Pivofy

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of More than Gourmet, a food manufacturer. We make classic stocks and sauces and sell to a variety of markets throughout the US: food service, industrial, retail, and private brand.

What challenge were you trying to address with Pivofy?

We were converting our e-commerce site from nopCommerce to Shopify Plus.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Pivofy carried out the complete e-commerce migration. There was some UI design involved in the process, though it was somewhat limited as the team was more or less mirroring the existing site. 

What is the team composition?

The only person we had direct interaction with was Denis (Founder & CEO).

How did you come to work with Pivofy?

They were recommended to us by Shopify.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since November 2020.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Pivofy did very well. They delivered the conversion successfully on time and on budget. Overall, we’re very pleased.

How did Pivofy perform from a project management standpoint?

They were excellent. They were prompt and met our expectations. In terms of tools, they used Basecamp. We had weekly status meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re most impressed with their efficiency and attention to detail. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so. We’re pleased with the outcome and don’t have any particular criticism at this point.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would definitely recommend working with Pivofy.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the IT manager at a medical device manufacturing company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Pivofy?

We wanted to open up an online store on Shopify.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Pivofy did everything from scratch. They did the design and development work for us. The team also figured out a way to program the store to meet some of the unique rules we had. 

For example, we didn’t want to charge our B2B customers shipping but Shopify would show that as "free shipping," which we also didn’t want. Pivofy figured out a way to change that wording so that it would show up as "shipping billed later by invoice."  

What is the team composition?

I only worked with one teammate directly. 

How did you come to work with Pivof?

We found them on the Shopify partner page. We interviewed about a dozen companies, and we decided to work with Pivofy because they were easy to communicate with and seemed to have a lot of e-commerce experience as far as turning page views into orders and customers into repeat customers.

The other companies we talked to were very vague and didn’t seem to understand what we wanted. Some of them even came with lower offers, but we knew they wouldn’t be successful, so we picked Pivofy.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in July 2020. The development was completed in October 2020.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

I’ve been an IT manager for 20 years, and Pivofy is probably the best vendor that I’ve worked with. We had a poor quality team on our side that couldn’t make up their mind and didn’t know anything about e-commerce websites.

Pivofy was infinitely patient with us and guided us when we got out of bounds. When we were doing things that they thought would scare customers away, they would let us know how best to approach turning customers into repeat sales.

The team gave us reasons why certain things wouldn’t work. Our main point of contact never complained or made us sign new scope documents, which other vendors tend to do. He never argued with us and was so pleasant to work with. Pivofy figured out how to do everything we were trying to do.

How did Pivofy perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was quite good. They used Basecamp, which was easy for us to follow, and they always seemed to meet the timelines. We had weekly meetings, and our point of contact was always on top of that week’s issues. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their knowledge of designing an e-commerce platform that consumers are comfortable using is impressive. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t have any complaints. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work with Pivofy.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Microfiber Wholesale imports and distributes microfiber cleaning products via e-commerce. I'm the president of the company.

For what projects/services did your company hire Pivofy, and what were your goals?

We hired Pivofy to develop a Shopify site to handle our complex e-commerce business.

How did you select Pivofy and what were the deciding factors?

We chose Pivofy after talking to several Shopify development partners. Pivofy came highly recommended from people in my network that had used them.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The scope of work included transferring all of our content and data from our old site, developing a custom theme, and tackling issues that relate to how we do business, which is primarily B2B.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Our main points of contact was with Denis, the CEO of Pivofy and with Jim, their lead developer.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

It's pretty early to give specific measurables on the project, but so far everything from CR, engagement, etc is trending in the right direction. Now that we've launched, we're excited to continue to work with Pivofy to optimize and continue to see improvement.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

Communication with Pivofy was easy, the project was managed in Basecamp. Our comments were responded to immediately and tweaks we made quickly. Milestones were met. We even moved up the launch date for business reasons, and Pivofy was able to meet our new target date with very little advance notice.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I think for me the key was Denis, the CEO. Our project was never handed off... we were working with Denis from day 1 through today and have been able to leverage his vast experience with the platform.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

The only real issue we've had has been with apps that we've plugged into the site, some have not worked as expected or been buggy, but this isn't something Pivofy is responsible for.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of Soul CBD, a growing CBD company that’s grown from 2 to 12 employees.

What challenge were you trying to address with Pivofy?

We had outgrown our original WordPress website. We decided to move to Shopify, primarily to overcome the payment processing issues we were facing.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’d already gone through a rebrand and corresponding web redesign in February of 2020. So, the redesigned WordPress platform already had the look, feel, and functionality that we wanted.

Consequently, Pivofy was responsible for migrating our website — pretty much exactly as is — to Shopify including all of our customer information, data subscriptions, and related filed. The first phase was website duplication on Shopify, which was followed by the data transfer phase.

What is the team composition?

I worked primarily with Denis. I also worked heavily with Jim for the second half of the project.

How did you come to work with Pivofy?

They were recommended by a colleague of mine who also runs a different brand. I reached out to Dennis, and it’s been smooth sailing ever since.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in late April 2020. Dennis and his team finished the first phase — the platform development — by May. They then executed the data migration, allowing us to launch our website in August.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Their work has helped us scale. Moving to Shopify was an absolute goal of ours, and they helped us attain it. Much of our marketing software wasn’t compatible with the WordPress platform we were using, so things were breaking left and right. Shopify has proved to be a more scalable, stable solution for a growing, direct-to-consumer brand like ours.

How did Pivofy perform from a project management standpoint?

They were excellent. Their turnaround was very fast; if I sent a request to Dennis or Jim in the evening, it would be implemented by the next morning. I don’t have anything bad to say about their process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The scope of their knowledge is most noteworthy. Their technical expertise really blew me away. While I’m already slightly familiar with out-of-box web development, Dennis was exceptional at filling in the gaps.

There was one instance where, only a day after site launch, we faced a problem in processing subscription payments. I was working with the support team of a particular third-party vendor and waiting for them to get back to me. After talking to Dennis about it, he utilized his connections within that third-party company to escalate my issue for a quick resolution. That was amazingly helpful and impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’d recommend for them to create a client-facing Slack channel for an even quicker response rate. While they were already responsive, that element would’ve allayed some of my anxieties regarding the most time-sensitive items at the end of the project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have your goals and requirements ready from the get-go.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a managing partner at My Spice Sage. We sell spices and seasonings to consumers and for wholesale.

What challenge were you trying to address with Pivofy?

We hired them to help us migrate an e-commerce platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They migrated us from Magento to Shopify. They mostly provided design and development services. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with four teammates.

How did you come to work with Pivofy?

We’re on Shopify Plus, which is Shopify’s top-tier service. So our salesperson for Shopify plus referred us to a few different agencies who they work with and vouch for in terms of migrations. We talked to a couple of agencies, but Pivofy was the right fit because they gave us a quote and said they would stick to it. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in May 2020, and the project is set to finish in July 2020.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Pivofy was very fast, and they got the job done in the half the time they promised. They said it was going to take three months, but they ended up finishing in six weeks. The new website looks and performs great, and it’s an overall improvement from our old website.

How did Pivofy perform from a project management standpoint?

They stuck to the quote. We had a weekly phone call, and the team set up Basecamp which we used to communicate and for project management. Anything I sent them in Basecamp or any email I sent them, they typically responded to in less than 10 minutes. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Providing the total cost and a flat rate for the project set them apart. We felt that our incentives were aligned because we both wanted to get the project done as quickly as possible, and they did that. 

Whereas with our last service provider, they billed us hourly, and it took much longer than they said it would and it ended up costing more, too. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, it was a great experience. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you’re willing to take their advice. There were some situations where I had a certain idea in my head about what I wanted to do, but they gave me good advice because they’re very familiar with Shopify. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of an industrial supply company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Pivofy?

We needed help with e-commerce development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built our Shopify platform from scratch. I was able to send them some websites I liked, from a functionality standpoint, and they were able to replicate that for our industry.

What is the team composition?

Denis (Founder & CEO) was my main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Pivofy?

I did some research and discovered Shopify would be the platform to fit my needs. I found several developers and checked if they had done a site similar to what I wanted.

There were only two developers that understood what I actually wanted and made it seem like it was simple to achieve; a lot of developers I reached out to made it more complicated than it needs to be and suggested overpriced custom systems. Pivofy’s process, on the other hand, gave me a lot of confidence.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We kicked off in October 2019, and it lasted eight weeks. From there, we finalized everything by January 2020.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We’ve only been live for 6–8 weeks, but we’re fairly good traffic, and it’s really easy to use. My colleagues have given positive feedback, and everyone enjoys the functionality.

How did Pivofy perform from a project management standpoint?

It was really easy to assign them tasks. We followed through a checklist and I could even see what Denis was assigning from a development side. It was really useful.

What did you find most impressive about them?

In the interview process and throughout our whole engagement, whether it made sense or not, they made it seem doable and simple to accomplish. There were very few things they were unable to do for me, if any. The team was really good at responding on time. I even got the chance to speak with Denis in person in Chicago, and we had lunch together. It was nice to meet in person after working together so much.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so. I’ve been pretty happy with every service they’ve provided.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be communicative, whether that’s in-person or on the phone. Having that open dialogue is really helpful.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re an e-commerce company that sells vehicle accessories.        

What challenge were you trying to address with Pivofy?

We had built out our website on Magento, but it became impossible to manage. The website would freeze up, so we knew we needed to migrate everything over to somewhere else.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We ended up choosing Shopify. Dennis helped us understand our business needs and make sure our website was more of an evolution. They made the site more modern and up to date. They set up the merchant system and the content management platform. Their team helped us prepare data and upload the products.

We have a portfolio of websites. They’re trying to find creative ways to solve the problem.

What is the team composition?

They have a couple of people working on their end. Dennis was the go-to person any time we had an issue.

How did you come to work with Pivofy?

Shopify actually recommended them to us. They’re one of the top e-commerce Shopify developers in Chicago. We reached out to Shopify and found two or three people. After interviewing and going through the proposals, we went with Dennis because of his attention to detail. He understood the uniqueness of the business.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work started in August of 2019 and is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

He really cares about the customer. They were able to think of creative and cost-effective ways to solve the problem. The business has nearly doubled. Because the previous developer had custom code, it was unstable and the traffic wasn’t getting converted. They stabilized the website and managed to funnel traffic properly.

How did Pivofy perform from a project management standpoint?

We had Basecamp set up. They were always available. The tasks were set up in an organizable way. They didn’t charge extra and put extra time as needed on the weekends. They had good communication and really kept the project on track.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They really care about the project. They’ll scale and grow the project; it won’t just be a project management system built to handle many projects at once. They focus on the results-driven model: it’s all about getting conversions. Based on my experience with other developers, Dennis has been the best.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t know what feedback I’d be able to give him.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We sat down and let him know exactly what we were trying to accomplish.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of Shirley's Gourmet Popcorn Co.

What challenge were you trying to address with Pivofy?

Historically, we’ve had an in-store POS system that is completely separate from our online POS system. This meant our rewards systems were different online and in-store, same with processing gift cards. Customers could essentially have two accounts because of this. We hired Pivofy to completely redo our website and POS systems. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built us a new website using Shopify, acting as our consultant and programmer for the site. For the creative design, we left that completely up to them. They performed a complete overhaul of our POS system. They’ve organized our products by things like size, flavor, price so we can run numerous reports.

In light of COVID-19, it’s also really important to us that they used the Shopify system that enables customers to order online and pick up in-store. Most importantly for us, they combined the reward system so it’s now the same in-store and online. 

What is the team composition?

I work with Dennis (Founder & CEO), but he’s had 3–4 other people jump in and help with the project. 

How did you come to work with Pivofy?

We sent out an RFP to numerous firms. Pivofy was very upfront and honest about what they could do. Other firms promised me everything, which felt unrealistic. This team let me know what they could and couldn’t do 

How much have you invested with them?

The upfront project was $50,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2020. We’re mostly wrapped up but they’re continuing on as our consultants. 

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

They’ve done absolutely everything I've wanted them to do. They’ve under-promised and over-delivered. We’ve been in the top 15–20% of new Shopify stores that launched the same week that we did. Given our small size and the number of Shopify stores that are opening, I am ecstatic that we’re ranking there. 

How did Pivofy perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve handled project management very impressively. They ended up having to do more work than I think they anticipated, but they came in right at our budget and delivered everything two months early. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They don’t stop until they get it right and exceed expectations. If there’s a problem, they’re like a dog on a bone. I’ve honestly never worked with a firm like them before; they’re absolutely outstanding. Dennis is the only person I know who works harder than I do— he’s incredible. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I truly have no criticism of them. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Recognize that they are experts. If you know exactly what you want, you might miss out. They are very innovative and know the space they are working in. It makes sense to hire professionals and listen to them. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I-Blason was founded as an Amazon seller of mobile accessories. We’ve continued to grow on the Amazon marketplace, and we’ve expanded our exposure globally. We’re selling to the Middle East, European countries, Australia, and Japan. We’re also trying to get into the Walmart marketplace. 

We’re an e-commerce business, without a physical store, and we’re very lean. We strive to provide affordable products to the customer.

I’m the senior director of e-commerce and marketing. I started working for the company around 2012, and I was a contractor for the first two years. Marketing has become my team’s major focus because we’re selling globally.

What challenge were you trying to address with Pivofy?

We moved from Magento to Shopify not only because we wanted to grow but because Magento 1 had expired and we had to pick another shop platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Pivofy helped us move our store from Magento to Shopify. I worked with the technical team throughout the project. We had an internal designer.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Denis (Founder and CEO) and one of their developers.

How did you come to work with Pivofy?

I don’t remember how we found them. I talked to at least four providers before deciding on them.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost so far has been around $16,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Pivofy in late-2018 and our work is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I wish we’d made the decision to switch to Shopify a lot sooner. Our revenue nearly tripled, our conversion rate went up, and our bounce rate went down. Shopify in general gave us flexibility to add new functions without a lot of trouble, as opposed to Magento.

Denis made a video step-by-step guide on how to use the site, which was super helpful for knowledge transfers.

How did Pivofy perform from a project management standpoint?

I felt very comfortable working with Denis because he’s very honest. We could be very blunt with each other without getting our feelings hurt. We cannot change facts, so I prefer not to twist them to make the story sound better. 

The whole process was very thorough, and he’s a great listener. They grasped our ideas very fast and helped us make judgment calls. We used Basecamp to log all tickets.

The website launch was delayed, but that was because of our side.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Denis is very honest and right to the point. We’re both technical people, so our discussions are very smooth. A lot of development companies start collaborations with a business development person, who has minimal knowledge about technology, so they always have to bring on someone else to be the backup. That wasn’t the case with Pivofy. 

Another thing about Pivofy is that they’re very cost-efficient. Other companies were asking for 30–50% more. One company actually doubled the price of what Pivofy quoted us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Pivofy probably has some offshore employees. We often talk to Denis, who talks to the team members, so there’s a gap in communication that could be filled up better. 

Our designer is super particular, and there were a lot of design elements that were neglected when Pivofy transferred the design to the actual site. We identified a lot of small things that could’ve been done better when we did an audit of the site before launch.

We had some hiccups communicating with their team members because of the time difference, but I don’t think it was avoidable. It happens with our in-house team members as well.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They should log everything in Basecamp and be as detailed as possible, especially if there’s a time difference.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of a company called Hard Core Waterfowl. We’re a provider of hunting supplies for the waterfowl industry.

What challenge were you trying to address with Pivofy?

We needed to re-platform the company website because we pivoted to a direct to consumer model. Historically, we serviced national retail. We were on WooCommerce but wanted to move to Shopify.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Pivofy team moved our WooCommerce website to Shopify. While they redeployed some elements of our WooCommerce product, their UX and optimization efforts primarily propelled our business. Their team developed a tech stack to market our products to consumers directly. We told them how we wanted our customer journey to be and then, they analyzed the gap between our current and goal customer journeys. Their team suggested the technologies to get us to where we wanted to be. From there, they optimized the site to convert traffic and drive revenue. Their team selected and integrated third-party apps to drive consumers to our website. We’re discussing a new project with Pivofy now.

What is the team composition?

We interfaced with 2–3 people consistently.

How did you come to work with Pivofy?

I researched our business and knew that we needed to re-platform. I went through Shopify’s partner network and filled out the form on one Sunday. A local vendor was important, so I sent the form to probably 10 different companies. Pivofy was the only company that responded the same day. I was on the phone with them at 8 a.m. the next day. It was a good sign that their team was hungry for the business.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $25,000–$30,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We signed the contract in June 2019 and launched the website in October 2019. Their team completed the original scope of work per the agreement, but we continue to work with them.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

From Black Friday to Cyber Monday, we did $450,000 in sales. Prior to this project, the best month the company had was between $10,000–$20,000 in direct to consumer sales. The tech stack that Pivofy implemented drove that volume effectively. Since then, we haven’t had a month below $100,000 in sales, which is good for our business. That’s a small part of the total opportunity. The real benefit of their work was around the customer journey. Their team implemented technologies that add around 25,000 new direct users to the platform. They used technology to better serve customers with systems in place to capture data and fix inevitable challenges.

How did Pivofy perform from a project management standpoint?

Mostly, we use Basecamp. If I need to escalate a task, I text. Their team calls or texts back right away. They’re responsive and did a wonderful job.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their innovation was impressive. While there was a level of customization, they deploy technology that exists. However, their product knowledge and ability to deploy their understanding of our business distinguish them. We’re probably the only waterfall company that they support but they bridged that gap with knowledge of prior projects to support us effectively.

Are there any areas they could improve?

This is because we changed the game plan, but there’s an opportunity for them to build a structure around onboarding. We got excited about different features and changed the project’s direction. While they had a process, their team has an opportunity to handle deviations from the original scope better. It could be that’s because Pivofy’s a smaller firm.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Maximize the partnership and engagement. Identify your aspirations for the platform. Make sure that you’re specific with your needs so that you don’t have project creep like us. They didn’t charge us additional costs but there’s only so much that you can do in a certain period of time.