Description

A focused course, tailored for you

The Shopify Expert Merchant Trust Build

A working build for Shopify Experts whose merchant clients keep asking about privacy law, PCI scope, and app review pass before launch.

Your merchant clients are bringing privacy, PCI, and app-review questions to the Shopify build call now. The store is yours. The trust stack is becoming yours too.

$199 one-time

Tailored to your situation. Access within 24 hours. 30-day money-back.

Includes a hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access, generated for your specific situation.

Why this course

Shopify Experts used to scope theme, checkout extensibility, app installs, and a custom app or two. The scope is widening. Merchants ask about cardholder data scope before they sign the Shopify Payments switch. Outside counsel sends a DSR runbook draft and asks how it executes against the Admin API. The privacy lead at a Plus merchant wants to see how Customer Privacy API consent state matches the cookie banner. The custom app you wrote for warehouse sync sat in app review for three weeks because the data-access narrative was thin. None of this is in the build estimate that won the engagement. It is sitting on the Expert because the Expert is the only person on the team who can read both the theme code and the legal asks at the same time. Either you absorb that work unpaid, or you learn the build pattern, scope it, and price it as part of the engagement going forward.

What you walk away with

Price the trust build as a line item in the next Shopify engagement instead of absorbing it.
Decide PCI SAQ A vs SAQ A-EP for any merchant client by looking at their gateway and theme code, not by asking the acquirer.
Wire the Customer Privacy API so consent state matches the banner, the privacy page, and the cookies actually set.
Run a Data Subject Request against the Shopify Admin API plus installed apps and close it inside the statutory window.
Pass Shopify App Store review on the first or second submission with a data-access narrative that anticipates the reviewer's checklist.

The 12 modules

Module 1. The trust scope conversation on the Shopify kickoff call

What the merchant is actually asking when privacy, PCI, and app review questions arrive on the build call. How to repeat the question back, name the artefact each answer produces, and move the conversation from anxiety into a scoped deliverable. The two-page scope addendum template you hand to the merchant before quoting the trust build line item, with the cardholder-data, privacy-API, and DSR-runbook deliverables broken out separately so the merchant can accept or defer each one.

Module 2. PCI SAQ A vs SAQ A-EP on a Shopify Payments versus third-party-gateway store

Reading the merchant's actual checkout to decide which SAQ applies. Shopify Payments stores typically land in SAQ A because the iframe keeps cardholder data out of merchant scope. Third-party gateways with hosted fields or redirect flows can shift to SAQ A-EP if any custom theme code touches the payment iframe parent. Walks the theme.liquid lines you check, the network-tab evidence you capture, and the one-paragraph attestation you give the merchant to send to their acquirer.

Module 3. Customer Privacy API wiring against the consent banner and the privacy page

The Customer Privacy API is the API of record for consent state on Shopify. Banner libraries that do not wire it leave the cookies set and the consent flag unset, which is the exact pattern regulators screenshot. Walks the API surface, the visitorConsent and customerPrivacy methods, the pattern for blocking pixel loads behind consent state, and the test script you run before sign-off so consent state matches the banner, the privacy page wording, and the Network tab.

Module 4. Cookie and pixel inventory against the installed apps

Most installed apps inject a pixel or a script that sets a cookie before consent is captured. The merchant's privacy page never mentions them. Walks the inventory you take on a live store, app by app, the GTM and theme app extensions that often hide third-party calls, the script-tag versus customer-events approach, and the apps-removed-after-audit list you give the merchant with the consent impact of each removal noted.

Module 5. Data Subject Request runbook against the Admin API and installed apps

Subject access, deletion, and portability requests against a Shopify store touch the Admin API, the customer record, the orders graph, any installed app that holds a copy of the customer data, and any custom app you wrote. Walks the GraphQL queries you run for access, the customer-erase mutation, the app-by-app deletion handshake for the dozen apps a typical merchant has installed, and the timestamped runbook artefact the merchant keeps as evidence the request was honoured inside the statutory window.

Module 6. Shopify App Store review pass for custom apps you ship for merchant clients

Custom apps you build for one merchant or list publicly all hit App Store review. The reviewer reads the data-access narrative first. Walks the scope-justification table you write for each requested scope, the customer-data flow diagram the review team expects, the webhook handling for mandatory data-protection topics like shop/redact and customers/redact, and the resubmission pattern when the first review comes back with a deficiency note.

Module 7. Mandatory privacy webhooks and the data-deletion handshake

Shopify ships three mandatory privacy webhooks any app receives, customers/data_request, customers/redact, shop/redact. Walks the handler implementation for each one, the queue and audit-log pattern that produces evidence the request was processed, the merchant-facing report that closes the loop, and the failure modes the App Store review team probes for when an app appears to acknowledge the webhook but not act on it.

Module 8. Checkout extensibility, Shop Pay, and the wallet-data scope question

Checkout extensibility moves cart logic into Shopify-hosted UI extensions. That changes what the merchant theme can and cannot see about the buyer. Walks the data the extension receives versus the data the theme receives, the Shop Pay wallet scope (Shopify-controlled, not merchant-controlled), the implication for merchant analytics scripts, and the explicit list of things you tell the merchant they have lost access to in exchange for the conversion lift.

Module 9. Hydrogen, custom storefront, and the trust stack you have to rebuild

When the merchant chooses a Hydrogen or fully custom storefront, the Shopify-hosted trust stack stops carrying load. Banner, consent state, cookie inventory, privacy webhooks all become the storefront's responsibility. Walks the trust components you rebuild on Hydrogen, the Oxygen-hosted versus self-hosted decisions that change scope, the Customer Privacy API equivalent you wire when the storefront is not on shop domain, and the merchant-facing trade-off doc you produce so the choice is explicit.

Module 10. The trust build statement of work and pricing line items

How to convert the work into a line item in the Shopify engagement statement of work. Walks the seven discrete trust deliverables, the hour estimates that hold up after three or four merchant builds, the change-order template for when a merchant adds a new app mid-build that re-opens the cookie inventory, and the maintenance retainer line that keeps the trust stack in sync after launch when the merchant adds new apps or expands to a new geography.

Module 11. Handover to the merchant team and the artefact pack

What you hand the merchant on launch day. The PCI attestation paragraph, the consent-state test script, the DSR runbook, the cookie and pixel inventory, the privacy webhook acknowledgement log, the App Store review pass record for any custom app. Walks the artefact pack format that a Big4 or boutique audit firm will accept later when the merchant goes through a SOC 2 or ISO readiness on top of the Shopify store, so your handover does not need to be re-done.

Module 12. Repeating the build across the next ten merchants and pricing the upsell

The first trust build pays for itself on absorbed work avoided. The next nine pay you. Walks the way the artefact templates carry across merchants with edits, the geography-specific changes (Quebec Law 25, California CPRA cure-period, UK ICO cookie guidance) that you parameterise once, the retainer maths that turns one-shot builds into recurring revenue, and the referral pattern that lands when a merchant's outside counsel sees the artefact pack.

How this addresses your situation

Specific modules that map to what you said you are dealing with.

Module 1 is the call you take this week when a merchant brief lands with privacy and PCI questions inside it.

Modules 2 through 6 cover the technical artefacts a Shopify Expert actually builds against the platform APIs.

Modules 7 through 9 cover the storefront-architecture choices that change scope and what you tell the merchant they are gaining and losing.

Modules 10 through 12 cover pricing the work, handover, and turning the build into a repeating line item across your merchant book.

What you get with this course

Twelve written modules in the Art of Service learning environment.
Downloadable templates for every module, including the scope addendum, the PCI attestation paragraph, the consent-state test script, the DSR runbook, and the App Store review submission pack.
A hand-built implementation playbook prepared against your current merchant book, delivered alongside course access.
Lifetime access to module updates as Shopify ships new APIs and privacy webhooks.

What you will have in hand by Day 1, Week 1, Month 1

Within 24 hours your account in the learning environment is provisioned and the tailored implementation playbook is delivered alongside it.

Modules 1 through 6 cover the next merchant kickoff and the technical artefacts and are typically worked through in the first fortnight.

Modules 7 through 12 cover storefront architecture, statement of work, and handover and tend to be worked through across the following month against a real merchant engagement.

Before and after

Before

The merchant asks about cardholder data scope, DSR turnaround, and consent state on the kickoff call, the questions land on you because you are the only person who can read both the theme code and the privacy ask, and the work gets absorbed into the original Shopify build estimate that did not price for it.

After

The trust build is a named line item in the statement of work with seven discrete deliverables, the artefact pack hands over to the merchant on launch day in a form an outside auditor will accept later, and the next merchant build lands with the same scope priced from day one.

What happens if you do not address this

Absorbing the trust ask unpaid is the most expensive habit a Shopify Expert can carry. It compresses the build margin, makes every kickoff slower than the last one, and trains merchants to expect privacy and PCI work for free as part of the theme price. The merchants who are asking these questions are the ones with budget, which means the unscoped work is concentrated at the high end of the book where the margin should be best.

Who it is for

A practising Shopify Expert who runs merchant builds end to end. You are comfortable in theme.liquid, checkout extensibility, the Admin API, Hydrogen or a custom storefront, and you have shipped at least one custom app. You are now getting merchant briefs that include privacy, PCI scope, and app-listing pass questions and you want a build pattern for that work, not a legal lecture.

Who this is NOT for. Not for general-purpose privacy consultants who do not work inside Shopify. Not for merchant-side compliance officers who are not building the store. Not for App Store app vendors whose product is the app itself.

How it arrives

Text-based course in the Art of Service learning environment, plus downloadable templates and worked examples for every module, plus the hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access.

Time investment. Around fifteen to twenty hours of reading across the twelve modules, plus the time spent applying the templates against your current merchant builds. Most Shopify Experts work the course alongside a live merchant engagement and recover the time inside the first scoped trust build.

Why $199 is the right number

Generic privacy consultants charge between five and twelve thousand for the work, deliver a policy document, and do not touch the theme code or the Admin API. App Store partner agencies typically only cover their own listing review process. Outside counsel will answer the legal questions but will not wire the Customer Privacy API or run the DSR against the Admin API. This course is built for the person who actually edits the store.

FAQ

Is this a legal course?

No. It is a build course. The legal reasoning is summarised where it shapes a build decision, but the artefacts are technical: theme code, API wiring, webhook handlers, statement of work line items.

Do I need to be a Shopify Plus partner?

No. The course works for any practising Shopify Expert who runs merchant builds, including Plus, advanced Shopify, and standard plan stores. Plus-specific topics are flagged where they apply.

Does the implementation playbook get rebuilt for my merchant book?

Yes. The playbook is hand-built against your current merchant mix, the apps your merchants typically install, and the geographies you build into, so the templates plug into the next kickoff rather than reading as generic samples.

How current is the App Store review module?

The module is rewritten when Shopify changes the review checklist or the data-access narrative format. Course access includes the updates.

30-day money-back guarantee. If after a week of working through the materials this is not what you needed, reply to the receipt email and a full refund is processed. No questions, no forms.

Within 24 hours your account in the learning environment is provisioned and the tailored implementation playbook is delivered alongside it.