerce.

Not always. You can launch on a Shopify theme yourself if you're happy with its layouts. You need a developer when you want a custom design, custom sections, app integrations, B2B logic, a migration or fixes the theme editor can't handle. Many brands start with a theme, then bring in help once the store has traction.

Shopify offers free themes, including the Horizon family built with theme blocks, and paid themes in the Theme Store. A paid theme is a one-time purchase licensed for one store, and you can preview any theme before buying. Expect to pay for apps separately. See theme vs custom design.

Yes. Shopify Payments is available in around 40 countries, including Spain and most of Western Europe, and Shopify supports multiple currencies, languages and markets from one store. If Shopify Payments isn't available for your country or business type, you connect a third-party payment provider instead. See supported countries.

Use a theme if budget and speed matter most and your brand fits its layouts. Choose a custom design when your brand, product storytelling or conversion flow needs something a theme can't do well. Our take: most brands do best with a custom design built on a solid theme foundation, which keeps it editable and fast. Read our full comparison.

A theme-based store can launch in days to a couple of weeks; a custom-designed store typically takes several weeks, depending on pages, products, integrations and how fast feedback comes. In our process the first Figma design arrives in under a week, followed by up to 3 revision rounds and then development. See build timelines.

You should be able to. We build with Shopify sections and blocks so you can change text, images, products and page layouts in the theme editor without code. Bigger structural changes, new functionality or custom logic are where a developer comes back in. Ask any studio to show you how editable the finished theme is.

A section is a reusable, editable module in a Shopify theme, such as a hero banner, comparison table or ingredients block. A custom section is one coded for your store when the theme doesn't offer what you need. Once built, you can add, reorder and edit it in the theme editor like any native section.

The usual causes are oversized images and video, too many apps injecting scripts, and heavy theme customizations. Shopify serves images through its CDN in modern formats like WebP, but large source files and leftover code from uninstalled apps still slow pages down. Audit apps first, then images, then theme code. Speed work is part of our development service.

No. Shopify now covers a lot natively, including filtering, markets, B2B basics and customer accounts. Each app adds cost and often scripts that affect speed. Our take: use apps for complex jobs like reviews, subscriptions or ERP sync, and build simple things such as a size chart or a promo bar directly into the theme.

Yes. Alongside full builds, we handle theme customization, custom sections, app integrations and bug fixing on existing stores. Share the issue or change list on a discovery call and we'll scope it. We work through a collaborator account in your store and test changes on a duplicate theme before publishing.

Import your data, check products, choose and set up a theme, configure shipping, taxes and payments, place test orders, set up URL redirects and then connect your domain. Import products first, then customers, then historical orders so they link correctly. Shopify's migration guide lists every step. Our migration service handles it end to end.

Products, customers, historical orders, gift cards and store credit, blog posts and pages can all be migrated. Small amounts can be copied manually; larger stores use CSV files, migration apps or the Shopify API. Some data, like certain custom fields or reviews, needs a dedicated app or custom mapping, so inventory everything before you start.

Not if you plan it. Shopify's URL structure differs from most platforms, so you must 301-redirect every old URL to its new equivalent and keep titles, descriptions and content. Google says some ranking fluctuation is normal while it recrawls, and that redirects should stay for at least a year. Use our migration SEO checklist.

Yes. Shopify's free Store Migration app supports WooCommerce, Wix, Square, Etsy, Amazon, eBay, Clover and Lightspeed, mainly for products and customers. Squarespace and Magento moves typically use CSV exports or third-party migration tools. See our guides for WooCommerce, Wix and Squarespace.

Passwords don't carry over from other platforms, but with Shopify's current customer accounts that rarely matters: customers sign in with their email and a one-time 6-digit code, no password needed. Customer records and order history can still be imported, so returning customers see their past orders once they sign in.

Small catalogs can move in a couple of weeks; larger stores with many products, custom data, integrations or a redesign typically take longer. The data import is often the fast part. Cleaning data, mapping redirects, rebuilding design and testing checkout take the real time. We give a timeline once we've reviewed your current store.

It shouldn't. Your old store stays live while the new Shopify store is built and tested behind a password. On launch day you set up redirects, point the domain to Shopify and remove the password. Shopify advises disconnecting the domain from the old platform first to avoid SSL errors, then testing your most-visited URLs.

Not anymore. Since April 2, 2026, Basic, Grow and Advanced include native B2B: company profiles, up to 3 B2B catalogs, volume pricing and quantity rules, payment terms and vaulted cards. Plus adds unlimited catalogs, direct catalog assignment to companies, deposits, partial payments and checkout customization. Read B2B without Plus.

Yes. Shopify supports a blended store, where B2B and direct-to-consumer customers shop the same storefront and logged-in companies see their own prices and rules. You can also run a dedicated B2B-only store. Blended is simpler to manage; a separate store makes sense when wholesale needs a very different catalog or experience.

You create B2B customers as companies, then assign them catalogs with fixed prices or percentage adjustments, plus quantity rules and volume pricing. Buyers sign in with customer accounts to see their pricing. On Basic, Grow and Advanced you get up to 3 active catalogs; Plus allows unlimited catalogs for customer-specific pricing. See Shopify's B2B features.

Shopify Plus starts at $2,300/month on a 3-year term, or $2,500/month on a 1-year term. Higher-volume businesses may also pay a variable platform fee based on revenue and business model, which differs for B2B and direct-to-consumer sales. Plus also has lower third-party transaction fees (0.2%). Shopify quotes Plus directly.

Plus pays off when you need what standard plans can't do: checkout customization, unlimited B2B catalogs, deposits and partial payments, up to 9 expansion stores, unlimited staff or Shopify Functions at scale, or when lower fees offset the higher subscription. Our take: if none of those apply, Advanced is usually enough. Compare in Is Shopify Plus worth it?.

Advanced costs $299/month (yearly) with 15 staff accounts and up to 3 B2B catalogs. Plus starts at $2,300/month and adds unlimited staff, 9 expansion stores, customizable checkout steps, advanced B2B payments and lower transaction fees. Most growing brands don't need Plus until operations or checkout demand it. See Plus vs Advanced.

Only partly. All plans can brand checkout and use apps on the Thank you and Order status pages, which non-Plus stores had to upgrade by August 26, 2026. Custom extensions in the information, shipping and payment steps are Plus-only. Read our checkout extensibility guide.

Yes. Shopify generates your sitemap.xml automatically, ships an SEO-friendly default robots.txt, adds canonical tags and lets you edit titles, meta descriptions, URLs and alt text. Shopify's free themes include product structured data. What Shopify can't do for you is content, internal linking, site structure and speed discipline. Start with our Shopify SEO guide.

Your sitemap lives at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml and updates automatically. Verify your domain in Google Search Console, go to Indexing > Sitemaps, enter sitemap.xml and submit. Your store must not be password-protected, or Google can't read it. If you use international domains, submit each one's sitemap separately.

Shopify can show the same product under several URLs, for example inside collection paths, but it adds canonical tags pointing to the main product URL, so search engines know which version to index. The bigger risks are thin collection pages, tag-filtered URLs and copied manufacturer descriptions. Write unique copy for key products and collections.

Since March 2026, Shopify's Agentic Storefronts make products discoverable in ChatGPT by default, with Microsoft Copilot and Google's AI Mode and Gemini rolling out. You manage channels in the Shopify admin. The basics still matter most: complete product data, clear titles, metafields and accurate policies. Our SEO and CRO service covers this.

No. Google states there are no additional requirements or special optimizations for AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no need for new AI text files or special schema. A page must simply be indexed and eligible for a snippet. Focus on helpful content, clean structure and solid technical SEO. See Google's guidance.

Usually not. Shopify's default robots.txt is SEO-optimized and works for most stores. You can customize it through a robots.txt.liquid template, but Shopify warns incorrect use can cost you all your search traffic, and its support team won't help with edits. Only change it for a specific, tested reason.

Technical fixes can be picked up within days to weeks once Google recrawls, while rankings from new content and links typically build over several months. Results depend on competition, your site's history and how consistently you publish. Be wary of anyone guaranteeing rankings; no one controls Google's results.