About Portage Commerce.
Portage Commerce is a full-service eCommerce agency in Saline, Michigan, the next town south of Ann Arbor and about 50 minutes from Detroit, founded by Ryan Muir. It is a new firm carrying two decades of judgment and a team assembled for the work.
2026, Saline, Michigan. Working with businesses wherever they are, in person whenever the work calls for it.
Ryan Muir, Founder. Behavioral neuroscience and teaching by training, agency operator by trade.
Shopify, Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source. Fifteen years on Magento and Adobe Commerce.
Signal Flag H. White left, red right. I have a pilot on board.
Nobody notices a good pilot. The ship simply arrives.
A harbor pilot boards a ship that already has a captain and a crew who know how to sail. The pilot is there because this stretch of water is unfamiliar, and because knowing it well is worth more than learning it the hard way.
That is the job. Be the sun, not the salt. Leave ground where things can still grow.
Studied how people think. Taught for a living. Then built agencies.
Ryan studied psychology, with a focus on behavioral neuroscience, before he became a teacher. Two decades in eCommerce came after that. The combination is the approach: understand what drives people, teach instead of sell, and build the systems around both.
Why that background matters now.
Behavioral neuroscience is the study of how people decide and act, down to the chemistry. The neural networks behind today's AI were modeled on those same biological principles. Understanding one helps with the other: why a sales team hesitates in front of a new system, why a buyer trusts one supplier over another, and why an AI tool gives a great answer one day and a confident wrong one the next.
Teaching is the skill that matters most.
Teaching is how you get the most out of AI, instead of AI getting the most out of you. Give it the context you want it to know and goals to reach with that knowledge, the same way you would bring a new team member up to speed. It is also why the first call is a conversation where you do most of the talking. Selling, done well, is teaching.
What he has done.
Fifteen years on Magento and Adobe Commerce, and he attended every Magento Imagine that was ever held. Co-founded an eCommerce agency that made the Inc. 5000 four consecutive years and the Michigan 50 Companies to Watch. Held a leadership role at a firm that reached No. 334 on the Inc. 500. Developed the Selling with Sellers methodology. Certified Agile Leader. Those results belong to those firms. Portage claims the judgment, not the outcomes.
Where a lot of us come from.
A lot of us grew up in southeast Michigan with parents who worked in the auto industry, at one of the Big Three or at one of the tier 1, 2 and 3 suppliers that make the whole thing work. It is a fact about where the firm comes from, not a value it claims. It is why we sweat the details: we have been in the plant, and we know what a real warehouse, a real sales team and a real ERP do to a plausible plan.
Strategy, commerce and marketing, working from one plan.
Four practices under one firm, so the market strategy, the site and the marketing all tell the same story to the same buyer. Every engagement is led by a senior operator who stays your point of contact from the first conversation on.
B2B eCommerce
Shopify, Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source for manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers. B2B is the positioning. B2C and unified commerce are part of the same work.
Build coaching
For teams building it themselves. A review at every stage before you move past it, help with the calls that are hard to reverse, and a hand on the pieces that get stuck.
Market entry and expansion
Constraint review, decision criteria set up front, a prospect list by name and a sales motion your team can run.
Marketing and demand generation
Strategy, brand, web, search and AI visibility, paid media, email, social and HubSpot.
Portage is new. The work is not.
Portage Commerce launched in 2026. The firm is new, and the operators in it have spent two decades building and running commerce for manufacturers and distributors.
Tell us where you want to go.
Start with a conversation about your goals. We will listen, share what we have seen work, and lay out the route we would take from here.