Shopify consulting and development informed by the business behind the storefront.
The storefront is not the business.
Strategy, architecture and implementation for ecommerce problems that have already been defined.
Chroma works across Shopify, merchandising, storefront architecture, UX and front-end implementation—starting from the commercial problem. The right answer may be a rebuild, an optimization, a merchandising change, a systems fix, or no development at all.
Chroma doesn’t begin with code.
A storefront can look like a technical problem when the underlying constraint is merchandising, product structure, content, operations or decision-making. Development is most valuable when the problem has actually been isolated.
- What customers are trying to do
- Where the experience breaks
- How products are structured
- How merchandising works
- What operational dependencies exist
- What the current technology is preventing
The goal is not to build more. It is to build what the business needs.
Where Shopify and ecommerce work usually lands.
Six kinds of work, each taken on where it is the actual solution—and a request for one is often best answered by another.
Storefront optimization
Improve existing storefront architecture, interaction and conversion paths.
Theme development
Implement or extend Shopify themes around real commercial requirements.
Catalog architecture
Structure products, variants, collections and navigation around how customers shop.
PDP & collection systems
Improve product discovery, product information and merchandising behavior.
Performance & technical debt
Address theme, app, integration and front-end constraints where they materially affect the experience.
Custom front-end work
Build interfaces or functionality when existing theme patterns are insufficient.
Not every Shopify problem needs a redesign.
The intervention should match the constraint. Read down the left column for the symptom; the right column is what it usually indicates.
| Problem | Likely response |
|---|---|
| Weak merchandising | Fix architecture and merchandising first |
| Confusing navigation | Information architecture and taxonomy work |
| Slow theme | Technical optimization |
| Poor brand expression | Design and system work |
| Structural theme limitations | Rebuild may be justified |
| App overload | Stack and integration review |
| Operational friction | Fix process or systems before storefront work |
| Weak product proposition | Strategy and merchandising before development |
A redesign is a solution category, not a diagnosis.
A rebuild commissioned against the wrong diagnosis costs the build, the months it takes, and the same problem waiting at the end of it.
From request to implementation decision.
Five steps between what was asked for and what gets built. The figure narrows because that is what the work does.
Understand
What is the business trying to improve?
Trace
Where does the constraint actually appear in the customer or operating system?
Isolate
What is storefront-related, and what is not?
Choose
Optimize, restructure, rebuild, integrate, or leave alone.
Implement
Build the smallest solution that solves the actual problem.
“Leave alone” is a real outcome of step four, and it is the one a development engagement is least likely to reach on its own.
Technical execution with commercial context.
Two lists that are usually held by two different people, and one statement about what happens when they are not.
Commercial context
- Customer journey
- Product structure
- Merchandising
- Pricing and offer context
- Launch requirements
- Operational dependencies
Implementation
- Shopify theme work
- Front-end development
- Catalog structure
- Component systems
- Integrations
- Performance
- Responsive behavior
- QA
Build decisions should connect both.
Selected Shopify & ecommerce work.
Three builds, chosen because they are three different kinds of problem rather than three of the same one.
Structured Travel Goods
Release architecture and front-end build
Product-system positioning, campaign direction and release architecture for a three-format structured travel line.
Directed, Built · Next.js
Pre-launch release page — no sales claims.
Formulation Ingredients Brand
Catalog architecture and product information
Organised a complex ingredient catalog into a clearer commerce system, combining product architecture, documentation and storefront UX.
Directed, Built · Shopify theme
Live storefront — plates carry the client's own mark.
Streetwear Storefront
Shopify theme implementation
A Shopify storefront skin and design reference for a streetwear label, built to override rather than fork.
Directed, Built · Shopify (Horizon theme) · static design reference
Design reference, not a live store.
Focused implementation, not an open-ended dev retainer.
Three shapes. Which one applies depends on how well the problem is already understood, which is the same question the rest of this page has been asking.
Store review + priority plan
For situations where the problem is visible but the intervention is not yet clear.
Focused improvement sprint
For a defined storefront, merchandising, catalog, UX or technical constraint.
Larger storefront / system build
For cases where the existing architecture genuinely requires broader implementation.
Scope is set against the problem rather than against a package, and is agreed before anything starts.
If the underlying constraint is still unclear across the broader business, start with the Ecommerce Diagnostic.
Development is a means, not the product.
This is
- Shopify consulting
- Storefront architecture
- Ecommerce UX
- Catalog and merchandising systems
- Theme and front-end implementation
- Technical evaluation
- Focused problem solving
This is not
- Generic website development
- Unlimited development hours
- Theme customization without context
- “Conversion optimization” based on guesswork
- App installation as strategy
- A redesign pitch disguised as an audit
Questions.
What does a Shopify consultant do?
Helps determine how the platform, storefront and related systems should support the ecommerce business—not simply how to write code.
In practice that means deciding what the storefront should do before deciding how it should be built: how the catalog is structured, how customers are meant to move through it, what the theme has to support, and which of those actually needs development work.
How is this different from hiring a Shopify developer?
A developer may be hired to execute a defined technical requirement. This engagement can include determining whether that requirement is actually the right intervention before implementing it.
Where the requirement is already right, the difference disappears and the work is implementation. The distinction matters most at the start, which is also when it is cheapest to get wrong.
Do I need a full Shopify redesign?
Not necessarily. A rebuild should follow evidence of structural limitation, not be the default response.
The table in §03 is the short version: of eight common symptoms, one points at a rebuild. The others point at merchandising, taxonomy, performance, design, the app stack, operations or proposition—each of which a redesign would carry over intact into a new theme.
Can you work with an existing Shopify theme?
Yes, and it is often the better answer. Extending a theme the business already runs preserves what works and keeps the change proportionate to the problem.
One of the builds in §06 is exactly this: a storefront on Shopify’s Horizon theme, re-declaring the theme’s own custom properties rather than forking it, with bespoke sections only where a page was genuinely custom.
Can you work with an existing designer or agency?
Yes. Where a design partner or agency is already in place and performing, the useful contribution is usually the commercial and architectural side—what should be built, in what order, and against which constraint—rather than replacing anyone.
Can you implement the recommendations yourself?
Yes. Shopify themes, storefront architecture, catalog systems and front-end work are things Chroma builds as well as directs, and the three entries in §06 are deployed builds rather than proposals.
That is the point of the page: a recommendation made by someone who will not be implementing it is easier to make and harder to trust.
Do you only work on Shopify?
Shopify is the platform most of this work runs on, and it is what the builds on this site are built with—Shopify themes, Liquid, and Shopify’s own theme architecture.
Some of the work is not on Shopify: the release and campaign builds in Selected Work are Next.js and React storefronts. Beyond those two, this site does not claim platform experience it cannot show.
How do I know whether to start here or with the Ecommerce Diagnostic?
If the constraint is unclear across the broader business—and particularly if teams disagree about which part is causing it—the Ecommerce Diagnostic is the better starting point.
If the problem is already understood as a storefront, Shopify, merchandising or technical one, this engagement is likely the better fit. Arriving at the wrong one of the two is not expensive to correct; it is usually clear within the first conversation.
Build what the business actually needs.
The useful starting point is the problem you are trying to solve, not the implementation request — the build follows from it, and not the other way round.
If the problem is defined and the storefront or commerce system needs work, start here.
Problem still unclear?
Explore the DiagnosticIs the problem actually downstream of the storefront?
Ecommerce Operations & InfrastructureNeed someone owning the whole ecommerce system, not one build?
Embedded Ecommerce Leadership