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 ✓ No long-term contract

Rated 5.0 on Google.Trusted by our clients

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; when they move on, the store's knowledge goes with them. An agency retainer gives you a ticket queue and a rotating team who learn your catalogue every time.

A dedicated VA is one named person who learns your products, your customers and your policies once and stays. They know which variants sell out, which courier loses parcels and which customers deserve a goodwill gesture. A UK team supervises quality; if the fit is wrong we replace the person and carry the handover, with no re-recruitment and no restart from zero.

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 depends on where you hire

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.
	RecommendedAnt Assist£1,040 a month£800 a month for the first 6 months at £5/hour	UK in-house hire~£3,100/mo	UK agencyapprox. £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	IncludedRolling monthly, 30 days' notice	Not includedEmployment contract	PartlyVaries by agency

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

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
No long-term contract, rolling monthly

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

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.

Rolling monthly.

Scale hours up or down, pause, or cancel 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.

Services