Who's behind your audit

We're Andrew and Kris, two former Shopify employees who spent years helping merchants build better stores from the inside. Between theme development, technical support, and UX audits for Shopify Plus brands, we've reviewed hundreds of storefronts and seen the same conversion-killing patterns repeat across industries and price points.

Spruce Pixel grew out of a simple idea: the UX expertise that was once reserved for Shopify's highest-tier merchants should be available to growing stores too. We're based in Ontario, Canada, where Shopify got its start, and we bring that same standard of quality to every audit.
Andrew Etchen, founder of Spruce Pixel

Andrew Etchen

Andrew is the technical backbone of every Spruce Pixel audit. Before launching this service, he spent years at Shopify across multiple teams, starting in Technical Merchant Support handling complex platform escalations before moving to Theme Support. He became the highest-performing specialist on that team globally, debugging thousands of theme and integration issues across real merchant storefronts, coding frontend solutions in Liquid, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and developing an instinct for the UX patterns that quietly erode conversions. One of his later projects on Theme Support saw him lead work directly with the Online Store Themes team, which opened the door to joining that team as a Developer.

On the Themes team, Andrew collaborated with engineering, UX, and product to ship updates to Dawn, Shopify's most widely used free theme. He redesigned the Rich Text section in a way that other theme developers later adopted as a reference, shipped the updated placeholder images that merchants now see across the theme editor, and built an automated release workflow that cut days off each theme release cycle while making the process nearly error-proof. He also spent time on Shopify's Storefront Optimization team, where he gained firsthand exposure to the UX auditing process and the research-backed evaluation methods that now form the foundation of every Spruce Pixel audit.

He has an eye for good design in all its forms, from great cinematography to a well-crafted brand, and that instinct carries into everything he does at Spruce Pixel. When he's not reviewing storefronts, you'll find him on a mountain bike trail, traveling with Kris and seeking out local cuisine wherever they go, or behind a camera lens.
Kristin Scalisi, co-founder of Spruce Pixel

Kris Scalisi

Kristin is the UX eye and creative force behind every Spruce Pixel audit. Her path to this work started at Shopify, where she began as a Support Advisor and quickly discovered that theme issues were her favourite thing to troubleshoot. She joined the Theme Support team, spent years coding custom frontend solutions in HTML, CSS, Liquid, and JavaScript, and developed a sharp instinct for spotting UX and design issues across merchant stores.

Her instinct for UX led her to Shopify's Storefront Optimization team, where she conducted heuristic UX evaluations for Shopify Plus merchants, writing detailed custom audit reports with actionable, research-backed recommendations. She was meticulous about validating every observation with data rather than relying on assumptions, a habit that defined her work and now carries through to Spruce Pixel. The quality of her audits quickly opened doors beyond the evaluation role itself, and she transitioned into leading product design projects and high-impact initiatives for the team, including an onboarding curriculum for new analysts that drew glowing feedback and enabled teammates to audit independently within weeks.

She holds an Honours Bachelor of Illustration from Sheridan College, and that trained eye for visual hierarchy, layout, and detail shows up in every page of the reports she delivers. Her creative range extends beyond audits too. At Shopify, she designed the Theme Support team logo that's still in use today, illustrated a piece for the Shopify UX blog, and collaborated with the Illustration team on product visuals for the admin. Away from the screen, she’s likely planning her next getaway with Andrew, tending to her plants, or capturing the world in her sketchbook.

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