The Essential Guide to Hiring an Ecommerce Expert For Your Business

Having an online store is no longer a luxury—it is a vital necessity for any modern business to stay afloat. An online store can help expand your target audience, reach more customers, and boost your brand’s recognition.

Moreover, your potential clients get the opportunity to order your product remotely and never leave their homes. This is, in fact, where an eCommerce development expert comes into play.

However, hiring an eCommerce expert boils down to this: you can rest assured that your online store is easily manageable for you, and your user-friendly clients, and tailored to your specific business requirements as well as your target audience.

This quick guide will explain how to choose an eCommerce development expert for your business, from scoping your needs to post-launch supervision.

So, without further ado, let’s move on to the first step.

Before you begin contacting any eCommerce development expert, you need to understand what you actually expect from them.

First and foremost, decide what you are striving to achieve with your online store. Do you just wish to boost your sales, offer products to more customers, or enhance your brand awareness? Your goals will outline your project’s scope and orientation.

Scope and scale: Decide on the size and complexity of your online store. This includes the number of products, and the scope of features – i.e. product filters, customer reviews, payment options, international shipping, et cetera. As a result, you have to understand how to present your needs to potential development companies.

Functionalities desired: Define certain features that are vital for your business. For example, if you are a clothes reseller, you should consider a personification option and color picker. Prepare a functional plan of what you would like to have. Which of the listed above is a must-have, and which one is a nice-to-have?

Therefore, taking time to comprehensively outline your project will not only help you find an eCommerce expert capable of fulfilling your requirements, but the whole development process will be more structured.

Indeed, choosing the right eCommerce development expert is essential for the online store’s success. Here are the most critical aspects that you can ensure to find the perfect fit:

Research and Shortlisting: You will need to search online for companies that provide eCommerce experts with high reviews and well-developed portfolios. Moreover, there are websites like Clutch.co or UpWork, where eCommerce experts’ listings exist combined with client feedback. You can also ask your business network for recommendations.

After that, select the ones that stand out the most by niche experience relevant to yours, and client feedback quality. Also, consider the following competencies:

With a closer look at these aspects, you can choose an expert who not only has the technical capacity to build your online store but can also understand and support your business strategy.

Once proposals start coming in, you should be able to review them adequately:

Understanding proposals: a strong proposal includes a precise description of the project scope, deliverables, timeline, and cost, as well as an explanation of the approach the experts will take to meet your project brief. Keep an eye out for proposals that closely match your brief and demonstrate a good understanding of your business context.

Considering portfolios: reviewing an eCommerce expert’s past work can give you an idea about their experience in different projects and the final product’s quality. Agencies often present a diverse portfolio, trying to highlight both creative design effort and intricate functionality. More specifically, assess projects in terms of size and industry – a similar business size is a good indicator in most cases.

The next step is to determine what a strong candidate looks like:

After carefully reviewing the proposals and portfolios, you can decide on a candidate that not only understands your vision but also has the potential to bring it to fruition.

Financial point of view Last but not least, going with an eCommerce expert that you can afford while still receiving a quality product is essential. First in this list comes the Pricing Models.

Pricing Models: Some of the pricing models include:

Your Hiring Process So, how do you hire the right eCommerce development expert? Take these structured steps to make an informed decision:

Shortlist the potential agencies like Techtic that provide eCommerce experts and contact them to talk about your project. See how they respond and how interested they are in your project.

Ask for a detailed proposal defining the approach to your project, timeline, the development cost, and provide specifics about the eCommerce experts who will be working on your project regularly.

Conduct interviews or meetings with the agency candidates. It will allow you to ask more detailed questions about the project management approach, the qualifications of the team members, and projects completed earlier.

Check the proposals for completeness, clearness, and how well the agency understands your goals. Also, see if the proposal complies with your project period and budget.

Conduct reference checks to verify the reliability of the agencies, quality of work, and post-project assistance.

Based on all gathered information and the impression your project members had after meeting the agencies, make the final decision.

Go through the contract with the chosen agency very carefully. Ensure every aspect is defined well, including the scope, timelines, payment terms, and confidentiality details.

This systematic hiring process will help you make the right choice of eCommerce experts to meet your eCommerce needs and support the business’s success.

Once you have chosen the right eCommerce experts to bring your vision to life, you will need to successfully onboard them to your project. The essential aspects of onboarding include:

Conduct a detailed onboarding session to share your business goals, brand style guide, and specific expectations from a new team member. The eCommerce expert should have access to any materials, research findings, or customer insights that contain information relevant to the upcoming process of design and development.

Agree on the principal means of communication and collaboration tools. Both parties should use the same project management software like Asana or Trello, and maybe even collaboration tools like Slack, to support the smooth workflow.

Determine who bears the responsibility for different areas of the project from both your team and the new candidate’s sides. Indicate the main assignment contacts for each area of work to enhance your workflow and minimize misunderstandings.

Develop a cohesive and comprehensive timeline for your project, including key milestones, deadlines, and deliverables. It should also mention regular check-in points for you to review the progress, offer your feedback, and adjust the course if required.

If your project includes complex software or unknown platforms, consider conducting training sessions for your team. This may include user experience training, some instructions on how to operate a content management system or even simple coding training – whatever is required by your project.

The proactive onboarding step launches your project on a pleasant and constructive note. It ensures the newly onboarded eCommerce expert is well-prepared to realize your vision and reduces possible risks of disturbances to the project’s schedule.

Project management is necessary to ensure the successful development of your website. Here is how you manage the execution of the development through the following measures:

Set a regular regularity of review meetings with your team. Determine if this should be a daily, weekly, or bi-weekly event and mode of communication – in-person, video calls, or a project management tool. This keeps everyone on their toes and assures you of continuous progress.

Manage your project using software that allows you to track performance, assign tasks, and maintain deadlines. Examples of such tools include Jira, Monday.com, Trello, and many more. This will enable you to see where each task is at any given moment and take preventive steps in case of delays and other delays.

Website functionality is not constant, and that is why change is continuous through the engagement process. Find all known bugs and usability issues by applying multiple testing rounds.

Be quick to respond to feedback. Make sure that your reaction is constructive and pass it to your team every time a milestone is met. This helps us understand your point of view and take the necessary action to correct it.

Know that it is okay to prepare for what may go wrong. Anticipate a project failure and have a proper strategy for it to avoid disruptions.

As the project is getting closer to completion, prepare for the launch. This phase involves final QA testing, content loading, and planning marketing efforts to attract users to the new website. At this stage, you should have a launch checklist with all technical and advertisement-related activities. Thus, proper project management helps deliver products on time and within a budget and make products satisfactory for your business.

After your eCommerce store goes live, the journey doesn’t end there. Ongoing support and maintenance are crucial for keeping the site operational and responsive to customer needs. Here’s how to manage this phase:

By planning for post-launch activities, you can ensure your eCommerce platform remains robust, dynamic, and continually aligned with your business goals.

One last thing, the partnership with your development experts does not end once the site is live. A high-performing eCommerce site is a live business tool that must grow and change with your business and the dynamic eCommerce ecosystem.

Working with your chosen website partner for the long term will help you keep it spick and span and running smoothly. You will benefit from the post-launch support and feature improvements.

If you’re an eCommerce business owner seeking to build or improve your eCommerce store, we, at Techtic, can help you reach the miles. We have a pool of experienced eCommerce development experts. Feel free to reach our sales team and we’ll get you in touch with our top 1% vetted candidates.