As a freelancer, I wonder how to build a store for my clients which they already have existing store on Shopify? I don’t think building a new theme on their account makes sense if they won’t pay for the work and kick me out of the existing store after I finished the work.
Topic summary
Freelancer seeks a safe workflow to build a new theme/layout for a client who already has an existing Shopify store, without risking loss of work or non-payment if the client removes their access.
Key points:
- Can develop directly in the client’s account, but fears being removed at ~90% completion and losing all work/time.
- Shopify’s guidance suggests creating a new development store for clients, but this doesn’t clearly address cases where the merchant already has an active store.
Open questions:
- What is the recommended process for developing a new theme for an existing store while protecting the freelancer’s work and ensuring payment?
- Is there an official Shopify-supported approach for this scenario beyond creating a dev store?
Status: Unresolved; seeking guidance/clarification.
Thanks for the suggestion.
The main reason I’m confused here because I can create and dev the new layout within the customer account. The main reason I ask because if I finished 90% of the work and the client remove my account on their Shopify account and won’t pay for the work. In that case, I will lost everything including the time I spent for this task.
For example I have a customer want to build a new theme for an existing store, Shopify only have option to recommend creating a new dev store for client: https://help.shopify.com/en/partners/building-stores-for-merchants but there isn’t any option for client that have existing store.