Shopify E-commerce Website Developer – Premium Online Koi Retailer

Shopify E-commerce Website Developer – Premium Online Koi Retailer We are looking for an experienced Shopify designer/developer to design and build a new e-commerce website for The Koi Shed, a UK business selling quality koi and selected koi/pond products online. This is not simply a website-design project. We want to create one of the best online koi-buying experiences in the UK. We have already completed substantial competitor and market research and have a clear idea of the functionality, customer journey and commercial objectives for the site. We are looking for someone who can take this specification and turn it into a fast, modern and highly effective Shopify store. The Project Our koi will be sold as individual fish, so each fish will effectively be a unique product. Each koi product page should be capable of displaying: * Individual koi reference/ID * High-quality photographs * Short swimming video * Variety * Exact size * Age/DOB where available * Sex where known * Breeder/origin * Price * Availability * Health/quarantine information * Delivery information When an individual koi is purchased, it must immediately become unavailable so that the same fish cannot be sold twice. Finding the Right Koi This is one of the most important parts of the project. Customers should be able to browse and filter koi easily by criteria including: * Variety * Price * Size * Breeder/origin * Age * Sex * UK-bred/Japanese * New arrivals The experience needs to work exceptionally well on mobile as well as desktop. We would also like customers to be able to see similar koi and recently viewed fish. E-commerce & Conversion The site needs to be designed to sell, not simply look good. We want a developer who understands: * Shopify conversion optimisation * Mobile-first e-commerce * Product filtering/search * Simple checkout journeys * Wishlists * Customer accounts * Email capture * Abandoned baskets * Reviews * Related products/cross-selling * New-product alerts * Google Shopping/product feeds where appropriate * Google Analytics 4 * Google Ads conversion tracking * Meta tracking * SEO fundamentals The site will also sell selected koi food, treatments, filtration and pond equipment, so it needs to handle both one-off individual koi and conventional products. Content & SEO We want to build useful educational content around koi keeping rather than relying entirely on paid advertising. The website should therefore support: * Koi variety guides * Buying guides * Feeding advice * Water-quality information * Health and quarantine information * Pond and filtration advice * Articles/blog content * Video The structure should be built properly for SEO from launch. Future Functionality The initial website should be built so that we can potentially introduce features such as: * New-koi alerts based on customer preferences * Compare koi * Loyalty/rewards * Live koi sales * Online auctions * “Make an Offer” on selected high-value koi * More advanced customer personalisation These do not necessarily need to be included at launch, but we don’t want to build a site that prevents us adding them later. Design We already have our The Koi Shed brand identity. We want the website to feel: Modern • Premium • Clean • Specialist • Approachable We specifically do not want the traditional, cluttered aquatics-shop look. Excellent photography and video of the koi should be central to the design. Who We’re Looking For Ideally you will have strong experience building Shopify stores with reasonably complex product catalogues and filtering. Experience with livestock, pets, aquatics or koi is useful but not essential. Experience building high-converting e-commerce websites is much more important. We are happy to work with a talented freelancer or small development team anywhere in the world. We are not specifically looking for a large UK agency. When Applying Please include: 1. Three Shopify websites you have personally designed or developed that you feel are most relevant to this project. 2. What you personally did on each project. 3. How you would approach the individual-koi product structure and filtering. 4. Any Shopify apps or custom development you believe would be required. 5. Your estimated project cost. 6. Estimated timescale. 7. What ongoing maintenance/support would cost. 8. Whether the finished Shopify store and all custom code would be fully owned by us. 9. Any recurring app/software costs you anticipate. Please do not send a generic agency portfolio or standard proposal. We will shortlist applicants primarily on the quality of their previous e-commerce work and their proposed approach to the koi product/filtering system. Budget We are open to proposals and would prefer applicants to recommend a realistic fixed project price based on the specification above. We are prepared to invest properly in the website, but are looking for excellent value and strong e-commerce expertise rather than a large agency overhead.