Last year, I sent the same project brief to five different eCommerce development agencies (same scope, same tech requirements, same timeline), and the quotes I got back ranged from $4,800 to $41,000. That gap isn’t a typo, and it isn’t just one agency trying to rip me off. It’s what happens when you don’t know what you’re actually paying for, and most clients going into this process don’t.
Why Agency Quotes for eCommerce Projects Vary So Wildly
Before I break down what I found, you need to understand why this happens, because the variation isn’t random.
Every eCommerce development agency prices based on its internal cost structure, the seniority of the team working on your project, how it interprets your brief, and what it assumes you’ll need that you haven’t thought to ask for yet. A $5,000 quote and a $35,000 quote can both be “correct” for different definitions of your project.
That’s the trap most business owners fall into: comparing numbers without comparing what those numbers actually include.
The Project Brief I Sent to All Five Agencies
To keep this honest, here’s exactly what I gave them:
- Shopify-based store (migration from WooCommerce)
- Approximately 400 SKUs with variant logic
- Custom theme design (not a pre-built template)
- Third-party integrations: ERP, loyalty program, email platform
- Basic SEO setup on launch
- 90-day post-launch support
I sent this to five agencies: two boutique shops, one mid-size digital agency, one offshore team, and one larger full-service firm. I told each one: “Give me your honest quote and a rough scope breakdown.”
What Each Agency Quoted and What They Actually Included
Agency 1 - The Boutique Specialist: $28,500
This was a three-person Shopify-focused shop. Their quote was the most detailed document I received: 14 pages with a line-by-line breakdown of design hours, development sprints, QA cycles, and integration logic for each third-party tool.
What stood out was their assumptions section. They flagged that ERP integrations almost always surface data structure issues mid-project and built in 12 hours of contingency. They’d clearly done this before.
Their 90-day support was defined: two hours of fixes per month, bug resolution within 48 hours, excluding feature requests. Clear.
Agency 2 - The Offshore Team: $4,800
This was the lowest quote, and I want to be fair here because “offshore = bad” is a lazy take. But this proposal had a problem: it quoted a Shopify theme customization, not a custom theme. I’d asked for custom. When I flagged it, they clarified that, to them, “custom” meant modifying an existing premium theme.
That’s not wrong as a service, but it’s a $24,000 misalignment caused by one word interpreted differently. Their ERP integration was also listed as a flat line item with no hours attached; red flag.
Agency 3 - The Mid-Size Digital Agency: $41,000
The highest quote, and honestly the one that initially made me raise an eyebrow. But when I read it carefully, I understood why.
They included dedicated project management, UX research (two rounds of wireframes before design), accessibility compliance (WCAG 2.1 AA), staging environment setup, performance benchmarking post-launch, and six months of retained support, not 90 days.
They also assumed two rounds of client revision cycles built into design, which most agencies bill as change orders. This was baked in.
If you’re building a high-revenue store where downtime or accessibility lawsuits are real risks, this quote starts making sense.
Agency 4 - The Generalist Web Agency: $12,000
This one worried me more than the offshore quote did. The proposal was four pages. No hours breakdown. “Custom theme design” listed as a single line item. Integration work described as “we’ll connect your tools” with no methodology mentioned.
When I asked for a more detailed scope, they sent a revised document that was just the original with a table added. Their post-launch support clause said “30 days of bug fixes” but defined “bug” as only issues that prevent checkout completion. Everything else is a change request.
I’ve seen this before. Generalist agencies often underprice to win work, then recover margin through change orders.
Agency 5 - The Full-Service Firm: $22,000
Solid middle-ground proposal. They specialized in DTC eCommerce and had done three WooCommerce-to-Shopify migrations in the last year, which they referenced with rough timelines and lessons learned.
Their quote included a discovery phase (four hours of paid scoping before work begins), which I actually prefer. It means they won’t start designing before they fully understand your catalog logic and edge cases.
One weakness: their SEO setup was listed as “on-page basics” with no detail. When I asked, that meant title tags and meta descriptions, not URL migration mapping or redirect architecture. Both of those matter enormously for a site migration where you have existing organic traffic.
What I Actually Compared Between the Five Agencies
Once I had all five proposals in front of me, I built my own comparison grid, because none of them used the same format and the numbers were meaningless without context. Here’s what the same project looked like across each agency when I forced everything into the same lens:
| Feature | Agency 1 (Boutique) | Agency 2 (Offshore) | Agency 3 (Mid-Size) | Agency 4 (Generalist) | Agency 5 (Full-Service) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quote Total | $28,500 | $4,800 | $41,000 | $12,000 | $22,000 |
| Hours Breakdown Provided | ✅ Yes, detailed | ❌ No | ✅ Yes, by phase | ❌ No | ✅ Partial |
| Custom Theme Definition | Built from scratch | Modified premium theme | Built from scratch | Unclear (single line item) | Built from scratch |
| ERP Integration Scoped | ✅ With contingency hours | ⚠️ Flat item, no hours | ✅ With data mapping phase | ❌ "We'll connect your tools" | ✅ With discovery phase |
| SEO on Migration | Redirects + on-page | On-page only | Full migration audit | Not defined | Title tags/meta only |
| Post-Launch Support | 90 days, defined terms | 30 days, vague | 6 months retained | 30 days (checkout bugs only) | 90 days, moderate detail |
| Discovery Phase Included | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ✅ Paid (4 hrs) |
| Revision Rounds in Scope | 2 rounds | 1 round | 2 rounds (baked in) | Not stated | 2 rounds |
| Change Order Policy | Clearly defined | Not mentioned | Clearly defined | Vague | Mentioned, not detailed |
This table is what changed everything for me. The $4,800 quote was quoting a different product. The $41,000 quote had six months of support, two wireframe rounds, and WCAG compliance baked in. The $12,000 quote had a support clause that excluded nearly everything that actually breaks after launch.
Comparing totals without a table like this is like comparing restaurant bills without knowing what anyone ordered.
The Four Things That Explain Every Price Difference
After going through all five proposals line by line, the variation came down to four things:
1. What “custom theme” means to them.
For some agencies, it means built from scratch in Shopify’s Liquid templating language. For others, it means a modified premium theme. These are not the same product. One takes 40 to 60 hours of design and dev work. The other takes 10 to 15 hours. Ask specifically: “Will you be building from a blank theme or starting from a purchased template?”
2. How they handle integrations.
ERP and loyalty integrations are never plug-and-play, regardless of what the Shopify App Store promises. Agencies that have actually done them know this and price for the unexpected. Agencies that haven’t will give you a flat number and call it done, until they hit the first data mapping issue and start billing hourly.
3. What post-launch support actually covers.
“90 days of support” is meaningless without a definition. Support can mean anything from emergency downtime response to answering your questions on Slack. Read the fine print on what triggers a change order versus what’s included.
4. Whether discovery is included or assumed.
Agencies that build in a discovery or scoping phase before design will generally deliver fewer surprises. Agencies that go straight to design from a brief are pricing on assumptions, and when those assumptions are wrong, the client pays.
What I Actually Learned About Choosing an eCommerce Agency
The cheapest quote cost me time I spent clarifying scope that should have been in the proposal. The most expensive quote wasn’t overpriced. It was just more than I needed for my specific risk profile at that stage.
Here’s the honest framework I use now:
- Ask for an hours breakdown, not just a total. If they won’t provide one, that’s information.
- Send a written follow-up with your top three assumptions, and ask the agency to confirm or correct them before you sign. “I’m assuming custom means built-from-scratch, the ERP integration includes data mapping, and post-launch support covers front-end bugs. Please confirm.”
- Weight experience in your specific migration type heavily. A Shopify agency that’s done 20 WooCommerce migrations will surface problems in week one that a generalist won’t find until launch day.
- The right agency isn’t the cheapest or the most expensive. It’s the one whose proposal tells you they’ve already anticipated your project’s hard parts.
The Quote Comparison Isn’t the Hard Part. Reading It Is.
Most business owners spend their energy negotiating the total number down. The smarter move is spending that energy understanding what’s inside it. A $28,000 quote with a clear scope, defined assumptions, and a team that’s done your exact project before will almost always outperform a $12,000 quote that’s vague on integrations and post-launch support.
The five quotes I received taught me less about pricing and more about how agencies think. The ones that asked me clarifying questions before quoting (two of the five did this) produced the most accurate proposals. The ones that quoted within 24 hours of receiving my brief were pricing on autopilot.
Your job isn’t just to compare numbers. It’s to compare how carefully each agency read your brief.
Conclusion
Getting multiple quotes for an eCommerce development project is smart. But treating those quotes as apples-to-apples is the mistake that sends projects sideways. The $36,200 spread I saw on a single brief wasn’t five agencies valuing the work differently. It was five agencies quoting five different versions of the project.
Before you sign anything, slow down and audit each proposal against the same checklist: What exactly is a custom theme to them? How is the integration scoped? What does support actually cover? Is discovery included? Those four questions will tell you more than the number at the bottom of the page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do eCommerce development agency quotes vary so much for the same project?
Quotes vary because agencies interpret your brief differently, use different team seniority levels, have different cost structures, and make different scope assumptions. One agency may quote a theme customization while another quotes a fully custom build. The word “integration” can mean a basic app connection or a full data mapping exercise depending on who’s reading your brief.
How many agencies should I get quotes from before choosing one?
Three to five is a practical range. Fewer than three gives you no real comparison baseline. More than five starts to eat up time with diminishing returns, since the decision factors stabilize around quote four or five. More important than quantity is ensuring each agency is quoting the same written scope. Send a detailed brief, not a verbal overview.
What should an eCommerce development agency quote include?
A reliable quote should include a breakdown by deliverable (design, development, QA, integrations, launch), estimated hours per phase, explicit assumptions about what’s included versus out of scope, a defined post-launch support period with clear terms, and a revision or change order policy. Single-page proposals with a lump sum and no breakdown are a warning sign.
Is a cheaper eCommerce development agency always a worse choice?
Not always, but “cheap” needs context. A lower quote from a specialist with deep experience in your specific platform and migration type can outperform a higher quote from a generalist. The risk with lower quotes is usually underdefined scope that gets recovered through change orders. Always ask what happens when something outside the scope comes up and how they bill for it.
How do I evaluate an eCommerce agency’s experience before hiring?
Ask for two or three examples of projects similar to yours: same platform, similar integrations, comparable catalog size. Ask specifically what went wrong on those projects and how they handled it. Agencies with real experience will have honest answers about the hard parts. Ask how many WooCommerce-to-Shopify (or equivalent) migrations they’ve done in the last 12 months. Recent, relevant volume matters more than total years in business.
