Matthew Collins, the 29th of September 2026
A support package and Growth are not the same offer. Support keeps a live store healthy, with a set number of improvements each month. Growth is for a store that already has a backlog, and wants those jobs shipped without a quote each time.
Start on the lighter package if the store is stable. Move when the list of work is longer than the slots you have.
What each level is for
The packages follow how much the store needs to change.
- Maintain is £400 a month. Monitoring, a quarterly check-in and two hours of fixes. It fits a stable store that needs someone watching.
- Optimise is £1,000 a month. Two improvements, a performance report and a monthly strategy review.
- Accelerate is £2,000 a month. Four improvements, a sync every two weeks, and releases tested on staging first.
- Growth starts at £3,000 a month. Unlimited requests, one or two active tasks at a time, and a monthly conversion review. Most tasks land in one to three business days.
One improvement on the support packages is about six hours. A collection rebuild, a mobile checkout fix, a tracking setup or a new product section. We agree the scope before we start. Work beyond that is quoted as a project.
Growth treats the backlog differently. You can add as many requests as you like. We work them one at a time, or two on Growth Plus at £5,500 a month. The limit is speed, not a quota of hours.
Stay on support when the store is steady
Stay when you can name the next two or four jobs, and you are happy to plan them for the month. A stable catalogue, a theme you trust and no queue of small changes is a support store.
Surrey Cricket Club moved onto an ongoing support retainer after the migration from Jonas Sports. Samuel, the club's commerce director, wrote: "Our website looks great and I am looking forward to using the ongoing support to gain better knowledge from them!" Orders were up over 300%, and conversion had moved from 1.2% to 4.3%, in the first months after launch. Those figures are from the migration. The retainer was so the club could keep going, not because the store needed an unlimited queue.
Move when small jobs keep waiting
Move when a simple change waits on a quote, a slot and a free developer. The backlog grows while the store stays stuck. Growth is priced for that gap.
Two published reviews describe work that continued after launch. They are not invoices for this subscription. They show why clients kept us on.
Grant Rennie, Director at Fáilte Foods, wrote: "Since the launch, we have continued to collaborate with parallel on optimising our store, enhancing customer retention, and driving online sales." The work after the Magento migration was commercial, not only a fix list.
Wayne Collins, Director at Star Action Figures, wrote: "We've been impressed enough that we've continued working with parallel after the launch to help us develop the site further." He also wrote: "Any snags we've needed have been dealt with quickly, and he's always been available to talk through ideas and suggest better ways of doing things."
Forty Clothing has no published review of the later work. The case study is the record. We stayed on as fractional commerce direction, covering launches, sales, Black Friday and reporting. Conversion moved from 0.8% to 4.6%. Within 12 months, online was half of the retail business.
If your list looks like that, a fixed number of improvements will run out before the month does. Growth puts your requests and our conversion recommendations on one board, then ships them in order.
A short test before you switch
Ask three questions.
- Can you list more than four useful jobs for the next month?
- Do small changes currently wait more than a few days for a quote?
- Is there steady traffic, and nobody reading it to decide what to build next?
If you answer yes to two, Growth is the closer fit. If you answer no, Optimise or Accelerate will do more for the fee. You can move up, move down or pause. The agreement is month to month.
Copywriting, paid media and email marketing sit outside both offers. A new build, a migration or a custom ERP is a project. We will say so on the call.
If the other option on the table is a full-time hire, read Growth subscription or an in-house developer.
Where parallel helps
The packages are on Shopify support. Plans, turnaround and what counts as a task are on the Growth subscription page.
Book a call and tell us how long the backlog is. Or send it through Start.