Shopify Partner Agency & Integrations

The short answer

Tack Media builds, migrates and runs Shopify stores, then wires them into ads, email and reporting so the data agrees. Tack is a Shopify Partner. Work covers theme build, app stack rationalisation, checkout and conversion work, and Admin API integrations. Engagements start at $5,000 a month.

What we actually do with Shopify

Most Shopify problems we are called in for are not design problems. They are stack problems: eleven apps, three of which conflict, and a checkout nobody has tested on a mid-range Android phone.

• Build and migration. New builds on Online Store 2.0 themes, and migrations from WooCommerce, Magento or a legacy platform with URL mapping, redirect plans and historical order import.
• App stack rationalisation. An audit of every installed app against what it costs, what it loads on the storefront, and whether two of them are doing the same job.
• Conversion work. Product page structure, cart and checkout friction, mobile performance, upsell and bundle logic, and testing that produces decisions. This runs alongside our paid media and CRO practice because acquisition cost and conversion rate are the same equation.
• Custom Admin API work. Order sync to an ERP, custom fulfilment logic, subscription handling, B2B price lists, and internal tooling built against the GraphQL Admin API, which Shopify documents as the way to build apps and integrations that extend the Shopify admin.
• Storefront performance. Script auditing, image handling, third-party tag control. Every pixel you add costs you conversion rate somewhere.
• Search visibility. Collection architecture, faceted navigation handled without creating thousands of thin pages, and product content built to be found, covered in our SEO, AEO and GEO work.

What it connects to

Where teams get stuck

API rate limits discovered during a bulk job. Shopify’s GraphQL Admin API uses a leaky bucket with a restore rate that depends on your plan: 100 points per second on Standard, 200 on Advanced, 1,000 on Shopify Plus and 2,000 on Commerce Components, with a hard ceiling of 1,000 points for any single query, as of 26 August 2026. A bulk backfill written without cost accounting will throttle. The fix is the Bulk Operations API, not a longer sleep timer.

Versions that retire on a schedule. Shopify releases a new API version every three months, supports each stable version for a minimum of 12 months, and gives at least nine months of overlap between consecutive versions. Apps pinned to a retired version fall forward to the oldest accessible stable version, which means a response shape can change without an error being raised. Integrations need an owner and a calendar entry.

Plan chosen before the requirement is known. Teams buy on monthly cost, then discover checkout customisation or the API throughput they need sits on a higher tier. As of 26 August 2026, Shopify lists Basic at $39 a month, Grow at $105, Advanced at $399 and Plus starting at $2,300, with lower annual rates and card rates falling from 2.9% plus 30 cents on Basic to 2.5% plus 30 cents on Advanced. Shopify changes pricing, so confirm on their page before you budget.

App sprawl paid for twice. Reviews, upsell, bundles, subscriptions, loyalty, popups. Each with a monthly fee and a script on the storefront. The second cost is the one nobody measures: page weight against conversion rate.

How it works — 1, 2, 3

1. Audit and access, week 1 to 2. Store, theme, apps, analytics, ad accounts and email platform. You get a written audit of the app stack, the tracking, the performance numbers and the conversion blockers, in priority order.
2. Build and connect, week 2 to 10. Theme work or migration, app rationalisation, tracking rebuilt server-side, then the integrations: catalogue, email, ads and reporting. A migration with real order history usually needs eight to twelve weeks.
3. Run and report, ongoing. Conversion testing cadence, monthly review on revenue per session and blended acquisition cost, quarterly API version check on every integration we own.

What it costs

Tack engagements start at $5,000 a month. What moves the number: new build versus migration, catalogue size, whether custom Admin API work is required, whether B2B or subscriptions are involved, and how many markets and currencies you sell into.

Shopify’s own subscription sits on top and is billed by Shopify to you, along with payment processing and any app fees. Those tiers are listed above with their as-of date. Vendor pricing changes, and app costs are the line most stores underestimate: a typical mid-size store we audit is paying several hundred dollars a month in apps, and some of that is duplicated.

Questions we get asked

Who owns the store and the code?

You do. The Shopify account, the theme, any custom app and the repository are yours. We work as a collaborator or staff account and we hand back cleanly.

Can we take it in-house later?

Yes, and we build for that. Documented theme structure, documented integrations, no undocumented scripts, and a written record of every API version each integration targets. That is what we mean by a marketing system.

Do you work with our existing theme?

Often. If it is a maintained Online Store 2.0 theme with reasonable code, improving it beats rebuilding it. We recommend a rebuild when the theme is heavily forked from an old base and every change breaks something else.

What if we already have a Shopify developer?

That is common and it works. We take the marketing, tracking and integration layer and stay out of their way on the build, provided we agree who owns the theme.

Do you handle the automation between Shopify and everything else?

Yes. Order routing, ERP sync, email triggers and ad feeds are part of our automation and AI work. Tack are AI integrators, not trainers.

The bottom line

A Shopify store earns its money at the intersection of page speed, checkout friction and the accuracy of the data it sends to your ad platforms. Fix those three and the theme redesign becomes optional.

If you want an honest audit of your app stack and tracking before you spend on a redesign, book a call with a Tack expert or phone 310-620-1141.

Sources

• Shopify.dev — Admin API
• Shopify.dev — Admin API rate limits
• Shopify.dev — API versioning
• Shopify — Pricing