First Pier is a Shopify and Shopify Plus agency based in Portland, Maine. We design, build, and optimize ecommerce stores for brands here in Maine and across the country — from first-time storefronts to enterprise Shopify Plus builds.
Custom storefronts, theme work, app integrations, and the functionality a business needs beyond what a stock theme offers.
Shopify development →Enterprise builds, checkout customization, B2B, and multi-store setups for higher-volume brands.
Shopify Plus optimization →Moving a store to Shopify from WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce, or a legacy platform without losing search equity.
Shopify migrations →Turning existing traffic into more sales through testing and refinement.
Shopify CRO →Local presence changes the working relationship. In-person kickoffs and reviews are possible. Communication happens in real time rather than across several time zones. And a local partner understands the kinds of businesses that sell from Maine — outdoor and apparel brands, specialty food and beverage makers, home goods, and DTC startups building a national audience from a small-state base.
Maine’s economy runs on small and mid-sized businesses — they make up over 99% of the state’s employers and account for more than half of its private-sector jobs — and a growing number of them sell online. A Shopify store is often the most cost-effective way for a Maine brand to reach customers well beyond the state without building infrastructure from scratch. That’s the work we do: getting Maine businesses selling effectively online, then improving what’s already there.
Maine’s brand-name industries were building recognizable, ecommerce-ready audiences long before Shopify existed. The outdoor and apparel world runs deep here — L.L.Bean’s headquarters in Freeport anchors a wider ecosystem of independent gear and apparel makers. Food and beverage brands lean on Maine’s actual identity: the state produces more wild blueberries than anywhere else on earth, lobster is a genuine export category, and Portland’s craft beer scene ranks among the most concentrated per capita in the country. There’s a strong maker tradition too, in textiles, boatbuilding, and home goods. Those are exactly the categories where a well-built Shopify store turns regional recognition into national sales — and where First Pier does some of its best work: Hyperlite Mountain Gear (outdoor gear), Wyman’s (blueberries), and Halcyon Yarn (textiles), all featured further down this page, are three examples.
We’re based in Portland and work with businesses throughout the state — and the coastal and inland towns in between. Ecommerce doesn’t require us to be down the street, but being in the same state makes collaboration easier when a project calls for it. For businesses outside Maine, we work remotely with brands nationwide.
A lot of Maine’s retail economy is seasonal, built around a summer tourism season that introduces millions of visitors to Maine brands every year. Ecommerce is how that recognition turns into revenue that doesn’t stop when the leaves turn — a way to convert a single in-store visit into a repeat customer anywhere in the country. It’s also an equalizer for geography: a brand shipping from Presque Isle or Rockland competes on the same platform, with the same reach, as one shipping from downtown Portland.
First Pier · 217 Commercial St, Suite 300, Portland, ME 04101 · (207) 747-1650
Biddeford, Maine — A Shopify Plus upgrade that helped this outdoor gear brand boost AOV, launch a branded B2B wholesale channel, and keep scaling. A First Pier partner since 2016.
Read the case study →Cherryfield, Maine — A new Shopify Plus site with subscriptions and loyalty took this century-old blueberry brand from $0 to multimillion-dollar direct-to-consumer sales.
Read the case study →Bath, Maine — A complete Shopify migration in four months for a legacy textile retailer, with online sales growing from month one.
Read the case study →A discovery phase to understand the business, its customers, and its goals.
Design and development scoped clearly up front — no surprises after a project starts.
Thorough testing before launch so the store works on day one.
For ongoing partners, continued optimization once the store is live.
Yes. We’re a Shopify agency headquartered in Portland, Maine. That’s a genuine local presence, not a location added to a template — clients can meet with us in person and work with a team in the same time zone.
It depends on scope. A store build with theme customization typically runs in the low-to-mid five figures; larger custom or Shopify Plus builds run higher; ongoing optimization is usually a monthly retainer. We scope and price each project up front against its specific goals.
It depends on scope. Our fixed-scope packages run 10 business days to 3 weeks — a Growth Diagnostic or Migration Readiness Assessment takes 10 business days, a theme speed sprint takes 2 weeks, a Klaviyo flows sprint takes 3 weeks. Full store builds and Shopify Plus migrations are scoped individually based on catalog size and integrations; as a real example, our complete migration for Halcyon Yarn — moving off a custom-coded site and FileMaker backend — took about four months from kickoff to launch. Every project starts with a fixed timeline in the proposal, not an estimate that shifts later.
No. We’re based in Maine and work with Maine brands, but ecommerce is location-independent — we partner with brands across the country. The Maine base is an advantage for local clients, not a limit on who we work with.
Yes. We build and optimize on both standard Shopify and Shopify Plus, including enterprise features like checkout customization, B2B, and multi-storefront setups.
Yes. We handle migrations from WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce, and other legacy platforms. Every migration starts with a full redirect map — every existing URL, product, and category page mapped to its new address with 301s, so search rankings transfer instead of resetting. We preserve product, customer, and order data, rebuild structured data on the new theme, resubmit an updated sitemap to Google Search Console at launch, and monitor rankings and traffic closely for 30 days after launch to catch and fix anything early. If you want a fixed-bid quote before committing, our Migration Readiness Assessment audits your current platform in 10 business days and produces an itemized migration plan.
Whether you’re launching a first store, replatforming to Shopify, or improving one that isn’t converting, First Pier can help.
Get in TouchFree store teardown
Drop your Shopify store URL and we'll send back 3 quick wins — free, no pitch, and usually within 2 business days.
Thanks! We'll review your store and send your 3 quick wins within 2 business days.
No sales call required. Usually back within 2 business days. Unsubscribe anytime.
.png)
.png)
