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Dec 14, 2021
Shopify has a great ecosystem around it and many options for getting help with your store. The first place you should try is the official Shopify support chat.
I’ll also list a few other options — both free and paid — where you can get help with your store.
No time to read? I've also made this article as a video:
Recently they’ve made it harder to access and I’ve been asked if it still exists. It indeed does. So here’s how to get to the Shopify support chat fast (as of December 2021):
Visit the Shopify Help Center here: https://help.shopify.com/. I’m starting the steps here to be sure that the URL’s won’t change and become outdated in future.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the button that says “Contact Shopify Support”. It should take you to this page: https://help.shopify.com/en/questions
You should now see a login page. It doesn’t matter here if you login or continue as a guest. In the next step you will be brought to an FAQ page so you can search for your question. You still won’t see the chat option here.
This is to catch anyone with simple questions, so just type any words and hit enter. After you search for something, the support chat button will appear.
Search for something first.
The continue to support button appears after you search for something.
After clicking this button you will finally have the option of chatting with Shopify support or emailing them.
I recommend the chat option as you will get an immediate answer to your question.
Shopify Support is a great resource. In my opinion it is one of the biggest advantages of Shopify as compared to other platforms.
Store owners that moved across from Wordpress grumble about the cost at first, until they realize that Shopify isn’t just a platform but an ongoing service. Meaning that you can reach out to Shopify support whenever you have a problem with your site.
Shopify's official support channel isn't unlimited though.
Obviously they are not web developers or designers, but just tech support. Here is what they're useful for:
You may find tutorials on the Shopify help center that say “this is an unsupported customization” and for these you are on your own, unless you hire a developer.
Hiring a developer doesn't have to be a big deal though. To start with I highly recommend Storetasker. They specialize in small Shopify tasks with a fast turnaround. I will also talk about a few other options later in this article.
Here you can read more in-depth about the what Shopify support will or won’t help you with: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/themes/theme-support
If you bought a premium theme from the Shopify theme store, or even if you bought one of the themes from a third-party marketplace like Themeforest or TemplateMonster, your theme developer will offer some level of support.
If you bought from the Shopify theme store, you can find the developers name right next to the theme name. Some of the most popular developers are Out of the Sandbox and Pixel Union.
Their website will have a page with theme documentation and various user instructions, and also email addresses or contact forms where you can ask for assistance.
Contacting a theme developer is best for troubleshooting only. In other words, they will help you fix errors or bugs to do with their theme (that might have been their fault), but they will not help you make additional modifications to your theme.
For example, if product color swatches aren't showing the correct colors, you can contact them. But if you want color swatches to also pop-up a little label that says the color name - that's a modification and you will need to hire a developer.
That being said, even if there isn't any problem with your theme, but you are just finding it difficult to get a feature to work, you can still contact the theme developer to get an explanation and assistance.
My clients sometimes ask me for help with a particular app. They are ready to pay me to sort it out, but sometimes I ask them - have you tried messaging the app developer?
If your problem is related to an app, you can contact the app developer for free support. I've had many good experiences with app developers going above and beyond to help me or my clients with an app.
This can mean:
App developers want you to continue using their app, and they want you to leave good reviews for their app, so part of their job is keeping users happy. This is true even for free apps because they are probably monetizing it through ad-revenue or some other way.
You can easily find the developers email for any app, on the app listing page on the Shopify App Store. If they really helped you out - remember to thank them by leaving a good review!
Storetasker is a company that specializes in small development tasks for Shopify, usually things that take under an hour, or maybe 2-3 hours of work. They also provide a very fast turnaround time, and you can often get things done within 24 hours.
Storetasker have been the leader in this field for many years, almost since the beginning of Shopify (they used to be called Carson).
I myself have referred new clients to them when I was fully booked out, because I know they do quality work. All of their developers are experienced with Shopify before joining Storetasker, and I think many of them come from freelance backgrounds, so they know how to communicate well.
The rates start from around $75 for a one-hour task. I think this is a fair price for a reliable service with quick turnaround.
You can find cheaper rates by looking on freelancing sites like Upwork and Fiverr, but you really have to do your research there and there is a lot of luck involved in finding someone really good. I will elaborate on this later in this article.
With Storetasker you at least know the job will be done to a good standard and quickly.
You can also buy a retainer with them for a certain number of hours per month. But if you're doing this, I might recommend just finding a good individual freelance developer instead.
Check out their pricing page for more info - StoreTasker Pricing.
I'm sure you must have heard of Shopify Experts. This is the official place to hire help with your Shopify store. The agencies that have been listed here have gone through an approval process with Shopify themselves.
The key word here is agencies, there are freelancers also, but the point is that they do not work for Shopify. Shopify will basically match you up with one of these agencies and you go from there.
Each agency might have different rates, different turnaround time, and specialize in slightly different services. And they might take a different amount of time to reply to you or to start your project.
For this reason, I usually don't recommend Shopify Experts when you just want a quick task done, instead I recommend Storetasker. I think Shopify Experts is best when you are looking to work with someone long-term. And you have time to chat with multiple agencies and see which one suits your budget and requirements.
You can access Shopify Experts through the dashboard of your store. It's in the top-right, if you click on your account name and open the dropdown you will find a link that says "Hire a Shopify Expert".
This brings you to a contact form that asks you what kind of service you are looking for, what your budget is what your business does and a few others questions. They will then match you up to one of the Shopify Expert agencies.
There are certain advantages to working with an individual freelancer :
However, finding a freelancer online is kind of the wild west. There are some gems but there are also a lot of people who don't really have the skills and experience they claim to have.
To find a good freelancer you need to be somewhat tech-savvy, so you understand the skills you are looking for. You also need to have good intuition and judgement for people.
The advantage of platforms like Upwork and Fiverr is you have a lot more to choose from.
Shopify Experts for example can be really hard to get into, so often it's the bigger agencies that go through the effort. Smaller freelancers like myself are often on the freelance marketplaces.
Upwork is what I recommend when you are looking for a freelancer to join your team kind of long-term.
If you have ongoing work that you need done every month or so, Upwork is great because it has an hourly work feature. This lets you start a 'contract' where the freelancer works for an agreed hourly rate on whatever you need them to do. This can mean getting small things done very quickly and affordably.
For example, on Storetasker they take a minimum of $75 for a one-hour task, no matter how small. On Upwork you can ask your freelancer for a quick fix, and if it only takes 20 minutes then you only pay for 20 minutes. Upwork uses 10-minute time blocks.
To hire a freelancer there you need to create an account and then post a job. The job can be very vague - you can say you're looking for a Shopify developer for ongoing small tasks, or you're looking for a designer for a one-time redesign.
After this you can browse the directory and view people's profiles and invite them to your job if you like their profile.
You will also be getting a lot of applications from lower-skilled freelancers and Upwork beginners. I would mostly ignore these, although there may be some good ones.
Fiverr, in my opinion, has a lower level of skill on average. This is where you find a lot of amateurs. However it does have one huge redeeming quality, and that is the unique 'Gig' system.
Fiverr isn't like a regular job board (or Upwork) where you post a job and then people apply. It's the opposite of that.
Freelancers post 'Gigs' which are services they can perform, and then you can buy that Gig. The pricing for each Gig is clearly listed and you can even read reviews from buyers that purchased that Gig.
I think this is a very interesting concept that lends itself well to a certain type of task. For example when I needed around 100 images edited for a clients Shopify store, I used Fiverr. There wasn't any other site that could get such a specific thing done for me so quickly.
The Gig system also means that freelancers are encouraged to specialize in a certain service. Some Gigs have hundreds of purchases - meaning the freelancer has done this 100's of times! That's a lot of experience in a very specific task, which is a good thing.
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Have any questions?