How to choose an ecommerce agency in the UK

How do you choose an ecommerce agency?

To choose an ecommerce agency in the UK, pick the one whose model fits your stage and whose results you can check for yourself, then meet the people who will actually do the work. For an established brand, that means asking who runs each channel day to day, which number the agency reports against, how quickly they respond, and what you keep if you leave. Everything else in a pitch is presentation.

I founded RedPxl in 2024 after years of watching good brands sign with agencies that pitched well and delivered little. What went wrong was usually structural: the wrong model for the brand's stage, work passed to people the client never met, results reported in numbers that flattered the agency, and nobody senior to call when things slipped. This guide is what I would want a founder or marketing lead to know before they sign with anyone, including us.

What types of ecommerce agency are there?

Most options fall into five models. None is right for every brand. A brand selling £20k a month and a brand selling £500k a month need different things, and the best choice often changes as the business grows.

Who will actually do the work?

This is the question that separates agencies more than any other. Ask for the names and roles of the people who will work on your account every week, how many other clients each of them has, and whether any part of the work is passed to a partner, a freelancer or an offshore team. Then ask to meet them before you sign.

White-labelling is common and not always bad, but you should know about it. If your paid media is run by a subcontractor, your site built by another, your email handled by a third and your ads made by a fourth, the agency is a project manager with a margin on top. That can work. It cannot give you a single team that sees how every part of your growth affects the rest.

At RedPxl, paid media, web development, retention and creative are all run in house by one team of 19 specialists, and you can meet the people who would run your account before you decide anything.

How do you check an agency's results?

Treat every figure in a pitch as a claim until you know how it was measured. A revenue number might be total store revenue, revenue the ad platforms claim, or revenue from one campaign in one good month. A return figure might be platform ROAS, which counts the same order more than once across channels. Ask what each number means, over what period, and whether the client would confirm it.

Case studies should name the client, the work done and the period, and the agency should be able to explain what else was happening in the business at the time. We publish how we measure every figure on this site, including the £102m of client revenue we have influenced, so that anyone can check what the number includes before they trust it. We think every agency should do the same.

How will you work together day to day?

In our experience, more agency relationships end over communication than over results. Before you sign, ask how you will reach the people doing the work, how quickly they reply, how often you will get a written update, and who explains a bad week. A monthly report and a quarterly review are not enough for a brand spending serious money every day.

Our own answer is a group chat per service with the specialists themselves, rather than an account manager passing messages along, and every budget change explained in writing. Whatever the agency's answer, it should be specific. "We are always available" is not an answer.

Does the agency know your category?

Category knowledge saves months. Each sector has rules and patterns that an agency either knows already or learns on your budget. Fashion brands live with high return rates, fast seasons and size questions that shape every page and ad. FMCG brands sell low-price products where the second and third order decide profit. Supplement brands can only make health claims authorised on the Great Britain nutrition and health claims register, or on-hold claims still allowed under the transitional rules, which limits what an ad or product page can say.

Ask for work in your category, or close to it, and ask what the agency learned from it. An agency that has worked with brands like yours should be able to tell you, in the first meeting, where it expects your biggest opportunity to be.

Should you choose an ecommerce agency in London?

Location matters less than it did, but it still matters. Most day-to-day work happens on calls and in shared chats, so a good agency anywhere in the UK can run your account. Being close helps with the moments that are better in a room: a planning day before peak season, a shoot, a site launch, a difficult quarter. If your team is in or near London, an agency you can meet in person within the hour is worth something.

What matters more than the postcode is the time zone and the hours. An agency working to UK hours, on UK platforms, with UK consumer and advertising rules in mind, avoids a whole class of mistakes. We are based in Canary Wharf and work with brands across the UK.

What should you ask on the first call?

Take these into every first meeting, and compare the answers side by side afterwards:

1. Who, by name, will work on our account each week, and how many other clients do they have?
2. Is any of the work subcontracted, white-labelled or offshored?
3. Which number will you report against, and how is it measured?
4. What would you change in our accounts in the first month, and why?
5. How do we reach the people doing the work, and how fast do they reply?
6. Who owns the ad accounts, data, creative files and site code if we part ways?

Which red flags should end the conversation?

Any one of these is a reason to keep looking:

• Guaranteed results, or a return figure promised before anyone has seen your data.
• Case studies with no client names, no dates and no explanation of how the numbers were measured.
• A senior pitch team you will not hear from again after the contract is signed.
• Ad accounts, analytics or your site set up under the agency's ownership.
• Long contracts with no performance review and no clear way out.

When is RedPxl the right choice, and when is it not?

RedPxl is built for fashion, FMCG and supplement brands selling £100k or more a month that want paid media, their site, retention and creative planned as one system by a single team. Our specialists bring more than 90 years of combined experience, and the brands we have worked with add up to £102m of client revenue influenced.

If you are earlier than that, a strong freelancer or a specialist agency for your main channel may serve you better for now, and we will say so if you ask. If you are at that stage and want a straight view of where your growth is coming from, tell us about your brand, or read how RedPxl started.