How to Choose an E-commerce Agency: Seven Questions to Ask Before Building Your Store

Stores that get built but do not sell

The most expensive mistake in e-commerce is a store that looks good but does not sell. Product pages load slowly, customers drop off at checkout, the shipping integration is fixed by hand, stock does not match the marketplace. And when the agency changes, it turns out the store cannot be moved.

Most of these problems are decided before the build, when the agency is chosen. The seven questions below are asked in the proposal meeting; if the answers are clear and in writing, you are with the right agency.

1. Are they tied to a single platform?

Some agencies work with only one platform and sell it to every business. Yet the right platform depends on your catalogue, the markets you sell to and your budget: ready-made platforms (Shopify, İkas, T-Soft, Ticimax) are fast and low-maintenance; custom software is for businesses with non-standard processes.

The question to ask is: "Which platform do you recommend for my catalogue and market, and why?" An agency that gives a single answer without reasoning is selling a product, not a solution. For the details of the platform decision, see our platform selection article.

2. In whose name will the store be set up?

The domain, the platform account, the payment provider contract, shipping agreements and analytics accounts should be opened in the business's name; the agency gets admin access, not ownership. Otherwise the store is held hostage when the agency changes.

The second question is portability: "If I move to another platform or agency tomorrow, are products, content and search history preserved?" When an existing store is migrated with products, content and SEO handled carefully, rankings are not lost; an agency that has done this before can explain how.

3. Who will connect the integrations, and who will maintain them?

A store does not work alone: payment (virtual POS, 3D Secure), shipping, accounting or ERP/CRM and marketplaces are connected to each other. When orders, stock and customer data live in one system, errors drop and operations stop fighting the store.

The proposal should state in writing which integrations are included, who will set them up and who will intervene when an integration breaks after launch. The sentence "integrations will be done" is not a scope.

4. What is being done for speed and conversion?

A fast and clear store sells more. Product pages, the cart and the checkout step should be tuned for conversion; the mobile experience should be measured from day one. Ask the agency: "How do you measure and reduce customer drop-off at checkout?" If the answer includes data and testing (analytics, heatmaps, experiments), you are on the right track; if only design is described, it is incomplete.

5. Is it ready to grow on launch day?

SEO foundations, analytics and ad measurement hooks should be inside the store and ready on launch day; measurement added later loses the first months of data. Product titles, descriptions and photos are part of this preparation too: who will prepare the content, and in which format?

If you are considering cross-border sales, ask about multi-language and multi-currency structure, international shipping and tax compliance from the start; adding them later usually means rebuilding.

6. Are scope, timeline and maintenance in writing?

Setup is shorter on a ready-made platform and longer with custom software; the platform and the size of the catalogue determine the timeline. The timeline the agency gives should state which platform and which scope it applies to.

Scope and out-of-scope should be in writing: how many products will be uploaded, which payment and shipping connections, how many design revisions, which training and handover documents? Post-launch maintenance and support should be a separate item: if the store slows down during the first campaign, who looks at it and how quickly?

7. Is marketing in the same team, or "we'll think about it later"?

The real work starts when the store goes live: Google and social media ads, SEO, marketplace management, email and SMS. When the team that built the site and the marketing team are separate, everyone points at the other when conversion problems appear. A team under one roof improves the store based on marketing data.

Piküp Medya runs store setup, payment, shipping, ERP/CRM and marketplace integrations and digital marketing with the same team; it recommends what fits your catalogue and market without assuming a single platform. Our offices are in Istanbul and Dubai, and we work across Türkiye and abroad. Let's evaluate your existing store or your plan together in a free introductory meeting.