What to ask an agency before building your online store

The right ecommerce developer questions test whether an agency understands online stores specifically: how payments and orders behave, how stock and accounting stay in step, how the store copes with busy sales periods, and what support you get after launch. A good portfolio shows that a team can make a store look right. These questions show whether it will keep working when real orders arrive.

This guide is for retailers and founders comparing agencies or freelancers for a new store or a rebuild. You do not need technical knowledge to use it; focus on whether answers are specific and calm. If you would like to see how we work, our e-commerce service page explains our approach.

Ecommerce developer questions about past stores

Past work is the best evidence of what a team can do, but only if you ask about more than the design.

1. "Which stores have you built that are similar to ours?" Look for similar catalogue sizes, product types, markets or integrations, not only a similar look.
2. "What was the hardest part of that project, and how did you solve it?" Honest, specific answers about payments, stock or performance problems are a good sign.
3. "Which platform did you use, and why?" A good agency explains why a platform fitted that client, rather than using the same one for everything.
4. "Can we see the store working?" Browse a live store they built on your phone, add products to the basket and look at the checkout.
5. "Are you still supporting that store?" Ongoing relationships suggest the client was satisfied after launch.
6. "Can we speak to a previous client?" If references are offered, ask the client about communication, deadlines and support after launch.

What to listen for

Strong answers describe decisions and trade-offs in plain language. Weak answers stay at the level of "we built a beautiful site" without mentioning how orders, payments or stock were handled.

Payments and order handling

Payments and orders are where store problems cost real money. These questions check that the agency designs for what happens after the customer clicks "pay".

1. "How will the store know a payment succeeded?" Look for an answer that mentions webhooks, the automatic messages a payment gateway sends to your store, rather than relying only on the customer returning to the confirmation page.
2. "What happens if a payment succeeds but the order does not update?" They should describe monitoring for orders stuck on pending and a way to check status with the gateway.
3. "How do refunds work, including partial refunds?" Refunds should be issued from the store admin and recorded against the order.
4. "Which payment methods and currencies do you recommend for our customers?" A good agency asks where your customers are and how they like to pay.
5. "How is card data handled?" Most stores should use the gateway's hosted page or embedded form, so card details never touch your server.
6. "What order statuses and emails will we have?" Ask to see the customer emails for confirmation, shipping, cancellation and refund, and who can edit them.

Integrations with stock and accounting

Most stores do not work alone. Stock, accounting, couriers and marketplaces all need to stay in step with the website.

1. "Which of our systems will the store connect to, and how?" Name your stock system, accounting software, courier and any marketplaces, and ask how each connection works.
2. "Is there an existing connector, or will you build one?" Existing connectors can save time; custom ones need more design and testing.
3. "How often does stock sync, and in which direction?" If you sell in a shop and online, or on several channels, stock must update quickly enough to avoid overselling.
4. "What happens when a connection fails?" Look for alerts and a way to retry, not silent failures discovered days later.
5. "How will product data be imported?" Ask about importing products, variations and images, and who cleans the data.
6. "How will orders reach our accounting software?" Check how taxes, discounts, shipping and refunds are recorded, and involve your accountant.

Questions about data and reporting

Good data helps you run the store well long after launch. Ask:

1. "Which reports will we have from day one?" Sales, best sellers, stock levels and refunds are common needs.
2. "How will we track where sales come from?" Analytics and conversion tracking should be set up and tested before launch.
3. "Can we export our data at any time?" Customers, orders and products should be easy to export in a usable format.
4. "How is customer data protected?" Ask about access controls, backups and how personal data is handled under the privacy rules in your markets.

Performance during sales

A store that works on a quiet day can struggle during a sale, a campaign or the holiday season, exactly when it matters most.

1. "How will the store perform when traffic is much higher than usual?" Ask about hosting capacity, caching and how the store will be tested before busy periods.
2. "Which pages can be cached, and which cannot?" Product and category pages can often be cached. The cart, checkout and account pages usually cannot, because they are different for every customer.
3. "How do you keep the store fast as we add products and plugins?" Look for a process: testing changes on a staging copy, measuring speed and reviewing plugins.
4. "What happens if the site goes down during a sale?" Ask about monitoring, alerts and who responds, including outside office hours if your sales run then.
5. "Can we see speed measurements from stores you built?" Specific numbers from their own testing tools are more convincing than general promises.

Training and support after launch

A store needs care after launch. Updates, security fixes, new products and campaigns all continue.

1. "What training will our team receive?" Your staff should be able to add products, process orders, issue refunds and update content confidently.
2. "What documentation will we get?" Ask for notes on how the store is set up, how integrations work and where settings are managed.
3. "What does ongoing support include?" Updates, security patches, backups, monitoring and small changes, with clear response times for urgent problems.
4. "How are updates tested before they reach the live store?" Updates should be tested on a staging copy first, especially for the store and payment plugins.
5. "Who owns the accounts?" The domain, hosting, payment gateway, platform and any paid licences should be registered to your business.
6. "What happens if we change agency later?" You should receive full access to the code, data and accounts. A confident agency will not make leaving difficult.

Warning signs

Be careful when an agency cannot explain how payments are confirmed, offers no testing before busy periods, keeps accounts in its own name, or quotes a single total with no breakdown of design, build, integrations and support.

Before you compare proposals, it helps to know what drives the budget. Our guide to what it costs to build an online store explains the main cost drivers and running costs.

Summary

• Ask about similar past stores, the hardest problems and why a platform was chosen.
• Check how payments are confirmed, how stuck orders are caught and how refunds work.
• Clarify every integration, sync direction and what happens when a connection fails.
• Ask how the store will perform during sales, what is cached and who responds to outages.
• Agree training, documentation, support, account ownership and exit terms before signing.

The right agency welcomes these questions, because good answers are how they show their experience. If you're comparing developers for a new online store, you can tell us about your project here.