Finding Your Perfect eCommerce Agency

December 9th, 2021

ecommerce agency

When it comes to building a successful business in this day and age, just going the traditional brick-and-mortar route may no longer cut it. A virtual presence is also necessary. 

Additionally, leading your eCommerce business to financial victory is about so much more than merely setting up a website and throwing some products out into the webiverse in hopes that customers will flock to you eager to buy what you’re selling.

As most seasoned eCommerce business owners know, taking your catalog of products online doesn’t always guarantee that you’ll be an overnight success. In fact, one of our favorite sayings at Awesome Dynamic is that building your eCommerce business is “a marathon – not a sprint”. 

The key to building a lucrative online empire is listing by listing, keyword by keyword, PPC ad by PPC ad, and customer by customer. It’s the long game that will take you to where you want to be – but not everyone has the patience for constructing an eCommerce powerhouse by themselves “brick-by-brick”, so to speak. 

This is where an experienced and reputable eCommerce agency comes in. Most business owners don’t have 110% to give all day, everyday to just one aspect of their business. That’s where finding help to manage your eCommerce presence and take your business to the next level is essential.

What Does an eCommerce Agency Do?

ecommerce agency

An eCommerce agency is an external team of dedicated specialists that can help you start, manage and grow your eCommerce venture without the need to employ full-time staff to handle the marketing and management of your online marketplace or stores. 

Every day, more and more businesses are turning to outside sources to help them grow and stay competitive. In the US alone, brands spent more than $162.9 billion on marketing services in 2018. For agencies specifically, they’re seeing a massive uptick in business. By 2022, eCommerce agency revenue in the United States is predicted to rise to over $50 billion.

A full-service eCommerce agency can help you with: 

  • both short-term and long-term sales goals, 
  • website content strategy and development, 
  • digital marketing and social media efforts, 
  • PPC advertising, 
  • SEO focused copywriting, 
  • outstanding customer service, and so much more. 

Most eCommerce agencies can also help you source and hire experienced eCommerce specialists to help you handle the day-to-day operations of your eCommerce business. They are also equipped to provide you with access to cutting edge tools and technologies of the trade to help alleviate common pain points such as inventory planning, PPC management, and other things. 

Hiring a dedicated team of eCommerce specialists is a great way to get the support you need in a cost-effective manner. Any eCommerce business that is looking to scale up should seriously consider bringing on the necessary support in order to stay on track and ahead of the curve when it comes to strategy and planning.

Marketplace Selling – What Is It and Why Should I Consider It?

You might have heard the term “marketplace”, but you are uncertain of what it is exactly. Simply speaking, an online marketplace is just a fancy term for a third-party seller model where retailers have the ability to add products to a centralized online store. 

An example of this would be Walmart, which started as a brick-and-mortar giant, and then expanded into eCommerce territory to remain competitive as more and more businesses went online. Because Walmart has now expanded to Walmart.com, their marketplace model gives them the opportunity for wider product availability and increased distribution as they can deliver products to communities without a brick-and-mortar Walmart store via their eCommerce marketplace.

ecommerce agencyThe Benefits of Selling Online

It is no secret that shoppers today want the convenience of shopping from home while having a wide selection of products to choose from. For smaller businesses, it might be difficult to provide such a vast catalog of products. It isn’t always cost-effective or practical. This is why opting for the marketplace strategy is a smart move. 

With a marketplace, you’re able to open up your sales channel to additional vendors, which means that there will be more items for purchase and a more well-stocked catalog overall that will draw potential buyers. 

Of course, there are some downsides to marketplace selling and a few reasons why you might want to avoid it. In addition to complicating your sales channel a bit, a marketplace can also be much more difficult to control when it comes to certain aspects of fulfillment, sourcing, and customer experience. While adding a marketplace to your online presence definitely carries loads of benefits, keep in mind that there are also plenty of risks that go along with it. Carefully assess both the pros and the cons, and make sure it is the right decision for your business.

Finding the Right eCommerce Agency for You

So you’ve decided to hire an eCommerce agency. Hooray! But what should you look for? How do you get started? These are fantastic questions. 

While agencies aren’t inexpensive by any means, when you weigh the price of an agency versus the price of full-time employees, the latter will typically be more expensive. The cost of hiring just one in-house, full-time employee who is an expert in all things eCommerce involves not just a salary but a host of other things including benefits, vacation pay, and a full line of tools necessary to run the department. So while hiring an agency may seem costly, it actually saves you money in the long run.

When reviewing eCommerce agencies, there are a few important things to look out for to make sure that you are choosing the right partners on your eCommerce journey. 

  • Look for eCommerce agencies that have a proven track record in the marketplace(s) that you are interested in. 
  • Make sure that they have a strong portfolio of work to show you before signing a contract. 
  • Check to see if they offer website design services. 
  • Make sure that they have a wealth of industry knowledge to offer you. 

These are the things that separate a run of the mill eCommerce agency from an awesome one! 

Now that you have some background information on what to look for, be sure to meet with several eCommerce agencies to get a feel for how they work. To schedule a meeting with a member from our team, click here