The real work starts after launch. 21phi stays on as your embedded Shopify team on a monthly retainer and closes every request from every department, with a named senior person on the other end.
21phi's Shopify support and maintenance services are a monthly retainer in which a small senior team stays embedded with your brand after launch and closes any request from any department: integrations, visuals, broken apps, urgent fixes and analytics. It is built for DTC (direct-to-consumer) brands on Shopify and Shopify Plus that want one accountable team behind the store instead of a ticket queue.
The storefronts we build and support run on Shopify Hydrogen, Shopify's React-based framework for building headless storefronts on top of Shopify's Storefront API; current versions are built on React Router (formerly Remix). A headless storefront can do more than a theme, and it needs a team that understands the code underneath it. The retainer is that team: the ongoing monthly engagement, scoped per client.
The model is an embedded commerce team, 21phi's engagement model after launch: the agency works inside the client's channels and roadmap as the storefront, analytics and growth team, on a monthly retainer scoped per client. We sit in your group chats for web, customer care and the wider team, and a question from any teammate is answered there by the person who will do the work. This costs more than a body shop, and it should.
Customer care asks for a final-sale label on product pages, or a check on why a discount code behaves differently at checkout. Logistics asks why inventory is not flowing into Shopify. Operations wants the right prices shown in each market. Marketing needs a landing page for a drop. The founder wants the navigation changed. On a 21phi retainer all of it lands with the same team, in the same thread, as it does for a Shopify Plus apparel storefront we have supported since launch.
Nobody on your side has to work out which vendor owns the problem. We keep a shared task board your whole team can see, updated weekly. When a support team asks for a chat widget, it gets scoped, reviewed with the founder and shipped by the same people, because the people who scoped it are the people deploying the code.
When a founder asks for a navigation change on a call, it goes straight onto the board with a preview link to follow. When a post-launch QA list comes in, the fixes are worked through in order and shown on a preview before they ship. That pace is possible because the same senior people hold the codebase and the deploy pipeline.
We are also honest about limits. A headless storefront deploys through a pipeline, so a small copy edit takes a deploy rather than a click in a theme editor. Shopify's hosted checkout controls its own fonts and branding, and some app platforms cannot do what a team hopes for. When a request is better deferred, we say so. We do not sell 24/7 coverage or response-time guarantees; we sell people who know your store.
Framework, package and Shopify API version upkeep is a standing monthly item on every retainer, so the storefront does not break quietly between feature requests. It is the quiet half of Shopify maintenance and support services, noticed only when it is missing.
The stack we maintain is the stack we build: Hydrogen on Oxygen, Shopify's global edge hosting for Hydrogen storefronts, included with Shopify plans; deploys from Git. Alongside sit React Router, the Storefront API, the Customer Account API, Shopify Functions, Shopify Markets, Sanity and Mux. Third-party apps are integrated into the storefront rather than bolted on: reviews widget, helpdesk chat, store-credit wallet, AI sizing tool, returns portal, inventory middleware sync. When one misbehaves, 21phi is the team that chases the vendor.
A weekly analytics review, run by us: what changed in the funnel from product views to checkout and repeat purchase, by segment, and what to test next. We own the tracking layer from the storefront through to Shopify checkout, with pixels in code and attribution gaps diagnosed with your ads team. See analytics and attribution.
Launches and drops are a joint operation: a color drop or holiday campaign gets a landing page, storefront blocks, creative variants and a calendar that leaves QA time. Visual work is part of the retainer, from retouching to AI-assisted motion and 3D renders. Improvements ship as tests, one variable at a time; see conversion rate optimization.
You get a named senior person on the other end of every thread. Sergey Gridin, co-founder of 21phi, leads the engineering and analytics work with clients: he presents the weekly review and ships storefront changes himself.
Here is why that pays. A body shop charges less and spends much of what you pay rediscovering your codebase, your apps and your tracking. Separate vendors blame each other when the discount code, the pixel and the checkout disagree. An embedded team carries the context forward, catches second-order effects before they ship, and decides with the data it maintains. The retainer is scoped individually; see how we work.
Before you sign a Shopify retainer with anyone, ask four questions. Who exactly answers when something breaks? Do they keep the framework, packages and Shopify API versions current every month? Will they sit in your channels, or behind a ticket portal? Will they tell you when Shopify, an app or the budget cannot do what you want?
21phi's Shopify support and maintenance services answer all four. We would rather lose a prospect on the first call than take on a retainer we cannot run that way. If you build with us, the retainer begins on launch day. If your store is already live, we start with a tech stack audit and a short discovery, then propose a scope. One way to start: the contact form.
A Shopify Hydrogen storefront for a men's performance apparel brand, built around product systems and run by 21phi as the embedded storefront, analytics and growth team.
Shopify Plus · Shopify Hydrogen on Remix / React Router · Oxygen edge hosting · Storefront API and Customer Account API · Shopify Markets · Shopify web pixels and ad pixels, implemented in code · Amplitude for funnels, retention and session replay · Mux for video
At 21phi they cover what a Shopify store needs after launch: monthly framework, package and Shopify API version upkeep, fixes for broken apps and integrations, new features, launch pages, visual work, analytics and a weekly review of results. Requests from any department land with one embedded team on a monthly retainer scoped for the store.
A Shopify monthly retainer is an ongoing engagement in which an agency stays on as the store's team after launch instead of billing one project at a time. With 21phi it covers maintenance, fixes, improvements, launches, creative and analytics in one scope, agreed per client and reviewed as the store grows.
No. 21phi does not sell round-the-clock coverage or guaranteed response times. It sells a small senior team that already knows the codebase, sits in the client's channels and ships urgent fixes in a day when a day is what the fix needs. Clients know who will answer, and that person does the work.
Yes, starting with a tech stack audit of the storefront, apps, integrations and tracking, then a short discovery to agree a scope. 21phi works best on Shopify Hydrogen and Shopify Plus stores, where its experience is deepest. For a store on a Liquid theme, the first call is where 21phi says honestly whether it is the right team.
Yes. On a 21phi retainer third-party apps such as reviews widgets, helpdesk chat, store-credit wallets, sizing tools and inventory middleware are integrated into the storefront rather than bolted on, so most issues can be diagnosed in the code. When the fault sits with the app vendor, 21phi chases the vendor, keeps the client's team informed and ships a workaround where one exists.
21phi designs, builds and keeps running headless storefronts on Hydrogen, Oxygen and the Storefront API for Shopify Plus brands, and stays embedded with your team as the people who own the store after launch.
21phi builds and runs the analytics layer for Shopify Plus and Hydrogen storefronts, from pixels and event taxonomy to attribution, cohorts and a weekly review, and stays embedded as the team that answers the next question.
21phi turns funnel data, UX friction and merchandising gaps into a disciplined A/B testing program on Shopify, read by segment, and stays embedded with your team to act on what it finds.
