Shopify expert in Belgium: what a Shopify specialist does and how to choose one

A Shopify expert is a freelancer, developer or agency specialised in building, migrating or growing Shopify stores. Who you need depends on your project: a small change calls for a developer, a new store or a migration calls for a team. Choose on live Shopify work, on who you can call after launch and on how they handle your data and SEO.

This article is part of our guide to having a Shopify store built. Below: what a Shopify expert does, who you need for which project, ten questions to ask before you sign and the red flags.

What does a Shopify expert do?

A Shopify expert designs and builds themes, sets up payments, markets and shipping, connects Shopify to an ERP, PIM or accounting package, migrates stores from other platforms and works on SEO and conversion after launch. Some also build headless stores; whether that makes sense for you is covered in headless Shopify or Liquid.

The term comes from the former Shopify Experts directory, now called the Shopify Partner Directory. Anyone listed there is a Shopify Partner. That says something about experience with the platform, but not about the quality of every project. So always look at the work itself.

Freelancer, developer or agency: who do you need?

Ten questions before you sign

Which Shopify stores have you built that are still live? Ask for links, not screenshots.

Do you work with a Shopify theme or headless, and why does that fit me? The answer should be about your project, not their preference.

Who does the work? You, your own team or a subcontractor?

How do you handle a migration? Which data comes along and how do you safeguard redirects? This is what a good SEO migration looks like.

Which apps do you recommend, and what do they cost per month? Every app is a recurring cost and an extra dependency.

Who owns the store, the theme and the code? That should be you; the agency works through a collaborator account.

How do you test before launch? Payments, shipping rules, emails and, in Belgium, definitely Bancontact.

What happens after launch? Who fixes a bug, and how fast?

How do you report? Which numbers do you see, and how often?

What does it cost in total? Not just the build, also your Shopify plan, apps and maintenance. An overview is in what a Shopify store costs in total.

Red flags

No live examples of Shopify work, or only mockups.

Every question is solved with another app.

No redirect plan for a migration.

The store is in the agency's name instead of yours.

A fixed price without a clear scope, or nobody reachable after launch.

Why a Shopify expert from Belgium?

A Belgian store has its own needs. In our clients' Belgian stores, more than 60% of payments by Belgian buyers go through Bancontact. Your content often has to be in Dutch and French. And if you sell to businesses, your invoices have had to go through Peppol since 2026; how to handle that is in Peppol and e-invoicing with Shopify. An expert who knows that context, and whom you can simply meet, saves you a lot of explaining.

How 6th Man works

6th Man is a Shopify agency from Ghent, with our office in the Wintercircus. Arthur, Wout and Sjonlee handle strategy, development and design themselves. We build custom Shopify stores, migrate stores to Shopify and work on growth after launch. See for example the TROC store or the T'Hooft Buitengewoon migration, or book a call.