Shopify Premier Partner → What does this mean?
Andrew Cox

Founder & Shopify Consultant

Andrew Cox

The Hope Factory · Shopify Premier Partner · Melbourne, Australia

Andrew Cox is the founder of The Hope Factory, a Shopify Premier Partner agency in Melbourne helping Australian merchants design, build and grow stores that turn browsers into buyers.

I've spent 17+ years working online — 50+ WordPress projects and 450+ Shopify stores for brands like Jo Mercer, Cancer Council, and Robert Gordon. I founded The Hope Factory in 2008 to help disadvantaged youth find work opportunities in web development. We've been a Shopify Partner since 2015, and I served on the Business Victoria Content Development Advisory Group.

Over 17 years, I've had the honour of working with hundreds of Shopify and Shopify Plus store owners and manger. I founded The Hope Factory in 2008 with a simple premise: ecommerce should be built around strategy and outcomes, not just aesthetics.

Along with my team, I've worked directly with founders and marketing teams to align their Shopify store with their commercial goals — whether that's a platform migration, a conversion optimisation program, a B2B wholesale channel, or preparing for AI-driven search through GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation).

I write the Ecommerce Insights blog, covering Shopify development, ecommerce strategy, platform migration, and the emerging intersection of AI and ecommerce. My writing draws on hands-on experience across hundreds of store builds — not theory.

Advisory & Industry Experience

I served as a member of the Business Victoria Content Development Advisory Group, where I contributed articles, templates and resources on marketing strategy, business development and website design for the Victorian Government's business support platform. My contributions include guides on business.vic.gov.au covering marketing strategy formulation, defining the marketing mix, writing marketing plans, and achieving website success — resources used by thousands of Australian business owners.

Expertise

  • Shopify & Shopify Plus Development
  • Ecommerce Strategy & Growth
  • Platform Migration
  • Conversion Rate Optimisation
  • AI Visibility & GEO
  • AI Automation

Credentials

  • Shopify Premier Partner
  • 450+ Shopify stores built since 2008
  • 4.9★ rating · 191 verified reviews
  • 15+ years ecommerce experience
  • Business Victoria Content Development Advisory Group
  • Clients include Sennheiser, Patagonia, Jo Mercer, Cancer Council, Veneziano Coffee

Last updated: April 24, 2026

Man wearing a black cap with a logo and dark shirt outdoors

"The goal was never to be the biggest Shopify agency in Australia — it was to be the one brands actually want to stay with."

Core Services

What we can help you with

  • Design a store that actually converts — not just one that looks pretty.
  • Migrate cleanly off WooCommerce, Magento or BigCommerce without losing orders, customers or SEO.
  • Tune an existing store for more revenue per visitor — CRO, speed, checkout.
  • Scale into Shopify Plus with the architecture, integrations and pod-level complexity that comes with it.
  • Make your site visible to AI search (Perplexity, ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews) before your competitors catch on.
  • Automate the bits that shouldn't need human effort anymore — so your team focuses on growth, not admin.
What clients say

Reviews from real projects

“

'The Hope Factory have been nothing but professional to work with. From design to implementation, the team have worked incredibly hard to deliver a website that reflects our brand and company values.

Andrew, Victoria and Rax have ensured that the process has run smoothly from start to finish; their team prioritised finishing our project on deadline despite the busy holiday juggle. Their communication throughout the process has been fantastic.'

- Chelsea D’Aoust, Sprocket Roasters
“

'We engaged The Hope Factory to design and build our new Shopify e-commerce store and the results have been fantastic. Great looking site, super user friendly with all the features we hoped for and a really positive reaction from the market in the first few days. Top job from Andrew, Rax, Victoria and the team there. Highly recommended service!'

- Tristan Wyse, Peninsula Gourmet
FAQ

Common questions

  • We work with brands at every stage — from founders launching their first store to Shopify Plus operators doing 8 figures. What matters isn't your size; it's whether you want a real partner versus a 'build-and-ghost' agency.

  • Most custom builds land between 8–14 weeks. Migrations from Magento, WooCommerce or BigCommerce typically run 8–12 weeks depending on catalogue size, review volume, and integrations. We'll scope yours in the first call.

  • Yes — most of our work is with brands already on the platform. Theme builds, replatforming off legacy themes, speed and CRO tuning, Shopify Markets rollouts, and AI-visibility work.

  • I'm in Melbourne, Australia, and the team is across AU. Most of our clients are Australian Shopify merchants, but we do work with brands in New Zealand, the UK, and the US.

  • Three things: we don't build-and-ghost (every client gets ongoing strategy, not just a launch), we focus exclusively on Shopify (15+ years, 450+ stores), and we care about the brand's long-term profit rather than how quickly we can close a deal.