Auckland-headquartered. ANZ-focused.
hello@atlasstudios.agency
We run ongoing growth programmes for brands in New Zealand & Australia who want a partner as an extension of their business, not a vendor to manage.
A growth retainer is a standing senior team across strategy, development, CRO and retention, working to a roadmap revisited every quarter.
Learn more about what an ongoing partnership with Atlas Studios looks like.
Projects end. Growth doesn't.
The project model rewards launching, not improving. The site goes live, the team moves on, and the roadmap that felt urgent in month two quietly stops. Eighteen months later performance has drifted, nobody owns it, and the answer on the table is another rebuild, paying twice for ground you'd already taken.
We're not order-takers.
A retainer that just works through your ticket queue is a contractor with an invoice schedule. We bring the thinking as well as the execution, and we'll tell you when the thing you've asked for isn't the thing that will move the number.
That's what a retainer buys.
A senior team who already know your catalogue, your systems and your customers, working to a roadmap that gets revisited every quarter against real data. Conversion, retention, performance and platform, improved continuously, decisions made for the five-year relationship rather than the next invoice.
One team across the disciplines that compound: what converts, what retains, what performs, and what to build next.
Conversion Optimisation
Structured testing against your funnel, so changes are proven and incremental revenue uplift is measurable.
Retention & Lifecycle
Klaviyo flows, segmentation and campaigns that grow repeat revenue from customers you've already paid to win.
Development & Iteration
Continuous development support on Shopify Plus, from new features to performance, without re-scoping every request.
Analytics & Reporting
Reporting that answers what changed and why, rather than a dashboard nobody opens after week three.
Roadmap & Strategy
A quarterly and annual roadmap built against your commercial goals, revisited with real data instead of assumptions.
Team Enablement
Your internal team enabled to ship the simple things safely, so you're not billed for what you could do yourselves.
Atlas retainers run on a fixed cadence: a quarterly roadmap agreed against your commercial goals, delivery in sprints, and reporting that ties the work back to the numbers it was meant to move.
You always know what's being worked on, what shipped, and what it did, and the roadmap is revisited every quarter rather than being set once and defended.
We start by learning the business, not the backlog. Commercial goals, margin structure, customer behaviour, the systems in play, and a full audit of the store, data and online systems.
Most retainers begin with a list of quick wins nobody had time to find.
A quarter of work sequenced against what will actually move towards achieving business outcomes, with the reasoning visible so you can challenge it.
Agreed together rather than presented, and if we think your priority is wrong, we say so before it goes on the plan rather than after it ships.
Work delivered in a regular cadence with a standing point of contact who knows your account. No re-briefing, no re-scoping every request, and no waiting for a statement of work before a small fix can happen.
Learn moreEvery change tied back to the number it was meant to move.
Reporting that tells you what shipped, what it did, and what we'd do differently, including the tests that didn't work, because those are the ones that shape the next quarter.
A senior review against the commercial goals, not a status update. What compounded, what stalled, what changed in the business, and what the next quarter should hold. This is where a retainer either earns its place or gets restructured.
Learn moreWe start by learning the business, not the backlog. Commercial goals, margin structure, customer behaviour, the systems in play, and a full audit of the store, data and online systems.
Most retainers begin with a list of quick wins nobody had time to find.
A quarter of work sequenced against what will actually move towards achieving business outcomes, with the reasoning visible so you can challenge it.
Agreed together rather than presented, and if we think your priority is wrong, we say so before it goes on the plan rather than after it ships.
Work delivered in a regular cadence with a standing point of contact who knows your account. No re-briefing, no re-scoping every request, and no waiting for a statement of work before a small fix can happen.
Learn moreEvery change tied back to the number it was meant to move.
Reporting that tells you what shipped, what it did, and what we'd do differently, including the tests that didn't work, because those are the ones that shape the next quarter.
A senior review against the commercial goals, not a status update. What compounded, what stalled, what changed in the business, and what the next quarter should hold. This is where a retainer either earns its place or gets restructured.
Learn moreOne team acting as an extension of your business, one roadmap, one set of numbers.
The disciplines that compound when they're run together instead of bought separately.
The compounding kind of growth: improvements that build on each other instead of resetting every time a project ends.
Momentum That Holds
Improvements that compound quarter on quarter instead of decaying the month after a project signs off.
A Team That Knows You
We're boutique by design. No re-briefing. The people doing the work already understand your catalogue, systems and customers.
Honest Pushback
We'll tell you when what you've asked for won't move the number. That's what a partner is for.
Decisions Backed by Data
No "generalism". Testing and reporting that answer what changed and why, so the roadmap argues from evidence.
No Rebuild in Two Years
Continuous investment in the platform with proper architectural decisions means you don't pay twice for ground you've already taken.
One Team, Not Five Vendors
Strategy, development, CRO and retention under one roof, accountable for the same number.
Retainers that scale with your business. The shape changes as you grow; the team and the roadmap don't restart.
Establish
Fix the foundations, find the quick wins, and get reporting you can trust.
Optimise
Continuous testing, retention and iteration against a quarterly roadmap.
Expand
New channels, markets and capability added without a rebuild or a new vendor.
In-house works when the work is constant and one discipline dominates.
A full-time developer earns their salary if there's always development to do. An agency works when you need several disciplines on demand, which is most brands: strategy, development, CRO and retention each needed some of the time. Many brands run both, with an internal owner and an agency for depth.
The useful ones do three things: they build and maintain the storefront and systems, they improve conversion and retention against real data, and they tell you what to do next. The last one is the difference between a partner and a supplier. Anyone can execute a brief, but few will tell you the brief is wrong.
A project has a defined scope and an end date, which suits a migration or a rebuild.
A retainer is continuous: a standing team, a quarterly roadmap and no re-scoping for every request. The practical difference is that improvements compound, rather than momentum stopping the month the project signs off.
Offshore is usually cheaper per hour and works well for defined execution. Local earns its cost on the parts that need context.
Your market, your customers, your retail floor, your timezone when something breaks on a trading day. We're Auckland-based and work with market-leading brands in New Zealand and Australia, which is a deliberate choice rather than a limitation.
No.
We work on what you own: the storefront, the systems behind it, conversion, and retention. We'll make sure the traffic you're already paying for converts, and that the customers you win are worth keeping, but we don't buy media. We have a strong network of partners who we can introduce you to shall you need.
It depends on the disciplines involved and the pace you want to move at.
A retention-focused retainer and a full strategy, development and CRO programme are different commitments. We scope against your commercial goals and would rather propose a smaller retainer that works than a larger one that doesn't.
Talk to our team about the right shape.
You can generate code and layouts with AI in an afternoon, and they'll work, and they'll look like everyone else's.
What it doesn't do is decide what's worth building, or tell you when your brief is wrong. We use it every day to make senior people faster, not to replace the judgment you're actually paying for.
