Shopify Designer & Developer Needed for Premium Maternity/Nursing Fashion Brand

Sōma Society is a new Australian maternity and breastfeeding clothing brand launching soon.

Our focus is creating beautiful, elevated nursing-friendly clothing that looks and feels like regular fashion — pieces designed for women first, with discreet breastfeeding functionality incorporated into the design.

Our tagline is:

For the body that nurtures.

We already have our Shopify store established and have begun working with the Dawn theme, but we are looking for an experienced Shopify designer/developer to take the store from its current state and turn it into a fully designed, polished, professional and launch-ready ecommerce website.

We are looking for someone who understands not only Shopify development, but also fashion ecommerce, UX, conversion optimisation and premium/minimal brand design.

Scope of Work

We would like the successful freelancer to take responsibility for the complete Shopify website setup and launch preparation, including:

Website Design & Development

• Review our existing Shopify store and Dawn theme
• Professionally design and customise the website to suit the Sōma Society branding
• Create a premium, minimal, editorial fashion aesthetic
• Ensure the website is highly polished on both mobile and desktop
• Customise theme sections/code where required rather than being limited to basic theme settings
• Create clear, intuitive site navigation and customer journey
• Optimise website speed and performance

Pages

Design and build all required pages, including:

• Homepage
• Shop / collection pages
• Individual product pages
• About Us / Our Story
• Contact Us
• FAQ
• Shipping & Delivery
• Returns & Exchanges
• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions / Terms of Service
• Size Guide
• Care Guide where appropriate
• Any other pages you recommend for a professional fashion ecommerce store

Product & Collection Pages

We want particular attention paid to our product pages.

They should be beautiful but also designed to convert, including:

• Product imagery/gallery
• Product descriptions
• Size selection
• Size guide
• Fit information
• Fabric/composition information
• Care instructions
• Nursing/breastfeeding functionality explanation
• Shipping/returns information
• Related/recommended products
• Clear Add to Cart functionality
• Appropriate trust/conversion elements without making the site feel cluttered or overly “salesy”

Products should also be organised into logical collections with appropriate filtering/navigation.

Cart & Checkout

• Design/customise cart experience
• Configure checkout within Shopify’s available customisation options
• Set up payment methods
• Configure shipping settings/rates
• Configure Australian tax/GST settings as required
• Set up discount functionality
• Configure customer accounts where appropriate
• Ensure checkout works seamlessly on mobile and desktop
• Complete test orders before launch

Email Marketing & Newsletter

Set up our email marketing system and integrate it properly with Shopify.

This should include:

• Newsletter/email signup forms
• Branded newsletter popup
• Appropriate signup incentive strategy if recommended
• Email subscriber list setup/segmentation
• Branded email templates

We would also like core automated email flows created, including:

• Welcome series for new subscribers
• Abandoned cart/checkout series
• Browse abandonment where supported
• Post-purchase/customer thank-you flow
• Customer follow-up/re-engagement flow
• Other automations you would recommend for a new fashion ecommerce brand

We are open to recommendations regarding whether Shopify’s native email tools or another platform would be more appropriate.

SEO & Google Setup

Complete foundational/on-page SEO setup so the website is technically ready to be indexed and grow organically.

This should include:

• Basic keyword research relevant to maternity/nursing/breastfeeding fashion
• SEO-friendly site structure
• Page titles and meta descriptions
• Product and collection SEO
• Image alt text
• SEO-friendly URLs
• Heading structure
• Image optimisation
• Sitemap/indexing setup
• Google Search Console setup/submission
• Google Analytics setup
• Appropriate structured data/schema where applicable
• Identify and resolve obvious technical SEO issues

Analytics & Tracking

We want appropriate tracking in place from launch so we aren’t losing valuable data.

Please set up/integrate:

• Google Analytics
• Google Search Console
• Meta Pixel
• Shopify analytics
• Ecommerce/conversion tracking
• Any other tracking you consider essential

We would also like Facebook and Instagram/Meta commerce integration reviewed or configured where appropriate.

General Ecommerce Setup

Please review the entire Shopify backend and ensure everything required for launch has been configured correctly, including:

• Domain configuration
• Branded sender email /email authentication where required
• Navigation and footer
• Social media links
• Favicon
• Payments
• Shipping
• Taxes
• Customer notifications
• Order confirmation email s
• Refund/return settings
• Inventory settings
• Appropriate Shopify apps/integrations
• Cookie/privacy functionality where required
• Basic security/spam protection
• 404 page
• Redirects where required

We don’t want unnecessary apps added simply for functionality that Shopify or the theme can already provide. Any paid apps should be discussed with us before installation.

Pre-Launch Testing

Before completion, we expect a comprehensive QA check of the store, including:

• Mobile responsiveness
• Desktop/tablet responsiveness
• Links and navigation
• Forms
• Newsletter signup
• Email automations
• Product variants
• Discount codes
• Cart
• Checkout
• Payments/test transactions
• Shipping calculations
• Customer email s
• Analytics/tracking
• Page speed
• Broken links
• Basic SEO/indexability

The final result should be a fully functional, polished and launch-ready Shopify store, rather than simply a website design.

Design Direction

Our aesthetic is minimal, calm, feminine, premium and editorial.

Think soft neutral tones, natural fabrics, beautiful typography, generous white space and high-end fashion/lifestyle imagery.

We do NOT want the website to feel like a generic Shopify template or overly commercial/drop-shipping style store.

We can provide:

• Logo and brand assets
• Brand colours
• Product imagery as it becomes available
• Product information
• Existing copy/brand story
• Examples of websites/brands we like

We are also happy for the successful freelancer to make recommendations where they believe the customer experience or conversion performance could be improved.

Ideal Freelancer

We are specifically looking for someone with:

• Strong Shopify design AND development experience
• Experience with Shopify 2.0 themes, preferably Dawn
• Liquid/CSS/HTML/JavaScript experience
• Strong mobile-first ecommerce UX skills
• Experience with fashion/apparel brands
• Understanding of ecommerce conversion optimisation
• Experience setting up email marketing automations
• Understanding of Shopify SEO
• Experience with analytics/tracking integrations
• Excellent attention to visual detail

Please include examples of Shopify fashion/apparel stores you have personally designed or developed.

We would especially like to see examples with a premium, minimalist or editorial aesthetic.

When Applying

Please tell us:

1. Which parts of the project you would personally handle versus outsource.
2. Whether you recommend continuing with Dawn or using another theme, and why.
3. Which email marketing platform you would recommend for a new brand and why.
4. What paid apps, themes or third-party subscriptions you anticipate we may need.
5. Your estimated timeframe to complete the project.
6. Your proposed fixed project price.
7. Links to 3–5 relevant Shopify stores you have personally worked on and exactly what you did for each.

Please begin your proposal with the words “Sōma Society” so we know you have read the full brief.

We are looking for someone who can become a trusted Shopify/ecommerce partner as the brand grows, so there is potential for ongoing work after the initial launch.