You are planning to get into a booming world of eCommerce, that’s cool! You have an enticing business idea and a clear vision of where exactly you want to take your online venture. In order to make it through, you’re on a serious search to find out an apt agency.

But here’s a thing, like any industry, there exist bad apples when it comes to eCommerce agencies as well. Amid the myriad of digital agencies, it is definitely a challenge to have a trusted and promising agency by your side. And we want to make it possible that you do not end up with a bad choice.

This blog will help you spot all the red flags and warning patterns saving you from the wrong decision.

• Lack Of Industry Experience

Your business has its unique requirements, culture and success factors. The agency you’re working with must have your industry experience and adept knowledge.

If you’re offering wide ranging products to your customers, you must work with an agency having generalized skillset and diverse work experience. In case if your business niche is technical, you must go for an agency that caters to technical businesses specifically.

Don’t go for an ecommerce agency that lacks the know-how or the accurate knowledge of your industry, they’ll most likely fail to meet your targeted objectives in all realms. To claim your coveted success in the crowded world of ecommerce, it’s important that you settle with an agency that owns subject-matter experts who understand your business well. Choose wisely!

• Portfolio Is Not Enough

A good eCommerce digital agency presents a well-maintained and detailed portfolio to clients. It comes with all the necessary information about their previous clients and the record of services they have delivered. Agencies using outdated portfolios and delivering incomplete information just show nonprofessional behavior in their work.

If a portfolio lacks the necessary details, then you should reconsider your decision to proceed with that agency.  In addition, you must cross-check the reviews submitted about them, the web presence of their current clients, and their delivered user experience.

• Agency Doesn’t Fit The Size Of Your Business

In case if your company is big, you require more outsourced employees to do the job for you. For a perfect job to be done, you must find an apt ecommerce agency that fits your size. To conduct your research, you better start from looking at their number of employees and case studies. Do your homework about the digital presence of their existing and previous clients, reach out to them and ask about their customer experience. This practice will provide you a solid idea about their services and what exactly those experts are capable of. In this way you’ll definitely be able to find a credible ecommerce agency that can help you achieve all your performance goals.

 

• Not Concerned About Your Competition

A good eCommerce agency introduces a well-thought-out customized plan for your short-term and long-term success goals. It requires research about your competitors and meets your unique business needs. If an agency is not making an effort to know about your significant industry competition, then you’re not paying the right people.

To plan out a successful eCommerce strategy, an agency must analyze where you stand against your competition. If they’re pushing the idea of ‘one service fits all’, they’re still living under several rocks. What works for everyone, will not work for you. You’re not the same as everyone else, and not your business too.

• Lack Of Transparency

Absolute transparency is necessary for you to trust an agency with your business. An agency that fails to provide transparent services may deny your rights to have access to the process and changes being carried out. They’ll remain unclear to explain their operations, and refuse to provide you the website changes they perform. In addition, they may not share the reference sheet of the links shared on the social media platforms. If an agency comes up with excuses to maintain transparency, the chances are their work is below the standard and you should not proceed with them for your own good.

 

You have every right to have transparent outsourcing services. If an eCommerce agency fails to provide you transparency in its operations and services, then it’s a major red flag here that you shouldn’t avoid.

• Denying Access To Accounts

Outsourcing certain account management services is a smart choice to save your time. But if an agency or a representative expert denies you access to a particular account, then you must not proceed to partner with them. Many agencies come up with the absurd excuses that they manage these accounts in their internal systems or under their own master account. They’re just baseless excuses and not justified in any context.

As a client, you must get access to all the data to analyze the performance and management you’re receiving. You pay for outsourcing services; with that, you earn every right to have access to all the accounts.

• Not Focused On Right Metrics & KPIs

Your business needs a set of defined metrics to grow in ecommerce. Your agency should identify your core business metrics and KPIs; which could be website traffic, sales conversion rates, email opt-ins, average order values and they can vary depending upon your business needs.  In addition they should provide you with the final plan about how they’ll execute your campaign, how long it will take them to drive the results for you.

Before choosing to partner with an ecommerce agency, you should ask them to define their strategy for achieving the performance goals, KPIs and the correct metrics. An agency not focused upon your business metrics and how to meet your       KPIs, is not the right one for you surely. Judge wisely and  you’ll be able to avoid trouble and save your time.

• Falsified Reporting

A true reporting system is necessary to track the success of any marketing campaign.  If your service provider fails to provide you the exact reporting, it’s a major warning you should look out for. It is the due responsibility of your account manager to break down the explanations and details of every report to you. All reports must be clear and easy for you to understand.

If your account manager isn’t able to explain the submitted report, there is a possibility that the document is plainly fabricated.

Be On The Right Side

Credible agencies always apply white hat tactics and the best practices to scale your business. There will be no extraordinary claims from their end in any matter and they won’t guarantee the things that they can’t control – now this is something to look out for. People at these agencies are good listeners and maintain effective communication with you throughout the services. In addition, they are always vigilant if your objectives are meeting your performance goals. They keep iterating their processes and applications to achieve the desired results.

To grow and scale your business in the crowded place of eCommerce, it is mandatory to hire a trusted agency that is passionate enough to grow and scale your business as equally as you are. We hope you spot all the warning signs in your research and land on the best agency, Good Luck!