Agency & Consulting

Storefronts built with clear ownership

Your agency built the storefront. Who protects the revenue running through it? We audit the operational debt and conversion path risks left behind by build-shops.

Scope the Build Read our case studies

From handover gaps to full ownership.

Storefront Audit
App Accrual Review
Ownership Mapping
Revenue Protection Plan
Team Handover

We provide the commercial and technical oversight most agencies exit after launch.

Operational Debt

Symptoms of Agency Handover Gaps

Growth exposes the weak points in a storefront handed over without proper operational ownership. These are the faults we typically find.

Conversion Path Blind Spots

  • Drop-offs that analytics cannot explain.
  • Checkout errors spike with new promotions.
  • Page speed degrades after every minor update.

Unowned App Accrual

  • Multiple apps perform the same function.
  • Nobody knows who approved the subscription.
  • Critical features depend on a lone developer's trial.

Ownership Leakage

  • The agency has moved on to its next project.
  • Internal teams lack documentation to fix bugs.
  • Tribal knowledge is lost with every staff change.

Fragile Theme Code

  • Small CSS changes break unrelated page elements.
  • The theme is a patchwork from three different agencies.
  • Deploying updates requires a full day of testing.

Advisory Workflow

Establishing Operational Control

A structured process for hardening your ecommerce stack, plugging revenue leaks and establishing clear system ownership for your team.

Stakeholder Discovery

Stage 1

Risks

  • Misaligned commercial and tech priorities.
  • Key system users are not consulted.

Delays

  • Onboarding requires multiple discovery rounds.
  • Project scope expands unexpectedly.

Manual Processes

  • Mapping team responsibilities in spreadsheets.
  • Chasing down department heads for input.

Automation Opportunities

  • Role-based access audit flags permission gaps.
  • Automated survey of system users identifies pain points.

Conversion Path Audit

Stage 2

Risks

  • Focusing on vanity metrics, not revenue.
  • Missing edge cases in payment or promo logic.

Delays

  • Manual checkout testing is slow and incomplete.
  • Reproducing intermittent bugs is difficult.

Manual Processes

  • Walking through customer journeys one by one.
  • Checking console logs for errors on each page.

Automation Opportunities

  • Synthetic user monitoring tests critical paths 24/7.
  • Cogent AI flags checkout anomalies against historic norms.

Tech Stack & App Review

Stage 3

Risks

  • Underestimating dependencies on a single app.
  • Retaining redundant or insecure applications.

Delays

  • Waiting for agency permission to review code.
  • Tracing data flows through undocumented middleware.

Manual Processes

  • Listing every installed app and its owner.
  • Reading API documentation for each integration.

Automation Opportunities

  • Automated scan identifies unused code and apps.
  • Dependency mapping visualises system connections.

Ownership & Process Mapping

Stage 4

Risks

  • Assigning ownership without sufficient training.
  • Creating process maps that nobody follows.

Delays

  • Debates over departmental responsibility.
  • Documenting processes relies on tribal knowledge.

Manual Processes

  • Creating Visio diagrams for every single process.
  • Running workshops to agree on responsibilities.

Automation Opportunities

  • Generates RACI matrix from system access logs.
  • Suggests process owners based on usage patterns.

Remediation & Hardening

Stage 5

Risks

  • Implementing fixes that cause new problems.
  • Technical debt is reduced but not eliminated.

Delays

  • Waiting for developer availability to patch code.
  • Staging environment not a true production mirror.

Manual Processes

  • Applying security patches one by one.
  • Refactoring legacy theme code line by line.

Automation Opportunities

  • An integration layer updates data transformations.
  • A/B testing platform validates fixes with live traffic.

Handover & Enablement

Stage 6

Risks

  • Documentation is created but never updated.
  • Internal team feels unequipped for day-to-day ops.

Delays

  • Training sessions are generic, not role-specific.
  • Q&A sessions overrun with basic queries.

Manual Processes

  • Writing static 'how-to' PDF guides.
  • Delivering one-size-fits-all training webinars.

Automation Opportunities

  • Cogent AI generates role-specific support guides.
  • Interactive sandpits for training on new processes.

Platform Expertise

The Agency-Managed Stack

We focus on the core platforms where agency decisions have the greatest impact on revenue, operations, and long-term cost of ownership.

Ecommerce

Shopify Plus

Ecommerce Platform

Adobe Commerce

Ecommerce Platform

BigCommerce

Ecommerce Platform

Klaviyo

Marketing Automation

Attentive

Marketing Automation

Gorgias

Customer Service

Zendesk

Customer Service

Recharge

Subscriptions

Contentful

Headless CMS

Stripe

Payments

Adyen

Payments

Advisory vs. Build

Choosing Your Partner: Builder or Auditor?

A build-shop is motivated to launch. An advisory partner is motivated to protect what happens after. The difference is in the questions they ask.

Typical Agency Pitch

Focuses on the launch, features, and the new design.

  • Delivers a brand new theme rebuild.
  • Pitches a headless PWA architecture.
  • Showcases their portfolio of beautiful sites.
  • Promises faster page loads post-launch.
  • Adds more apps to deliver new features.
  • Defines success as go-live and handover.

Cogent2 Advisory

Focuses on revenue, risk, and operational ownership.

  • Audits the technical debt of your current theme.
  • Questions the TCO of a headless migration.
  • Asks about your month-end reconciliation process.
  • Measures performance across the entire conversion path.
  • Challenges existing app accrual and redundancy.
  • Defines success as sustained operational control.

Revenue at Risk

Where Agency Builds Break Down

Real-world examples of operational debt inherited from high-churn agency engagements and how we establish control.

The Stalled Migration

"Our checkout extensibility project was half-finished. Our old agency moved on, and no one internally knew how to complete it without breaking payments."

The Problem

A critical Shopify Plus migration was abandoned mid-flight. Tribal knowledge of the project plan was lost, leaving checkout fragile and un-upgradeable.

Our Approach

We mapped every dependency in the partially migrated code. We built a specific test plan for payment gateways and third-party scripts. The migration was completed in a single, planned sprint.

The Outcome

Checkout is now fully on the new platform. The merchant can now use new Shop Pay features and reduce their reliance on legacy scripts, lowering risk.

The App Graveyard

"We were paying for three different search apps. One was live, one was from a previous trial, and the third was a legacy from a theme we'd retired two years ago."

The Problem

Years of agency projects led to significant app accrual. Redundant, insecure, and costly apps were running in production with no clear owner.

Our Approach

We ran a full audit of every installed application, mapping its function, owner, and subscription cost. We identified overlaps and deprecated services, creating a lean, documented stack.

The Outcome

Reduced subscription overhead by 25%. A clear process for approving and managing new apps was established, preventing future app accrual and ownership leakage.

The Bloated Theme

"Our site had been rebuilt three times by two different agencies. It was so brittle that changing a font size in the footer broke the mini-cart."

The Problem

Successive rebuilds layered code on top of old code. CSS overrides, redundant JavaScript, and abandoned feature flags made the theme slow and unstable.

Our Approach

Instead of another full rebuild, we refactored. We stripped out dead code, consolidated styles, and deferred non-critical scripts. Performance was treated as a primary feature.

The Outcome

Core Web Vitals improved significantly. The internal team can now make simple content changes without requiring developer support, increasing their operational independence.

The Promotion Engine Paradox

"Our agency built a custom promotions engine, but it didn't respect Shopify's logic. Stacking discounts created huge losses during our biggest sales."

The Problem

A bespoke solution for promotions bypassed the platform's native controls. This created unpredictable discount combinations that eroded margin and were difficult to debug under pressure.

Our Approach

We decommissioned the high-risk custom code. We then rebuilt the required logic using Shopify Functions and a clear ruleset that could be managed by the commercial team.

The Outcome

Promo stacking is now predictable and safe. The marketing team can launch campaigns confidently without needing an engineer to check for negative margin scenarios. Merchant trust increased.

Operational Intelligence

Surface Risk with Cogent AI

We use Cogent AI not as a gimmick, but as an operational tool to analyse code, detect anomalies, and accelerate our audits. It finds the risks human review can miss.

The Advisory Role

The Cogent AI Role

Code Debt Analysis

Our consultants define the audit scope. Cogent AI scans theme files and app code to identify deprecated libraries, unused selectors, and high-complexity functions that indicate technical debt.

Conversion Path Anomaly Detection

Our consultants map the critical user journeys. Cogent AI continuously monitors transaction and analytics data to flag statistically significant deviations in conversion funnels, especially after a new deployment.

Security & Permission Auditing

We define the principle of least privilege for staff accounts. Cogent AI analyses user permissions against their actual activity to flag accounts with excessive access rights, reducing insider risk.

Migration Dependency Mapping

Our team plans the migration strategy. Cogent AI parses the codebase to automatically map dependencies between legacy scripts, APIs, and new components, preventing broken journeys post-migration.

Our Engagement Model

How We Work With You

A transparent advisory process designed to move from ambiguity and risk to clarity and control, equipping your team for long-term ownership.

  1. Scope & Risk Alignment

    We begin not with features, but with commercial risk. We align with your team on the primary operational pressures and define the scope of the advisory engagement.

  2. Systems & Access Audit

    Secure, read-only access is established to your core platforms. We conduct a non-intrusive initial audit of the tech stack, theme, and app ecosystem.

  3. Technical Deep Dive

    This phase involves code reviews, app configuration analysis, and conversion path testing. Our findings are documented as concrete, evidence-based issues, not opinions.

  4. Remediation Roadmap

    We deliver a prioritised roadmap. Each item details the issue, the commercial risk, the resources required for a fix, and the expected outcome. It is a plan, not just a list.

  5. Guided Implementation

    We can work alongside your internal developers or a trusted agency partner to guide the implementation of fixes, ensuring quality and adherence to best practices.

  6. Documentation & Handover

    The final output is not just a fixed store, but a fully-documented system with clear ownership assigned to your team. We give you the runbooks to operate independently.

Expected Outcomes

Beyond the Build

Our advisory work is measured by the reduction of risk, the increase in operational control, and the confidence of your internal teams.

Lower Risk

Reduced Revenue Risk

Mitigation of critical failure points in the conversion path, from checkout scripts to promotion logic.

Clearer

Defined System Ownership

Every app and process has a named owner within your team, eliminating ambiguity and response delays.

Faster

Reduced Incident Response Time

Your team can identify and fix common issues faster with better documentation and leaner code.

TCO Down

Lower Total Cost of Ownership

Decommissioning redundant apps and optimising code reduces monthly subscription fees and developer costs.

Higher

Deployment Confidence

A stable, well-documented theme allows your team to deploy changes and campaigns with less fear of breaking the site.

More

Operational Independence

Less reliance on external agencies for day-to-day management, updates, and troubleshooting.

Common Questions

Agency & Advisory FAQs

Direct answers to common questions about our ecommerce advisory services.

Are you an ecommerce agency that builds sites?

No. We are not a build-shop. We are technical consultants who audit the work of agencies. Our goal is to protect your revenue and ensure your in-house team can effectively own the systems an agency hands over.

We are happy with our agency. Why do we need you?

Many of our clients have good agency relationships. We provide a second opinion, an independent audit that focuses specifically on operational risk, technical debt, and long-term cost of ownership. These are areas often outside a build-focused agency's primary scope.

What platforms do you specialise in?

Our expertise is centred on the commerce stacks most exposed to agency-led development. This primarily includes Shopify Plus, Adobe Commerce, and BigCommerce, along with the common headless, marketing, and subscription apps connected to them.

What is the typical output of an engagement?

The main deliverable is a remediation roadmap, a prioritised action plan detailing specific issues, their commercial impact, and how to fix them. We also provide updated system documentation and 'runbooks' to empower your team.

We can then guide your team or another agency in executing that roadmap.

How do you handle sensitive data and access?

We operate under strict NDAs and principles of least privilege. We require only read-only access where possible and use secure methods for credential management. Our entire engagement is designed to be non-intrusive to your live operations during the audit phase.

Protect Your Revenue

Audit Your Agency's Handover

Before you inherit another black box of code, let's audit the operational risks and secure your conversion path. Get an independent view focused on revenue protection.

Book an AuditRead our case studies