Commerce code has to render fast on a weak signal, survive Black Friday, and stay maintainable eighteen months later. Most agencies optimize for launch day and leave the next team a mess of brittle templates. We build for all three horizons — first paint, peak traffic, and the long tail of edits that follow.
38 → 96Lighthouse Score · Parts Place Magento → Shopify
2.1s → 1.2sLCP Improvement · Parts Place PDP
28s → 11sCI Build Time · Parts Place Theme Pipeline
/ The Web Dev Reality
Fast to ship. Built to last.
Most agency-built commerce code looks good for six months and becomes a maintenance nightmare by month eighteen. Theme spaghetti, copy-pasted components, third-party app integrations duct-taped onto the cart, performance optimizations that broke when the next Shopify update shipped. The brands that compound on their commerce stack don’t have prettier code — they have code that survives the next 24 months of shipping.
◆snippets/price.liquid · LEGACY
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{% if section.settings.show_price_v2 %}
{% if product.compare_at_price > product.price and section.settings.show_sale_2024 %}
Inline styles. Hardcoded colors. Legacy fallbacks. Six conditionals to render one price. One developer wrote this. Three more “fixed” it. The next developer rewrites the whole template.
One component. CSS handles the styling via design tokens. Conditionals minimal and intentional. Any developer on the team can extend it without breaking anything else.
The Difference: Spaghetti Looks Fine In Week 1. Architecture Looks Fine In Month 18.
73%
of Shopify themes have unused CSS exceeding 100KB on first load.
Shopify Theme Audit Benchmark · 2024
3–5×
longer feature-shipping velocity on themes with component architecture vs. monolithic templates.
Forrester eCommerce Dev Velocity Study · 2024
$28K
avg cost of "we need to rebuild the theme" projects we've inherited from prior agencies.
Act Bold Multi-Client Engagement Data · 2025
98 / 100
avg Lighthouse Performance score across Act Bold-shipped Shopify themes.
Act Bold Live Engagement Performance Data · 2025
/ The Web Dev Stack
Four disciplines. One commerce engine.
Web Development at Act Bold isn’t four contractors duct-taped together. It’s four disciplines run by an integrated team, with the architecture decisions made at the engagement level — not deferred to the developer who happens to be free that sprint.
01
Frontend Development
The theme layer. Component architecture, responsive design, accessibility-first markup, design system implementation. Shopify Liquid + custom JS where needed. The work that makes the design real on every device, at every breakpoint, for every user.
Accessibility implementation (WCAG 2.1 AA minimum baseline)
Responsive build (mobile-first, tested at 6+ breakpoints)
02
Backend & API Integration
The integration layer. Custom Shopify apps, ReCharge subscription flows, Klaviyo data sync, Yotpo review integration, search/PIM connections, ERP data flows, custom Liquid/Ruby logic. The work that makes the commerce stack actually function as a stack.
Shopify API integration (REST + GraphQL Storefront/Admin)
Custom app development when off-the-shelf doesn't fit
03
Performance Engineering
Speed as a build target, not a post-launch cleanup. Core Web Vitals optimization built into the theme architecture. Image pipeline, JS bundle management, critical CSS, lazy loading patterns, CDN configuration. Performance budgets enforced at the build step.
Core Web Vitals optimization (LCP, INP, CLS targets enforced)
Magento → Shopify is the most common migration we run, but we also handle BigCommerce → Shopify, custom platforms → Shopify, and Shopify → Shopify Plus. Data migration, URL mapping (preserve every redirect), SEO continuity, integration re-platforming, and zero-downtime cutover. Migration is risky; we de-risk it.
Product / customer / order data migration (with audit trails)
URL mapping + 301 redirect plan (preserve SEO equity)
Cutover plan with rollback safety + zero-downtime deploy
/ Performance Engineering Dashboard
Performance is a build target.
Most agencies treat performance as a post-launch optimization. We treat it as a build requirement — performance budgets enforced at compile time, Core Web Vitals scored on every PR, and Lighthouse scores reported every month. Here’s what the dashboard looks like across active engagements.
/ Performance Metrics · Live · 30-Day Rolling · Active Shopify Engagements14 sites · live
From 10K+ SKU migration to enterprise Magento at $3M+/month — three brands that needed Web Development to function as commerce infrastructure, not theme decoration.
MAGENTO → SHOPIFY · 10K+ SKU · MIGRATION
Parts Place Inc
/ Multi-Thousand SKU Magento → Shopify Migration
+55%
Conversion Rate Lift Post-Migration
−70%
Admin Time Reduction (Site Operations)
10,247
SKUs Migrated With Full Data Integrity
“They moved us from a Magento setup we'd outgrown to a Shopify build that actually works the way our team works — without losing a single product or breaking a single redirect.”
“Enterprise Magento doesn't run itself. Act Bold has been our development team for years — every release, every integration, every performance optimization.”
Engagements typically run as a sequential Build Journey — Discover first to scope the work honestly, Build to ship the code, then Maintain to keep the platform compounding. Each phase scoped on its own terms.
PHASE 01 · DISCOVER
Technical Audit & Scope
Fixed price
OR INCLUDED IN BUILD
Pre-build technical audit covering platform fit, integration scope, performance baseline, and migration risk (if applicable). Scoped fixed-price standalone or absorbed into the Build phase if the engagement progresses.
Platform fit, Magento → Shopify migrations, timelines, ongoing support models, and how we keep Core Web Vitals in the “Good” range as a build target.
Shopify and Shopify Plus are our primary platforms — they're where the majority of $2M-$20M DTC commerce now runs and where we have the deepest team. We also work on Magento (legacy maintenance and the source side of migrations), BigCommerce (specific use cases), and custom headless setups when requirements genuinely demand it (Hydrogen, Next.js + commerce APIs). We're platform-agnostic in the strict sense — but we'll be honest in the Discover phase about whether your requirements actually need a custom platform or whether Shopify/Shopify Plus would serve you better.
Yes — it’s one of our most common Build engagements. We’ve migrated Parts Place Inc, ML Furs, and others from Magento to Shopify, including product catalogs of 10K+ SKUs, multi-integration stacks, and significant SEO equity that had to be preserved through URL mapping and 301 redirect planning. We handle data migration (products / customers / orders), integration replatforming (apps + ERPs + marketing stack), URL preservation, and cutover with rollback safety. Migrations typically run 8-16 weeks depending on scope.
Depends on scope. A focused theme build on an existing Shopify store (new design, no migration, existing integrations) typically runs 8-12 weeks. A full rebuild with custom integrations runs 12-16 weeks. A Magento → Shopify migration with significant complexity (10K+ SKUs, multi-integration stack, custom B2B requirements) runs 16-20 weeks. Enterprise builds with custom apps and headless architecture can run longer. We scope timelines during the Discover phase, not during the sales call — generic timelines from agencies that haven't audited your stack are sales theater, not project planning.
Yes — most engagements transition into a Web Retainer (Phase 3 of the Build Journey) for ongoing development support. The retainer covers feature shipping, integration updates, performance monitoring, security patching, and theme evolution at 16 hours/month capacity. Some clients (especially enterprise) need more dedicated capacity and scope retainers larger than the standard 16-hour package. Some hand off to their internal dev team after launch — and we provide thorough documentation and handoff materials when that’s the path.
Performance is built into the theme architecture from day one — it isn't a post-launch optimization phase. Specifically: we enforce performance budgets at the build step (JS bundle <80KB gzipped, CSS bundle <40KB, total page weight <800KB), implement responsive image pipelines with WebP/AVIF, defer non-critical JS, extract critical CSS for above-the-fold content, and validate Core Web Vitals scores on every pull request. Our average Lighthouse Performance score across active Shopify engagements is 98/100. We also monitor real-user Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS) in production via the Chrome User Experience Report and report monthly via the Web Retainer — performance regression isn't theoretical, it's something we actively prevent.
/ Let's Talk · Web Development
Ready to ship code that holds?
Tell Act Bold about your current platform, your performance pain points, and whether you’re contemplating a migration or platform move. We’ll send back a no-fluff technical audit covering platform fit, performance baseline, integration scope, and a recommended Build Journey — within 48 hours.
