Akoode builds Shopify Plus, headless, and AI-powered storefronts for Manchester retailers and DTC brands, a city that already knows what retail tech at scale looks like. From platform strategy through development, migration, and launch, one in-house team handles the build end to end. From platform strategy and UX through development, migration, and launch, our team handles the complete commerce build.
Built by a Team That Ships Storefronts on Schedule and Ships Clean
Manchester has produced some of the UK's biggest online retail names, so its shoppers are used to fast, well-built stores. A clunky checkout gets noticed here faster than most places. Every Akoode project runs through our own team from architecture to deployment, with nothing outsourced along the way. Every Akoode project runs through our in-house team from architecture to deployment, with no handoffs and no surprises.
A Roadmap You Can Set a Watch By
We build scalable ecommerce platforms for Manchester retailers and DTC brands. Every engagement runs on a structured roadmap, with milestone tracking, sprint reviews, and clear delivery accountability built in from day one.
GMT and BST Hours, Genuinely Covered
Our teams keep dedicated India-UK overlap hours structured around GMT and BST, so Manchester clients stay connected through Slack, Jira, GitHub, and weekly sprint reporting for the length of the engagement.
Built to Handle Peak-Traffic Trust
We design for maintainability and traffic spikes from the outset, so a Manchester storefront built with us can handle a promotional surge without buckling.
Ratings That Hold Up Past Manchester
Clutch and Google scores are earned across Retail, DTC, and enterprise commerce projects, delivered by engineers who work daily in Shopify Plus, headless architecture, and production AI features.
Platform Ratings
What our clients say across leading platforms.
Google, 4.9 out of five stars
4.9★★★★★★★★★★
Clutch, 5.0 out of five stars
5.0★★★★★★★★★★
GoodFirms, 4.8 out of five stars
4.8★★★★★★★★★★
What clients love about working with us
Milestones That Land When Promised
Sprint accountability and milestone tracking keep engagements on schedule, with progress visible at every stage.
Nothing Gets Buried in an Inbox
Dedicated overlap hours between India and the UK keep planning, reviews, and deployment real-time, with nothing important left to email.
Trusted With Real Transaction Data
Clean code and documented architecture from day one produce storefronts that are scalable, secure, and production-ready, not retroactively tidied before handover.
A Long-Term Build Partner, Not a Vendor
We design for maintainability from the start, which is why most clients keep working with us long after launch instead of rebuilding later.
Why Manchester Businesses Choose Akoode
THG grew out of Manchester into a global commerce and beauty group, one of several homegrown names, alongside AO.com and Boohoo, that turned the city into one of Europe's most concentrated ecommerce clusters. That same bar for scale is what we build to for every Manchester client.
GMT and BST overlap. Our India-UK delivery model keeps dedicated hours inside Manchester's working day for sprint planning, reviews, and deployment.
Pricing in GBP. Every quote is scoped and billed in pounds sterling, with no currency surprises later.
In-house development, every line written by our own engineers.
The build is owned by one senior engineer from discovery through launch, start to finish.
UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 requirements get built in from day one, not retrofitted before go-live.
Working Hours Built Around GMT and BST
Structured India-UK overlap windows keep planning, reviews, and deployment calls landing inside Manchester's own working day.
Built With Commerce Technology Chosen to Last
Stability and long-term support drive our choice of Shopify Plus, headless architecture, and modern storefront frameworks, not trend-chasing. That keeps a Manchester storefront maintainable years after launch, not just at release.
Sector Depth Beyond a Single Vertical
Deep delivery experience across Manchester's dominant commerce verticals: Retail & eCommerce, Media & Entertainment, Manufacturing.
Support That Doesn't End at Launch
Performance monitoring, conversion tracking, and platform updates continue after release, so a Manchester storefront keeps converting as traffic and platforms change, not just on day one.
The Six Things a Manchester eCommerce Engagement Actually Covers
Whether the client is a two-person Manchester DTC brand or an enterprise retailer with a national footprint, every engagement covers the same ground: platform strategy, storefront design, engineering, AI where it earns its place, and support that continues past launch day. As a rough guide, UK builds run from £5,000 for standard work up to £40,000-plus once you're into Shopify Plus or enterprise territory.
01
Manchester Shopify and Shopify Plus Development
Our team designs and builds Shopify and Shopify Plus storefronts for Manchester retailers, covering custom theme development, app integrations, and checkout extensions built for real conversion rates, not just launch-day polish.
Custom Shopify and Shopify Plus theme development
Checkout extensibility and custom checkout UI
App and API integrations with existing retail stacks
Scoped migration from legacy platforms with transparent GBP pricing
Custom eCommerce Development for Manchester Brands
Akoode builds custom storefronts on Magento, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce when a template platform can't handle the catalog complexity or business logic a Manchester brand needs.
Custom storefront builds on Magento, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce
Complex catalog and multi-warehouse inventory logic
B2B pricing tiers and account-based commerce
Architecture built to scale from launch to full product
Tech Stack:Magento, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, PHP, MySQL
Headless Commerce and API Integration in Manchester
A storefront is only as fast as the architecture behind it. Akoode designs and builds headless commerce APIs that support real-time inventory, secure checkout, and third-party integrations for Manchester commerce products that need to scale.
Headless storefront builds on Next.js with a composable backend
RESTful and GraphQL commerce API design
Payment gateway and third-party logistics integrations
API security, rate limiting, and PCI-aware authentication
AI-Powered Commerce Features for Manchester Businesses
This covers AI-powered recommendation engines, LLM-based search, and predictive analytics for the storefront, applied to personalisation, visual search, and smarter merchandising, built with UK GDPR-aligned data practices throughout.
AI product recommendation and personalisation engines
LLM-powered search and product discovery
Predictive analytics for inventory and demand forecasting
Secure, explainable AI aligned with UK GDPR standards
eCommerce UI/UX and CRO Design for Manchester Storefronts
The sale is lost before checkout if a first-time visitor gets confused, no matter how strong the code underneath is. Akoode's design work is grounded in real shopper behaviour and conversion data rather than assumption.
User research and shopper journey mapping before any screen is designed
Conversion-focused product page and checkout design
Interactive prototypes tested with real users before development
Design systems built for consistency as the catalog grows
Tech Stack:Figma, A/B Testing, Hotjar, Design Systems
Post-Launch Support and Conversion Optimisation in Manchester
Launch day is the start of a storefront's life, not the end of the project. Akoode provides ongoing support, performance monitoring, and conversion-rate optimisation to keep a Manchester storefront converting well after the initial release.
Performance monitoring, uptime tracking, and rapid bug fixes
Conversion-rate optimisation based on real funnel data
Seasonal and promotional traffic scaling support (Black Friday, Boxing Day)
Flexible staff augmentation when an in-house team needs extra hands
Tech Stack:Google Analytics, Hotjar, New Relic, CI/CD
How a Manchester Storefront Gets Built, Step by Step
Six stages that keep every Manchester ecommerce engagement on track, transparent, and accountable, from the first technical conversation through to launch and beyond.
Stage 01
Discovery and Strategy
Every Manchester engagement starts with genuinely understanding the catalog, the customer, and the platform constraints, not filling in a standard brief.
Timeline
1 to 2 weeks
Discovery typically wraps within two working weeks, covering stakeholder input and a technical review before scope is locked.
You receive
Validated platform choice and technical scope document
Migration risk assessment if replacing an existing storefront
Project roadmap with milestone structure and delivery timeline
Risk register covering technical, compliance, and payment-processing risks
What'sActually Running Underneath a Manchester Build
We choose technology for how it performs over years, not how new it looks in a pitch deck. Shopify Plus and BigCommerce cover the majority of retail builds. Headless commerce on Next.js gets reserved for projects that genuinely need the frontend built outside a platform's theme system.
Shopify
Magento
WooCommerce
PHP Laravel
Results We're Happy to Show You
Real commerce projects, measurable results. Conversion rate, platform performance, and revenue impact you can report upward.
Building a Multi-Brand Beauty Storefront on Shopify
Key Outcomes
7
Core Categories
60+
Subcategories
Challenge
None of this shows up all at once. A retailer adds brands to stay competitive, which forces more categories, which forces deeper subcategories, and somewhere along the way the store stops being browsable even though each individual product page still looks fine.
What We Built
This wasn't about adding features to an existing store. Stunner Selfcare needed a catalog structure sized for the brand range it already had, with merchandising and retention mechanics built in from the start rather than bolted on later.
QR-Linked Apparel Platform: One Store, One Verified Digital Identity
Key Outcomes
2
Claim Steps
1
Account, Everything
Challenge
Fixed graphics, awkward in-person networking, and a customer relationship that stops dead at delivery are three separate frustrations that all happen to live on the same piece of fabric.
What We Built
A working store, a locked-down claiming step, and a profile people would bother keeping current - none of that means much if it ships as three loosely connected features instead of one build.
Precious Metals Ecommerce Platform: A Connected Silver Store, Cart to Checkout
Key Outcomes
3
Silver Categories
3
Service Areas
Challenge
The platform needed to connect service-led content with a working retail journey. A customer might arrive to explore silver bars, research silver coins, review silver rounds, or understand a storage or refinery service. Product discovery, cart actions, checkout, payment, accounts, and orders all had to make sense together.
What We Built
The brief called for a functioning ecommerce platform, not a catalogue with a payment button attached at the end. Akoode needed to connect product discovery, cart behavior, customer details, checkout, payment, account management, and order records inside OpenCart while keeping the public interface easy to understand.
Akoode technologies completely revamped my website. They did better than I expected, but what I really appreciated was how they always took their time to ensure I knew what was happening every step of the way. They continued to work with me even after the project was completed, taking care of everything I asked time and time again. I highly recommend them and I would certainly use them again in the future, no hesitation.
Raphael Jube
Five stars, beyond exceptional. Akoode Technologies completely transformed my website, gsgerry.com, and I honestly couldn't be more impressed. From start to finish, their team was incredibly responsive, supportive, and attentive to every request, big or small. I threw some pretty creative, and at times chaotic, ideas their way, and not only did they deliver, they went above and beyond. Every detail was handled with care. Every change was made with lightning-fast turnaround. If I could give ten stars, I would.
Gerry D
What Our Client Says
Akoode technologies completely revamped my website. They did better than I expected, but what I really appreciated was how they always took their time to ensure I knew what was happening every step of the way. They continued to work with me even after the project was completed, taking care of everything I asked time and time again. I highly recommend them and I would certainly use them again in the future, no hesitation.
“
Raphael Jube
eCommerce Development Across 15 Industries
Akoode has delivered ecommerce platforms across the UK's most demanding retail and commerce verticals, from Shopify Plus storefronts to GDPR-aware checkout flows for businesses operating in and around Manchester.
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Real Estate
For Manchester's real estate and home-goods sellers, we build virtual-tour and listing storefronts with secure deposit and booking-fee handling built in.
Supplement, medical device, and subscription-care storefronts for Manchester healthcare brands, built with payment handling designed around PCI DSS from the outset.
Catalog management, checkout optimisation, and omnichannel inventory sync, built on Shopify Plus or headless architecture, for retailers based in Manchester.
We build embedded commerce and checkout flows for fintech products based in Manchester, engineered around secure, PCI-compliant transactions at real scale.
Manchester-area agriculture businesses get ordering platforms that work even with unreliable rural connectivity, covering both DTC and B2B sales channels.
Senior-led delivery and a no-subcontracting model give Manchester clients direct access to the people actually building their storefront.
Awards & Recognitions
Recognised by leading platforms, startup ecosystems, and global technology communities.
Every Line of Code Stays In-House, Start to Finish
The whole team on every Akoode engagement is in-house, entirely. Manchester clients work directly with the developers, architects, designers, and strategists actually responsible for delivery. Clients get direct access to the people actually building the storefront, developers, architects, designers, strategists included, with nothing subcontracted out.
AI Built to Earn Enterprise Trust
AI features, recommendation engines, intelligent search, merchandising automation, are part of the product from the first sprint, held to the standard of real value after launch, not just impressive in a demo.
One Senior Engineer Owns the Whole Build
A senior engineer leads every Manchester project, directly involved in architecture decisions, sprint reviews, and deployment.
Trust-Grade Compliance From the First Sprint
Storefronts are built with UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, PCI DSS, and any regulated workflow considered from the first design sprint onward, not bolted on before launch.
Talk Directly with Our Founder
Discuss your software vision, AI roadmap, and delivery strategy with the team leading product engineering at Akoode.
Ways of Working That Fit How Manchester Teams Actually Operate
Choose how you want to work with us. Every model includes dedicated engineers, full IP ownership, transparent communication, and direct access to the people building your storefront.
Dedicated Team
Most Popular
Best for: Projects requiring continuous development and long-term product evolution
A dedicated team works as an extension of your in-house engineers, designers, QA, and PMs — fully aligned with your roadmap and sprint cadence.
Full control over the development process and sprint priorities
Easy scalability as the product and team requirements evolve
Seamless integration with your existing tools and workflows
Direct access to engineers — no account managers in between
Straight answers on process, pricing, timelines, compliance, and what working with Akoode actually looks like for Manchester ecommerce projects.
A standard Shopify build for most UK retailers runs £5,000 to £15,000, covering a well-configured theme, essential app integrations, and core conversion elements. Mid-market growth work, custom UX and UI design plus integrations with ERP or CRM systems, typically sits between £15,000 and £40,000. Shopify Plus and enterprise-scale builds, with custom checkout extensions, B2B pricing logic, and multi-region support, start from £40,000 and scale with complexity. These are real UK market rates for 2026, not a placeholder, and we confirm the exact figure for your project after a short discovery call.
We recommend based on what you actually need, not habit. Shopify Plus covers most retailers well. Custom development is the better fit when B2B pricing or legacy systems get complicated. Headless commerce makes sense once you need the frontend to be fully your own, decoupled from the commerce backend.
We work with businesses at every stage: startups shipping their first storefront, growing retailers scaling what they already have, and larger enterprise teams running full commerce transformation projects.
Our teams operate dedicated India-UK overlap hours structured around GMT and BST, so Manchester clients get real-time collaboration during planning, reviews, and deployment through Slack, Jira, GitHub, and weekly sprint reporting.
A dedicated team is a self-contained unit, developers, QA, design, and a technical lead, built around your project specifically. Staff augmentation is different in shape: it adds individual engineers into your existing team rather than standing up a new one.
Start with the contact form on this page. Your submission goes to a senior member of the team, not a queue, and you'll hear back within one business day.
We address compliance at the architecture stage, never as a fix bolted on before launch. For Manchester clients, our teams map UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 into the storefront design from the first sprint, including cookie consent and lawful-basis documentation.
SEO is treated as part of the build, not an add-on service. That means clean URLs, structured data for products and collections, fast page speed, and technical foundations built to support content and link-building work over time. We coordinate with your existing SEO team where one already exists.
A straightforward Shopify build usually wraps up in six to ten weeks. Anything custom or headless, where the catalog or checkout logic is genuinely complex, tends to run three to five months instead. We'll give you a realistic number after discovery, not before.
Yes. Our AI work covers recommendation engines, LLM-powered product search, and predictive analytics for inventory and demand. It's built into the storefront architecture from the outset, with explainability and UK GDPR compliance treated as standard, not optional.
Yes, and this is a standard part of any migration project. We build a full redirect map, preserve metadata, and run a pre-launch SEO audit against the current site, so the rankings you've built up don't get wiped out by the switch.
Yes, this happens fairly often. We audit the existing codebase and platform account technically first, then senior engineers assess quality and risk before producing a remediation plan.
We always sign an NDA before detailed technical or commercial conversations begin. Full IP ownership also transfers to the client once the engagement is complete, with nothing held back on our end.
PCI compliance gets built into the architecture, not retrofitted. Card data goes through a certified payment processor rather than being stored directly, which narrows your own PCI compliance scope considerably.
Our strongest sector experience in the Manchester commerce market covers Retail & eCommerce, Media & Entertainment, Manufacturing, with security and compliance handling built to the standards those industries expect.
Standard post-launch support covers uptime monitoring, security updates, and keeping pace with platform changes as Shopify evolves. Many clients then add conversion-rate optimisation once real traffic data starts coming in, since that's when CRO work actually has something to work from. We offer both retainer and as-needed support models.
Reading for Manchester Retail and DTC Teams
Practical guidance on platform strategy, conversion optimisation, and technical decisions for commerce founders and product leaders.
Tell us about your project and we'll come back with a scoped estimate and a recommended approach.
Reply Time
< 30 working minutes
NDA-Friendly
Signed before kickoff
IP Ownership
100% yours from day one
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eCommerce Development Company in Manchester | Shopify | Akoode
