How to Choose the Right eCommerce Development Company
Choosing an eCommerce development company is mostly a matter of checking four things: whether they know your platform deeply, whether stores they built are still running well, whether you will own what they build, and whether they will still be there after launch. Everything else in a pitch is secondary. This guide is a short, practical way to check those four, written for an Australian business owner comparing two or three agencies.
Before you talk to anyone
Write a one-page brief. What you sell, roughly how many products, which systems the store has to connect to (accounts, inventory, shipping, email), what is wrong with the current store if there is one, and the three things the new store must do that a basic template cannot. An agency’s response to that page tells you more than their website does. If they come back with questions, good. If they come back with a price, be careful.
Decide whether you want a platform store (Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce) or something custom. If you are not sure, our guide on whether to build or buy covers it. Most businesses want a platform store with a few custom pieces, and the agency should be strong on that platform specifically.
The four things to check
1. Depth on your platform
An agency that builds on Shopify every week knows its apps, its limits and its checkout rules. One that mostly builds WordPress brochure sites and does the occasional WooCommerce store will learn on your project. Ask which platform they build on most, and what they would not use it for. Look for a specific answer with examples, and for partner status with the platform where it exists.
2. Stores that are still running
Ask for three live stores they built more than a year ago. Open each on your phone. Is it fast? Does the checkout work? Are the product pages still tidy, or has the store decayed since launch? A store that has aged well says more about the agency than any case study. Then ask to speak to one of those owners. Not a written testimonial; a phone call.
3. Ownership
You should own the platform account, the domain, the theme, any custom code and every app subscription, from the first day. Some agencies set everything up under their own accounts “to make it easier” and the owner finds out when they try to leave. Ask directly: at the end of this project, what do I own, and where does it live?
4. What happens after launch
A store needs updates, fixes and small changes for as long as it trades. Ask who you call when the checkout fails on a Saturday, how fast they respond, and what it costs. Ask what handover includes: documentation, admin access, a walkthrough. An agency that treats launch as the end of the job is the wrong agency for a store.
Questions for the first call
- Which of the three things in my brief would you do with an existing app, and which would you build? Why?
- What is the most common reason your eCommerce projects run late?
- Who exactly will do the work, and will I speak to them?
- How do you handle customer data during the build and after it?
- Show me the documentation you handed over on your last project.
- If I wanted to leave you in two years, what would that involve?
The quality of the answers matters more than the content. Vague answers to specific questions are the warning sign.
Compliance and security are the agency’s job too
Two Australian obligations sit on every online store, and the agency should know them without being told. Australian Consumer Law governs refunds and returns; the ACCC’s 2025 sweep of more than two thousand retail websites found terms that wrongly limited refunds on faulty goods, often copied from templates. Ask how the agency sets up returns and refund pages. On security, the Australian Cyber Security Centre’s small business cyber security guide covers the basics: multi-factor authentication on admin accounts, separate logins per person, backups, and access removed when people leave. An agency that shrugs at either is a risk.
How a good engagement runs
Ask each agency to describe their process and compare it against this shape. Discovery first: a session or two on what you sell, who buys it, and which systems the store must connect to, ending in a written scope. Then design, usually on the platform’s theme system rather than from a blank page, approved on a phone before anything is built. Then the build and the integrations, with the product data loaded early rather than at the end, because product data is always the thing that holds launch up. Then testing: real orders, real refunds, real shipping labels, on the devices your customers use. Then launch, with the old store’s addresses redirected so search rankings carry across. Then support, agreed before launch rather than after.
An agency that describes something like that, in its own words, has done it before. One that goes from “sign here” to “here is your design” has skipped the part where they learn your business.
Reading the quote
Compare quotes by what is in them, not the total. A low quote that excludes migration of your existing orders, the Xero integration and any support is not low. A good quote lists what is included, what is excluded, what you have to supply (product data, photography, copy) and when, and how changes are priced. If a quote has no exclusions, the exclusions are coming later.
Be wary of guarantees about rankings or sales. No agency controls Google or your customers, and the ones that promise results are promising something they cannot deliver.
Want this as a one-page checklist? Ten things to check when choosing an eCommerce development company, on one A4 page.
A worked example
This is a hypothetical, not a client. Take an Adelaide outdoor equipment retailer with a seven-year-old WooCommerce store, 1,200 products and a warehouse system that does not talk to it. Three agencies quote. The first is cheapest and proposes a new theme on the existing store. The second proposes a move to Shopify, with the warehouse integration included and support priced monthly. The third is the most expensive and proposes a custom build.
The brief said the warehouse connection was the biggest problem. Only the second quote addressed it. The first fixed the appearance and left the real problem; the third solved it in the most expensive way possible. The second agency also showed two Shopify stores from three years ago that still ran well, and put the owner on the phone with one of them. That is the choice, and the price difference was not the reason.
How High10 helps
High10 is a Sydney agency that builds stores on Shopify and WooCommerce and does custom eCommerce development where a platform is not enough. We respond to a brief with questions before a price, you own every account and every line of code from day one, and every project is quoted in writing with what is in and what is out. We will also tell you if your brief is a job for a freelancer rather than an agency.
Frequently asked questions
What should I look for in an eCommerce development company?
Depth on your platform, live stores they built more than a year ago that still run well, clear ownership of accounts and code by you, and defined support after launch. Check all four before comparing prices.
How many agencies should I compare?
Two or three. More than that and the brief gets diluted and the comparison becomes about price. Send each the same one-page brief and judge them on the questions they ask back.
Should the agency be in my city?
Not necessarily. Most of the work is done remotely. What matters is time zone, responsiveness and whether they will meet you for the first session if you want that. An Australian agency understands GST, Australian Consumer Law and local payment and shipping providers, which matters more than the suburb.
What are the warning signs of a bad eCommerce agency?
A price before questions, “we work on every platform”, no live stores older than a year, accounts set up under their name, no written exclusions in the quote, guarantees about rankings or sales, and no answer to “what happens after launch”.
Want this as a one-page checklist? Ten things to check when choosing an eCommerce development company, on one A4 page.
Related reading
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