If you’ve ever hired an agency before—any kind of agency—you know how the process usually goes. You have a few calls, everyone sounds competent, the proposals look similar, and you end up choosing based on gut feeling or whoever seemed nicest in the meeting.
Then the work starts. And somewhere around month two, you realize the communication isn’t as good as it was during sales. Timelines slip. Small requests take longer than they should. And you start wondering if you made the right choice.
This happens constantly with Shopify agencies. Not because the agencies are necessarily bad, but because most people don’t know what questions to ask until it’s too late. The things that matter most—how they handle problems, how they communicate under pressure, whether they’ll still care after launch—aren’t visible during the sales process.
We’ve watched enough of these relationships go sideways to recognize the patterns. The warning signs are almost always there early, but they’re easy to miss if you don’t know what to look for. And most of the standard advice about choosing agencies—check their portfolio, read reviews, verify they’re a Shopify partner—doesn’t actually help you avoid the common problems.
So let’s talk about what actually matters when you’re trying to find a Shopify agency in Germany that won’t waste your time or create more problems than they solve.
The Shopify partner badge doesn’t tell you much
Every agency promoting Shopify services mentions their partner status. Some are regular partners. Some are Shopify Plus partners. Some show up in Shopify’s directory with badges and certifications
None of that guarantees they’re good.
The partner designation just means they’ve met Shopify’s baseline requirements—built a certain number of stores, generated platform revenue, completed training. It’s table stakes, not a quality signal. Think of it like a business license. Necessary, sure. But it doesn’t tell you if they actually know what they’re doing.
What matters is whether they’ve solved problems similar to yours, whether they communicate in a way that works for you, and whether they’ll still answer your calls three months after launch when something breaks at 9pm on a Saturday.
Start by ignoring the badges. Look at the actual work instead.
What the German Shopify market actually looks like
Germany has Shopify agencies ranging from two-person studios to large consultancies with offices across Europe. They’re not all competing for the same clients, and understanding that helps you figure out who to talk to.
Some agencies specialize in fast DTC launches—get your store live in four to six weeks, optimize for conversion, move on to the next client. Others focus on Shopify Plus implementations with complex backend integrations. Some handle platform migrations. Some do mostly design work and outsource development.
There’s no universal best. There’s only what fits your specific situation.
Here’s the pricing reality before you start reaching out: German Shopify agencies typically charge €100-200 per hour, depending on experience and specialization. A straightforward store launch runs €15k-40k. A Shopify Plus build with custom features and ERP integration can hit €80k-150k or more.
If someone quotes way below market, they’re either very new, cutting corners somewhere, or planning to staff your project with juniors. If they quote way above, make sure you understand exactly what’s included and why it costs that much.
Portfolio reviews that actually reveal something useful
Every agency has a portfolio page. Most look impressive. The challenge is figuring out what you’re actually seeing.
Don’t just scroll through screenshots. Ask for links to live stores, then use them the way a real customer would. Add products to cart. Go through checkout. Try the search. Browse on your phone. Click into the account area.
You’ll learn more in ten minutes of actually using a store than from any polished case study writeup.
Look for stores that match your complexity, not just your industry aesthetic. If you’re building a B2B wholesale operation with customer-specific pricing, an agency’s portfolio of minimalist fashion brands doesn’t prove they can handle your requirements. B2B Shopify stores need different architecture—approval workflows, quote systems, bulk ordering, tiered pricing. Make sure they’ve actually built those features before, not just talked about them.
Check page speed while you’re at it. Run a few portfolio sites through Google PageSpeed Insights. If the scores consistently land below 50 on mobile, the agency either doesn’t prioritize performance or doesn’t know how to optimize Shopify properly. Both are problems you’ll inherit.
Also check if those stores are still live and still working with that agency. It’s common for portfolios to showcase launches from three years ago where the client has since moved on or rebuilt entirely. Ask which clients they still actively support and how long those relationships have lasted. That tells you something about what happens after the launch celebration ends.
The questions that separate agencies who know from agencies who pretend
Most discovery calls follow the same script. They ask about your business, your goals, your timeline. They take notes, nod thoughtfully, and promise a proposal by Friday. Then the proposal arrives and it’s either too vague to be useful or packed with features you didn’t ask for.
Here’s how to cut through that faster: ask technical questions early, even if they feel uncomfortable.
“How do you handle version control and deployments for theme changes?” If they can’t clearly explain their Git workflow and deployment process, they’re probably making changes directly in the Shopify theme editor, which is a recipe for disaster when something breaks.
“What’s your default approach—apps or custom code?” Both have their place. Good agencies know when to use existing apps and when to build custom. If they always default to “we build everything custom” or “we just find the right app,” they’re not thinking critically about tradeoffs.
“How do you handle API rate limits for integrations?” Technical, yes, but important. If they’re building integrations and can’t clearly explain how they handle rate limiting, throttling, and error handling, those integrations will break under real-world load.
“Can you show me code samples from a recent project?” Some will decline for confidentiality reasons, which is fair. But if they can’t show you anything—even sanitized examples—question how much actual development work they do versus installing apps and tweaking settings.
“What happens when Shopify releases a breaking change?” This happens regularly. Shopify updates features, deprecates APIs, changes requirements. Ask how they monitor for platform changes and how quickly they respond when something needs updating.
The agencies that give you straight, detailed answers are the ones actually doing the work. The ones who deflect with vague reassurances probably don’t have good answers.
Communication problems don’t fix themselves
You’ll work with this agency for months, possibly years. If communication feels off during sales, it won’t magically improve once you’ve signed a contract and the pressure’s off.
Pay attention to response times. If it takes three days to schedule a simple call or a week to get answers to straightforward questions, that’s your future. Some delays are normal—people take vacations, emergencies happen—but consistent slow responses during the sales process when they’re supposedly trying to win your business? That’s a clear signal.
Pay attention to how they explain things. Do they use plain language or hide behind technical jargon? When you ask a direct question, do they actually answer it or pivot to something else? If you don’t understand their explanations now, you won’t understand them later when you’re trying to make important decisions about your store.
Pay attention to who you’re actually talking to. In many agencies, the sales team is excellent at communication but the developers aren’t. Ask to meet the people who’ll work on your project. If the agency resists or says “we’ll assign a team after you sign,” that should worry you.
Language can become an issue. Some German agencies operate primarily in German. Others work in English. Make sure everyone involved can communicate effectively in whatever language you’ll be using. Miscommunication on technical details creates expensive problems that could have been avoided.
Reference calls that go beyond the surface
Agencies will offer references if you ask. Sometimes they’ll provide contact info for clients. Sometimes they just point you toward testimonials on their website.
Don’t settle for the polished version. Ask for direct contact with three recent clients—preferably ones whose projects wrapped up within the last year.
When you actually talk to these references, ask specific questions that reveal useful information:
“Did the project stay on budget and timeline?” If every project runs significantly over, that’s a pattern worth noting. One-off delays happen, but consistent overruns suggest the agency doesn’t scope well or manage projects tightly.
“How did they handle it when things went wrong?” Things always go wrong on projects. Always. The question is whether the agency owned the problem, communicated clearly about it, and fixed it without creating drama or pointing fingers.
“How responsive are they after launch?” This matters more than almost anything else. Lots of agencies are fantastic during the build phase and then vanish after launch. You need to know if they’re still responsive when you have an urgent problem on a Friday afternoon.
“What would you do differently if you started over?” This question gets past the polite responses. If someone says “nothing at all,” they’re either being diplomatic or they got incredibly lucky. Most projects have lessons learned.
“Would you hire them again for your next project?” Simple question. Watch for hesitation. If there’s any, dig into why.
If an agency can’t or won’t provide referenceable clients, that means something. Either they don’t have happy long-term clients, or they don’t maintain relationships after projects end. Both are concerning.
The technical details that separate solid work from fragile work
Shopify handles a lot of infrastructure for you since it’s a SaaS platform. But there’s still plenty of room for agencies to build badly.
Theme architecture matters more than most people realize. A well-built Shopify theme uses sections and blocks properly, follows Shopify’s development standards, and doesn’t need fifteen apps just to function. A poorly built theme is brittle, hard to update, and breaks whenever Shopify releases new features.
Ask how they approach theme development. If they can’t explain their architecture clearly, that’s concerning.
App selection matters too. The Shopify app store has thousands of apps. Some are excellent. Many are mediocre. A few actively harm your site’s performance. Good agencies know which apps are reliable and which create problems. They also know when it makes more sense to build custom functionality instead of adding another third-party app.
If a proposal includes ten apps you’ve never heard of, ask why each one is necessary and what it does. Sometimes there’s a legitimate reason. Sometimes it’s just lazy development.
Performance optimization should be built in, not bolted on later. Image handling, lazy loading, script management, minimizing app overhead—all of this affects speed. Ask what their typical PageSpeed scores look like and what they do to maintain performance as stores grow.
Mobile experience can’t be an afterthought. More than half your traffic will come from mobile devices. If the agency doesn’t explicitly discuss mobile design and testing workflows, they’re not thinking about the complete experience.
Germany-specific requirements that can’t be ignored
If you’re operating in Germany, you have legal requirements that don’t exist in many other markets. Your agency should understand this without you having to teach them.
Impressum, Widerrufsbelehrung, AGB—these aren’t optional nice-to-haves. They need to be implemented correctly and linked from the right places. An agency that’s worked with German clients will have templates ready and know the requirements cold. One that hasn’t will treat it as an afterthought and you’ll spend time fixing it yourself later.
GDPR compliance goes beyond cookie banners. It’s about data collection, order processing, email marketing, customer data requests, and more. Shopify has tools for this, but they need proper configuration. Don’t assume it’s automatic.
Payment methods matter to German customers. They expect options beyond credit cards—PayPal yes, but also Klarna, SEPA, sometimes invoice payment for B2B. Make sure the agency has experience setting up the specific payment providers you need and understands how they integrate with Shopify’s checkout.
Shipping gets complicated in Germany. DHL, DPD, Hermes—each carrier has different integration options and requirements. If you need real-time rates or automated label printing, that requires specific setup work. Ask how they handle shipping integrations and whether they’ve worked with your preferred carriers before.
EU VAT and the OSS (One Stop Shop) rules have made tax handling more complex for cross-border sales. Your agency should understand how Shopify handles EU VAT and be able to explain it in plain terms, not just say “Shopify handles it automatically.”
When Shopify Plus actually makes sense
Shopify Plus is the enterprise tier. It starts at $2,000/month minimum and goes up from there based on your sales volume. In exchange, you get dedicated support, checkout customization access, higher API limits, and some advanced features.
Many agencies push Plus hard because Plus projects are more profitable for them. That doesn’t automatically mean it’s wrong for you, but you should understand what you’re really getting.
You probably need Shopify Plus if you’re doing over €1 million monthly in sales and need wholesale channels or B2B functionality that standard Shopify can’t handle. Or if you need custom checkout flows that aren’t possible on regular plans. Or if your integrations will hit API limits on standard tiers. Or if having dedicated support and a customer success manager matters to your business.
You probably don’t need Shopify Plus if your main reason is vague “growth potential”—standard Shopify scales perfectly fine for most businesses. Or if you can accomplish everything you need with apps and normal customization. Or if you’re not actually planning to use the specific Plus-only features.
Be skeptical of agencies that automatically recommend Plus without thoroughly understanding your requirements. Sometimes it’s the right call. Often it’s not, and you’re better off spending that $24k+/year on other parts of your business.
How pricing structure reveals priorities
Agencies structure pricing differently, and the model they prefer tells you something about how they work.
Fixed-price projects make sense when scope is crystal clear and unlikely to change much. Common for migrations or launches with well-defined requirements. The advantage is budget certainty. The disadvantage is that scope changes mid-project often trigger expensive change orders that feel adversarial.
Hourly billing works for ongoing relationships or projects where requirements will evolve as you learn. It’s flexible but requires trust and solid project management. If an agency bills hourly but can’t provide regular, detailed updates on hours spent, you’ll lose budget control fast.
Retainers work for long-term partnerships where you need consistent support and development capacity. You pay monthly for a set number of hours or defined deliverables. This aligns incentives better—the agency wants to keep you happy long-term, not just survive until launch.
Ask how they typically structure projects like yours. If they’re vague or say “it totally depends,” push for specifics based on similar past projects. Good agencies have standard approaches they can explain and defend.
Watch for proposals padded with “optional” features or “phase 2 nice-to-haves.” That’s often just inflation. Ask what’s truly essential for launch and what can wait until you have real user data to inform decisions.
Red flags that should end the conversation
Some problems are obvious enough. If an agency has no physical presence in Germany and you’d be working across major time zones, expect coordination headaches. If their own website is broken or their portfolio examples load slowly, that tells you something about their quality standards.
Other warning signs are subtler but just as important:
Pressure to sign quickly should make you suspicious. Good agencies with healthy pipelines don’t need to pressure prospects. If someone’s pushing hard for a fast decision or offering a discount that expires in 48 hours, they care more about closing deals than doing good work.
Vague timelines are useless. “Probably 2-3 months” without a detailed project plan doesn’t help you. Ask for milestones, dependencies, and what factors could cause delays. If they can’t provide this, they haven’t thought it through.
Resistance to questions is a culture problem. If an agency gets defensive when you ask technical questions or request client references, imagine how they’ll react when you push back on their recommendations during the project.
No clear point of contact means you’ll waste time figuring out who to talk to about what. You should know upfront who your project manager is, who leads development, and how to reach them when needed.
Portfolios that don’t match the pitch should raise questions. If they claim to specialize in fashion but show mostly restaurants and B2B industrials, something doesn’t add up. Either they’re pivoting and don’t have relevant experience yet, or they’re just telling you what they think you want to hear.
What happens after launch matters more than launch itself
Launch day feels like the finish line, but it’s really just the starting line. The real test comes in months three, six, and twelve. Does the agency still respond quickly when something breaks? Do they help you optimize based on actual user behavior? Can they handle new feature requests as your business evolves?
Make sure your contract explicitly covers post-launch support. Understand what’s included, what costs extra, response time commitments for different issue severities, and how long the included support period lasts.
Have the awkward conversation about what happens if you want to switch agencies later. This feels weird to discuss during courtship, but it’s important. You should own your theme code, your content, your customer data. Make sure the contract states this clearly with no ambiguity.
Plan for regular reviews—quarterly works well—where you look at store performance data, discuss optimization opportunities, and prioritize what to build or improve next. Stores that stay static lose ground to competitors who keep iterating. The question isn’t whether you’ll need ongoing work. It’s whether your agency partnership is structured to deliver it effectively.
The honest truth about working with BrandCrock
We’re not the right fit for every Shopify project, and that’s fine. If you need the absolute fastest possible launch and don’t care much about customization, there are agencies that specialize in template-based stores and can get you live in two weeks. That’s not our strength.
If you want an agency that will simply execute your exact specifications without questioning anything, we’re probably not a good match. We ask hard questions. We push back on ideas that won’t work well in practice. We care more about solving your actual business problem than building something that looks impressive in screenshots.
What we’re genuinely good at: custom Shopify builds where standard templates don’t fit your needs. Migrations from other platforms where data integrity and SEO preservation matter. Headless commerce setups where you want Shopify powering the backend but need complete control over the frontend experience.
We’ve been doing eCommerce development since 2015. We work with clients who want a long-term partnership, not a vendor who vanishes after cashing the final invoice. Our team is based in Munich. We communicate in English and German. We’re responsive when you need us, not just when it’s convenient for us.
That’s not marketing copy. It’s just how we operate.
How to actually make this decision
Take what makes sense from this post and start conversations with three to five agencies. Pay close attention to how they respond to uncomfortable questions. Do they give you straight answers or deflect with vague reassurance? Do they explain real tradeoffs or just sell you on benefits? Do they seem genuinely interested in understanding your business, or are they mainly interested in the project size?
Actually call the references they provide. Ask about communication quality during pressure moments, how they handled problems, and whether the client would hire them again. Three honest reference conversations will teach you more than ten polished case studies.
When comparing proposals, look beyond the bottom-line price. The cheapest option often excludes things you’ll need later. The most expensive might include services that don’t actually matter for your situation. Understand exactly what you’re getting and what assumptions are baked into each estimate.
Trust your gut about the relationship fit. You’ll be working closely with these people for months. If something feels off about communication or culture during the sales process, it won’t improve once you’re locked into a contract.
And if you want to talk about your specific Shopify project—whether BrandCrock might be a fit or whether we can point you toward someone better suited to your needs—reach out. We’d rather have an honest conversation upfront than take on a project that’s not right for either of us.
Vaid Ali
Sep. 21, 2025
