Hir­ing an eCom­merce agency: Must or Should?

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The days of sim­ply cre­at­ing a web­site and leav­ing it be are long gone. It’s a sce­nario so new that the idea of hir­ing an agency exclu­sive­ly devot­ed to eCom­merce would have been a crazy idea. Not any­more. In today’s über com­pet­i­tive mar­ket­place, eCom­merce busi­ness­es need some dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion to suc­ceed. Cus­tomers expect more from their online retail expe­ri­ences, and brands are pay­ing clos­er atten­tion to the user expe­ri­ence and design of their eCom­merce sites in order to stand out from the com­pe­ti­tion. They also pro­vide per­son­al­ized and indi­vid­u­al­ized con­sumer jour­neys. To achieve this lev­el of flex­i­bil­i­ty, many brands out­source their eCom­merce mar­ket­ing and web devel­op­ment to third-par­ty providers. 

So what exact­ly is an eCom­merce agency…

Very sim­ply put, an eCom­merce mar­ket­ing agency is a spe­cial­ized team of experts who help pro­mote, man­age, and grow your online busi­ness by offer­ing ser­vices that help accel­er­ate your dig­i­tal reach through cus­tomized cam­paigns, qual­i­ty con­tent, automa­tion, and a mul­ti-chan­nel approach to boost sales and con­ver­sions. Ser­vices pro­vid­ed by ecom­merce mar­ket­ing agen­cies are vast and can range from basic SEO to com­pre­hen­sive cam­paigns that use inte­grat­ed mar­ket­ing tech­niques across mul­ti­ple plat­forms. These tech­niques should com­bine brand, con­tent, and ecom­merce tech­nol­o­gy with a focus on how your brand strat­e­gy per­forms dig­i­tal­ly, and how your con­tent sup­ports this strategy.

An ecom­merce mar­ket­ing agency typ­i­cal­ly offers strate­gic plan­ning and con­sul­ta­tion, ecom­merce soft­ware strat­e­gy and imple­men­ta­tion, dis­cov­ery and search­a­bil­i­ty, con­ver­sion rate opti­miza­tion, brand strat­e­gy and posi­tion­ing, cre­ativ­i­ty and con­nec­tions with your audi­ence, data and ana­lyt­ics, and more.

But an ecom­merce agency isn’t just about mar­ket­ing. They also pro­vide ecom­merce web­site design and devel­op­ment ser­vices. A pro­fes­sion­al ecom­merce web­site devel­op­ment agency can help ensure your online store is meet­ing the needs of your shop­pers. A great ecom­merce devel­op­ment agency will help you tap into mar­ket trends and advanced tech­nolo­gies, and infuse cre­ativ­i­ty into your process. They pro­vide back-end web devel­op­ment, front-end web design, UI/UX design, ecom­merce ser­vices, app design, dig­i­tal strat­e­gy, cus­tom soft­ware devel­op­ment, and more.

…and who needs one anyway?

There are sev­er­al sce­nar­ios in which a com­pa­ny may want to explore hir­ing an eCom­merce agency. For exam­ple, if their own mar­ket­ing team isn’t get­ting the results they’re look­ing for, or if they don’t have a mar­ket­ing team at all, an eCom­merce agency could help fill the exper­tise gap. In-house mar­keters often have to cov­er a wide range of respon­si­bil­i­ties and may not have the exper­tise required for ecom­merce. Lack of ecom­merce exper­tise is anoth­er good rea­son to explore part­ner­ing with an ecom­merce agency.

Anoth­er pos­si­ble sce­nario is that a com­pa­ny may not have enough capac­i­ty to han­dle the work­load. There may be too much work to do, or they may not have the appro­pri­ate resources. If the work­load is just too much for the com­pa­ny to han­dle on their own, an agency could help shoul­der some of the burden. 

Final­ly, even if the com­pa­ny is doing well, they may want to work with an agency to explore oppor­tu­ni­ties for growth. Ulti­mate­ly, an ecom­merce agency can offer a range of ser­vices to help com­pa­nies achieve their ecom­merce goals, from strate­gic plan­ning and con­sul­ta­tion to ecom­merce soft­ware imple­men­ta­tion and data analytics.

Noth­ing to fear

You may have some doubts or fears about hir­ing an agency to help with your eCom­merce busi­ness. After all, it’s a rela­tion­ship, and one that implies work­ing with peo­ple you don’t know too well, who may be far away, who may want to do things their way, and their way may dif­fer from yours. Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and con­trol are com­mon con­cerns when con­sid­er­ing hir­ing an agency. 

Express your­self

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion with an agency can be a chal­lenge, espe­cial­ly if the agency is locat­ed in a dif­fer­ent time zone or coun­try. Inad­e­quate com­mu­ni­ca­tion can lead to mis­un­der­stand­ings and delays in projects, but if you hire a respon­si­ble agency, this should not be a prob­lem. The same solu­tion applies to anoth­er chal­lenge: when out­sourc­ing ecom­merce and dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing work to an agency, you may lose some con­trol over the process and exe­cu­tion, so it’s impor­tant to find a trust­ed agency that can work with you to make the best deci­sions for your company.

Anoth­er com­mon fear is that the eCom­merce agency won’t deliv­er what you expect and you won’t be able to do any­thing about it. Set­ting clear goals and expec­ta­tions from the start, and choos­ing an agency that does not require long term con­tracts can help you mit­i­gate this fear. More­over, most agen­cies have a proven track record and case stud­ies to show their capa­bil­i­ties, and give you con­fi­dence in their abil­i­ty to deliver.

With so many changes, devel­op­ments, new tech­nolo­gies and trends, it’s under­stand­able to fear that some­thing you don’t real­ly grasp may neg­a­tive­ly impact your busi­ness. How­ev­er, by work­ing with an eCom­merce agency, you can get experts to guide you through the process, ensur­ing that you’re mak­ing the right deci­sions. This can pro­vide you with peace of mind and con­fi­dence in the deci­sions you’re mak­ing for your business.

Here, there and everywhere

Many busi­ness­es are not com­fort­able with remote work, but the pan­dem­ic has made it the new norm and peo­ple have not become less pro­duc­tive from work­ing remote­ly, quite the oppo­site. By hir­ing an eCom­merce agency with expe­ri­ence in remote work, you can ensure a smooth col­lab­o­ra­tion with pro­fes­sion­als equipped with the nec­es­sary tools and resources to ensure com­mu­ni­ca­tion and productivity.

While work­ing with an agency that oper­ates in a dif­fer­ent time zone may seem daunt­ing, it can actu­al­ly be ben­e­fi­cial. A team that works while you sleep can help you increase pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and turn­around time, ensur­ing that your busi­ness runs ²⁴⁄₇.

No price tag

Then comes cost, a crit­i­cal fac­tor when con­sid­er­ing hir­ing an agency, and a very tricky one to assess too. It’s vital to look at the long-term ben­e­fits an agency can bring to the table. A ded­i­cat­ed team of pro­fes­sion­als, access to the lat­est tech­nolo­gies and tools, and dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing exper­tise can help you grow your busi­ness and increase rev­enue. Thus, the cost turns into a worth­while investment.

How­ev­er, the cost of hir­ing a spe­cial­ized eCom­merce agency can be high­er than main­tain­ing an in-house team. This can be a dis­ad­van­tage for com­pa­nies with lim­it­ed bud­gets. The cost will vary depend­ing on the ser­vices you choose and the amount of time spent on your account, but it’s impor­tant to look at the long-term ben­e­fits an agency can pro­vide. And to weigh it against the cost of not hir­ing one.

Doing the tricky math

Devel­op­ing an eCom­merce web­site can be com­plex and time-con­sum­ing, requir­ing a team of devel­op­ers, design­ers, and dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing spe­cial­ists. Hir­ing an eCom­merce devel­op­ment agency can be more cost-effec­tive in the long run, as you only pay for the ser­vices you need when you need them. The aver­age salary for a mar­ket­ing man­ag­er in 2023 was $157,620, which does­n’t include addi­tion­al over­head costs such as office space, util­i­ties, and equip­ment. Even if your mar­ket­ing team works remote­ly, these expens­es still add up.

While the cost of in-house devel­op­ers can often be high­er, an agency can poten­tial­ly pro­vide much more val­ue with a ded­i­cat­ed team of pro­fes­sion­als, access to the lat­est tech­nolo­gies and tools, and dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing exper­tise. Ulti­mate­ly, cost is yet anoth­er area in which one-size-fits-all approach­es don’t work, as each com­pa­ny will have its spe­cif­ic needs. How­ev­er, bear in mind you will only be pay­ing for bill­able time, or the hours that the agency spends work­ing for you, which can be more cost-effec­tive in the long run com­pared to main­tain­ing an in-house mar­ket­ing team with the cost of salaries, ben­e­fits, and over­head expens­es. More­over, the freed-up bud­get from your web devel­op­ment costs lets you take that mon­ey and apply it to any­thing else you may need. 

Choos­ing a dig­i­tal agency requires research to ensure that you choose a trust­wor­thy busi­ness team with proven expe­ri­ence in eCom­merce projects, and research requires addi­tion­al time and effort on your part. But it’s def­i­nite­ly worth it to find the right fit.

All the upsides of hir­ing an eCom­merce agency

We’ve already cov­ered some of the fears. Now, let’s dive into the many ben­e­fits enlist­ing an agency may bring.

Access to Ecom­merce Experts

Ecom­merce agen­cies have a team of experts with spe­cial­ized knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence in eCom­merce, includ­ing web­site design, devel­op­ment, main­te­nance, dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing, paid cam­paigns, social media, and email mar­ket­ing. By hir­ing an agency, you gain access to a wide range of skills and spe­cif­ic eCom­merce design expe­ri­ence that you may not have in-house. Build­ing an inter­nal team that pos­sess­es all these skills can be expen­sive and time-consuming.

Save time

One of the ben­e­fits of hir­ing an eCom­merce agency is that they can take care of the mar­ket­ing tasks, free­ing up your time to focus on oth­er aspects of your busi­ness. This means you can still be involved in the process, but not have to ded­i­cate all your time to it.

More Cer­tain­ties

Anoth­er ben­e­fit is the abil­i­ty to mea­sure real results, as agen­cies have the tools and exper­tise to ana­lyze data and pro­vide insights that can help improve your mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy. Addi­tion­al­ly, when work­ing with an eCom­merce agency, your invest­ment is close­ly tied to ROI, ensur­ing that you get a return on your invest­ment and valu­able data to make informed deci­sions and adapt your strat­e­gy as needed. 

Access to tools

Hir­ing an eCom­merce agency gives you access to the lat­est tools and tech­nolo­gies. Most busi­ness­es find it chal­leng­ing to invest in train­ing and imple­ment­ing new tools for their in-house team, and it’s hard to deter­mine the suc­cess rate of such strate­gies. How­ev­er, by hir­ing an agency, you can have access to new prod­ucts and upgrad­ed tools with­out hav­ing to invest in cost­ly equip­ment and soft­ware. Agen­cies invest in automa­tion tools, SEO opti­miz­ers, and con­tent research tools that can make cam­paigns ultra-spe­cif­ic on Google, Face­book, and Insta­gram. This pro­vides prac­ti­cal under­stand­ing and cus­tomized strate­gies that meet your busi­ness require­ments, sav­ing time and boost­ing mar­ket­ing productivity.

Effi­cien­cy and Productivity

Agen­cies are used to work­ing with a vari­ety of busi­ness­es and can quick­ly under­stand your needs and how to ful­fill them. They fre­quent­ly pur­chase new tools and resources, such as soft­ware and train­ing, to stay ahead of the curve. They also stay up-to-date with the lat­est eCom­merce mar­ket­ing trends. By out­sourc­ing your mar­ket­ing to an agency, you can keep momen­tum and ensure sta­bil­i­ty, regard­less of any changes to your team.

Increased secu­ri­ty

One advan­tage of hir­ing an eCom­merce agency is the increased secu­ri­ty they can pro­vide for your online busi­ness. With the help of an agency, you can improve the secu­ri­ty of your web­site and cus­tomer data. They can assist you in imple­ment­ing secu­ri­ty fea­tures such as SSL cer­tifi­cates, two-fac­tor authen­ti­ca­tion, and secure pay­ment pro­cess­ing, as well as pro­vid­ing the nec­es­sary updates to keep your site secure. Anoth­er advan­tage is the abil­i­ty to track and mea­sure real results. A good agency can help you devel­op a mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy to achieve your goals, increase your vis­i­bil­i­ty, and ulti­mate­ly improve your return on investment.

Main­te­nance and Support: 

Every online store or web­site requires con­stant sup­port and main­te­nance to pro­vide users with a good expe­ri­ence. Hir­ing an eCom­merce agency means you can have access to a ded­i­cat­ed sup­port team to ensure your eCom­merce store is run­ning smooth­ly. Good sup­port is essen­tial to build­ing a strong brand, reach­ing new cus­tomers, and achiev­ing your busi­ness goals. Although the cost may be high­er, work­ing with an agency can be con­sid­ered an invest­ment in grow­ing your busi­ness exponentially.

Fresh Per­spec­tive

An eCom­merce agency can pro­vide a fresh per­spec­tive that you may not get from your inter­nal team. A good eCom­merce agency can also offer insights and expe­ri­ence across dif­fer­ent indus­tries and types of busi­ness­es. This can help in-house teams become more effi­cient by repri­or­i­tiz­ing their work­load to con­cen­trate on core tasks and offer cre­ative solu­tions to issues you may not have con­sid­ered. And it also brings flex­i­bil­i­ty, as agen­cies can adjust mar­ket­ing efforts based on changes in your busi­ness or brand.

Every­body needs somebody

Over­all, the advan­tages of hir­ing a dig­i­tal agency out­weigh the dis­ad­van­tages, espe­cial­ly if you part­ner with a reli­able agency that aligns with your company’s needs, but the ulti­mate advan­tage is that with a good dig­i­tal agency, your suc­cess is their suc­cess, which means they will be com­mit­ted to help you achieve your goals and will work hard to ensure that you do. It’s a win-big-togeth­er sit­u­a­tion. If you part­ner with a sol­id team that solves prob­lems and fights good fights with you, you can achieve your busi­ness goals faster, more effi­cient­ly, and with few­er set­backs, stay ahead of the com­pe­ti­tion and adapt to the increas­ing­ly chang­ing scenario. 

Choos­ing an agency can be a tough deci­sion because there’s much at stake, and much to con­sid­er. If you have doubts or ques­tions, let us know. We can get you a shortcut.

Book a dis­cov­ery call and see if we’re a good fit.

Or stick around and get more eCom­merce busi­ness insights.