Started with an off-the-shelf e-commerce template — when should I hire an agency for a custom design?

We ditched the template once we crossed 400 orders a month. Paid 110.000 TL for a custom design. Our mobile conversion rate improved noticeably, but we saw a 15 percent revenue drop during the first two weeks because of technical bugs during migration. Definitely don't go live without thorough testing.

Most agencies will promise you a completely custom world, but under the hood they just take an existing boilerplate and reskin it. When you drop 80.000 TL, are you getting a genuinely custom user experience coded for you, or are they just tweaking colors and buttons? Clarify this before signing anything.

If the platform is changing during the migration too, watch out for order ID mapping and accounting integration. If old order numbers clash with the new system when looking up historical invoices, you'll run into serious reconciliation headaches on the financial side.

Instead of rebuilding the whole site from scratch, just hire a front-end dev to tweak only the cart and checkout steps on your existing template. You can solve 80 percent of the issue on a 15.000-20.000 TL budget and save the agency money for ads.

if you're going with a custom design make sure to agree on the exact number of revisions with the agency right from the start. the delivery date usually ends up doubling, whatever you do don't time the launch with peak season.

Edit: asked below, I wrote the answer in the second message.

When choosing an agency, make sure these three clauses are in the contract: 1) Page load speeds must not fall below the agreed benchmark on desktop and mobile, 2) Complete redirection of all old URL structures, 3) Free bug fixing and troubleshooting support for at least 30 days post-launch.

you're right, standard templates can look pretty generic for handmade items like ceramics. but spending 100.000 TL on an agency when your revenue is 280.000 TL could really strain your cash flow and it would be safer to grow your revenue a bit more before taking that step.

It's rare to find an explanation this clear. Processes without records never improve, because you don't know what to fix.

If I were you I'd go this route.

You're right, I've been down that road too. Solutions that work at a small scale collapse when you grow; I learned this late.

Exactly, and not many people know this. Every "we'll look at it later" in a meeting means unbilled work.

Weekly written progress reports are much more useful than asking for dates... That's all, sorry if I went on too long.

I'm a small business let me explain from my side. When making a decision, first look at what data you have on hand.

Hope this helps.

I went through the same thing. Everyone rushing into off-the-shelf e-commerce template gets stuck at the same point.

Of course, it varies if your situation is different.

this thread is archived.

I disagree with you on this point. Start with a small trial; don't commit to everything at once.

If you get three different answers on a topic, the question was asked wrong. If I were you, I'd go this route.

the opposite happened to me that's why I'm writing but people defend habits not processes. resistance comes from there.

i'm also curious if anyone does it differently.

Let me summarize the topic since several different answers were given. Everyone rushing into off-the-shelf e-commerce template gets stuck at the same point.

Of course it varies if your situation is different.

Let me speak from the other side; I'm on the supplier side. The system lives on after delivery; maintenance is a separate line item.

This is my opinion, I'm not claiming it's absolute truth.

My perspective changed after experiencing that. Everyone rushing into off-the-shelf e-commerce template gets stuck at the same point.

Proven by experience.