Fractional Shopify CPO Chief Product Officer Service

Shopify performance rarely stalls because of missing features. It slows when product ownership is unclear, priorities are reactive and no one owns how the storefront, apps and customer experience should evolve to support growth.

The Fractional Shopify CPO Service from Cogent2 provides senior, part time product leadership for businesses running Shopify or Shopify Plus as their core ecommerce platform. This role owns the product vision for the Shopify storefront and connected tools, ensuring changes are driven by customer value, trading performance and long-term growth rather than ad-hoc requests.

It is designed for brands where Shopify is business critical, but where no one owns the product direction across trading, UX, apps and platform evolution.

Cogent2’s Fractional Shopify CPOs work inside the business, partnering closely with founders, ecommerce leaders and delivery teams. Alongside senior product leadership, you gain access to a joined-up technical and integration team that can execute and refine what is defined at a product level.

When to hire a Fractional Shopify CPO

This service is particularly well suited to businesses that:

• Run Shopify or Shopify Plus as their primary ecommerce platform

• Have growing backlogs of feature, UX and optimisation requests

• Struggle to prioritise Shopify change effectively

• Lack a single owner for ecommerce product direction

• Need senior product leadership on a part time basis

Hiring a Fractional Shopify CPO brings clarity, focus and accountability to ecommerce product evolution.

What the service delivers

Cogent2 Fractional Shopify CPOs operate at a senior product leadership level with a strong commercial mindset.

This typically includes:

• Acting as a Fractional and Part Time Shopify CPO

• Owning the product vision for Shopify and connected tools

• Defining roadmaps aligned to growth, conversion and retention goals

• Prioritising backlogs based on customer value and business impact

• Aligning stakeholders around clear product decisions

• Acting as the single owner of Shopify product outcomes

Because Cogent2 combines product leadership with delivery capability, decisions turn into delivered improvements.

Shopify product strategy and roadmap ownership

Shopify works best when treated as a product, not a list of tickets.

The Fractional Shopify CPO Service focuses on:

• Defining how the storefront should evolve over time

• Translating customer and trading insight into clear priorities

• Preventing app sprawl and reactive feature build

• Improving visibility of what is being built and why

• Ensuring Shopify evolves in a controlled, value-led way

The emphasis is long-term product thinking grounded in real trading outcomes.

Governance, prioritisation and value control

Ecommerce backlogs grow quickly without ownership.

Cogent2 Fractional Shopify CPOs help by:

• Establishing clear prioritisation frameworks

• Balancing marketing, trading and UX requirements

• Ensuring changes deliver measurable performance gains

• Reducing low-impact or unnecessary work

• Improving confidence in product decision making

This keeps Shopify focused on growth, not noise.

App, integration and ecosystem product oversight

Shopify rarely operates alone.

Cogent2 Fractional Shopify CPOs:

• Own the product view of apps and integrations

• Ensure third-party tools support the Shopify roadmap

• Reduce duplication and conflicting functionality

• Improve consistency across the ecommerce tech ecosystem

• Align product decisions with long-term scalability

Product ownership extends beyond the storefront itself.

Cross-functional product leadership

Shopify touches every commercial function.

Cogent2 Fractional Shopify CPOs work closely with:

• Ecommerce and trading teams

• Marketing and acquisition

• UX and CRO specialists

• Technology and integration teams

This ensures product decisions reflect how the business actually grows.

Programme support and product stabilisation

Fractional Shopify CPOs are often engaged during periods of change.

This can include:

• Supporting Shopify replatforming or theme rebuilds

• Bringing order to fragmented backlogs

• Improving confidence ahead of peak trading

• Reducing friction between teams and priorities

• Protecting customer experience during evolution

Cogent2’s joined-up delivery capability allows change to move forward with control.

Ongoing advisory and trusted product leadership

Many clients retain this role as an ongoing advisory relationship.

This can include:

• Acting as a sounding board for ecommerce product decisions

• Reviewing plans before investment is committed

• Supporting hiring and product capability planning

• Helping leadership teams avoid costly ecommerce mistakes

This model provides executive-level product thinking without building a permanent function.

The Cogent2 Difference

Cogent2 works alongside Shopify and best-in-class platforms so our Fractional CPOs can focus entirely on product leadership and value delivery. We do not sell software. We take ownership of how Shopify evolves within the wider ecommerce tech ecosystem.

By combining Fractional Shopify CPO leadership with a joined-up technical team, Cogent2 removes the gap between product intent and delivered ecommerce outcomes.

Own Shopify as a product, not a backlog

Ecommerce product evolution fails when ownership is unclear.

Hire a Shopify CPO from Cogent2 on a Part Time, Fractional basis to bring structure, focus and confidence to your Shopify product direction.