A clear path from what's broken to what sells.
Most agencies sell you a deliverable. We sell you a system. Here's exactly how we get from your first call to a storefront that compounds — phase by phase, week by week, with a number attached to each one.
Diagnose. Architect. Build. Grow.
Click a phase to explore what happens, what you walk away with, and how long each one takes.
Diagnose the system as it is.
We map the system as it is, not as it feels. Performance audit, app stack review, brand audit, SEO baseline, and a CRO opportunity sizing. You walk away with the truth and a prioritized roadmap — whether you engage us for the build or not.
Define the system as it should be.
Brand and commerce strategy, on paper, with numbers attached. We define the north star metric, frame the brand architecture, sketch the technical roadmap, and build the financial case. One source of truth that every team can build from.
Engineer the system as one.
Brand identity, storefront, editorial, and growth — built in concert by a single team, against a single north star metric. Brand and code share a Slack. Design tokens live in Liquid. Every PDP reinforces the story the brand is telling.
Operate as a partner, not a vendor.
What you built gets discovered, paid for, and converted. Monthly retainer with shared KPIs, quarterly business reviews, and continuous optimization across CRO, lifecycle, paid, and platform. The system keeps improving against the same north star number we set in week one.
A typical engagement, end to end.
Phases overlap. Nothing waterfall here.We don’t build to a brief. We build to a number.
Most agency engagements break the same way. The brief is fuzzy, the deliverable is concrete, and somewhere between week six and week twelve the team realizes they’re shipping the wrong thing. By that point the budget is gone, the team is tired, and the founder is left with a website that doesn’t solve the problem.
We start with the number. Conversion rate, AOV, retention, contribution margin — pick the metric that makes or breaks your year, and we’ll build everything else around it. Brand exists to lift it. Storefront exists to convert it. Lifecycle exists to compound it. The brief becomes simple when the destination is.
That’s why the four phases overlap, not stack. The brand designer is in the architecture meeting. The performance engineer is in the brand review. The lifecycle marketer ships during the build, not after it. One team. One number. One system that compounds.
A 14-week engagement that paid for itself in one quarter.
Diagnose → Architect → Build → Grow. One team, one number (CVR), 14 weeks to launch. Three months in, the storefront earned back the entire engagement.
“They rebuilt the whole engine while we kept selling. The brand finally matches what the product has always been.”
How a Shopify Plus engagement actually works.
Shopify Blueprint
- Storefront performance + CRO audit
- Brand architecture review
- Technical & app stack assessment
- SEO & lifecycle gap analysis
- 90-day prioritized roadmap
- Financial case + ROI model
- 100% credited toward implementation
Implementation
- Custom Shopify Plus theme + design system
- App stack rationalization & integration
- B2B + DTC unification
- Klaviyo, Recharge, Yotpo wiring
- Performance engineering (LCP < 1.5s)
- Migration (if from Woo / Magento / BC)
- Content migration + SEO continuity
- Launch QA + post-launch hypercare
Plus retainer
- Plus Partner support tier
- Monthly CRO sprint (1–2 tests)
- Lifecycle & retention sprint
- Performance + uptime monitoring
- Quarterly business review
- Roadmap planning + prioritization
Five stars, repeatedly.
40+ five-star reviews · Clutch · Shopify · Google“Commence Studio is a smart, thoughtful team. They do a great job of understanding the business and use cases of every project.”
“We felt that the Commence team truly understood what made our brand tick and how we could differentiate our firm.”
“Working with artists like them has been a pleasure — they take their craft as seriously as we do our food.”
“They delivered everything they promised. They were great at understanding what we were trying to communicate and conveyed information in a new way.”
“A team of young professionals delivering high-quality, modern work in a flexible environment. They made it easy to recommend changes as needed.”
“They created something better than what I could have articulated. The graphic art they produce stood out far before I engaged them.”
“They're a cut above other agencies I've seen. I got exactly what I wanted and have recommended them to others.”
“We've gotten really positive feedback — everyone loved it. Branding is like architecture; you shouldn't have to explain it.”
“Communication was clear and concise. Many team members worked together to create a seamless end result.”
Things people ask before they sign.
Do we have to do all four phases?+
No, but the system thesis only works when the phases compound. Most engagements are at minimum Diagnose → Architect → Build, with Grow as an optional retainer. We can scope a brand-only or a Shopify-only engagement, but we’ll be honest about what won’t compound without the rest.
How long does the Blueprint take?+
14 business days, fixed. One week of audit and discovery, one week and a half of synthesis and roadmap. We deliver the prioritized roadmap, the financial case, and a presentation walkthrough on day 14. The $3,500 fee credits 100% toward implementation if you continue with us.
Why do the phases overlap?+
Because waterfall doesn’t survive contact with growth-stage realities. Brand design needs storefront constraints. Storefront builds need lifecycle hooks. Marketing learns things mid-build that change the brand brief. Overlapping phases mean the team is one team, not four sequential ones.
Can we engage you for just one phase?+
Yes — commonly the Blueprint (diagnostic), and occasionally a brand-only or build-only scope. We’ll tell you upfront if we think the phase you’re asking for needs another to actually move the number.
What if we go over scope?+
Our pricing is fixed. If we go over scope because of something we missed, that’s on us — we eat it. If you change scope mid-engagement, we scope an addendum together with the budget impact spelled out before any work starts. No surprise invoices.
How does the Grow retainer actually work?+
Monthly fee, 12-month minimum. Each month you get a defined sprint allocation across CRO, lifecycle, paid, and platform support. Monthly check-ins, quarterly business reviews, and explicit roadmap planning. You can pause, downgrade, or end with 60 days’ notice after the initial 12.
What does "handoff, not handback" actually mean?+
Every engagement ends with full documentation, recorded walkthroughs, a 30-day hypercare window, and a structured knowledge transfer to your team. If you have an in-house team that wants to take over after Build, we hand off so they own it — not so they’re stuck with it.
How quickly can we start?+
Blueprint engagements typically start within 2 weeks of contract. Larger engagements scope and kick off within 4–6 weeks of signature, depending on team capacity and discovery scope. We don’t take more than two large engagements concurrent — we don’t want to be the bottleneck.
Ready to see where your brand and commerce are leaking revenue?
Start with a Shopify Blueprint — a 14-day strategic diagnostic that shows you exactly what to fix, in what order, with numbers attached.
