Questions to ask a webshop agency

These nine questions to ask a Shopify agency work anywhere, in the Netherlands or elsewhere, and under each one I've written what to listen for and how we'd answer it ourselves.

If you're still working out who to call, start with How do you choose the right Shopify agency in the Netherlands? It also covers who should own your store, and the red flags I'd look out for. You'll find a few names in the best Shopify agencies in the Netherlands for fashion and beauty brands.

I'm Karina, founder of Design by Karina, a strategy-first boutique Shopify agency in Rotterdam for premium fashion and beauty brands. We design and build Shopify stores for brands across the Netherlands and Belgium, and we turn what makes your brand different into a reason to choose you, so these are also the questions I'd want you to ask us.

Who leads my project, and who does the design and build?

Ask who you'll talk to while the project runs, and whether that's the same person you met on the first call. Then ask whether strategy, design and build stay together on your project, because a lot can get lost when work moves from one team to the next.

With us, I lead every project, from strategy to launch. When a project calls for additional expertise, we bring in the right specialists to support the work, and we deliberately limit the number of projects we take on at a time, so decisions don't get lost between teams.

Do you do the whole project, or only work beside our developer?

It's good to get a clear answer to this one, because it tells you who's responsible when something doesn't work. Some agencies only design and others only build, and that can be perfectly fine if you already have a developer you trust.

We don't work beside a client's own developer. We take on the whole project, strategy, design and the Shopify build, because that keeps the decisions and the quality in one place all the way to launch.

Have you built stores for fashion or beauty brands?

Ask to see product pages, not only homepages, because that's where people decide. Look for the things your own customers will need, like size charts, fit notes, ingredients, routines and reviews.

We work with fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands. For VYOLA, a Belgian body jewelry brand, that meant size guidance and a considered ordering flow for custom-made pieces. For Thereza Pedrosa Gallery, it meant a store organized by artist instead of by category. For Zourani, a red light therapy skincare brand, it meant a skin-concern selector and a way to compare products, in Dutch, French and English.

What is included in the price, and what is quoted later?

Ask for the scope in writing: the pages, languages, apps, emails, training and support after launch. That's the only way to compare two quotes fairly, because the same words can mean very different things from one agency to the next.

Your proposal from us lists every deliverable next to the price, so you know exactly what you're paying for, and anything extra is named before we start, not after. If you'd like to understand how agency prices work first, read What does a Shopify agency cost?

How do you handle strategy before design?

If they go straight to the homepage, ask what that design is going to be based on. Before we open a design file, we want to understand who you're building for, what your customers need to know and what might be stopping them from buying, because a beautiful store built on assumptions is still built on assumptions.

All of that goes into a written brief and a sitemap, and you approve both before anything is designed, so every page on your store has a reason to be there.

Will the store be easy for us to update?

Ask who shows you how it works, and what you can change yourself without a developer. You should be able to add a product, change a price or put a new collection online without calling anyone.

We build stores that are easy to manage, and you get a training video when we launch, so you can run the store yourself from the first day.

How do you plan SEO and redirects on a rebuild or migration?

Ask who takes care of the URL map, the 301 redirects and the titles and descriptions of your main pages, because if nobody owns that, it falls through the cracks. And I'd be careful with anyone who promises your positions in Google won't move at all, because it's normal for them to move a little while Google indexes the new store.

With us, every old page gets a 301 redirect to its new address, so you keep as much of your Google visibility as possible, and we check for errors closely in the first weeks. If you're moving from WooCommerce, read What does a migration to Shopify cost?

What does the timeline look like, week by week?

Ask what happens in what order, and where you approve things before the next step starts. Also ask what they need from you, because photos, product details and texts are usually what slows a project down, much more than the design.

We work in four steps. You approve each one before we move on, and you always know which one we're on. Once we know the scope and how ready your content is, your proposal gives you an exact timeline, and we treat it as a commitment, not an estimate.

Who supports us after launch?

Ask what the first weeks include, and what happens once they're over, because a new store always brings up questions when real customers start using it.

We launch together, and you get a training video and 30 days of support, so you're never left alone with a new store. If you'd like to keep improving it after that, the Growth Plan does that every month.

A short table to take into the call

If you only take one thing into the call, take this.

Good to know in the Netherlands

If you sell here, three more things belong on your list. Ask whether the quote is with or without BTW, so you're comparing the same number. Ask who sets up iDEAL | Wero and Bancontact, because they have to be switched on in Shopify and iDEAL comes with its own conditions. And ask who checks the legal side of the store: your KVK and BTW numbers, the 14-day cooling-off period and the withdrawal button Dutch webshops have needed since June 2026. A store can look finished without any of that, so it's easy to miss.