About
Illia Romanovich
I engineer Shopify storefronts: product-page systems, commerce state, performance, and the precise line between native platform behavior and custom code.
I work on the parts of a Shopify store that decide whether it sells and whether it stays maintainable. That means product-page and buy-box engineering, subscription and offer logic, cart and commerce-state behavior, real-user performance, and merchant-editable content. I build on native Shopify and the theme wherever they already solve the problem, and I add custom code only where a real requirement needs it.
What I work on
- Product-page and buy-box systems: variants, subscriptions, and offers
- Commerce state: cart, drawer, and the checkout boundary
- Storefront performance: Core Web Vitals and real-user monitoring
- Search, filtering, and merchandising with Search & Discovery
- Merchant-configurable sections and metafield-driven content
- Third-party integrations with clear ownership boundaries
- Analytics instrumentation across the checkout boundary
- Production-safe theme delivery
How I work
- Native first
- Use Shopify and the theme where they already solve the requirement, and keep purchase-critical behavior native.
- Custom only where justified
- Configure, extend, integrate, then build, in that order. Custom code is the last option, not the first.
- Measure before I claim it
- Field data and real-user monitoring, not only lab tools. Commercial impact is claimed only when the analytics support it.
- Keep the store operable
- Merchant-editable content, isolated and revertable changes, and compatibility with the platform, theme, and installed apps.
- Honest scope
- Separate what is verified from what is expected, and never present someone else's work, or a marketing page, as my engineering.
Selected strengths
Shopify platform
- Shopify OS 2.0
- Liquid
- Sections & blocks
- Metafields
- Theme app extensions
Storefront engineering
- TypeScript
- Vanilla JavaScript
- Product forms & variant state
- AJAX Cart API
- Sections Rendering API
Performance & measurement
- Core Web Vitals
- Real-user monitoring
- CLS / LCP debugging
- Web Pixels & analytics boundaries
Commerce & integrations
- Selling Plans & subscriptions
- Recharge
- Search & Discovery
- Third-party app integration
Craft & delivery
- Accessibility
- Merchant configurability
- Production-safe delivery
- Maintainable theme systems
Working context
Independent Shopify engineer. Recent work spans three production storefronts, each with a different constraint:
A conversion-focused DTC storefront: subscription buy box, cart and commerce state, real-user performance, checkout analytics, and a 66-subscription migration.
- OS 2.0
- Selling Plans
- Recharge
- RUM
Extending Dawn for a medically complex compression catalog, with native variant, cart, and search behavior kept as the source of truth.
- Dawn
- Search & Discovery
- Metafields
A disciplined Prestige adaptation for a specialty roaster, with custom code reserved for coffee metafields and navigation.
- Prestige
- Metafields
- Recharge
Some client work is under NDA. The case studies show what can be shown, with sensitive details withheld, and separate verified outcomes from expected ones.
Have a storefront problem that does not fit a standard theme task?
I work across offer structure, product state, performance, analytics, merchant tooling, and production delivery, while keeping purchase-critical systems reliable.