Every brick and mortar retailer, from small to large, is trying to have an online presence with an ecommerce website. As the number of ecommerce players grows, so does the number of ecommerce development companies. Choosing the right ecommerce technology partner is bit difficult considering the number of options in front of you but we will make that decision-making process simple with these 7 key checkpoints to select an ecommerce development company.
- Check for Reviews and Testimonials
- Check Portfolio
- Request the profiles of developers
- Cost Estimation
- Time to market
- Communication is Key
- Post go-live support
The first step in selecting a company for your ecommerce development project is to check for the company’s reviews online or check their testimonials. This step will validate the company’s credibility and help you understand the company from their previous client’s perspective.
You can check Embitel’s reviews and rating on Goodfirm’s Embitel review page. You can also check more ecommerce web development testimonialson our testimonial page.
After you validate the company’s credibility the next step is to validate their previous experience in your target segment. Let’s say you need to launch a “T-shirt selling site”, check for their previous experience in the “Apparel and Fashion” segment. If your idea is unique, check experience which is close to your idea. Having a look at their portfolio will help you assess their relevant experience and also check if their design pattern is matching with your vision/taste.
Do check our ecommerce case study page to evaluate our experience.
Your experience with the company relies mostly on the person you’re going to work with, irrespective of the company’s credibility. So, request the company to provide the list of developers and designers who will be working on your project and validate their profiles and make sure it suits your project requirement. Also, if you have the technical knowledge, you can ask few technical questions to validate their experience and skills. The team you select should understand your objectives, though it might have been explained by their team leader, it’s good to hear it directly from the horse’s mouth. You don’t want to select developers who “do exactly as you say”, they should also share valuable input for your project.
Do you know that Embitel has the highest number of Magento 2 Trained Developers in India?
Discuss the cost of your ecommerce development project with the firm and make sure it’s within your budget. Request them to provide a breakdown of the pricing such as pricing by design, database configuration, server management and development. Compare the pricing with few more vendors and select the vendor who matches with all your criteria such as credibility, experience and pricing.
Time = Money. You don’t want to wait for a year to get your project completed. A professional firm can implement your project relatively quickly yet with reliable quality as it will have many experienced developers to support your project. A good team is essential to launch a bug free website in reduced development time. Ask for a statement of work to understand the project related tasks and the timeline to deliver them. This will help you to streamline your project and complete the project on time. Project extensions will also lead to a rise in development cost.
Testimonials can also help you understand the company’s ability to deliver on time.
During the evaluation process, validate your technology partner’s communication skills and the medium of communication. Personal meetings will not always go as scheduled, so validate if they also offer an alternate channel of communication such as Skype chat or Google hangout for a quick chat. Remember: A key person from the development team must available during your working hours (or atleast overlap few hours during your working day), actively present on a chat messenger. Poor communication is a door step to a project failure, so ensure that communication is of top quality with your agency.
The firm you select should be able to provide service as well after you launch and go live. You might need support for server management or digital marketing once the site is launched and it’s good to have an all-in-one company for these needs. You don’t want to handle multiple vendors and touch points to manage your ecommerce site—instead you want be able to focus on maximizing profit. Having a single vendor to handle all these is a boon for your business as it will reduce the operational hassles. Hire a firm who has experience in handling all your current and future needs and give you a better ROI on your time and money.
We hope you have found these tips for hiring a suitable ecommerce website development company useful. Embitel is a full-service ecommerce development firm which handles all aspects of an ecommerce business such as design, development, marketing and server support. Contact us to book a free consultation with our ecommerce developers.
