Choosing the right ecommerce web design agency is key to the success of your online store.
An ecommerce website is one of the best ways to make sales online, but it takes a lot of time and experience. Having an attractive website is one thing, but it also needs to be user-friendly, fast-loading, and optimised for conversions, ensuring users stay on your site and make a purchase.
You might have considered ‘going it alone,’ but this approach requires significant resources and distracts you from other crucial tasks. Partnering with a professional ecommerce web design agency can alleviate these concerns as they have the expertise to handle this work efficiently. With experience across various sectors, they know which features and functionality will work best for your business.
This allows you to focus on other critical tasks without the worry of managing the complexities of website design.
That said, with so many ecommerce web design agencies to choose from (just do a quick search for ‘web design agency’ on Google and see for yourself!), it can be difficult to know which agency is right for you.
In this blog, we’re exploring how to choose an ecommerce web design agency, ensuring you find the right fit for your business.
What to Look For In An Ecommerce Web Design Agency
Knowing what to look for in an ecommerce agency helps you find one that aligns with your company. Your web design project could take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months or more, depending on what services you choose.
This means the partnership needs to work, otherwise you’re going to run into problems later down the line! Below we’re exploring some key considerations for you to take into account when you’re looking at some options.
Check their web design services
Knowing what web design services an agency offers is key because, while your primary goal might be to build an ecommerce website, your business needs often extend beyond just the basics. For example, you might also want custom functionality that aligns with your specific products or services, such as advanced search features, personalised user experiences, or integration with other software like CRM systems.
When Discovery partnered with Diamond Whites for instance, they needed a bespoke booking platform that enabled their team to manage appointments, allocate staff, and identify customer demand across their different pop-up locations. By working with our website team, we were able to create a custom solution that contained the features and functionality they needed.
Once your site is up and running, ongoing support and maintenance are also essential to ensure it continues to run smoothly. A full-service agency can provide these services, along with SEO to help your site rank higher in search engine results.
Furthermore, you might need branding services to ensure your ecommerce reflects your brand identity. Or, if you’re looking to expand your reach, you may want to explore digital marketing services like PPC advertising or email marketing, all of which an agency might be able to offer.
Look at their examples of work
An agency’s portfolio is one of the biggest indicators of their expertise. It’s vital you check out their examples of previous work to get a better understanding for the types of projects they worked on and also the industries they’ve got experience in.
Perhaps they’ve worked with another company in your sector before which means they’ll already have a base level understanding of how it all works.
You also want to feel excited and inspired when you look at their work, as this gives you a feel for their creativity and how they approach different projects. Take the time to read the case study content too as it should explain the impact they’ve made to the clients business and how their partnership directly helped to improve something.
If a web design agency doesn’t show examples of their work this would be a major red flag as they should be proud to show off what they’ve achieved for their clients.
Take a look at their about page
Whilst expertise and services are obviously crucial when choosing which ecommerce web design to choose, you also need to like the people you’re going to be working with!
Like we mentioned before, you could be partnering with your agency for quite some time so the partnership needs to work for both sides. Whilst you need to trust them to deliver the project on time and on budget, you also need to be able to communicate with them easily.
Otherwise the project will take so much longer and it’s not a healthy working relationship in the long-term. Having a look at their ‘about us’ page is a great way to get a better understanding of who the people are behind the computer screen and helps you connect on a bit more of a personal level.
Identify what sectors they’ve worked in
As we’ve mentioned above, knowing what sectors an agency has worked in before can be helpful as different industries have their own challenges.
An agency with experience in your sector will already understand these nuances, allowing them to create a website that not only meets industry standards but also caters to the specific needs of your target audience.
Working with an agency that has a track record in your industry also means they can bring proven strategies to the table.
They can draw on past successes to recommend various features and design elements. This experience can save you time and money, as the agency will be able to avoid common pitfalls and suggest solutions that are tailored to the expectations and behaviours of your customers.
Find out how they communicate
Being able to communicate with your web design agency is an absolute priority. If you have any sort of question about your deadline, an upcoming meeting, or a certain feature on the website you just want to be able to speak to the right person.
You don’t want to be spending ages in a queue or having to submit a ticket which can lead to project delays and a lot of frustration!
So check out how the agency communicates by taking a look at their website. They should have a contact number, email, and social media icons at a minimum as this gives you different options to reach out. They might also have a ‘get in touch’ form which allows you to add more information about your project or your query.
Being able to pick up the telephone is a really important thing when partnering with an external agency as this makes communication easier and faster. Particularly if there is something complex, as going back and forth on email can be tedious.
If any agency doesn’t have a contact number this might be a concern as you could find yourself waiting longer trying to speak to the right person.
Look for a project manager
You should check to see who will be working on your ecommerce website but also who the main point of contact will be. Agencies have different ways of doing this so it’s about finding a model that works for you.
Some agencies prefer to have only their delivery team speak to the client (so the designer, marketer, web developer etc) whereas others also assign a project manager. This person acts as the central point of contact, so that whilst you will get to speak to the individual team members working on your project, you’ll also have someone leading it.
This usually helps things run smoother as it means you’re not constantly repeating yourself – especially when there is an overlap of services. By having a project manager in charge, it’s their responsibility to coordinate this for you, ensuring everyone understands their role and how they’re contributing to the end goal.
At Discovery Design, we want to make sure your project runs as smoothly as possible so we’ll always assign our project manager who will make sure everything stays on track. We know how frustrating it can be speaking to several different people about the same thing so this approach will hopefully make your project feel a bit simpler!
You can find out more about the way our website team works by taking a look at our process here.
How to Choose An Ecommerce Web Design Agency
Choosing the right ecommerce web design agency can feel daunting as you want to make sure you’ve got the right team who can both deliver the project, but who also feel like a good fit.
It’s important to achieve this balance as you’re going to be working with these people after all, so you need to feel confident in what they bring to the table!
Going it alone can seem tempting but there’s a lot riding on the success of your online store to make sure it’s built with both design and functionality in mind so that you achieve your goal: increased sales.
At Discovery design, we’ve partnered with clients across a range of sectors helping them transform their ecommerce site so they enjoy more conversions. Get in touch with our team to find out more.
