How to get your first Shopify client
- 87% of new web design business comes from word-of-mouth referrals, so your first Shopify client is almost certainly one conversation away from someone you already know.
- Fellow service providers (brand designers, product photographers, copywriters, eCom coaches) are a referral stream you can open with zero past Shopify clients.
- One rebuild of a site you've already designed gives you a portfolio piece that makes the first pitch possible.
- Footer credits book work while you sleep. I've had five projects come from a single client's site credit.
- Email returns about 13x what social does per dollar spent, and having a list moves you from freelancer pricing to studio pricing in a client's head.
- Instagram works as proof you exist. One feed post a month does that job for a merchant checking you out.
Your first Shopify client almost always comes out of a network you already have: a past design client who's launching a product line, a brand designer whose client just asked "do you know anyone who does Shopify?", or someone who spotted your design credit in a site footer.
In a 2024 designer survey by 20i, 87% of new web design business came from word-of-mouth referrals, which is roughly 9 out of every 10 projects booked (!!).
I came to Shopify from Squarespace back in 2019, so I know the specific flavor of fear here. It's that nobody will hand you an eCom project until you've already done one (kind of like the chicken and the egg?!).
If you're still weighing up the platform side of this, my Shopify vs Squarespace comparison for designers covers that. This post is about getting that first paid Shopify project in your books.
Where Shopify Designers Get Their First Client
Shopify client work comes from four places that are 100% worth your time...and a few that mostly eat it. Here's how the channels stack up when you're starting from zero Shopify projects.
| Channel | How fast it moves | What it costs you | My take |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your past clients | The fastest - one quick email sent to 5-10 past clients | An afternoon auditing your old client list | Start here - some of them already sell physical products |
| Referral partners who are fellow service providers | Weeks to a few months | 5-10 coffee chats, then 10% commission | A seriously underrated way of getting clients - they come across a bigger volume of clients who need your services than past clients do |
| Footer credits | Slow start, then it snowballs | One line of code per project | The highest return per minute of effort in my whole business |
| Email list | Months | One email a week | Owned audience, and it makes you appear as an established studio |
| Used to be days in the good ole 2020-ish days, now takes MONTHS of consistent effort | Lots of brain power and hours spent and mental space | Social media is way less of a high-ROI client-driving activity than it used to be | |
| Shopify Partner Directory | Unpredictable | Free to list | Spend 20 minutes to list yourself (if you qualify), but be aware the leads that come through this are typically a little less qualified/more price shop-py |
A quick word on that last row: the Shopify Partner Directory lists 100,000+ vetted Partners across 50+ countries, which means a store owner browsing it is comparing you against a ton of agencies side by side often with price as the main deciding factor.
💡 A client who finds you through a referral, footer credit, or your email list arrives more interested in what YOU specifically have to offer, while a directory sends you people who are still price shopping.
Start With the Clients You've Already Designed For
Your past client list is the fastest Shopify lead source you have. Open your booking software and go through every client from the past three years with two questions in mind 1. is this person selling, or about to sell, something physical? and 2. do they have any business friends who might be?
The ones worth an email are the service businesses that added a small product line, the brands running an Etsy or marketplace shop alongside their site, and anyone whose Squarespace or Wix store has outgrown a nine-product catalogue.
My take on moving a shop from Etsy to Shopify is what I send those clients, because it makes the case better than a pitch email does.
A quick note 2-4 months after a launch is an easy win: "How's the site doing? Is there anyone in your network thinking about Shopify?"
Past clients grow into referrals over time, too. People I worked with what feels like a lifetime ago pop back up either to hire me for something new or to send a friend, and the check-in email is what keeps me fresh in their minds.
Build a Shopify Portfolio Piece Before You Pitch
You probably want at least one Shopify project in your portfolio to make your first eCommerce pitch stronger (and to have at least a little experience in the platform before taking on a project in it).
This portfolio piece doesn't need to be a paid one. Even just a rebuild eCom-ifying a site you've already designed solves the chicken-and-egg problem in about a week.
Create a free development store
Shopify development stores (within its Partner platform, which is easy to join) are free with no time limit and come with Advanced plan features.
Rebuild a site you already designed
Take a Squarespace, Showit, or WordPress site from your own portfolio and rebuild it on Shopify with a proper product catalogue in it. Because you've already made design decisions, this streamlines things and lets you focus on just learning the platform. Note: the rebuild doesn't need to be and probably shouldn't be 1:1 pixel perfect, because Shopify's design architecture follows preset section layouts.
Write it up as a case study
Show the product page hierarchy, the collection structure, and why you made each call. Displaying this alongside the pretty homepage shot will get you a lot farther in selling your way of thinking + working.
Show it all over the place
Show it off in a few IG posts, your on-site portfolio, in an email newsletter, you name it. Get some eyeballs on your new eCom work and who knows what sort of inquiries it'll shake loose 👀
What to Say When a Client Asks If You've Built on Shopify Before
Tell them the truth—this would be your first client Shopify build, but you have familiarity with the platform due to your portfolio pieces so there won't be any surprises.
Then move the conversation to what you've done dozens of times, which is designing websites for clients that drive business. A client asking that question is checking whether you'll disappear halfway through, so what they need is evidence of process.
Don't discount the project more than just a little bit because you feel new. A cheap first Shopify client sets the price anchor for every referral that client sends you, and those referrals arrive expecting the a similar number.
Referral Partners: Actual Gold These Days
Fellow service providers whose clients ask "do you know someone that does Shopify?" send me more work than my past clients do—because when you think about it, they have a way higher volume of brand owners in need of Shopify help at this very moment than clients do.
It's the referral stream that doesn't need a Shopify history at all, because you're building a relationship with the referrer instead of proving anything to a merchant (yet).
| Partner type | Why their client needs Shopify next |
|---|---|
| Brand and packaging designers | The identity is done and the store is the obvious next spend |
| Product photographers | New imagery needs somewhere good to live (and you inherit great photography, which is a huge bonus) |
| Email and ads specialists | They're driving traffic to a storefront that's letting them down |
| Copywriters | Product and landing page copy needs a build to live in |
| eCom coaches and D2C consultants | Their client's storefront is holding back results they're accountable for |
All it takes to start is a list of 5-10 people whose work pairs well with yours.
Message them and say you're putting together a short list of trusted providers to refer your own clients to, that you'd love to be their go-to for Shopify, and that you'd like to hear about their packages. Book a 15-minute chat and get to know each other.
Brand designers and product photographers convert best for me, and eCom coaches are the sleeper pick because a better storefront helps their coaching look amazing.
🤝 The industry baseline for design referrals is 10% of the closed project (Freelancermap). I pay mine as 10% of each monthly client payment instead of one lump sum, which protects me if a client vanishes after payment one and puts a thank-you in my partner's inbox several months running.
Working solo can get lonely without traditional co-workers, so the side effect here is that you end up with design friends. That part alone has been worth the calendar time for me. :)
One Footer Credit Can Turn Into Five Projects
The site credit in your client's footer is the highest-return marketing you will ever do, and it takes one line of code per project.
When a client's brand grows or goes viral, other founders study that store as inspiration, see who designed it, and pop into your inbox already sold.
Beware: footer credits also kind of pick your niche for you. I had a stretch of building gift boxing sites because one went semi-viral and the rest piled on, then a run of med spas for the same reason.
Designers spend months agonising over which industry to specialize in, while their footer figures it out for them from the total opposite direction. You can see how that played out across my Shopify design portfolio.
Why Your Email List Matters More Than Your Follower Count
An email list does two jobs for a Shopify studio: it's the only audience you own outright, and it makes a small studio appear as an established business.
The legitimacy side of this is underrated yet legit. I've had clients tell me the welcome emails they got after inquiring were the reason they booked.
Getting people onto your list usually takes offering something worth trading an email address for. Here are three ideas that work for Shopify studios:
- A gated services and investment guide. This doubles as lead qualification, because anyone downloading pricing is interested in buying.
- A free 5-minute Loom audit of their current store. High effort, but absurdly high trust. You're demonstrating how you think about their store before they've paid you a penny.
- A practical freebie like a Shopify launch checklist, aimed at the specific client you want more of.
One email a week, consistently, will put you far ahead of most studios. Mine goes out every Friday and it's mostly a recap of the latest blog post (hey, you're already here!), what I'm working on, what I'm reading, and a link at the bottom for anyone who wants to work together.
Where Instagram Fits Into a Shopify Studio's Marketing
Lately, unless you're going hard on your social strategy and pouring hours into it every week, Instagram works as a sales page that proves you exist and are still active in business.
One feed post a month covers it: portfolio shots, behind-the-scenes process, and your opinions on eCom and design. Bonus points if you can toss up some stories here and then for more in-the-moment interactions.
Then, drive people to your email list or inquiry form as fast as you can, so you own the relationship instead of renting it.
📱 Posting for other designers is the trap, because designer engagement feels great and books nothing. Post what would make a store owner trust you. It got much easier for me once I stopped caring about likes, since the post I spent two hours on and got six likes for is often the one that made a client say "I want to work with her".
Your First 30 Days of Shopify Client Outreach
None of this needs a packed content calendar or a daily 2-hour long cold outreach practice. Here's what matters, in the order that I'd do it in:
Week 1: audit and rebuild
List every past client selling physical products, then start your portfolio rebuild in a free development store.
Week 2: tell your existing network
Email past clients with the check-in note and tell them plainly that you're taking Shopify projects now.
Week 3: 10 referral partner messages
Just pop into their DMs or inbox with a "Hey, I love your work! Would you be down to hop on a coffee chat to get to know each other and chat what it'd look like to refer work to each other?". Book the 15-minute chats and go in to these curious.
Week 4: promo your new Shopify status
Publish the case study, put one lead magnet behind an email signup, post it once on Instagram.
Something that's easy to do: forget to keep this system spinning once you get busy. Turning the marketing engine off during a heavy project month is the mistake I've made more times than I'd like to admit, and it always shows up as a gap in the calendar two months later.
Frequently Asked Questions
What to Do Once You've Booked Your First Shopify Client
The thing that stops most designers after client number one is the build itself, when a theme won't give you the layout you sold. The Section Studio hands you drag-and-drop custom sections for any Shopify theme, so your first client project looks like a custom site without a line of Liquid.
