How To Choose An Agency For Your eCommerce Website
In our previous post, we spoke about why the agency is not dead. In fact, in a world of one-click website and unoriginal themes, we argue that agencies are even more important if you want your eCommerce store to stand out from the crowd.
The big question is, how do you go about picking the right agency for your eCommerce store? In this post, we’ll break down some of the criteria you should look at when hiring an agency.
Core Expertise
Obviously, the agency you pick depends on the core services they offer. Some focus only on digital branding while others focus on Conversion Rate Optimization. Still others offer a full range of services, from design and development to marketing and SEO.
If you already have an in-house team of marketers, you might just want to go with an agency that does only one thing, store design, and does it well. On the other hand, if you have a good design already and need to improve conversions, pick a CRO agency.
Industry Experience
Every industry has its own set of challenges. When you’re selling fashion, you’re in a different industry than a store that sells bicycles. You have different audiences, different purchasing habits, different seasonal changes, and so many other things.
It’s important that the agency you hire understands the industry you’re in. If they’ve designed eCommerce stores for fashion businesses before, they’re likely to understand what challenges you face and how to create a site that convert best for your audience. Look at their portfolios and see what stores they’ve built to determine if they have the experience you’re looking for.
For example, Port80, a top web design agency from Vancouver and a LemonStand Partner, has an impressive portfolio of eCommerce stores related to lifestyle. If your eCommerce store sells similar products to any of these, you can be sure they have the right experience to help you.
Past Results
Related to past experience is results. It helps that your agency has industry experience but have their designs helped their clients? If you’re going to invest money in them, you need to know that you’ll get returns.
Many agencies have examples and case studies of clients they’ve worked with in the past. See if you can find any related to your industry. If possible, try to dig deeper and find out whether those projects lead to a positive return on investment. You can even go a step further and ask for references.
Made by Uppercut, another LemonStand Partner agency, provides case studies on their site with the results their designs have achieved. Here’s one from a skincare brand they worked on –
Process
While design is an art as much as is it a science, winging it doesn’t work. The best agencies have a proven method of understanding your requirements, translating them into a design, and creating something that works.
Some agencies don’t publish their process on their site, so you might need to get on the phone and ask them about it. Whether it’s creating a design from scratch, to optimizing an existing design, your agency should be following a standard practice that they’ve adopted or developed from previous work.
Conversioner, a top conversion rate optimization agency, has a process that they go through with each client to deliver the best results.
Measurement
What gets measured gets managed.
No design process is complete without measuring the results. If your agency has past examples of successful projects, they should have a process for measuring success.
Of course, success could mean different things to you and the agency, so ensure you’re on the same page as them.
Quality Assurance
Design projects can range from 4-figures all the way up to 6 or even 7-figures. Those are big numbers, so it’s important to maintain quality. Find out what steps your agency takes to ensure quality.
Team
At the end of the day, people buy into people. If you’re going to hire an agency, you’ll be communicating with them for a decent length of time. If you don’t like them, you’re not going to be happy with the results.
When picking your agency, try to meet them in person. If you can’t do that, get on a Skype call with their team. Some agencies even fly out to meet you where you are if you’re really serious about hiring them.
Pricing
Pricing is an indication of quality. A $600 iPhone works much better than the cheap $60 knock-off. You can be sure that the real iPhone will last for years (or at least until the next one comes out!) while the knock-off will go bust in a month.
As I mentioned earlier, projects can range from 4-figures to 7-figures. In the LemonStand Partner Program, we only select the best agencies and none of them go below $2,000 for a project. If you cut corners with your web agency and pick someone who is willing to do your entire site for $100, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.
Agencies usually don’t put prices on their website because each project is different and the time or work required varies greatly. If you’ve followed all the criteria I’ve mentioned, you know that the agency you’re talking to produces the best quality, so don’t be surprised if the price quote seems high. The returns will be even higher!
