What to Expect When You Hire an eCommerce Consultant (and What to Avoid)
Hiring an eCommerce consultant can feel a lot like hiring a mechanic. If you’re lucky, you find someone who listens carefully, explains what they’re doing in plain English, and fixes the real issue instead of just swapping parts. If you’re not, you get a bill for work you didn’t need, and the original problem is still sitting there waiting for you on Monday morning.
Over the years, we’ve been on both sides of that dynamic. We’ve seen retailers spend thousands on plugins they never use, and we’ve also seen stores stall because no one ever explained the basics. That’s why it’s worth knowing what a good consultant should bring to the table, what shortcuts to avoid, and how to make sure the solutions actually match your business.
Listening First, Not Selling First
The best consultants don’t start with a canned checklist. They start with questions.
What’s frustrating your team right now?
Where are customers dropping off?
Which integrations are working and which ones are duct-taped together?
On one project, a retailer came to us asking for a new ERP integration. After digging in, we found that their real pain point wasn’t the ERP at all, it was inconsistent product data coming from their distributors. Instead of forcing an expensive ERP overhaul, we built a product data cleanup process that saved them hours a week and eliminated downstream errors. The ERP sync ended up being a footnote, not the headline.
If a consultant jumps straight into selling you their “standard package” without learning about your specific challenges, that’s a red flag.
Simple Solutions That Often Work
Not every problem needs custom code. In fact, some of the most impactful fixes are the simplest.
SEO Maintenance: Keeping meta titles, product descriptions, and category copy fresh is one of the lowest-cost ways to drive traffic. We’ve seem clients get solid increases in organic traffic just by focusing on SEO basics before touching anything more complex.
Plugin Configuration: Many WooCommerce and NopCommerce sites struggle because plugins were installed but never configured correctly. A half hour of attention can solve headaches that linger for years.
Third-Party Tools: Sometimes the easiest move is connecting your store to a service that already exists. Shipping platforms, email marketing tools, and analytics dashboards can be set up quickly if you know where the pitfalls are.
These are the kinds of wins you should expect early on. If your consultant is reaching for a code editor before checking the basics, ask why.
When You Really Need Custom Development
Of course, there comes a point where the basics aren’t enough. That’s where advanced solutions come in.
Custom Plugins: We’ve built shipping calculators that factor in multiple distributors behind the scenes without ever showing customers the messy logistics. Out of the box, no platform could do that.
ERP and EDI Integrations: A client running a wholesale business needed real-time inventory synced across five different distributors. We built a custom integration layer so their customers always saw accurate stock, without waiting for nightly imports.
Performance Tuning: Another client came to us with a site that was crashing during every promotion. We rewrote key parts of their checkout process, optimized caching, and moved them to a load-balanced setup. Their next Black Friday ran without a hitch.
These are not one-size-fits-all fixes. What worked for one store would fail for another. That’s why experience matters. A consultant who’s wrestled with WooCommerce, NopCommerce, BigCommerce, and everything in between can see patterns others miss.
What to Avoid
Just as important as knowing what to look for is knowing what to avoid.
Cookie-Cutter Packages: If the proposal looks like it could be copied and pasted for any business, it probably was.
Overengineering Too Soon: We’ve seen consultants build elaborate custom modules when the store only needed a $99 plugin and some basic SEO.
Silence After Launch: Support shouldn’t end the day your new site goes live. Ask about long-term maintenance and what happens when something breaks.
Our Take
At MMDB Solutions, we’ve learned that no two eCommerce stores are the same. The right path forward depends on your products, your customers, and your systems. Sometimes the best answer is as simple as a plugin setting. Other times it means building a custom integration from scratch. The point is not to chase complexity for its own sake, but to solve the real problems in front of you.
If you’re considering hiring an eCommerce consultant, expect someone who listens before they prescribe. Expect someone who can deliver quick wins with simple solutions, but who also knows when it’s time to roll up their sleeves and code. And above all, avoid anyone who tries to fit you into a box.
That’s the difference between just getting by and actually growing.