Clear, beautiful & built to sell
Designed to convert
Every decision considers how people browse, choose and buy.
Built to last
Clean, well-structured Shopify stores you won't need to rebuild in two years.
Simple to own
Practical training so you and your team can confidently run the store yourselves.
Verified Shopify Partner
Cape Town-based, building eCommerce stores since 2015.
For brands who care about feel as much as function.
A website has a feel to it, the same way a physical shop does. You can tell within seconds whether someone thought about you being there.
Ten years in, I build Shopify stores for that moment: the product looking desirable, the answer arriving before the question, and buying feeling as simple as picking it up off the shelf.
Portfolio
Who I work best with
Three moments, usually. If one of them sounds like where you are, we'll get on well.
You've outgrown what you built.
The store was right for the brand you were then. Now the business has grown up, but the website hasn't quite grown with it.
You're on the wrong platform.
WooCommerce is fine until it isn't. The plugin that broke, the update you're avoiding, the small change that somehow becomes a whole thing. You're ready for something simpler to run.
You're launching, and you'd rather do this once, properly.
You know where the brand is going and want a store that can go there with it, rather than something you'll be rebuilding in eighteen months.
I take on a limited number of builds at a time. Currently booking 2 months in advance.
Brands I've worked with
What's included in every Shopify build
Commercial thinking, not just good taste
I think about how someone actually shops your store: what they need to understand, what might make them hesitate, what makes a product feel desirable, and what they need to see before they're ready to buy.
A store that's built properly
Clean, considered Shopify development with the foundations in place for the store to grow with your business.
A store you know how to run
You'll get custom video tutorials for your own store, plus 30 days of hands-on support after launch. You stay in control of the day-to-day and shouldn't need a developer every time you want to change a banner, add a product or update a page.
You work with me
I'm an independent studio, so there's no account manager, handover or rotating team. I get to know your business, your products and how you work, and I'm the person thinking through the details with you from start to finish.
Working with Megan Hodson has been a game-changer for Nuera Health & Wellness. We tasked her with redesigning our Shopify store, and she delivered more than just a beautiful site—she delivered a sales machine. Megan’s approach to design and customer flow completely transformed our user experience; the site is now intuitive, clean, and professional. But the most significant impact has been the bottom line. Since the launch, we have seen a marked and instant improvement in our conversion rates and sales. The return on investment has been fantastic. If you are looking for a developer who understands that great design should drive actual business growth, I couldn’t recommend Megan highly enough. She understands e-commerce strategy, not just aesthetics.
A Shopify expert
Her knowledge of Shopify’s technicalities and ability to create a visually stunning, functional store exceeded expectations. She’s patient, clear, and highly professional.
She's calm, quietly confident and wonderfully organised, and just "got" what I was trying to achieve
Working with Meg has been an absolute pleasure. She's incredibly intuitive and there’s such a calm, grounded energy about her that makes the whole process feel easy.
A pleasure to work with
It was an absolute pleasure working with Meg. She immediately understood what we were looking for and was approachable throughout the process.
She elevated our business to represent where we are today
We interviewed multiple design companies and from the moment we connected with Megan, we knew we had found someone who could elevate our business to represent where we are today. Megan came up with a detailed development plan and was very attentive. Nutmeg Design is highly professional and offers beautiful design ideas.
About the studio
I'm Meg Hodson. I started building on Shopify in 2015, back when the platform barely had a footprint in South Africa and there wasn't really anyone to ask when something broke.
My first store had 200 products and belonged to a mountain bike shop in Pietermaritzburg. It took months. I learnt an enormous amount, most of it the hard way. Then the orders started coming in from the SEO work I'd done, and something clicked. I've been doing this ever since.
A decade on, I'm a Verified Shopify Partner, designing and building stores for brands across South Africa and abroad.
Before this, I worked in journalism and communications and studied Philosophy. Odd training for eCommerce, perhaps, but it turns out to be useful: take something complicated, work out what matters, and make it feel simple.
That's still how I approach every store. What does someone need to understand? Where might they hesitate? How should the products be presented? What gives someone enough confidence to buy?
Everything starts with a call. Half an hour, no charge and no pitch. Just a conversation about your brand, where you are now, and what the store needs to do next.
Shopify Guides
The 5 most common conversion leaks I see in Shopify stores
The 5 most common conversion leaks I see in Shopify stores
The 5 most common conversion leaks I see in Shopify stores
Short answer: the leaks I see most often aren't dramatic. Nothing is broken. Checkout works fine. What's usually happening instead is a large catalogue with no clear starting point, trust-building...
How do you get your Shopify products recommended by AI tools like ChatGPT?
How do you get your Shopify products recommended by AI tools like ChatGPT?
How do you get your Shopify products recommended by AI tools like ChatGPT?
ChatGPT recommends products it can read clearly and has good reason to trust. For a Shopify store, that comes down to three things: 1. Make sure the AI can access...
Is Shopify the right platform for skincare and beauty brands?
Is Shopify the right platform for skincare and beauty brands?
Is Shopify the right platform for skincare and beauty brands?
If you sell skincare or beauty online and you're deciding where to build, the short answer is yes: Shopify is the platform I recommend for almost every brand in this...
Tell me about your brand
Where it is, where it's going, and what the store needs to do to get it there
Nutmeg Studio is a Cape Town-based Shopify design and development studio and Verified Shopify Partner. I've been building eCommerce stores since 2015, combining considered design, smart UX and solid Shopify development for product brands across South Africa and abroad. Trusted by established and 7-figure brands in beauty, wellness, apparel and lifestyle.
Email: hello@nutmegstudio.co
WhatsApp (message only): +27(0)64 652 7428
Office Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Office Hours: 9am – 4pm, Monday – Friday, Central Africa Time
Please note that studio availability is limited, with bookings typically filling 1–2 months in advance. I encourage you to get in touch early to reserve your spot.