Built by two people who
refused to be generalists.
Honey Whale is a boutique Shopify and search agency based in South Africa. We started in 2018 with one client and one conviction: deep expertise beats broad mediocrity. That hasn't changed.
From side projects to
380+ South African clients.
Alistair and Brandon went to school together. Before there was an agency, there were side projects - building websites for friends, learning what worked, figuring out what didn't. When Alistair started at UCT studying Information Systems, he started Honey Whale as a way to earn while he studied. When he and Brandon compared notes, they realised they'd both independently started doing the same thing. Brandon had launched Empire Touch, his own digital agency, at the same time. Two people with the same idea.
The obvious move was to combine forces.
In 2018 we took on our first Shopify client. That single project changed our direction completely. We saw what the platform could do - how well-built it was, how much room there was for genuine expertise in South Africa, and how few people were doing it properly. We went deep on Shopify. We became one of the first Shopify Expert agencies in South Africa. We built stores, then we started ranking them - and quickly realised that SEO and Shopify were more powerful together than either was alone.
What started small became
75+ Shopify stores built.
We formally registered in 2018, still at university. By graduation we had a real agency with real clients and a clear focus.We've never tried to be everything to everyone. No brand design. No social media management. No content creation. Just Shopify, search, and paid media - done by people who do those things and nothing else.
That focus is what got us here. 380+ clients across virtually every industry in South Africa. 75+ Shopify stores built. A team of six specialists, an AI-first approach to search visibility, and a track record that speaks clearly.We're still the same two people who thought being genuinely good at a small number of things was better than being average at everything.
The things that don't change.
Questions about Honey Whale.
We're based across Johannesburg and Cape Town. Most of our team works remotely, which means our clients aren't limited by geography - we've worked with businesses from Cape Town to Limpopo, London to Las Vegas, and everything in between.
We started informally in 2016, when Alistair Haddow and Brandon Yang began working with their first Shopify client while still at university. Honey Whale was formally registered in 2018. We've been operating continuously since 2016.
Honey Whale was founded by Alistair Haddow and Brandon Yang. Alistair runs operations and strategy. Brandon leads technology and development as CTO. They've worked together since school.
We don't offer everything. Most agencies do SEO, Shopify, social media, brand design, video, PR, and whatever else clients ask for. We do Shopify, search, and paid media - and nothing else. That specialisation means we're genuinely expert in what we offer rather than competent across a lot of things. We also combine Shopify and SEO under one roof, which is unusual - most clients have to manage separate agencies for each.
Our focus is South Africa. We understand the local market - the platforms, the payment gateways, the search behaviour, the competitive landscape. We've occasionally worked with Southern African and international clients, but our expertise and our network are South African.
