Anyone can call themselves a conversion expert. Here's how to separate the operators from the deck-builders.
1. Do They Record a Baseline?
If nobody writes down your current conversion rate, average order value and revenue per visitor before touching the store, no result can ever be proven. This is the single best filter.
2. Are They Shopify Specialists?
Shopify has its own theme architecture, checkout constraints, and app ecosystem. A generalist web agency will burn your budget learning them.
3. Can They Show Before and After Numbers?
Pretty redesign screenshots are not evidence. Ask for the conversion rate before, the conversion rate after, and the time window for each.
4. How Do They Prioritise?
A good agency sequences work by expected revenue impact and implementation effort. A weak one hands you an undifferentiated list of 80 issues.
5. What Happens if a Change Loses Money?
The honest answer is "we measure, we revert, we document what we learned." Anyone promising only upside is selling, not optimizing.
6. Who Owns the Work?
You should keep the audit, the roadmap and the implementation notes whether or not the relationship continues.
Questions to Ask on the First Call
What baseline will you record? How long until the first deliverable? Who implements? How will we know it worked? What's the smallest engagement you'd recommend for my store size?