Working with an eCommerce Development Agency

Your Guide to Finding the Right eCommerce Agency Partner

If you're ready to level up your eCommerce business, you're in the right place.

Today’s most successful online retailers aren’t just reacting to change—they’re staying ahead of it. They're making smart moves now, partnering with eCommerce agencies that don't just "know eCommerce," but live and breathe it. Agencies that understand how to build engagement, earn loyalty, and drive real revenue growth.

This guide is your blueprint for finding a partner who can help you do exactly that. Inside, we break down the eight key areas you need to consider when choosing an eCommerce agency:

What an eCommerce development agency really does
The essential services they should offer
What to look for when selecting your agency partner
The questions you need to be asking
The questions a true partner will be asking you
The most popular eCommerce platforms (and how to choose the right one)
Which analytics tools will give you an edge
The KPIs and metrics that matter most for growing your online store

At Smart Solutions, we stay ahead of the ever-evolving needs of today’s digital shoppers so you don’t have to. We're not just here to build your site—we’re here to be your long-term partner in eCommerce growth.

This guide is designed to help you navigate your search with confidence and find an agency that will set your business up for long-term success. Let’s get started.

Everyone is selling online today, and for good reason. eCommerce offers convenience, a seamless shopping experience, and easy price comparisons–things customers have come to expect. If you’re not fully invested in your online presence, you’re leaving revenue on the table.

With online shopping now the norm, competition is fiercer than ever. Your eCommerce store isn’t just another sales channel—it’s the core of your business. But building and running a high-performing eCommerce operation takes more than just setting up a website. It requires strategy, scalability, and execution. That’s where an experienced eCommerce agency makes all the difference.

The Acceleration of eCommerce

The shift to digital retail has been steadily growing, but recent years have fast-tracked adoption. Industry analysts report that eCommerce growth leaped forward by several years in just a short time, pushing businesses to adapt at a rapid pace.

Simply put, the future of shopping is already here. If your eCommerce site isn’t optimized to compete, you risk falling behind. Whether you’re launching a new store, upgrading an outdated platform, or scaling operations, partnering with an eCommerce agency ensures you have the expertise needed to build a thriving online business.

Why Expertise Matters

Running an eCommerce business isn’t just about listing products—it’s about creating an experience that turns visitors into customers and customers into loyal advocates. Everyone is selling online, but not everyone is doing it well. To stand out, your store needs:

A seamless and intuitive user experience that drives conversions
A platform built for scalability and long-term growth
Seamless integrations that connect your store to back-office systems and improve operational efficiency
Continuous optimization to stay ahead of customer expectations and industry trends

This is where an eCommerce agency comes in. The right agency doesn’t just build websites—it provides strategic insight, technical expertise, and long-term support to keep your business competitive.

This guide walks you through everything you need to know about working with an eCommerce agency—what they do, how they help, and how to choose the right one for your business. Whether you’re replatforming, optimizing, or building from scratch, understanding how an eCommerce development agency fits into your growth strategy is key to long-term success.

An eCommerce development agency specializes in building, optimizing, and maintaining online stores. But what does that really mean? It means working with a team of experts who understand not just websites, but the entire eCommerce ecosystem–platform capabilities, user experience, integrations, long-term scalability, and digital growth strategies like SEO and conversion optimization.

Unlike traditional digital marketing agencies that focus solely on driving traffic, eCommerce development agencies take a holistic approach. They ensure that your store is not only built to perform but is also positioned to attract and retain customers. A true eCommerce agency doesn’t just follow trends–it anticipates them, leveraging data-driven strategies to keep businesses ahead of the curve.

The best eCommerce agencies do more than just build a website–they create an experience. They ensure that your store:

Works flawlessly across devices and platforms
Is optimized for speed, security, and scalability
Integrates seamlessly with back-office systems like ERP, CRM, and inventory management
Implements advanced SEO strategies to increase visibility and organic traffic
Uses data-driven insights to enhance user engagement and boost conversions

If you’re serious about growing your online business, partnering with an eCommerce agency ensures you have the technical expertise, strategic marketing insights, and long-term support to stay competitive.

eCommerce Marketing Agencies

These agencies focus on driving traffic and increasing visibility for your online store. They specialize in:

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) - Helping your site rank higher in search results
PPC (Pay Per Click) Advertising - Running paid campaigns to drive immediate traffic
Content Marketing - Creating blogs, product descriptions, and other content to engage customers
Social Media Marketing - Managing social platforms and paid social ads
Email Marketing & Automation - Running campaigns to retain and convert customers

For small businesses without an internal marketing team, an eCommerce marketing agency can serve as an outsourced solution for customer acquisition and brand awareness.

eCommerce Development Agencies

An eCommerce development agency, like Smart Solutions, provides end-to-end technical and strategic support for your eCommerce business. While we also focus on SEO and digital growth, our core expertise includes:

Website Design & Development - Building high-performing, user-friendly stores
Platform Migration & Customization - Moving to better solutions and optimizing for growth
Back-End Integrations - Connecting your store with ERP, CRM, and fulfillment systems
Strategic Growth & Guidance – Driving revenue and scalability with data-backed strategies and expert insights.
Performance Optimization - Ensuring fast load speeds, seamless checkout, and secure transactions
Data-Driven SEO & Conversion Optimization - Implementing advanced strategies to drive organic traffic and improve user engagement

If used in tandem, an eCommerce marketing agency would develop your marketing strategy and related content, and an eCommerce development agency would handle the technical implementation and execution of this strategy.

	Strategy and Consulting Moving fast is only good if you’re headed in the right direction. Strategy and consulting services ensure your eCommerce investments are aligned with your long-term business goals. While premium strategy services come with a price, they save you money in the long run by helping you avoid costly missteps. Having eCommerce experts evaluate your approach ensures you get maximum ROI.
	Strategic Growth and Guidance Strategic growth services help you make informed decisions that maximize revenue, improve retention, and stay ahead of the competition. A dedicated eCommerce strategist analyzes sales trends, customer behavior, and market shifts to identify opportunities for optimization, ensuring every decision drives sustainable growth. Partnering with a strategist provides expert guidance to navigate challenges, adopt new technologies, and continuously improve your store’s performance.
	eCommerce Development This service covers all the technical expertise required to build and maintain an online store. Platform Selection Choosing the right eCommerce platform is a foundational decision. With options like Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce, and Shopware, each has strengths and trade-offs. A knowledgeable agency assesses factors like scalability, customization, security, and long-term sustainability to match your business with the best fit. Front End Development The front end of your eCommerce store is what customers see and interact with. It’s not just about good design—it’s about seamless usability, mobile responsiveness, and fast load speeds. Studies show that users form an opinion about a website in just 50 milliseconds, so an intuitive, visually compelling, and high-performing front-end is critical to keeping customers engaged. Backend Development The back end is where all the heavy lifting happens. From processing transactions and managing customer accounts to handling order fulfillment and integrating with third-party systems like ERP, CRM, and inventory management tools, your back-end infrastructure needs to be robust, scalable, and secure. A well-built back end ensures that your operations run smoothly and efficiently, without costly bottlenecks or downtime. Custom Extensions and Features No two businesses are the same, and your eCommerce store should reflect your unique needs. Custom development can add specialized functionality—whether it’s advanced product configuration, tailored checkout experiences, or proprietary tools that give you a competitive edge. A strong eCommerce agency can build and integrate the features that set your store apart.
	Tracking and Analytics You can’t make well-informed business decisions without data. And that’s why setting up tracking and analytics is important. Proper tracking ensures you’re analyzing the right metrics to improve customer engagement and boost conversions. Tools like Google Analytics, Semrush, and HotJar provide actionable insights to refine your strategy and enhance performance.
	UI/UX Design Great design isn’t just about aesthetics–it’s about usability. A well-designed eCommerce store should make it easy for customers to navigate, find products, and complete purchases with minimal friction. Poor UI/UX leads to lost sales, high bounce rates, and frustrated users. Shoppers shouldn’t have to think about how to use your site–it should just make sense. When navigation is intuitive, recommendations are helpful, and checkout is seamless, you’re not just selling products–you’re creating an experience that keeps customers coming back.
	eCommerce Website Optimization Even if your eCommerce site is performing well, there’s always room to optimize. And the more traffic you have, the bigger the impact even small improvements can make. A slight increase in speed, conversion rate, or user experience on an enterprise-level store can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional revenue. Optimizations can include everything from improving page load speed to A/B testing copy, designs, and user journeys. An experienced eCommerce agency can quickly identify areas for improvement and implement the right strategies to boost performance.
	Back Office Integrations Your eCommerce store isn’t an island–it needs to work seamlessly with your ERP, CRM, POS, and other critical systems. If these systems aren’t properly integrated, operational inefficiencies can spill over into the customer experience, leading to delayed orders, inventory mismatches, and frustrated shoppers. A strong integration strategy ensures your back-office systems communicate flawlessly, streamlining everything from order fulfillment to customer data management. An eCommerce agency will assess your unique workflows and develop a custom integration solution, ensuring your systems work together seamlessly—so your customers get a frictionless shopping experience, and your team can operate efficiently without manual workarounds. While customers may never see what happens behind the scenes, they’ll certainly notice the difference when things go wrong. A well-integrated eCommerce ecosystem eliminates these issues, protecting your brand’s reputation and keeping operations running smoothly.

Industry Experience

Hiring an eCommerce agency with experience in your industry is a game-changer, especially if you operate in a complex or highly regulated space. The more technical your industry, the more critical it is to have a partner who understands the nuances. An agency with relevant experience means less time spent explaining your business model, fewer miscommunications, and faster, more effective execution. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself explaining the intricacies of cybersecurity solutions to an agency that mostly builds fashion sites—and that’s a fast track to frustration.

A Strong Portfolio

The best predictor of an agency’s capabilities is their past work. Look for portfolio examples that align with your business needs, as they indicate proven success in delivering similar projects, familiarity with common challenges and solutions, and the ability to propose innovative ideas based on experience. If your business is in a niche market, you may not find an agency that has worked with an identical company before—that’s okay. What matters is a history of high-quality work and strong references.

Cultural Fit and Communication

You’ll be collaborating with your agency often—meetings, planning sessions, strategy calls. If you don’t enjoy working with their team, the process will feel like pulling teeth. A good cultural fit means clear and proactive communication, a team that values collaboration, and a working relationship that feels easy, not exhausting. Work with people you actually like—it makes a huge difference.

Post-Launch Support

One of the biggest complaints about eCommerce agencies is that they disappear once the project is “done.” Many agencies prioritize new clients over existing ones, leaving you scrambling when you need urgent support. Before signing a contract, ask about their post-launch support process, costs and response times, and whether they offer proactive strategy sessions to help you grow. Your site isn’t a “set it and forget it” situation. Continuous optimization is key to maintaining performance, search rankings, and conversions. Make sure your agency is in it for the long haul.

Strong Network of Technology Partners

No agency is an expert in everything—and if they claim they are, run. Even top agencies rely on trusted partners for specialized tasks like ERP/CRM integrations, advanced analytics, and technical SEO. A well-connected agency will have a network of vetted technology partners, access to best-in-class solutions, and the ability to bring in experts as needed. Ask about their partnerships—this will give you insight into their capabilities beyond in-house expertise.

Platform Experience and Certifications

Your eCommerce platform isn’t just a tool—it’s the foundation of your business. The agency you choose should have deep expertise in your current (or future) platform, understand industry best practices for building scalable, secure sites, and be a certified partner of platforms like Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce, or Shopware. Certified experts get early access to platform updates, meaning they can future-proof your store instead of patching problems as they arise.

Customer Reviews

Every agency claims to be customer-focused, quality-obsessed, and service-driven. But don’t take their word for it—look at the proof. Check reviews on platforms, ask for client references and real-world testimonials, and, if possible, speak with a retailer who has worked with them. A great agency won’t just talk about how amazing they are—they’ll have a track record of happy clients to back it up.

Process-Related Questions:

Can you give me an outline for the process of developing my project?
What is the expected timeframe for completing my project?
What happens if this timeframe is exceeded?
What is your policy for ongoing maintenance and support?
Who will be my point of contact if we decide to work together?
What is your preferred method of communication?
What do you expect from me to make the project run smoothly?
When are you available to start my project?
What are my initial “on the hook” items and time requirements to get the project off and running?

Quality-Related Questions:

Have you worked with a company from my industry before?
How many projects similar to mine have you completed in the past?
Can you provide me with your references?
How many people will be working on my project?
How long have you been working with my eCommerce platform?
What certifications do you have as an eCommerce agency?
What certifications do the developers working on my project have?
How much work on my project will you outsource?

When you start interviewing eCommerce agencies, they will have questions for you as well. Being prepared and having clear answers will help both you and the agency determine if you’re a good fit. It also makes it easier for them to guide you in the right direction.

If the eCommerce agency that you’re considering working with isn’t asking the right questions, this should raise a big red flag. It’s a sign that the agency won’t be able to prepare a realistic cost estimate and lacks experience with sites as complex as yours.

Here are some of the most common questions that eCommerce agencies ask their clients:

What types of products/services do you offer?
What type of data will you need to migrate to your new website?
What challenges are you facing with your current eCommerce platform?
What does your current online store do well?
Who are your target customers?
Do you sell direct to consumer, direct to business, both?
Who are your top competitors?
Do you have an in-house marketing team?
What metrics do you use for measuring success?
What is your budget for this project?
What is your AOV (Average Order Value)?

What is your timeframe for project completion?
Do you have a specific eCommerce platform in mind?
What is your preferred payment gateway?
Which ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), POS (Point of Sale) and CRM (Customer Resource Management) systems do you integrate with?
Do you require multi-language or accept multiple currencies?
What other systems do you need to integrate with (online chat, analytics services, verified reviews, etc.)?
What are your shipping requirements? Do you ship internationally?
Do all your customers see all the same products, prices, payment, and shipping options?
Do you have an approval process for online ordering?

Of course, you might not have answers to all these questions, and that’s okay. If you don’t have a preference for a specific eCommerce platform, for example, an agency can help you make an informed decision based on your current needs and future growth plans.

However, doing some pre-call research will make the conversation much more productive and ensure you will get the best possible proposal and recommendations.

There’s no shortage of great eCommerce platforms to choose from. The right one for your business depends on factors like scale, industry, and budget. Some platforms are easier to use, while others offer more customization. Certain ones are better suited for specific industries, making them the go-to choice for those verticals.

While it’s always a smart move to consult with your eCommerce agency for tailored advice, getting familiar with some of the most popular platforms can help guide your decision.

Adobe Commerce

Adobe Commerce is a powerhouse in the eCommerce world. Originally released in 2009 and upgraded to Adobe Commerce with Magento 2.0 in 2015, it’s been a go-to solution for businesses seeking flexibility, scalability, and robust features. With retailers handling over $100 billion in gross merchandise volume annually, Adobe Commerce is built to support high-demand, large-scale eCommerce operations.

What sets Adobe Commerce apart is its unmatched flexibility. You can customize almost every aspect of your store, from the front-end experience to the back-end operations. This makes it ideal for businesses with complex requirements or those who want to create unique, highly tailored experiences for their customers.

However, this level of power comes with a steeper learning curve. Compared to other platforms, Adobe Commerce requires more technical expertise to build and manage. As a result, it's highly recommended to partner with an Adobe Commerce Solution Partner to guide your development process and ensure your store is optimized for performance and success.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a great choice for B2B and B2C companies with extensive product catalogs. It’s a SaaS platform that’s ready to support large-scale product offerings right out of the box, and its functionality can be easily expanded through third-party applications. With different pricing tiers based on annual sales volume, BigCommerce is designed to scale as your business grows.

Whether you're selling a few products or managing a vast inventory, BigCommerce offers robust features for product management, sales channels, and integrations, making it a solid pick for businesses that need a flexible, high-performance eCommerce solution.

Shopware

Shopware is a powerful open-source platform that’s all about flexibility and scalability for online retailers. It shines when it comes to customization, enabling businesses to create unique storefronts that reflect their brand. Its modern, API-first architecture supports headless commerce, making it easy to integrate with third-party tools and services.

The platform is designed with ease of use in mind, featuring an intuitive interface, advanced marketing tools, and AI-driven personalization to optimize the shopping experience. One of its major advantages is adaptability—whether you’re a B2B company or a global enterprise, Shopware has you covered. It supports everything from multi-channel sales to customizable product catalogs and in-depth analytics.

Shopware is known for its strong community-driven approach, which ensures that the platform is constantly improving. The active developer ecosystem contributes plugins and extensions that expand functionality. Plus, Shopware offers flexible deployment options, including both cloud-based and self-hosted versions, giving you the freedom to scale your online store in line with your business needs.

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Data is often called "The New Oil" for a good reason. When collected and processed effectively, data can help you make smarter, more informed decisions. In the world of eCommerce, data-driven decision-making is the key to growth.

As an eCommerce retailer, there are no small decisions. Every action, from product selection to pricing strategies, should be guided by data. This is where your key performance indicators (KPIs) come into play. Whether it’s year-over-year growth, net profit, or retention rates, these KPIs provide insights into your company's performance, helping you see where you're excelling and where improvement is needed.

To unlock the full potential of your data, you'll need the right analytics tools. When you partner with a skilled eCommerce agency, they'll help you set up the right tools to track the data that matters most for your business. Here are some of the most popular data and analytics tools used in eCommerce:

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is by far the most widely used analytics and tracking tool across all industries. Being a Google product, it seamlessly integrates with other Google services, allowing you to pull data from various platforms. Whether you're tracking the performance of your PPC (Pay Per Click) ads on the Google Display Network or monitoring organic traffic to your website, Google Analytics gives you the accurate, reliable data you need to measure performance and make informed decisions.

adobe analytics logo

Adobe Analytics

Adobe Analytics gives marketing, product, and business teams a complete view of customer interactions across channels, products, content, and services. With advanced data collection, analysis, and reporting, it helps teams make faster, smarter decisions to optimize the customer experience. Whether you're tracking the customer journey, analyzing mobile and web engagement, or measuring product and content performance, Adobe Analytics delivers the insights you need to drive results.

Mixpanel

Mixpanel is a robust tool designed to help eCommerce retailers understand customer behavior and usage patterns. By integrating Mixpanel with your data lake, you’ll get insights into how customers interact with your products. If you're looking to improve conversion, engagement, and retention, Mixpanel provides all the data you need to optimize the customer journey and enhance your eCommerce performance.

Kissmetrics

Kissmetrics helps eCommerce businesses track key metrics such as bounce rate, session duration, user behavior, subscription revenues, and cart-to-purchase conversion rates. Whether you're running a SaaS business or an online cosmetics store, Kissmetrics enables you to understand your customers better and improve conversions, ultimately boosting customer lifetime value.

Woopra

Woopra helps eCommerce teams make data-driven decisions by tracking customer interactions across multiple touchpoints. By consolidating data from different customer channels, Woopra provides insights into customer trends, helping you pinpoint where in the journey improvements are needed. This focus on the customer journey allows you to refine your efforts, optimize resources, and increase conversions.

cleancart wordmark

cleanCART

Coupons are a great way to boost sales, but managing them effectively is crucial to protecting your margins. With tools like Honey or Piggy, more customers are using valid coupons, which can impact your bottom line. cleanCART allows you to track the performance of each active coupon and adjust or stop them as needed, helping you maintain profitability while still offering discounts.

HotJar

If you want to understand how users interact with your website, HotJar is the tool you need. Unlike Google Analytics, which tracks things like session duration and bounce rates, HotJar offers heat maps and even records user behavior. This lets you see where visitors click, what they interact with, and what grabs their attention on your site. This visual data helps you optimize your site's UI/UX, improving customer experience and performance without the need for excessive number crunching. For a budget-friendly alternative, Crazy Egg offers heat mapping, site effectiveness tracking, goal measurement, CTA optimization, and traffic comparison to enhance customer journey insights.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is an all-in-one SEO toolset designed to help businesses and marketers boost online visibility and organic traffic. It provides powerful features for website analysis, keyword research, backlink tracking, rank monitoring, and site audits. Ideal for data-driven SEO, Ahrefs excels in backlink analysis, keyword insights, and technical site optimization.

New vs. Returning Visitors

Driving traffic to your website takes effort and resources. Whether you’re generating organic content or driving PPC traffic, getting visitors to your site isn’t free. This is why it’s crucial to encourage repeat visits.

A high rate of returning visitors suggests a strong customer lifetime value and a better return on your marketing investment. For an eCommerce website, loyal customers who return to your site are more likely to convert. Research shows that returning visitors are 75% more likely to make a purchase than new visitors.

Bounce Rate

A bounce rate occurs when a visitor lands on your website and leaves without interacting. It's akin to walking into a store, glancing around for a moment, and leaving without buying anything. Just as you'd be concerned about this behavior in a physical store, the same applies to your website.

While a high bounce rate doesn't explain why people are leaving, it signals that something needs attention. Keeping a low bounce rate is key to optimization. To evaluate whether your bounce rate is high, compare it with industry averages and your own business KPIs.

Pages Per Session

Tracking the average number of pages people view per session can reveal valuable trends. This metric helps identify issues with internal linking and shows which landing pages are resonating with visitors.

Understanding which pages are performing well can also highlight which user segments are most engaged with your content and products. The more pages someone views during their visit, the more likely they are to convert.

Average Session Duration

People tend to spend more time in places they enjoy, and the same goes for websites. If visitors are spending a significant amount of time on your site, it's an indicator of interest and engagement.

Shorter session durations may signal issues with your site's design, content, or user experience. When you make changes and see session durations increase, you'll know you're improving the overall experience and engaging visitors better.

Traffic Source and Device

Traffic is vital for eCommerce success — more visitors generally mean more opportunities for sales. But it’s not just about quantity; knowing where your traffic is coming from and which devices your customers use is essential.

By tracking traffic sources (organic, paid, social, etc.) and device types (desktop, mobile, or tablet), you can better optimize the customer experience for each channel. This also helps identify which traffic sources are performing best.

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Your Click-Through Rate (CTR) measures how effective your calls to action (CTAs) and marketing copy are at prompting users to take the next step. Whether it’s a Google ad, a product page, or an email campaign, a high CTR indicates you're successfully persuading your audience to engage.

Conclusion

Whether you're launching a new eCommerce website or managing one that’s been up and running for years, partnering with an eCommerce agency is something you’ll need to consider. Once your business reaches an enterprise-level scale, trying to manage your eCommerce website on your own becomes a time and money drain.

Your time as an eCommerce retailer is better spent on your business, not working in the weeds of your website's infrastructure. No matter how hard you try to handle it all internally, you won’t be as efficient as an experienced eCommerce agency who lives and breathes digital commerce. While it might seem complicated, working with a trusted eCommerce agency is the best hands-off approach to running your website efficiently.

To make the most of your agency partnership, be sure to set clear expectations and goals, establish communication protocols, and understand your ongoing support engagement. With all that in place, you’ll be well-equipped to move forward with an eCommerce agency that ensures your continued growth and success.

Working With an eCommerce Agency: Everything You Need to Know

Download the Guide

Your Guide to Finding the Right eCommerce Agency Partner

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Why Partner With an eCommerce Agency?

The Acceleration of eCommerce

Why Expertise Matters

CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORY

Silencer Shop

Chapter 2: What Is an eCommerce Development Agency?

Chapter 3: eCommerce Development Agency vs. eCommerce Marketing Agency?

eCommerce Marketing Agencies

eCommerce Development Agencies

Chapter 4: What Services Does an eCommerce Development Agency Offer?

Strategy and Consulting

Strategic Growth and Guidance

eCommerce Development

Platform Selection

Front End Development

Backend Development

Custom Extensions and Features

Tracking and Analytics

UI/UX Design

eCommerce Website Optimization

Back Office Integrations

Chapter 5: What To Look for When Choosing an eCommerce Agency