How to Choose an E-commerce Agency: 9 Questions That Expose the Amateurs

Most brands choose an e-commerce agency the way they choose a restaurant: portfolio photos and a good first meeting. Then they spend $30,000 finding out the kitchen was rented. The fix is not more meetings — it is better questions. These nine expose an amateur in under an hour, because amateurs can survive a pitch but not a follow-up.

The 9 Questions Every E-commerce Agency Should Survive

1. “Show me three stores you built that are still live — and still fast.”

Not screenshots. URLs. Then open them on your phone. If a store an agency is proud of takes 5 seconds to load, imagine the ones they hide. A 1-second delay costs up to 7% of conversions; an agency that ships slow stores ships revenue leaks. Here is our live work — hold us to the same standard.

2. “Who exactly will write my code?”

Agencies that subcontract your build to the cheapest available contractor will dodge this question. You are hiring a team; you deserve names and roles. A wrong answer here costs you a rebuild — typically $3,000–$8,000 to untangle outsourced spaghetti.

3. “What load time will you commit to, in writing?”

Amateurs say “we optimize for speed.” Professionals say a number. Ours is under 2 seconds, and we publish exactly how we get there. 53% of mobile visitors abandon a page that takes over 3 seconds — a performance commitment is a revenue commitment.

4. “Are you an official platform partner — and can I verify it?”

On Shopify, “expert” is a self-awarded title; Partner status is vetted by Shopify itself. The verification takes five minutes and filters out most pretenders — we wrote the step-by-step checklist.

5. “What happens in month two, after launch?”

A store is not done at launch; it is barely started. Ask what monitoring, fixes, and iteration cost after handoff. Custom work carries a real maintenance tax — 15–20% of build cost annually is the industry norm. An agency with no post-launch answer is planning to disappear.

6. “Which metric are you accountable for?”

“Deliverables” is the amateur answer. Pages shipped, revisions included — that is output, not outcome. The professional answer names conversion rate, average order value, or revenue per session, and explains how it will be measured. You are not buying a website. You are buying the number the website moves.

7. “What will year two cost me?”

Cheap year-one quotes hide expensive year-two realities: app subscriptions stacked 30 deep, licensed themes you do not own, retainers that quietly double. Demand the two-year total. The gap between quotes usually inverts.

8. “Who owns the code, the theme, and the accounts?”

You would be stunned how many store owners discover, mid-divorce, that the agency owns their theme, their app configs, even their domain registration. The only acceptable answer: you own everything, from day one, in accounts registered to you. Anything else is a hostage situation with an invoice.

9. “What would you refuse to build for me?”

Our favorite. An agency that has never told a client “no” has no standards — it has a sales quota. The right partner will talk you out of spending money on the wrong thing, because they plan to still be working with you in year three.

How to Score the Answers

• 7–9 direct answers with numbers: shortlist them.
• 4–6: proceed only with a small paid test project first.
• 0–3: walk. The pitch deck was the product.

Amateurs sell you the build. Professionals sell you what the build earns.

Do This Today

Before interviewing anyone, get a baseline: run your current site through our free website audit so you know your real speed and SEO numbers — then make every agency explain how they will improve them.

And yes, we will happily sit the exam ourselves. Book a call with QodeBites and ask us all nine.