E-commerce VA · Shopify

Shopify Virtual Assistant

A Shopify store runs on a hundred small daily jobs. One dedicated person does them inside your admin, on your rules, so the store runs whether you are at your desk or not. Here is what they handle.

Product pagesOrders and fulfilmentInventoryCustomer messages

Calculate your savings Book a free 15-min call

✓ From £5/hour ✓ UK-managed ✓ Dedicated VA, not shared ✓ 3-month probation, no penalty to leave

Rated 5.0 on Google.Trusted by our clients

Updated 19 October 2026

Trusted by businesses

Our Clients

What They Handle

What a Shopify virtual assistant does in your store

Product pages and collections

Creates and updates products with titles, descriptions, images, variants and attributes from your product information and brand guidelines, and keeps collections tidy.

Order processing and fulfilment

Processes orders, tracks fulfilment, handles cancellations and address changes, updates shipping statuses and coordinates with your couriers and 3PL.

Inventory monitoring

Watches stock levels across SKUs and channels, flags reorders before bestsellers run out, and flags the slow movers.

Customer messages and reviews

Answers store and social messages and responds to reviews in your voice, protecting the reputation the store trades on.

Returns and exchanges

Processes returns, manages exchanges, handles refunds within your policy and spots the patterns that reduce return rates.

Apps, discounts and housekeeping

Sets up the discount codes, keeps the apps and integrations you already use running, and reports what changed each day.

Dedicated vs freelancer

A dedicated Shopify VA vs a freelancer or an agency retainer

A freelancer profile gives you a person for a project and leaves you to be the manager. An agency retainer gives you a ticket queue and a rotating team.

A dedicated VA is one named person who learns your products, customers and policies once and stays, supervised by a UK team.

Ant Assist

Dedicated Shopify VA

What you get: One named person who learns your store once
Who manages: A UK team supervises quality
When they move on: Replaced with handover; no restart from zero
Ant Assist fit: Provided: managed, replaceable VA

Freelancer

What you get: A person for a project
Who manages: You are the manager
When they move on: The store's knowledge goes with them
Ant Assist fit: Not provided by Ant Assist

Agency retainer

What you get: A ticket queue and a rotating team
Who manages: The agency, through a ticket queue
When they move on: The team learns your catalogue every time
Ant Assist fit: Not provided by Ant Assist

Book a free 15-minute discovery call

Explore more VA types

Not the right fit? Compare other VA types

Who It's For

Who a Shopify VA is for

Founders running the store themselves One VA takes daily operations so you focus on product and marketing.
Brands adding channels and SKUs Catalogue and stock kept in order as you grow.
Stores with seasonal peaks Scale hours up for Black Friday and Christmas, then back down.
Agencies managing several stores One trained, supervised VA per store.

Shopify virtual assistant with a store progress card: products updated, orders, reviews

Cost Comparison

What a Shopify VA costs

With Ant Assist the entry rate is £5 per hour for the first 6 months on the Entry tier, 3 months on Mid, 1 month on Expert.

A dedicated Ant Assist VA compared with a UK in-house hire and a UK agency, full time.
What you get	RecommendedAnt Assist	UK in-house hire	UK agency
Monthly cost	Standard price £1,040 a month, introductory price £800 for the first 6 months	~£3,100	approx. £3,500 to £4,500
Who manages the work	IncludedOur UK team supervises	Not includedYou do	PartlyThe agency
Recruitment and onboarding	IncludedIncluded	Not includedYou recruit and train	IncludedThe agency matches
Employer NI and pension	IncludedNone to pay	Not includedYou pay both	PartlyBuilt into the rate
Office and equipment	IncludedIncluded	Not includedYou provide	PartlyVaries by agency
Holiday and sick cover	IncludedCover provided	Not includedYou find cover	PartlyVaries by agency
Replacement if it is not right	IncludedReplaced, no restart cost	Not includedRe-hire from scratch	PartlyVaries by agency
Contract	Included12-month term, 3-month probation	Not includedEmployment contract	PartlyVaries by agency

Entry offer: standard rate £6.50, introductory offer £5/hour for your first 6 months.

UK agency figures are an approximate range around the £25 per hour agency benchmark our calculator uses.

Book a free 15-min call

What the £5/hour entry rate includes

Dedicated VA, never shared
UK-hour aligned support
Management and supervision included
Recruitment and onboarding included
Office infrastructure included
VA replacement available
No NI, pension, or holiday costs
3-month probation, no penalty to leave

These are typical estimates. Get your exact numbers in the full calculator. Or read how much a virtual assistant costs in the UK.

Calculate your exact savings

Process

How to hire a Shopify VA

First call

A short call about your tasks, your tools and the hours you need covered.

Matching

We pick a VA from our in-house team for your work and introduce them to you.

Onboarding

Together we write down your rules and set up your access before day one.

Live

Your VA starts on your hours from our managed office, supervised from the UK.

Ongoing management

A UK team reviews the work each week; hours scale up or down as you need.

Book a free 15-min call

Guides for this service

Why Managed

Why a managed Shopify VA beats a marketplace or an agency

Managed, not just placed.

Your VA is recruited, trained and supervised from our own in-house office. Not a freelancer profile, not a ticket queue.

Replaceable without restart cost.

If the fit is wrong, we replace the VA and carry the handover. No re-recruitment, no starting from zero.

No NI, pension, or holiday overhead.

One hourly rate; the employment costs sit with us.

Language and cultural alignment with UK customers.

Trained on your tone and your customers before they answer a message.

Your data stays yours.

Every VA signs an NDA and a data-processing agreement, works inside your admin through password managers at the access level the job needs, and you can revoke access at any time.

3-month probation, no penalty to leave.

The initial term is 12 months, including a 3-month probation in which you can end the engagement without penalty. After 12 months it continues monthly with 30 days' notice.

Rated 5.0 on Google.Trusted by our clients

FAQ

Common questions about hiring a Shopify virtual assistant

Your VA works inside your own Shopify admin at the permission level each task needs: creating and updating products, collections and variants, processing orders and fulfilment, watching stock across SKUs, answering store and social messages in your voice, handling returns and exchanges within your policy, and keeping the apps and discount codes you already use running. You get a short daily line of what changed and what is waiting on you.

No. You add your VA as a staff account in Shopify with the permissions the role needs, or through a password manager you control, and you can revoke access at any time. Every Ant Assist VA signs an NDA and a data-processing agreement as part of their contract, and nothing is exported from your store to a file you do not own.

Yes. Hours scale up for the peak and back down afterwards without penalty or a new hire, and a second dedicated VA can be added for the season if the volume needs it. Because your VA already knows your catalogue, your couriers and your policies, the peak is worked by someone who does not need training in November.

Only what you ask for. The day-to-day work is products, orders, stock, messages and returns. Theme edits, new app installs and settings changes are made only on your instruction, and anything with a cost or a customer-facing risk is flagged to you first with the context written up.

Yes, if the hours allow it. One dedicated VA can cover your Shopify store alongside Amazon and eBay with one view of stock, so an item never sells twice and messages are answered in one voice. If the combined volume is more than one person's day, we add a second VA rather than stretch the first.

The entry rate is £5 per hour for the first 6 months on the Entry tier. After the promotion the e-commerce rate card applies: £6.50 per hour full time, which is £1,040 a month for 160 hours, or £6.80 per hour part time, £544 a month for 80 hours. That covers the VA, our office in Cairo and the supervision; your Shopify plan and apps stay in your name.

Didn't find your answer? Browse more common questions in the Help Center.

Get Started

Run the store, not the admin.

One dedicated Shopify VA, from £5 per hour. Book a free 15-minute call.

or book a free 15-minute call

Calculate your savings

Discovery callRole briefVA matchedOnboarded into your tools

A free 15-minute call, no obligation. Or get an instant estimate with the calculator.