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How to choose an ecommerce agency in Chile

The decisions that most determine whether a store sells are made before any coding: platform, payment methods and how it is going to be measured. These are the ones worth settling before signing with any agency.

An ecommerce agency for Chile or for Latin America: what changes

If you only sell in Chile, what matters is Webpay, electronic invoicing and domestic delivery. If the plan is to sell across Latin America, three more decisions appear: multi-currency, taxes by country and which payment method dominates in each market — in several countries in the region, interest-free installments weigh more than the final price. It is worth defining this at the start: adapting a store designed only for Chile afterwards costs more than planning for it.

Local payment methods: Webpay, Mercado Pago and bank transfer

A store in Chile that does not offer Webpay loses sales, no matter how well designed it is. On top of that come Mercado Pago and bank transfer, which is still relevant for high-value orders. Each gateway adds steps to the checkout, so the decision is not to add them all: it is to choose the ones your customer actually uses.

Shopify, WooCommerce or custom development

Shopify makes sense when the priority is launching fast and operating without a technical team. WooCommerce, when there is already a WordPress site and full control of the data is needed. Custom development is only justified by business rules that no platform covers — and it is the option most often chosen without being needed.

Migrating a store without losing rankings

The real risk of a migration is not technical, it is losing the traffic you already had. It is avoided with a map of 301 redirects from every old URL to its new equivalent, done before publishing and not after. If an agency does not mention redirects when talking about migrating, that is the signal.

What an ecommerce that actually sells measures

Visits are the least useful metric of a store. What tells the truth is the conversion rate by source, the drop-off at each checkout step and the average order value. With those three numbers you know where money is being lost; with visits, you do not.

How long an ecommerce project takes

A store on an existing platform with a limited catalog takes between 30 and 60 days. With ERP or invoicing integrations, large catalogs or more than one language, it goes to 90 days or more. What usually stretches the timeline is not the development: it is uploading the products and the photos.

How to evaluate an ecommerce agency in Chile

Almost every agency shows the same portfolio and promises the same things. These are the questions that do separate one from another, along with the answer we give when we are asked them.

What makes an ecommerce agency different from a freelance developer?

A freelance developer solves the build; an ecommerce agency takes responsibility for the commercial result. The difference shows up after launch: who measures conversion at each checkout step, who adjusts the product page when it does not sell, who responds if the payment gateway fails on a Friday. For companies with a large catalog or several channels, that continuity matters more than the initial price of the project. For a simple, stable store, a freelancer can be enough.

What is the performance of an online store and why does it determine sales?

Performance is how long the store takes to respond and to let people buy. In ecommerce that translates directly into money: every second of waiting on the product page or at checkout pushes away buyers who already intended to pay. It is measured with Core Web Vitals, but what matters commercially is the time until the buy button becomes usable. A fast, simple online store sells more than a slow, award-winning one.

How do you assess the quality of an agency before hiring it?

With evidence, not with a portfolio. Ask for two stores that are still live and go through them as a customer: add to cart, get all the way to payment, see whether it loads fast on your phone. Ask what happened to conversion before and after, with numbers. Check whether the agency publishes its prices or holds them back until the meeting. And confirm who actually does the work: a good part of the market subcontracts without saying so, and quality ends up depending on someone you never met.

Does the same approach work for B2B companies selling online?

The engine is the same, the journey is not. In B2B, online purchasing usually involves several people, different price lists per client, purchase orders and negotiated deliveries. That is why a B2B store needs accounts with their own terms, online quoting and fast reordering, more than a cart optimized for impulse. Companies that transfer the design of a retail store to a B2B context tend to end up with a good-looking catalog nobody uses.

When is it better to rebuild the store and when to just optimize it?

It depends on where the friction is. If traffic arrives and is lost at checkout, it can almost always be fixed by optimizing: fewer steps, better payment methods, clearer product pages. If the platform does not allow you to integrate what the business already needs, or every change requires custom development, rebuilding costs less than continuing to patch. The clearest signal is the cost of each improvement: when a small adjustment takes weeks, the problem is the foundation and not the surface.