Frequently Asked Questions

Building or upgrading your ecommerce website is a big job. It's also an investment, and we know you probably have more questions about who we are, what we do, and how we work.

About Fuel Made

  • We are an ecommerce growth agency. We have learned that our clients grow when they focus on creating exceptional customer experiences.

    We help them do that.

    We do this primarily through the following services:

    1. Custom design and development on Shopify 
    2. Growth and optimization strategy consulting (including CRO)
    3. Email marketing using Klaviyo

    (To learn more about how we think and what we’ve learned about growth read The Fuel Made Growth Model.)

    When you work with us you get the personal, devoted attention of our expert team working to help you achieve your goals. As a small team, we choose a select number of projects each year that suit us well. We have honed our systems and processes, and they get results. We have a strong focus on quality, and on doing things right the first time.

    We fit best with brands who need help optimizing and improving the customer experience from first exposure to the website, through the post purchase experience, and beyond.

    We are Shopify Plus Partners.

    We are also Klaviyo Platinum Partners.

    To read all about our services, hop on over here.

  • We have been working with Shopify since 2008, and became an agency exclusive to Shopify in 2010.

    We are one of the original 12 agencies who became designated a Shopify Plus Expert (later renamed a Shopify Plus Partner) in 2016.

  • We are a group of 20 which means you get very personal service. We're large enough to handle big and important projects, but small enough that you get lots of focused attention.
     
    We strive to become an extension of your team, focused on your goals with you. When you work with us, you get a dedicated strategist, project manager, designer and developer who will guide you through every step of the process.





    Meet our team.

  • Our headquarters are in Washington state, but we are a distributed team scattered primarily across North America, with a couple team members around the globe.

  • 1. We are laser focused on data-supported approaches that generate a real ROI. (No one cares how fancy your site is if it's not growing your business.) We only take on clients where we can generate a positive ROI for them. 

    2. We understand that creating exceptional customer experiences is how you’ll grow your business, and we’re really good at nailing that. Learn more about this.

    3. We care around here. A lot. We're here to do work that grows our clients, and that we can be proud of. 

    4. You’re going to like who you work with. (Don't take our word for it.)

  • Absolutely. We work with all Shopify plan types and we'll help you know when or if it makes sense to upgrade to Plus.

About Projects

  • The clients who fit us best have found product-market fit, but have run into growth barriers they need expert help to clear.
     
    We get excited about optimizing the customer experience to dial in brand strategy and improve key metrics like conversion, retention, and lifetime value.

  • Most clients engage us because they have run into growth barriers they need expert help to clear. 

    Our two most common engagements involve a strategic website redesign, and/or an automated email marketing engagement. 

    All projects at Fuel Made begin with a paid discovery process where we do the work to learn about your goals, your business, and your customers. We then collaborate with you to define a project designed to meet your goals, and your budget.

    Once the scope of the project has been defined, we get to work.

    On the web side, it’s laying out a strategy, UX/UI design, and development of a highly optimized custom theme, all dialed in on Shopify.

    On the email side it’s a turnkey solution consisting of strategy, copywriting, design, template development, and setting everything up for you in Klaviyo.

    As each project nears launch we are right by your side through the final stages to ensure a successful launch. Following the launch we continue to partner with most of our clients to provide ongoing growth support and optimization.

  • It depends on the complexity of your needs, and the type of project you engage, but typical projects take somewhere around 4 to 6 months, initially.

  • Website engagements generally start around $50,000, and email engagements start around $24,000. Projects costs are spread over the length of a project, paid on a monthly basis.

  • Yes of course. Launching a new site is often just the start of our partnership. When desired, we’re happy to continue to partner with you after launch on strategic growth initiatives, UX optimization and A/B testing, as well as any maintenance needs that may arise.

About Shopify

  • At a minimum, you can expect to pay $2,000 per month, plus transaction fees. This is a handy article that gives a thorough breakdown of the costs associated with the platform.

  • It all depends on your business. We've found that Plus starts to make sense for merchants when they reach around $1-2 million in annual revenue. It's not the revenue that triggers the need, but it's around this mark when the extra support and unique features of Plus start to make it worth the investment for their business.

    Here's an article that dives into these features, and should help you decide whether or not it's worth the leap to Plus.

About Klaviyo

  • The cost of Klaviyo is dependant on how many subscribers you have, so your list will determine how much you’ll be paying.

  • We’ve found Klaviyo to be the best solution for our clients’ needs, and we've helped our clients make a lot of money using it. Klaviyo was built specifically for ecommerce merchants, and we’re confident in its ability to sell more of your products. It’s automation and deep segmentation help you target the right customer at the right time with highly personalized content.

    A few features of Klaviyo include: personalized cross-selling/upselling, action-triggered emails, Shopify historical data and revenue attribution, among others.

    Here’s an article that provides an in-depth look at Klaviyo’s capabilities.