Shopify Development in Singapore
We are an Indian engineering team working with businesses in Singapore. Written scope before any code, and a fixed quote in SGD.
Working hours
Our day runs 09:00 to 18:00 India time, which is 11:30 to 20:30 in Singapore, so from late morning onwards we are on the same working day, and anything you raise first thing is picked up by 11:30.
Quoted in SGD
Quotes exclude the 9% GST in Singapore, shown separately on the invoice.
Data protection
Work for this market is scoped against the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (PDPA), agreed before development starts rather than retrofitted afterwards.
Written scope
Every engagement starts with a written scope and a fixed SGD quote within 24 hours, so the price is set before work begins.
About Shopify Development
We've shipped 7+ Shopify stores for D2C brands, B2B catalogs, and subscription businesses across India, USA, Canada, UK, and UAE. Whether you're launching your first store on Basic Shopify or replatforming a 10,000-SKU catalog onto Shopify Plus, our team handles the full build, strategy, theme development, app integration, payments, shipping, and post-launch growth.
What the engagement includes
- Custom Shopify theme development from scratch
- Premium theme customization (Out of the Sandbox, Switch, Archetype)
- Liquid templating, sections, and metafields
- Shopify App development (private + public apps)
- Headless Shopify with Next.js or Hydrogen
- Shopify Plus implementation and Launchpad scripts
- Store migration (WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce → Shopify)
- Performance optimization and Core Web Vitals tuning
What changes about a Shopify store in Singapore
Start with money, because Shopify's own rails only half fit this market. Shopify Payments is available in Singapore and covers cards, including UnionPay, with the requirement that the payout account is a Singapore bank account; a foreign account will not be accepted, which matters to a regional group deciding which entity owns the store. What Shopify Payments does not carry natively is PayNow, and PayNow is how a meaningful share of Singapore shoppers prefer to pay. Adding it through a third-party gateway works and it attracts Shopify's additional transaction fee on top of the gateway's own, so the decision is a margin decision to make on paper before the store is built rather than a surprise on the first statement. GST at 9 per cent has to be included in every price a consumer sees, so the store is configured for tax-inclusive display and the product data carries the right tax treatment from the import, not from a correction after launch.
The second difference is the map. A Singapore store rarely serves only Singapore: the same catalogue is usually meant for Malaysia, Indonesia and beyond, where Shopee and Lazada carry most of the volume and where currency, duties and last-mile carriers change at every border. That argues for one store with Shopify Markets and a per-country pricing and shipping matrix decided at wireframe stage, plus a marketplace feed to the platforms that actually convert in those countries, rather than a Singapore-only build that gets duplicated per market a year later. Domestically, delivery expectations are same-day or next-day inside a small island, so the fulfilment integration is with the carriers that actually offer it, and the store's promise on the product page matches what the carrier contract says. If the merchant is GST-registered and issues tax invoices to business customers, the InvoiceNow requirement described on the software development page applies to those invoices too, and it is cheaper to have the order data in the right shape from the start than to map it later. The Do Not Call and Spam Control rules apply to every marketing SMS and email the store sends, so consent capture at checkout is a real field with a record behind it, not a pre-ticked box.
How we work with Singapore clients
Singapore is the one market we serve where the working day is simply shared. We are two and a half hours behind you and neither country moves its clocks, so our morning starts partway through yours and the whole of your afternoon is live time for both sides. That changes the shape of an engagement more than anything technical does: a call is booked for the same afternoon rather than the same week, a question raised before your lunch is answered after it, and the written-first method we run for North American clients is a courtesy here rather than a necessity. We keep the written record anyway, with a default chosen on every open decision, because it is the thing an auditor or a new hire can read later and a call is not.
Invoicing is worth stating plainly because the GST position confuses buyers on both sides. We are outside Singapore, so no GST appears on our invoice. Whether you account for it yourself is the reverse charge question, and IRAS's own guidance is that a GST-registered business making only taxable supplies is not affected, while a partially exempt one accounts for it in its own return. We quote in Singapore dollars, the figure holds for the project whatever the rupee does, and payment by bank transfer or Wise avoids the card fees a five-figure invoice does not need. The contract can sit under Singapore law with Singapore courts, and unusually among our overseas markets that clause has teeth: Singapore is a reciprocating territory under section 44A of India's Civil Procedure Code, so a judgment of the Singapore High Court can be executed in India directly rather than re-litigated.
Indicative pricing in SGD
Converted from our published Indian rates and rounded. Exchange rates move, so the figure on your quote is calculated on the day it is issued.
Full service detail
This page covers how we work with clients in your market. The complete Shopify Development page, with the full technical detail, process and frequently asked questions, is written in English.
Read the full service page (English)Questions Singapore clients ask
How does GST work if you are based in India?
No GST is charged on our invoice, and the invoice says so. Whether you account for it under reverse charge depends on your input tax position: IRAS's guidance is that a GST-registered business making only taxable supplies is not impacted, a partially exempt business or one with non-business receipts accounts for GST on imported services in its own return, and a business that is not registered should ask its accountant, because an exempt business importing more than S$1 million of services in a year can be required to register. We would rather your accountant confirmed your position before the first invoice than reconciled it at year end.
Are you compliant with the PDPA?
We build to it rather than claiming a certificate. The consent, purpose limitation and notification obligations shape the forms and the data model; retention limitation means records are deleted on a schedule rather than kept indefinitely; access and correction requests are features with a queue behind them rather than a manual database job. Processing happens in India, so the transfer limitation obligation applies, and the processor agreement we sign sets out the comparable standard of protection the Act asks for. The obligation to design for early is breach notification: an organisation has three calendar days from determining a breach is notifiable, which means one likely to cause significant harm or one affecting 500 or more people, to tell the PDPC, and answering what was in the breach is only possible if the logging existed beforehand. Appointing a Data Protection Officer is your obligation rather than ours, and we will say so if a design choice would make that person's job harder.
Can we use a PSG or EDG grant to pay for this?
Not PSG. The Productivity Solutions Grant funds pre-scoped packages from pre-approved vendors for Singapore-registered companies, and a custom build from an overseas team is not that shape, so we will not pretend it is. The Enterprise Development Grant is assessed project by project against its own criteria, and whether a build like yours qualifies is a question for Enterprise Singapore or your grant consultant to answer before the scope is written rather than after a budget has assumed it.
We are regulated by MAS. Can you meet the outsourcing requirements?
We can supply what a due-diligence pack asks for, accept audit and access rights in the contract, and name every sub-processor that touches your data. What we will also tell you in the first conversation is what we do not hold: we are not SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certified, and our security page says so in those words. Whether an engagement with us is a material outsourcing arrangement under the MAS guidelines, and what that requires of you, is your compliance team's determination, and it changes the contract before it changes the code, so it belongs in week one.
Shopify Development: common questions
How much does it cost to build a Shopify store?
Our Shopify builds start at S$380 for a basic Dawn-customized store with up to 200 products and standard payment + shipping integration. Custom themes with bespoke design and advanced features run S$920-S$2,300. Shopify Plus or headless builds start at S$2,300. Final cost depends on catalog complexity, design fidelity, and the apps you need integrated.
How long does it take to launch a Shopify store?
Standard Shopify stores: 2-4 weeks from kickoff to launch. Custom theme builds: 6-10 weeks. Shopify Plus or headless: 10-16 weeks. We work in weekly sprints with demos so you see progress every Monday.
Do you build on Shopify Plus?
Yes. We're experienced with Shopify Plus features including Launchpad, Scripts (now Shopify Functions), Flow, and B2B. We typically recommend Plus only for stores with annual revenue above S$770,000, below that, the Advanced plan usually offers better economics.
Can you migrate my existing store to Shopify?
Yes. We've migrated stores from WooCommerce, Magento, and BigCommerce to Shopify. Standard migration includes products, customers, orders, content pages, blog posts, and 301 redirects to preserve SEO. Migration timelines: 3-6 weeks for stores under 1,000 SKUs.
Do you offer post-launch Shopify support?
Yes. Every build includes 30 days of post-launch monitoring and bug fixes free. After that, we offer optional monthly retainers (S$230-S$770/month) for ongoing feature work, A/B tests, and seasonal campaigns. Many of our Shopify clients have been on retainer for 2+ years.
Other markets we work in
Tell us what you are building in Singapore
Send the scope, or just the problem. You get a written scope and a fixed SGD quote back within 24 hours, from the engineers who would do the work.