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
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✓ From £5/hour ✓ UK-managed ✓ Dedicated VA, not shared ✓ No long-term contract
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 virtual assistant is built for

Founders running the store from their own admin

Every product update and every message is you. One VA takes the daily operations so you take the product and the marketing.

Growing brands adding channels and SKUs

More products, more variants, more marketplaces: the housekeeping grows faster than the revenue. A VA keeps the catalogue and the stock in order.

Stores with seasonal peaks

Scale hours up for Black Friday and Christmas and back down afterwards, with no penalty and no hiring.

Agencies and operators managing several stores

One dedicated VA per store, each trained on that store, each supervised by us.

Cost Comparison

What a Shopify VA costs depends on where you hire

The same work is priced very differently by market: a UK employee costs a salary plus employer costs and a desk, a UK freelancer or agency bills by the hour or the project, and an offshore marketplace leaves the managing to you. 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. It covers your dedicated VA's time, our office facilities in Cairo, and the supervision and management that keep quality up.

Set that against a UK in-house e-commerce hire once salary, employer National Insurance, pension, holiday and a desk are counted; the comparison card on this page shows the calculator's model, and the full calculator gives your figures for your hours.

UK in-house hire
~£3,100/mo
~£37,205 / year
You save ~£24,725 a year
Ant Assist VA
£1,040/mo
£12,480 / year at the standard rate
UK In-House · Entry level
UK in-house e-commerce hire (calculator model)
£2,384 a month gross salary, full time (the calculator's ecommerce benchmark, ONS ASHE 2025)
Monthly salary£2,384
Benefits (5% of salary)£119
Equipment and office£442
Management time (2 hrs a week)£156
~£3,100/mo
~£37,205 / year
Ant Assist VA · Entry
Dedicated Shopify Virtual Assistant
160 hrs a month · £5/hour for the first 6 months (£800/mo), then £6.50/hour on the ecommerce rate card
VA hours (160h × £6.50/hour standard rate)£1,040
Management and supervisionIncluded
Recruitment and onboardingIncluded
Office infrastructureIncluded
£1,040/mo
£12,480 / year at the standard rate
You save ~£24,725 / year at the standard rate (est.)

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

1
First call
A short call about your tasks, your tools and the hours you need covered.
2
Matching
We pick a VA from our in-house team for your work and introduce them to you.
3
Onboarding
Together we write down your rules and set up your access before day one.
4
Live
Your VA starts on your hours from our managed office, supervised from the UK.
5
Ongoing management
A UK team reviews the work each week; hours scale up or down as you need.
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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.

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Run the store, not the admin.

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

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