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Ecommerce strategy for your Shopify store
Who is buying, what do they need to know, and what helps them choose your brand? We define the positioning, customer journey and store structure before design begins.
5.0 ★ on Google · Shopify stores for Zourani, VYOLA and Thereza Pedrosa Gallery · Led by Karina Paviotti, who worked in product design at Uber, helping shape payment experiences for drivers.
Positioning
Customer journey
Sitemap
UX
SEO
What it is
What is an ecommerce strategy?
An ecommerce strategy is the plan behind your online store: who you sell to, why they would choose you over the alternatives, how they arrive, and what they need to see on each page before they buy. It decides what the store says and in what order, before anyone decides how it looks.
For us it isn’t a separate product. Every Shopify project we take on starts with it, because a store designed without it is built on guesses.
How we help
How do we help?
We work out your strategy with you, write it down, and then build the store on it. So you don’t end up with a report in a drawer: the strategy becomes the pages your customers actually use.
In practice, that means:
Who it's for
When are we the right fit?
A good fit
We’re a good match when:
✓
Your product is good, and the store doesn’t show it yet. People who hold it in their hands love it. People who only see the site hesitate.
✓
You’re about to build or rebuild a Shopify store and want the thinking done before the design, not after.
✓
You’ve tried a template or a quick redesign, and it looked better but didn’t sell better.
✓
You want to know why customers choose you, in words you can use on every page, in your emails and on social.
✓
You’re the owner, and you decide. You’d rather work directly with the person leading your project.
Not for us
And honestly, we’re not the right fit when:
×
You only want a strategy document, without the store. We don’t sell the strategy on its own, because its value is in what gets built on it.
×
You need someone to run your ads. We don’t, on purpose. We make sure the store turns the visitors you already have into customers, and when it does, we’re happy to refer a media buyer we trust.
Why it matters
Why does a store need a strategy before design?
Because every design decision is an answer to a question about your customer. Which photo goes first, what the product page explains, which menu items exist, what the button says. Without a strategy, those answers come from taste or from a template. With one, they come from what your customers need.
01
Know who you’re talking to
A first-time visitor from Instagram and a returning customer from Google want different things from the same store. The strategy names your buyers, what they already know and what they’re unsure about, so every page is written for someone real.
02
Turn what makes you different into a reason to choose you
Most brands know what makes them special. Few stores say it in a way a stranger understands in a few seconds. We put that difference into words and decide where it shows up: the home page, the product page, the checkout.
03
Answer the questions before they stop the sale
Customers ask the same things over and over: does it fit, how does it work, is it worth the price, what if it doesn’t suit me? We collect those questions from your DMs, emails and events, and decide on which page and at which moment each one gets its answer.
04
Build a structure that can grow
Collections, navigation and page types are decided by how your customers shop, not by how your stock is organized. A good structure keeps working as the catalog grows, so you don’t have to rebuild the store every time you add a line.
The full plan
What does a complete ecommerce strategy cover?
This is the plan we work through with you. Every project covers the foundation and the structure. How far we go into the rest depends on your brand, your stage and your project, and we tell you honestly which parts are worth doing now and which can wait.
Cost
What drives the cost?
The strategy is part of the project price, never billed on its own. Every project has one fixed price, agreed before we start and never billed by the hour. We share it on the intro call, and your proposal lists every item next to its price. What moves the number:
How deep the strategy goes
From a focused session and brief to full audience research, a competitor analysis and a journey map.
How far the design goes
Your brand in our system, or a store designed from scratch for your brand.
Products
The number of products and how complex they are.
Languages and markets
Like Dutch, French and English for the Netherlands and Belgium.
Copy
Polishing what you have, or writing the key pages from scratch.
Moving from another platform
With your products, customers and order history.
Retention and growth extras
Email flows, a loyalty program or personalization, when the strategy shows they’re worth it.
Not sure what you need?
That’s what the intro call is for.
How we work
How does the strategy part of a project run?
Four steps, and you approve each one before we move on.
Selected work
Strategy in our work
Zourani
LED face masks, Netherlands and Belgium
An at-home device at that price is a considered purchase, in a market full of cheaper lookalikes. The strategy decided that the store explains how red light therapy works before it asks anyone to choose, and puts a comparison against the best-known masks right on the product page.
VYOLA
made-to-measure body jewelry, Belgium
At events, people fall for a piece the moment they try it on. Online, they can’t. So the strategy put the size guidance and the fit guarantee directly under the size field, right where the question comes up.
Thereza Pedrosa Gallery
contemporary art jewelry, Italy
We built the store around the artists instead of product categories: a page per maker, exhibitions written as editorial. Since launch the catalog has grown from 47 to 208 products (checked September 2026) and from 40 to 44 artists, and the store still runs on that structure.
The studio
Who will you work with?
5.0 ★ on Google.
Karina Paviotti is the founder of Design by Karina, a boutique Shopify agency in Rotterdam. Before starting the studio, she worked in product design at Uber, shaping payment experiences for drivers. Today she leads every project, from strategy to launch, for business owners in fashion, beauty and lifestyle.
For the strategy, that matters: you talk to Karina directly, so what you tell us in the session is what ends up in the brief and in the store.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Tell us what you sell, who buys it and what they ask before they buy.
Thirty minutes, free. You talk to Karina directly, and by the end of the call you’ll know whether we’re a good fit. If we’re not, we’ll tell you that too.