Hiring ecommerce developers without being sold a demo
Ecommerce suppliers are hard to tell apart from their portfolios, because a portfolio shows finished storefronts and every finished storefront looks competent.
What distinguishes a team that has run stores from one that has only built them is visible in four answers, and none of them is about design.
Four questions that decide it#
- "Walk me through a data migration you did and what went wrong." Everyone who has done one has a story; nobody who has not can invent a convincing one.
- "What happens in your checkout when the payment fails at 3-D Secure?" The answer reveals whether they built for the bad day.
- "What admin tooling did you build for the client's own team?" Teams who have operated stores always build something here.
- "What broke in the first month after your last launch?" An honest, specific answer is the strongest signal available.
Deliverables to require in the contract#
| Deliverable | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Repository and deployment instructions | You must be able to change supplier |
| Data migration plan and mapping | The largest risk in the project, written down |
| Admin tooling and documentation | Your team runs the store, not the agency |
| Runbook for payment and fulfilment failures | Incidents will happen |
| Post-launch support terms in writing | Month one is when you need them most |
Warning signs#
- A quote produced without asking about your product data or your ERP.
- Timeline promises with no mention of payment provider onboarding.
- No question about who owns the store after launch.
- Reluctance to hand over the repository.
- A fixed price with no defined scope for edge cases and migrations.
The shape of the engagement#
Start with a paid two-to-three week discovery that produces a data migration plan, a technical approach and a working slice — usually catalogue import plus one product page. It costs little and reveals everything about how the team works.
Frequently asked questions
Freelancer, agency or in-house?
Freelancer for a scoped build, agency when integrations are broad, in-house when the store is your main revenue channel.
How do I judge quality without a technical person?
Ask for the migration story and the admin tooling. Both are hard to fake.
How long to a first version?
Two to four weeks hosted and simple; two to five months with real integrations.
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