09

Support & Growth Retainer

Projects end. Growth doesn't. A retainer gets you a team who know your store, first call on every specialism we have, and a single number we're accountable for — reported monthly, in plain English.

The long game, on a monthly retainer.

Monthly and rolling, 30 days' notice. No twelve-month handcuffs.

Sound familiar?

You need a team, not a series of projects.

The stop-start thing is exhausting. Scope a project, find someone, brief them from scratch, go quiet for four months, repeat. Most of our clients end up here eventually.

Everything's a new conversation.

Every small job means another quote, another brief, another person learning your store from scratch. The overhead is bigger than the work.

Small things sit in a list for months.

Nothing's urgent enough to scope a project around, so the list just grows. Half of it would take an afternoon.

Nobody owns the number.

One person does email, another does ads, someone else built the site. When revenue dips, everyone's chart looks fine.

How it goes

Same people, every month, on your side.

Less a process, more a working relationship. Here's the shape it usually takes.

  1. 01Month 1

    Learn the business

    We go properly deep once — the store, the stack, the margins, what's coming up — so we're not asking basic questions in month six.

    A store we know nearly as well as you do.

  2. 02Month 1

    Agree the number

    One thing we're accountable for. Could be revenue, conversion rate, retention — but one, so there's nowhere to hide when it doesn't move.

    A target we've both signed up to.

  3. 03Every month

    Work the list

    A shared backlog you can add to whenever you like. We agree the month’s priorities together and then get on with it — development, design, testing, email, whatever the month needs.

    A visible backlog and steady, boring progress.

  4. 04Monthly

    Report and adjust

    A call with the people doing the work. What moved, what didn't, what's next. No slide-deck theatre.

    A monthly report your whole team can read.

What's in scope

Everything we do, on tap.

That's rather the point of it.

  • Shopify development
  • Design & UX
  • Conversion testing
  • Klaviyo & lifecycle
  • SEO & analytics
  • Paid media
  • App & integration work
  • Site speed
  • Seasonal campaigns
  • New product launches
  • Bug fixes & small jobs
  • Strategic planning
What you get

A team, without the headcount.

It tends to work out cheaper than one mid-level hire, and you get the whole bench.

  • An agreed monthly allocation of hours
  • A shared backlog you can add to any time
  • Access to every specialism we have
  • A monthly call with the people doing the work
  • A shared Slack channel — no ticket portal
  • Priority on anything urgent
  • Reporting against one agreed number
  • Rolling monthly, 30 days' notice
FAQ

The questions we always get asked

What size retainer makes sense?

Most sit between £2,000 and £8,000 a month. We'll suggest a size based on what you're trying to move, and it's easy to change later — up or down.

What if we don't use the hours?

We'll tell you. Unused time rolls over a month, and if it's consistently unused we'll suggest a smaller retainer. A client who feels they're wasting money doesn't stay one for long.

Can we pause it?

Yes. It's rolling with 30 days' notice, and plenty of clients pause over a quiet period and come back. No hard feelings and no cancellation fee.

Who actually does the work?

The same people every month — that's most of the value. When something needs a specialism we don't cover in-house we bring in someone we've worked with and trust, and you still deal with us.

Is this instead of a project?

Often it follows one — build the store, then keep improving it. Some people go straight to a retainer and use the first couple of months as the build.

Get in touch

Tell us the problem.
We'll put the right person on it.

Every project request answered within one working day. If it isn't something we do well, we'll say so. Or email alex@skulpt.it.