How to choose a B2B eCommerce partner

Evaluating an eCommerce partner is harder than it should be. Agencies use the same language, list the same capabilities, and pitch the same vision. When everyone sounds identical, you’re left guessing. 

This article cuts through that. You’ll learn which questions expose real expertise, what patterns signal trouble early, and how to identify a partner who’ll protect your investment like it’s their own. 

By the end, you’ll know how to choose well, whether you choose us or someone else.

Capability lists will only tell you so much

Open any agency website, and you’ll see a list of platforms they work with. Shopify, BigCommerce, Adobe Commerce, custom builds, headless this, API-driven that. It looks impressive. But while capabilities and platform knowledge are important, they are only a starting point.  

What matters is what they’ve done, how they’ve done it, and whether they can explain why they made the choices they made. 

Most partners can’t do that. They’ll talk about features, integrations, and technical possibilities, all while avoiding the harder question: was it the right call for that client?

The questions that reveal competence

To cut through the fluff, ask these 3 questions:

What platform would you recommend for us?

The right answer is always: it depends. 

In B2B, platform selection needs a different playbook.

If they give you a platform name straight away, they’re trying to make your business fit what they want to sell. A good partner asks questions first. They want to understand your business, team, infrastructure, and constraints before they recommend anything. If they’re leading with a solution before they’ve understood the problem, walk away.

“What would make us a bad fit for your team?”

This one separates the consultants from the salespeople. A partner who’s confident in what they do will tell you when something’s outside their wheelhouse or when your expectations don’t align with how they work. If they say everyone’s a good fit, it might be a red flag. 

“How do you challenge clients when you think they’re heading in the wrong direction?”

You don’t need a yes-person. You need someone who’ll push back when it matters. Ask for an example. If they can’t give you one, or if their answer sounds like conflict avoidance dressed up as collaboration, keep moving.

These questions work because they force honesty. They can’t be answered with a polished pitch. And if someone struggles to answer them, you’ve just saved yourself months of frustration.

Test for long-term thinking

Many partners are just sales proxies for software vendors. They’ll recommend whatever platform pays them the best commission or whatever tech stack they’ve already built a repeatable process around. 

Instead, look for independence. Ask how they make platform recommendations. If the answer starts with “we’re certified partners with” or “we specialise in,” ask what happens when that platform isn’t the right fit. Do they walk away from the project, or do they recommend something else?

Then ask how they measure success twelve months in.

A good partner won’t just care about going live. They’ll care about whether the platform is still working for you a year later, whether your team and customers will actually use it, and whether the decisions made during the build are holding up under real-world pressure.

Most people don’t ask whether they stick around after launch for the harder stuff. For the strategic check-ins. For making sure what they built actually does what you needed it to do.

If they don’t, that tells you everything.

The cheapest partner often costs the most

Low quotes rarely turn into wins.

If someone’s significantly cheaper than everyone else on your shortlist, there’s a reason. Either they’ve underestimated the work, cutting corners you can’t see yet, or they’re planning to make it back later through change requests and scope creep.

Watch for a partner who says yes to everything too easily.

You ask if they can integrate with your ERP. Yes. You ask if they can handle custom pricing logic. Yes. You ask if they can build it in six months. Yes. At some point, you have to ask yourself what they’re not telling you.

A good partner will tell you when something’s going to be harder than you think. They’ll flag risks early. They’ll push back on timelines that don’t make sense. They’ll help you avoid spending money on things that won’t move the business forward.

The cheapest partner rarely does that. They take the brief, price it low to win the work, and then spend the next year managing your expectations downward while the costs climb.

Short-term savings turn into long-term fixes. And by the time you realise it, you’re too deep in to start over.

Making a confident decision

You’ll know you’ve found the right partner when the conversation stops feeling like a pitch and starts feeling like planning.

When they’re asking you harder questions than you’re asking them. When they’re telling you what won’t work before you’ve even thought to ask. When they’re treating your budget like it’s their own.

You don’t need a partner who agrees with everything you say. You need one who’s willing to tell you when you’re wrong, who’ll challenge assumptions that don’t hold up, and who’ll walk you through the trade-offs so you can make a decision you won’t regret.

That’s what good looks like.

And if you walk away from this knowing how to spot it, you’ll be able to make good choices. Whether that’s us or someone else.

What we believe

The best advisors help you buy well, even if you don’t buy from them.

We’re here to guide decisions that make strategic and commercial sense. We treat your budget like our own, we’ll tell you when something’s a bad idea, and we’ll walk away from projects that aren’t the right fit.

That’s how we work.

If you’re evaluating partners right now and you’re not sure what to ask or what to look for, get in touch. We’ll talk you through it. Even if we’re not the right choice for you, we’ll make sure you know what the right choice looks like.