Shopify Maintenance Services UK for Established Stores

Shopify maintenance is the work that keeps a live store selling once the build team has gone: theme updates merged with your custom code, app clashes untangled, broken buttons and filters fixed, integrations to Xero, Sage or your warehouse kept running, and the store tested before peak trading. Shopify hosts the platform. Everything you added on top of it is yours to look after, and that is the part a maintenance partner takes on.

Yes, if it is a store of any size. Shopify keeps its servers, checkout and security running. It does not look after your theme edits, your third-party apps or the links to your accounting, stock and courier systems. Shopify’s own Help Center says third-party apps are supported by their developers and that coding changes sit outside Shopify Support’s scope. Those are exactly the parts that break on an established store.

A retainer is an agreement where the same team looks after your store over months rather than for one project. At FactoryJet it is optional. You can keep a standing allowance of time if you want one, or pay per change, with each change quoted and approved before work starts. There is no monthly minimum unless you ask for one, and the fee does not climb just because time has passed.

Start with what changed. Most faults on an established store follow a theme edit, a new app, an app update or a content change, so the change log usually points to the cause within minutes. If nothing changed on your side, check Shopify’s status page for a platform incident. If checkout or payments are failing, treat it as urgent: test an order on a phone, then roll back the latest change while the cause is found.

Yes. This is a common starting point. The first job is an onboarding audit: we back up the live theme, list every app, script, webhook and integration, and note what nobody documented. You end up with a written map of your own store, which is useful even if you later move the work elsewhere. We do not need the previous agency’s help to start.

Onboarding runs in a fixed order. We agree the scope in writing, then you add us as a collaborator with the permissions you choose. Next we put the live theme under version control and list every app, script tag, webhook, API version and integration. Faults touching checkout, payments or order sync get fixed first, with a test order after each fix. Then each Shopify deadline gets a dated plan. The length depends on how many systems your store feeds, and we state it in the scope.

No. Shopify lets you add a collaborator account for a Shopify Partner to work on your store, and the permissions you set control which sections of the store that account can reach. Your owner login and password are never shared. When the work ends, the collaborator account is removed. Your developers, accountant and warehouse partner keep their own logins.

Through the Shopify Help Center. Shopify says chat is open 24/7 on every plan. Shopify Plus and Retail plans add inbound phone and email support, and Shopify says email tickets typically get a response within 48 hours. Shopify Support does not make outbound phone or video calls on any plan. For store-specific code and third-party apps, you need your developer or the app maker.

Only on some plans. Shopify’s Help Center lists inbound phone support for Shopify Plus and Retail, and for POS Pro through the Help Center. Other plans get 24/7 chat, and Shopify does not make outbound calls. If your store is losing orders and you are not on Plus, the faster route is usually your own developer or maintenance partner, who can open the code and roll back a change straight away.

Mostly not. Shopify’s Help Center says that unless you are on Shopify Plus or are a Shopify Partner, Support cannot help with most custom code issues. Apps built by third parties are supported by their developers, and paid third-party themes by their theme developer. Coding changes to free Shopify themes are outside Support’s scope too. A maintenance partner covers the code Shopify will not touch.

Shopify’s developer changelog sets two dates. From 1 October 2026, apps can no longer create or update script tags, though existing ones keep running. From 1 March 2027, Shopify stops injecting script tags into storefronts. Apps must move to app embed blocks, which you switch on in the theme editor, or to web pixels for tracking. We list which of your apps still depend on script tags and plan each switch.

Often it is an expired API version. Shopify releases a new API version every three months and supports each one for at least 12 months. When an app calls a version that is no longer supported, Shopify does not reject the call. It answers using the oldest supported version instead, which can quietly change the data your stock or accounting link receives. We track the versions your links call.

Usually, but on a draft first. Shopify applies bug and security fixes to themes automatically. Other updates you add yourself, and Shopify says code edits carry over only if they do not conflict with the update, so customised stores often lose changes. Shopify advises saving a copy of customised code before updating. We merge your code into the new version on a draft, test it on desktop and mobile, then publish.

It depends on the store, so we do not publish a figure. The cost drivers are how many apps and custom features you run, how many systems connect to Shopify (Xero, Sage, Linnworks, Brightpearl, a 3PL, marketplaces), whether you are on Shopify Plus with checkout extensions, and how much new work you want alongside the fixes. FactoryJet quotes the build and any support you choose as fixed prices in writing after a short scoping call.

Pay per fix suits a store that changes little: you describe the job, we quote it, you approve it, we do it. A standing allowance of time suits a store with frequent changes or many connected systems, because urgent work starts without waiting for a fresh quote. Either way there is no monthly minimum unless you ask for one, the terms are in writing before work begins, and you can stop.

Quotes for UK clients are written in pounds sterling, and the quote shows VAT on its own line where it applies, so your finance team sees the figure before and after VAT. Each phase gets its own fixed price in writing, so a support allowance never hides inside a build price. If a third-party app or tool is needed, it sits in your own account at its list price.

You do, from day one. Theme code, custom apps, integration code and documentation all belong to you, and stay in your Shopify account and your code repository. Hosting for any custom link can run in your own cloud account at cost, with no markup. If you end support, nothing is switched off and nothing needs to be handed back, because nothing was ever held by us.

Urgent faults go through a separate route, so a failed checkout never waits behind a banner change. Checkout, payment and order sync faults always come first. The exact response time for your store is written into the support terms during scoping, matched to the hours you trade. The founder replies to new enquiries within 24 hours.

A short brief is enough. Tell us your Shopify plan, roughly how many orders you take a month, the apps you rely on, and the systems the store connects to: accounting, stock, warehouse, couriers and marketplaces. Add the last three things that broke and what you would build next if you had the time. If you already have an RFP or tender document, send that instead and we will answer it point by point.

Yes. On most established UK stores the order flow into accounting is the part that breaks first and costs the most when it does. We can look after connector apps, and custom links that connect Shopify to Xero, Sage, QuickBooks UK, NetSuite, Dynamics 365 Business Central or Odoo through each system’s API. For Xero specifically, our Shopify Xero integration page covers VAT, payouts and stock in detail.

It can. GOV.UK says all VAT-registered businesses should now be signed up for Making Tax Digital for VAT. HMRC’s VAT Notice 700/22 says records must be kept digitally and data moved between programs by digital links; copy and paste does not count. If a broken connector leaves your team retyping Shopify sales into the books, that gap matters. We map it, and your accountant confirms the rules.

Often. The ICO’s guidance describes an exception for storage used solely to collect statistics that improve your service, provided you explain it clearly and give a simple, free way to object. It does not cover advertising. Most stores run marketing pixels too, which still need consent. We check what each app sets; your adviser makes the legal call.

Yes. Order management and warehouse systems talk to Shopify through webhooks, messages Shopify sends when an order or product changes. Shopify’s developer documentation says a failing webhook is retried up to eight times in four hours, and if failures persist the subscription is removed. After that, orders silently stop arriving. We watch for those failures and fix the endpoint before stock drifts.

Yes. Marketplace channels add listings, stock and order sync that must stay in step with Shopify, or you oversell. We can look after the connector apps and product data that link Shopify to Amazon.co.uk, eBay UK and OnBuy, plus courier label apps for Royal Mail, DPD and Evri, and payment set-ups with Shopify Payments, Klarna and Clearpay.

No. Shopify and Shopify Plus are the focus of this page, but the same team works on WooCommerce and Commerceflo stores. We are building Sow Easy’s WooCommerce trade store with Odoo as the master for stock and pricing, and we built GPSUK’s trade storefront on Commerceflo, where our SEO and AI search work continues. If your business runs more than one store platform, one team can look after all of them.