Choosing an Ecommerce Website Design Company

How can you test a supplier's live stores in 15 minutes?

Open their stores yourself instead of trusting screenshots. Ask each company for three live online stores they built and are allowed to share, then do this on your own phone for each one.

1. Load the home page on mobile data. Does it feel quick?
2. Run the product page through Google's PageSpeed Insights. Web.dev sets the "good" targets at the 75th percentile of visits: largest content in 2.5 seconds or less, interaction response of 200 milliseconds or less, layout shift of 0.1 or less.
3. Search for a product, filter it, add it to the basket and begin checkout. Count the steps.
4. Look for delivery times, returns terms and trader details. Are they easy to find?
5. Use the keyboard only (Tab and Enter) to reach the basket button. If you cannot, the store has an accessibility problem.
6. Contact the store owner, not the supplier, and ask how the project went and what had to be fixed after launch.

A supplier who cannot show live stores is not ruled out, and we explain why below. They need another form of proof.

What should a proposal contain?

A proposal for a store should answer each row of this table. If a row is missing, ask for it before you compare prices.

The Accessibility Act row matters because Your Europe lists online shops among covered services, with an exception for service-based businesses under 10 employees and EUR 2 million turnover and a disproportionate-burden defence. Ask a lawyer whether it applies to you.

What should a store cost, and how should you read the price?

A hired store for up to 100 products typically costs EUR 3,000 to 22,500, built from 100 to 250 planning hours at EUR 30 to 90 an hour. The hours are our assumptions and the rates sit between the lower-cost and UK bands in Clutch's web design pricing guide, which we read in November 2026. Platform fees are on top: Shopify's entry plan was EUR 22 a month on annual billing and WooCommerce hosting USD 25 to 350 a month for most stores, on each vendor's own pages.

If one quote is far below the others, find the missing hours. The usual gaps are product setup, checkout testing, redirects and training. Our guide to building an ecommerce website lists the work so you can check a quote against it.

Which contract terms protect you?

Put these in writing before you pay a deposit:

• Ownership. The store, domain, payment account and analytics are registered to your business. The supplier is a collaborator.
• Intellectual property. You own the design and custom code on final payment, and third-party licences transfer or are listed.
• Payment by milestone. Tie payments to deliverables such as an approved design and a working staging store, not to calendar dates.
• Acceptance. A test list for checkout, email and tax that both sides sign.
• Fix period. A defined number of days after launch when defects are fixed at no charge.
• Data. If the supplier handles customer data, ask whether a data processing agreement is required under GDPR.
• Exit. How you get your files and logins if the relationship ends.

What are the warning signs?

• A price with no hours, scope or exclusions.
• Hosting, domain or store accounts held in the supplier's name.
• A promise to rank or sell a fixed amount. Nobody controls either.
• No questions about your products, delivery or returns.
• A single platform recommended without reasons. A platform specialist is fine if the platform fits. Our Shopify vs WooCommerce comparison shows how to test that.
• Pressure to sign quickly.

How do you judge a new supplier with no client list?

Judge them on proof you can create. Many good suppliers are new or work under NDAs, and a long client list is not proof of quality either. Ask for a demo store they built for themselves, a paid discovery phase before you commit to the build, milestone payments, and ownership of every account from the start. If the first milestone goes badly, you have spent little.

Judge us as you would anyone else: by the written scope, the itemized price and who owns what at the end. For how we approach projects, see our web design service, and send us your brief through the RFP template if you want a written comparison.

What changes if the store is in Cyprus?

Check support hours and language, because Cyprus works in Greek and English and some stores need both. Check that the supplier has set up VAT and delivery rules for the countries you ship to. Ask how they handle cookie consent. Our guide to choosing a web design company in Cyprus covers local checks, and our online store development in Cyprus page explains what we offer.