Considerations in Hiring Shopify Developers

When looking for a Shopify Development team there are many options available to you, especially given that Shopify Experts are at your fingertips and hundreds of software engineering houses advertise and can be found through the Google search engine. The right fit for your business is needed to produce a high-quality end result with the right project management for your Shopify store. Considerations to your UI/UX, content marketing, and mobile application for your audience are critical for your conversion rates and might require some custom design work as well. Here we will explore the tenets in finding the right fit for your business.

Pre-qualified Shopify Developers

For an online store owner to save some time from the rough and the more polished Shopify developers, Shopify has their Partner's portal for you to access and request assistance by submitting a Shopify Job request. Their system identifies the most suitable agencies that are pre-qualified as Shopify Experts to which they can respond to you on their availability, capability, and price for your needs. The range in which you can request is vast, from social media integrations, Email Marketing, and SEO to Shopify Custom Apps and Shopify API integrations. This can be the fastest source of pre-qualified Shopify Developers you can access, with the help of Shopify's Partner portal. This skips a lot of the interview process, it is measured by reviews/ratings and you can check out the profile of the business with years of experience backing them.

How to identify good talent

There are a few approaches when it comes to "try before you buy" when it comes to a Shopify Developer. Some companies might have a mobile app test or would require a resume of the associated team members for review. Graphic designers might have to show their portfolio and client reviews both at the Shopify Experts and other reviews locations. While the "show and tell" can give you an idea, the "fit" is still in question due to communication, diligence, and priority to your business, and being timely when it comes to your marketing campaigns. If you have a project team and need the expansion with a Shopify agency, then having a test will uncover how the relationship could work, and what kind of results you might get. Do note, that a test may not come for free - however, it might be very well worth the trouble if it is a long-term commitment.

How to go about budgeting for a Shopify Developer

A Shopify Developer comes in different forms, a Web Designer is considered a front-end developer, while a Shopify App developer is a back-end developer. Both categories are priced in a different set of skills and are priced differently with some agencies. Visual Design is again in a different category of skills, especially with their skills honed on UI/UX and the customer experience on your online store. Understanding your needs and aligning them to Shopify Development categories is the first step to obtaining the right pricing profile. Your Subject Line in the request for Jobs for example and the category you choose will tell the system to direct it to the right agencies which focus on those areas. When you get a response from the various agencies, you will get an idea of budgeting for your needs - saving you hassle and time on how to go about shopping around and determining how to size your budget. Using the Shopify Portal to your advantage doesn't hurt whatsoever.

How do you budget for SEO for your Shopify Store?

SEO is a must-have aspect of your online content marketing strategy. Even if you have a successful product, run your own advertisement campaigns, over time Google will capture all the activity and accumulate all the various errors. Therefore ignoring your SEO will eventually erode confidence as Google indexes and archives older content. Creating content can be both Landing pages, Blogs, or video content which are all viable to improve your profile and marketing - but it has to be done responsibly and with a certain diligence/process. Even with social media, where Facebook Pages and promotions require constant changes in marketing messaging. Social media marketing does have a better "clean-up" than what's changed on your online store with regards to google's indexing and capturing keywords and pieces of content. However, given this, consideration for SEO work requires scoping as part of the online store journey.

Shopify Experts have SEO capabilities, and it is a skill set that you can apply for through the Shopify Partner's portal where you can describe your needs. Some store owners might not have a deep understanding of their request and might just start with an SEO Audit to see if their store's SEO Health is OK before proceeding to understand the errors and what is required to do. Going through the portal's process will introduce you to trusted SEO agencies, how they work/operate, and how they can best help you with your SEO, Keywords, and online marketing.

Shopify Apps and Product Design

Native Apps within Shopify can come in the form of Email Marketing, Shopify Shipping which are more like hybrid apps given they are modules to the Shopify core. The Shopify App store contains thousands of best practices methods of automation, interface design UX as well as various Web Apps that can help with your marketing and product design. Hiring an Interactive Designer that focuses on UX will inevitably create an App that delivers your requirements. The same process happens when it comes to integrating to other systems using the API. Pricing and qualifying the right talent takes the same approach as above - the developer marketplace being pre-screened in the Shopify Partner's Portal makes it easy to put out your requirements and get a response.

Conclusion

When looking for a Shopify Developer or a team of Shopify Developers, reaching out to pre-qualified and vetted pools of talent will start you at a reasonable level of diligence and comprehension of your needs. Communication and competence is the "key factor" for your success, so don't be afraid to test your best candidate before committing. Checking reviews, the work that was done previously done, and the talent that achieved these results is all part of the interview process in establishing trust in accomplishing your requirements. If you need to consult with a Shopify Expert where our profile is available, we have been registered with Shopify as such for over a decade, just reach out to us at wish@thegenielab.com