Shopify Agency in Essex: Stores Built and Migrated, Without the Big Upfront Bill
Whether you need a new Shopify store or you want off WooCommerce before the next update breaks it, Glide builds and migrates online shops on one monthly fee. No five-figure upfront quote, and your Google rankings come with you. Based in Chelmsford, working with ecommerce brands across Essex and the UK.
Results we have driven for real clients
242%
more organic traffic
Britannia Cues
10x
online revenue growth
Proflax Natural
7.6M
search impressions
SAM Leisure
#1
local rankings
CLG Academy
5.0
from 27 Google reviews
Glide
Your online store should make you money, not give you sleepless nights
If you sell online, your shop is the business. So when it slows down, throws an error, or an overnight WordPress update quietly takes it offline, that is real money walking out the door, and a horrible morning trying to work out who to even call.
We see it a lot. WooCommerce gives you control, but you carry all the risk: plugins clashing, security holes, slow pages, and updates that break things while you sleep. One of our recent clients had their entire skincare store wiped overnight by a botched update. We had it back up the same day, and now we are moving them onto Shopify so it cannot happen again.
That is the whole point of moving to Shopify with us. Shopify takes the hosting, security and backups off your plate, and we build the store around your brand and keep growing it every month. You get to focus on selling, not firefighting.
Built by a real person, not a faceless agency
I'm Mike, founder of Glide. When you move to Shopify with us, you are not handed off to an account manager or an offshore team. I build the stores myself, hands-on, and I am the one who picks up the phone when you need something.
No big London overheads, no layers to go through, just someone who knows your store inside out and is genuinely accountable for it.
What you get with a Glide Shopify store
New build or migration, here is what is handled for you.
Built or rebuilt on Shopify
Whether you are starting a new store or moving off WooCommerce, Wix or Squarespace, we build it properly on Shopify. Shopify handles the hosting, security and daily backups for you, so the kind of overnight breakage that takes a WordPress shop offline simply cannot happen the same way.
Migrations without the panic
We move all of it: products, variants, images, collections, customer accounts and order history. Your current shop keeps trading the whole way through. Nothing changes for your customers until the moment we switch over, and we plan that for a quiet time so there is no downtime.
Your Google rankings come with you
The thing most people fear about moving platform is losing their search traffic. We map every old URL to its new home with proper redirects, so the rankings you have worked for carry across. Done right, a migration protects your traffic, it does not reset it.
A store custom-built around your brand
No cookie-cutter template left as it came. We build the look around your brand and edit the Shopify theme in code, so the store is genuinely yours, fast, and easy for your customers to buy from. You own everything we build.
Hosting, security and backups handled
This is the bit that bites people on WordPress. On Shopify it is all included and we keep an eye on it. No plugin conflicts, no expired SSL, no auto-update wiping your shop at 2am. It just stays up.
SEO and a monthly report
A store nobody can find does not sell. Every month we do SEO work to grow your organic traffic and send you a plain-English report: what sold, where your visitors came from, and how you are climbing in Google and AI search. You always know what you are getting for the fee.
How a Shopify build or migration works
A simple process that keeps your current shop trading, protects your rankings, and gets you live without the drama.
Free store assessment
Send us your current store. We go through it properly, the products, the setup, how many pages and collections, what needs carrying over, and come back with an honest picture of what moving to Shopify looks like for you. No cost, no pressure.
Design and build
We build your store on Shopify around your brand, customising the theme in code so it looks the part and is quick to buy from. You see working previews and give feedback as it comes together, so there are no surprises.
Move everything across
Products, variants, images, collections, customers and order history all come over. We rebuild your bundles, your delivery rules and your discounts, and reconnect the tools you rely on like email, reviews and analytics.
Protect your rankings
We map every existing URL to its new home with proper redirects, so Google keeps sending you the traffic you already earn. This is the step cheap migrations skip, and it is the one that protects your sales.
Test, then switch over with no downtime
You and your team test the new store first. When you are happy, we handle the switchover at a quiet time. Your customers never see a broken shop, they just get a better one.
Grow it every month
Launch is the start of the subscription, not the end of the job. We keep the store running, use the monthly change time to improve it, do the SEO work, and send you the report so you can see it growing.
What's included
One monthly fee, no surprise invoices. Everything you need to launch and grow an online store.
A Shopify store we built
SAM Leisure's trade store, designed and built on Shopify by Glide. Custom-built around their brand with a full trade-ordering flow and 2,000+ products, all ordered online.
Moving from WooCommerce to Shopify
This is the move we get asked for most. A WooCommerce or WordPress shop that has become slow, fragile or scary to touch, and an owner who wants the maintenance worry gone for good.
We handle the whole thing. Your products, customers and orders come across, your bundles and delivery rules get rebuilt, and every old URL gets a proper redirect so your Google rankings carry over instead of falling off a cliff. Your existing shop keeps selling right up until we switch over, so there is no gap and no downtime.
And it sits on the same simple subscription as everything else we do. No five-figure migration quote, no surprise extras. See how we approach web design and how it all fits together.
Simple Shopify pricing
No big upfront build fee and no surprise invoices. Your store runs on one monthly fee of £350 a month plus VAT. That covers the build or migration, hosting, security, monthly SEO, a performance report and a couple of hours of changes each month.
Because the whole build sits inside the subscription, we ask for a 6-month minimum, then it runs month to month. The only other cost is Shopify's own platform fee, roughly £25 a month paid directly to Shopify, which simply replaces what you pay for hosting today.
Your store built and moved with nothing big to pay upfront
Most ecommerce migrations come with a four or five-figure project quote before anyone lifts a finger. We spread the build into the monthly fee instead, so you can move to a better platform without a scary bill. You own your Shopify store throughout.
Shopify support across Essex
Based in Chelmsford, we build and migrate Shopify stores for retailers and brands throughout Essex, and remotely across the UK.
Chelmsford
Our home base. We know the local business landscape inside out
Colchester
Growing digital economy with ambitious retailers
Southend-on-Sea
Tourism, hospitality and retail brands
Basildon
Commercial hub with strong trade presence
Brentwood
Premium and lifestyle brands
Braintree
Independent retailers and makers
Harlow
Product and D2C businesses
Maldon
Food, drink and artisan brands
What our ecommerce clients say
Real brands we have built, rescued and grown online.
“I have worked with Glide Marketing and Mike has been excellent, taking the time to listen, prioritise the right areas, and explain everything clearly.”
Kyle Sibthorpe
KS Air Conditioning
“Mike delivered where others failed. Easy to work with, highly skilled, and always supportive for our designer clothing E-commerce store. The whole team here at Number Six highly recommend!”
Omaran Arain
Number Six
“Thank goodness for Glide! Mike, you are a genius! Thank you for all your help with our online store. We are mega grateful for your support and input, we will certainly be working together moving forwards.”
Customer
Skincare brand (Essex)
“Mike delivered where others failed. Easy to work with, highly skilled, and always supportive for our designer clothing E-commerce store. The whole team here at Number Six highly recommend!”
Omaran Arain
Number Six
Thinking about Shopify? Start with a free assessment
Send us your current store and we will tell you honestly what moving to Shopify looks like for you, the time, the cost, and whether it is even the right move. No pressure.
Shopify and Migration FAQs
Most stores run on one monthly fee of £350 a month plus VAT, with no big upfront build cost. That covers the build or migration itself, then ongoing it includes hosting (via Shopify), security, monthly SEO, a performance report and a couple of hours of changes each month. There is a 6-month minimum because the build sits inside the subscription. The only separate cost is Shopify's own platform fee, roughly £25 a month, paid directly to Shopify, which replaces what you currently pay for hosting.
Not when it is done properly, and this is the part we never cut. We map every existing page to its matching new page with proper 301 redirects before we switch over, so Google passes your rankings to the new URLs. A careful migration protects your search traffic. The horror stories you hear are nearly always from migrations where the redirects were skipped to save time.
No. Your current store keeps trading as normal the entire time we build the new one. Nothing changes for your customers until the new store is built, tested and signed off by you. We then do the switchover at a quiet time, so there is no downtime and no broken shop in the middle of a sale.
Yes. Products, variants, images, collections, customer accounts and order history all migrate over. We also rebuild the things people forget, like product bundles, delivery rules and discount codes, and reconnect the tools you use such as email marketing, reviews and analytics.
If you are tired of plugin conflicts, security worries, slow load times or an update taking your shop offline, then usually yes. WordPress and WooCommerce give you control but you carry all the maintenance risk. Shopify handles hosting, security and backups for you, so you can get on with selling. We will give you an honest answer on the call rather than pushing a move you do not need.
Yes. If you are starting from scratch we build your store on Shopify from the ground up, designed around your brand, on the same monthly subscription with no big upfront fee. New build or migration, the model is the same.
Most stores are live within 3 to 4 weeks of the go-ahead, depending on how many products and how much custom work is involved. We give you a clear timeline after the free store assessment so you know exactly what to expect.
Yes. You own your Shopify store and everything we build into it. The subscription covers building it, running it, and improving it each month. If you ever want to part ways, your store and your Shopify account stay with you.
Let's get your store somewhere it can grow
New store or a move off WooCommerce, we will build it properly, protect your rankings, and keep it growing every month, all on one simple fee. Get in touch for a free store assessment and an honest chat.
Get a free store assessmentLet's scope your project
Book a 30-minute scoping call. We'll talk through what you're trying to achieve, who you're going after, and what an AI-powered website or app could look like for your business.
Scope your project30 minutes. No obligation. Just a straight conversation about what you're trying to build.