Web development
Shopify development
Shopify is easy to start with and hard to keep fast. After eighteen months most stores have twelve apps installed and the front page pulls scripts from seven different domains.
- Same-day reply
- Fixed price
- No lock-in
- Liquid and Hydrogen
- Online Store 2.0
- App integrations
- Checkout extensions
Service
Shopify development
Theme development
I both customise existing themes and build from scratch. When I build from scratch I stay on Online Store 2.0 sections, so the store's own people can move things around.
The most important thing about a theme customisation is that it does not make the theme impossible to update again. I put changes in sections and snippets rather than editing core files, and document what changed where.
App cleanup
A good share of the apps in a typical store do something that can be solved in the theme with thirty lines of code. In return they cost both in subscription and in load time, and they stay long after anyone stopped using them.
I go through what each app actually contributes, what it costs in milliseconds, and what the alternative would be. Some should stay. Others have been there since 2022 without anyone remembering why.
Integrations
- ERP and inventory — e-conomic, Business Central, Uniconta and similar.
- Shipping and parcel labels with pickup points directly in checkout.
- PIM setups where product data lives somewhere other than Shopify.
- Loyalty programmes where data has to line up across store and storefront.
Deliverables
What you get
Concrete deliverables, not a report of recommendations someone else has to find time for.
- A theme on Online Store 2.0
Section-based, so the store's own people can rearrange things without asking a developer.
- Updatable changes
Placed in sections and snippets rather than core files, so the theme can still be updated afterwards.
- An app review
What each app contributes, what it costs in milliseconds, and what the alternative would be.
- Integrations that hold
To ERP, inventory and shipping, with error handling so an order does not vanish because a system was down for twenty minutes.
Process
How it works
Four steps. You know what happens when, and you can stop after any of them.
- 01
Get on a call
Twenty minutes where you explain what is going wrong and I ask the questions that decide the scope. I say so immediately if the job is not a fit.
- 02
I read the code
Before quoting I spend half a day to a day reading the project. You get an honest assessment of the state of things, including when it is worse than you hoped.
- 03
Fixed price and scope
You get a written quote with what is included, what is not, and when it is done. Not a three-month range you cannot plan around.
- 04
Delivery in your workflow
I work in your git repository and open pull requests that can be reviewed. Everything I touch is documented, so knowledge does not walk out the door with me.
Who does the work
I am the person you will be working with
My name is Mikkel and I have been building for the web since 2010. There is no project manager in between, and you will not get a junior on the job because the senior was busy. What you agree is what gets built, and I am the one building it.
Day to day I am a partner at Bigum&Co, and I have worked on more than 400 projects across ecommerce, pharma, construction and the public sector. Call or write — I usually reply the same day, and I will say straight away if the job is not a fit.
- Experience
- 16 yrs
- Projects
- 400+
- Rating
- 5.0
- Reply time
- Same day
In depth
Shopify development
Why Shopify stores get slow
Shopify itself is fast. The platform runs on good infrastructure, and a clean store with a well-built theme loads fine. That is not where the problem is.
The problem is what gets stacked on top. An app for reviews, one for wishlists, one for upsell, one for popups, one for loyalty, one for stock alerts. Each inserts its own script, and several fetch data from their own servers while the page loads. After eighteen months the front page is pulling scripts from seven different domains.
The clearest symptom is a store that feels fine on a computer on the office network and sluggish on a phone out and about. That is also where most customers are.
The cleanup rarely means removing functionality. It means working out what each app is actually used for, and replacing the three or four where the feature can be built into the theme with thirty lines of code. That gives both a faster store and a smaller subscription bill.
Changing a theme without painting yourself into a corner
The most expensive mistake in Shopify development is editing the theme's core files directly. It works fine right up until the theme needs updating, and then you choose between losing your changes and not updating. Most choose the latter, and the store then sits on a 2022 theme with the security gaps and missing features that implies.
The way to avoid it is putting everything in sections and snippets and touching core files only where a single call gets inserted. Then the theme can be updated and the changes come along.
I also document each change in the code itself with a short comment on why. In two years that comment is what decides whether the next developer dares delete the line or leaves it because nobody knows what it does.
Reviews
What people say about me
Mikkel is seriously good, helpful, lightning fast to reply — and on top of that he is a nice person.
Trine Handskemager(translated from Danish) Mikkel delivered competent, professional work setting up my website. Everything ran quickly and without a hitch.
Sisse Find(translated from Danish) Mikkel Tschentscher is my lifeline when something is urgent and nobody else can work it out.
Torben Wiese(translated from Danish)
Services
Why me
- 16 years of experience
I have built for the web since 2010 and seen most of the ways a project can come off the rails. It makes the estimates more honest.
- 400+ projects
Across ecommerce, pharma, construction and the public sector. Chances are I have seen something close to your job before.
- You talk to the person coding
No project manager in between, and no junior on the job because the senior was busy. What you agree is what gets built.
Brands I have worked with
A selection. Some freelance, some through agencies, some across several years.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
- Can you build a Shopify app?
- Private apps for a specific store, yes. Public app store apps with billing and support across a thousand merchants is a different product, and for that you need a team.
- What about Shopify Plus?
- I work in Plus as well, where you get checkout extensions and Shopify Functions. That is where the most interesting customisations live, particularly around discount logic and shipping rules.
- Can you move a WooCommerce store to Shopify?
- Yes. The critical parts are the product URLs and the historical orders. The URL structure differs, so without a proper redirect plan you lose the organic traffic on product pages.
- Can you build a Shopify app?
- Private apps for a specific store, yes. Public app store apps with billing and support across a thousand merchants are a different product, and for that you need a team.
- What about Shopify Plus?
- I work in Plus as well, where you get checkout extensions and Shopify Functions. That is where the most interesting customisations live, particularly around discount logic and shipping rules.
- Can you move a WooCommerce store to Shopify?
- Yes. The critical parts are the product URLs and the historical orders. The URL structure differs, so without a proper redirect plan you lose the organic traffic on product pages.