With global retail e-commerce sales expected to reach approximately $6.8 trillion by 2028, there is no question that this industry is still growing fast. Moreover, nearly one in three US websites using e-commerce technology (and millions of merchants worldwide) trust Shopify as their online store system, making it a leading software as a service (SaaS) solution.

How hard is it to find a developer for such a popular e-commerce technology? Hiring someone to quickly modify your theme, change colors, or add an input field is easy. However, minor UI modifications, especially if performed without care, may significantly impact your store’s performance and scalability—or even break your store’s functionality. Therefore, it is crucial to find experienced Shopify developers proficient in working with the platform and have a thorough understanding of Shopify’s architecture to support your long-term vision and strategy.

This hiring guide defines the attributes of a top Shopify candidate, differentiating between Shopify app developers, custom storefront developers, and theme developers. It also offers custom interview questions and job description tips for each type of expert.

What Attributes Distinguish Quality Shopify Developers From Others?

The first step of your journey is to vet candidates for the core Shopify developer skills required to deliver quality work on this e-commerce platform, including proficiency with standard Shopify platform features:

• Partner accounts – Every serious Shopify website developer must actively use a Shopify Partner account, which enables the setup and management of Shopify apps and the creation of development stores, as well as providing communication features.
• Performance and scalability – Since page speed directly affects e-commerce sales, performance and scalability are critical for any online store. Developers should understand Shopify’s architecture and how customization options may influence overall performance.
• APIs – The Shopify GraphQL and REST APIs are extremely powerful and enable developers to securely access almost all Shopify resources, from the product catalog to customer data and orders. Look for candidates familiar with these APIs who can use them efficiently.
• Community – Experienced candidates are typically active members of the Shopify developer community. Being involved in Shopify’s ecosystem of experts, partner developers, marketing specialists, and e-learning channels helps developers troubleshoot problems and stay current on the latest developments.
• Storefront options – The Shopify storefront is the first thing customers see and use; it must be intuitive and performant to stand out from competitors’ sites. Engineers create Shopify stores with ready-made themes or code a storefront from scratch using Shopify’s developer APIs and tools. Shopify experts know the available options and can support you in finding the best path for your business.

However, Shopify expertise requires more than proficiency in Shopify tools alone. Shopify candidates should also possess an assortment of related web development skills crucial for building online stores:

• HTML5 – HTML defines the structure of a webpage and is an essential skill when creating templates for Shopify themes.
• CSS3 – CSS adds styling to a website or online shop. Candidates should be familiar with vanilla CSS or popular CSS frameworks like Bootstrap or Tailwind.
• Liquid – Liquid, Shopify’s templating language, provides access to data displayed from the Shopify back end (e.g., the product title and price on a product detail page); engineers working on custom Shopify theme development or modifying an existing theme need to understand Liquid.
• JavaScript – JavaScript is the standard programming language for web application development and is a common technology for writing and deploying Shopify apps. Developers use JavaScript or other languages to add dynamic behavior to online stores, such as adding a product to the cart without refreshing the page. (Alternatives include Ruby on Rails and Python, both of which have official Shopify app development libraries.)
• TypeScript – TypeScript is a strongly typed programming language that adds static type-checking to code for better tooling support. Many modern teams prefer using TypeScript for web development, as it helps identify errors so developers can correct them early in development.
• React – React is a JavaScript framework that simplifies building UI/UX with reusable components. Shopify offers many frameworks that use React components for building user interfaces (e.g., the Polaris design system and Hydrogen for headless commerce), so it benefits Shopify developers to have a strong foundation in React.
• jQuery – jQuery is a JavaScript library that initially gained popularity by creating an abstraction layer to simplify coding across browser differences. It is still widely used by expert Shopify developers as a productivity tool that simplifies writing JavaScript code, especially when creating themes or working with legacy applications.

Aside from possessing these essential technical skills, the best Shopify experts have also mastered relevant soft skills and custom design capabilities (e.g., UX development and web design). Excellent UX design is a crucial component of your e-commerce store setup, and providing an exceptional user experience increases customer loyalty, builds a strong corporate identity, and distinguishes a business from its competitors. Look for candidates who can speak to their experiences in delivering successful solutions to previous clients.

Depending on your organization’s and development team’s current makeup, you may also want to consider hiring a Shopify developer with SEO expertise. These candidates can implement best practices to improve your e-commerce website’s visibility on search engines and increase the amount of organic traffic directed to your site. By leveraging both e-commerce development skills and SEO know-how, experienced Shopify developers can yield significant results for your business, including a better return on investment for marketing efforts, higher conversion rates, and increased brand awareness and recognition.

How Can You Identify the Ideal Shopify Developer for You?

To hire a dedicated Shopify developer suitable for your business needs, it is important to determine whether your candidate will work primarily on building the storefront and themes, or as a general app developer. Shopify storefronts are where visitors browse and buy products, and there are two ways to create them: using themes or building custom storefronts. Different skills are required for each scenario.

Most merchants start with a ready-made theme from Shopify’s theme store. In this case, theme developers can create custom themes or redesign existing ones.

However, some merchants want complete control over online shops to meet special business requirements (e.g., performance metrics) or to connect to external systems. For a completely customized Shopify store experience, you should hire Shopify developers familiar with themes and app infrastructure to employ Shopify’s Storefront API.

Finally, though they still contribute significantly to UX/UI, app developers focus on business logic, such as extending an online store’s functionality, checkout, or administration, or implementing security features, additional payment gateways, and third-party API integrations. They can publish public apps available for every online store or create custom apps for one specific use case.

Let’s break down the required skills for each developer type in greater detail:

Theme Developer Skills

When you need custom theme development services or want to modify an existing theme, search for specialists who focus on responsive Shopify design for mobile and desktop apps. They should be experts in creating user interfaces using the latest technologies and be skilled in HTML and CSS, JavaScript, Liquid, and Git (for version control).

Custom Storefront Developer Skills

Custom storefront developers work with themes, and like theme developers, they should be front-end developers who have several years of experience with HTML and CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, and Git. They also need added proficiency in GraphQL to access Shopify’s data (products, orders, discounts, etc.). However, storefront experts can use React components without dealing directly with GraphQL API calls if they opt to use Hydrogen.

Hydrogen is a collection of React components that make it even easier to implement custom storefronts. It is one of the best, high-performance, headless e-commerce solutions since its storefronts can be deployed to Oxygen (Shopify’s highly scalable hosting platform). Hydrogen and React experts are strong candidates for Shopify storefront web development projects.

App Developer Skills

Whether you publish custom or public apps, the requirements for Shopify app developers are similar. However, public apps are installed on many online stores. As a result, public apps have stricter requirements that call for a more experienced engineer, as apps must be submitted to Shopify for review. Still, all app developers should understand the difference between embedded and non-embedded apps, and be familiar with Shopify App Bridge and theme app extensions.

Like storefront developers, app developers should be able to work with JavaScript, Node.js, TypeScript, GraphQL, and React.js. However, they must also possess proficiencies in Shopify Polaris, Shopify’s React-based design system, and database technologies (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB). Finally, DevOps expertise (e.g., deployments, hosting solutions, CI/CD, testing) and security skills (e.g., using OAuth and common crypto/security libraries, securing Shopify webhooks) are a must for app developers.

How Shopify Developers Compare to Other E-commerce Platform Engineers

If you are looking for a web engineer for your online store, you may wonder whether a Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, or Magento developer could fulfill your needs. Because the Shopify platform is mature and has specific functionalities, we recommend finding a dedicated Shopify developer for hire. Still, we briefly examine how other developer skills might compare:

Shopify versus Wix developers – Wix has excellent ready-made e-commerce store solutions for specific use cases that experts can implement quickly. However, Shopify engineers work with drastically different APIs, frameworks, development environments, and patterns, so a Wix developer may have a steeper learning curve when getting started on Shopify.

Shopify versus Squarespace developers – Squarespace is an excellent website builder, but if e-commerce is the primary reason for your online presence, Shopify is a more mature solution with better e-commerce functionality. A Shopify expert will best serve your e-commerce development needs.

Shopify versus WordPress developers – WordPress is open-source software with e-commerce features via third-party plugins (e.g., WooCommerce). WordPress developers work with complex APIs that are incompatible with Shopify and typically code in PHP, which is not commonly used in Shopify development. Therefore, hiring a WordPress developer would result in higher training costs compared to hiring an experienced Shopify developer.

Shopify versus Magento developers – Magento (now Adobe Commerce) started as an open-source software product and was acquired by Adobe in 2018. Magento developers can use this tool to provide enterprise-grade support for large-scale products, but Shopify engineers can employ Shopify Plus to implement similar functionalities.

Overall, many web developers who are skilled in one of these platforms are often proficient in many. While you should prioritize Shopify skills first, there is some overlap between these developer types and, in some instances, you can make do with a web expert who’s proficient in another platform.

How to Write a Job Description for Your Shopify Project

A well-written job description will attract the most suitable candidates to your job posting and project, so it is important to get the details right and enumerate the job’s perks. Provide information about the business goals, technology stack, responsibilities, and development team working style, including project management methodologies.

You must also tailor your description to your desired developer type. For example, you may seek a Shopify expert to work on the storefront or one to focus on app development. Be precise about the required skills and project scope to find your ideal fit. Additionally, specify whether you’re looking for a freelancer or a part-time or full-time employee. You may find this web developer job posting template helpful as a starting point to modify for your specific development needs.

What Are the Most Important Shopify Developer Interview Questions?

Asking thoughtful Shopify interview questions will help you identify the best Shopify programmers. You may start with standard web development or JavaScript interview questions to verify a candidate’s web expertise and technical foundation. From there, your questions should differ based on whether you seek to hire a theme developer, app developer, or custom storefront developer.

First, we examine the questions that assess a theme developer’s core competencies to test applicants’ abilities to work with theme customization and user interface elements:

What is the difference between Shopify Online Store versions 1.0 and 2.0?

With Online Store 1.0, Shopify’s theme editor limited sections to the homepage; with Online Store 2.0, Shopify introduced sections on every page. This change also requires developers to render templates using JSON files in version 2.0 (instead of Liquid files). In addition, Shopify enhanced meta fields and introduced theme app extensions and new developer tools.

How would you update and publish a live theme?

Various options exist to update and publish a live theme. Developers can use the online editor in Shopify admin to update the source code directly; changes are live immediately. Alternatively, they can download the theme sources and then edit and re-upload the theme. The best option is to use Shopify’s CLI tools for theme development with GitHub integration for source control management and team collaboration.

What is the difference between layouts, templates, sections, and snippet files?

Layouts are the base of a theme and contain elements shared with all Shopify store pages. Templates are files unique to the online store’s different page types (home, products, cart, etc.). Sections are reusable and customizable blocks of content that can be added to templates. Finally, snippets are even smaller reusable chunks of code.

How would you assess and improve your theme’s page speed?

Shopify automatically creates a speed score based on Google Lighthouse performance metrics. Developers can find this report in the themes section of Shopify admin and use its insights to improve performance.

How would you support multiple languages and currencies in your theme?

All themes from the official Shopify theme store support multiple languages and currencies. Shopify has built-in support for these functionalities in Shopify admin (configured in the Settings > Languages and Settings > Store details menus). Engineers can use the Shopify Translate & Adapt app or one of the many third-party apps available to implement translations.

If you are hiring a Shopify app developer, ask questions to test a candidate’s understanding of app deployment steps and Shopify app technologies:

Can you describe the installation process for public and custom apps?

Developers install public apps directly from the Shopify app store and custom apps from your Shopify Partner account. Custom apps can only be installed for one live online store. Public and custom apps include Shopify’s OAuth flow during installation, and public apps might also include a billing flow.

Why is Shopify CLI useful to the development process?

Shopify CLI is a command-line interface tool that helps engineers build apps throughout the entire development process. For example, it simplifies tasks like generating a new app using templates or making updates in the app section of a Shopify Partner account.

What are Shopify webhooks? What is the difference between HTTPS endpoints and supported cloud endpoints (e.g., from AWS and Google)?

You can subscribe to webhooks to receive data about certain shop events, like an “order created” or “product updated” event, via HTTPS requests. However, the number of events you interact with can quickly multiply and overwhelm standard HTTPS endpoints. To address this concern, Shopify offers ready integrations with Amazon EventBridge and Google Cloud Pub/Sub designed to handle massive volumes of incoming events.

What are Shopify Functions used for?

Shopify Functions provide APIs that make it possible for back-end developers to modify Shopify’s server-side logic. For example, you can change the checkout flow, create new discount types, and customize delivery options. They are typically bundled in an app and can be installed like regular apps.

Finally, hiring managers searching for custom storefront developers may focus on customized storefront content options and related tools.

What does “headless” mean in the context of e-commerce and CMS tools?

Traditional e-commerce and CMS tools bundled their back ends and user interfaces. A headless system completely separates the user interface from the back end, which is instead accessed via APIs. Headless systems empower front-end web developers to focus on designing and implementing user interfaces, while intelligent caching mechanisms deliver fast results when accessing back-end data. Shopify offers various methods and official APIs for headless e-commerce solutions (e.g., Shopify Hydrogen or Shopify Plus).

What is Shopify Hydrogen used for?

Shopify Hydrogen offers a collection of ready-to-use React components. It makes headless e-commerce easy in Shopify by hiding low-level API calls.

What options do I have for hosting my custom storefront app?

These standard web applications can be hosted on a server environment of your choice. One popular option is using Oxygen, Shopify’s hosting offering for Hydrogen storefronts optimized for performance and scalability.

How do you manage an online shop’s content with a custom storefront app?

Because the Shopify theme editor is unavailable for custom storefronts, you have to find your own solution for editing content. Many headless CMS systems can be used for these purposes (e.g., Contentful, Storyblok, Sanity) and easily integrate with a custom Shopify storefront.

Why Do Companies Hire Shopify Developers?

The Shopify e-commerce platform is known for its stability and scalability. It holds up well against stressors, like 2022’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, when it served more than 52 million customers worldwide with peak sales of $3.5 million per minute. Many online shops already trust Shopify, and others continue to migrate from their current systems to Shopify, making skilled Shopify experts necessary for any modern e-commerce business owner.

Shopify suits small sites and large corporations: You can start small and add features incrementally as your business grows. For enterprise-scale applications, Shopify offers ready-made integrations into industry-leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems like Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle NetSuite, and more.

While it may be easy to get started with Shopify, the platform and its upkeep become quite complex as sites grow. And Shopify has become highly comprehensive over the years, with many new features and frameworks. Therefore, hiring a team of Shopify experts to address your use case scenarios is crucial to optimize your workflows and scale your online business.

Post-hiring Support

When planning your Shopify project, it is essential to take into consideration the updates and maintenance that your store might need later on. Once e-commerce sites grow, they often benefit from user interface improvements or additional functionality. There may also be newly introduced features or apps that you want to integrate. If you are working with a team of freelancers, discuss maintenance requirements, as well as any future development work that you already have in mind. Many freelance developers offer support and ongoing assistance after the store has been deployed.

Determining how to hire Shopify developers who meet your business requirements, whether working across themes, storefronts, apps, or a combination of these surfaces, will help you stay competitive in the fast-moving e-commerce industry. The expert guidance offered here will ease your hiring journey—from selecting essential qualifications and writing a job description to conducting advanced interviews—and help your Shopify store achieve its goals.

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