How to choose an eCommerce consultant: 12 questions to ask

Experience

1. Which marketplaces and platforms have you personally managed? Look for hands-on account experience, not just "familiarity".
2. What's a recent problem you fixed, and what changed in the numbers? Specific answers with baselines beat big percentages.
3. Have you worked with businesses of our size and category? Problems at ₹1 Cr are different from problems at ₹50 Cr.

How they think

4. How do you decide whether an ad campaign is working? The answer should mention contribution margin or break-even ROAS, not just ROAS.
5. What data will you ask for first? Expect SKU-level sales, returns, ad spend and margins.
6. When would you tell us not to grow a channel? A good consultant can name situations where growth destroys profit.
7. How do you balance marketplaces and our own store? Look for a view on channel conflict, pricing parity and customer ownership.

How they work

8. Who will actually work on our account? Meet them.
9. What will we have after 30, 60 and 90 days? Deliverables, not activities.
10. Do you execute, or only advise? Both can work; the proposal should be clear.
11. How do you charge? Fixed, retainer, or partly on performance, and what's included.
12. How will we measure success? Agree the metrics and the baseline before you start.

Red flags

• Guaranteed rankings or sales figures before seeing your data.
• Talking only about revenue and never about margin or returns.
• Recommending a large ad budget increase in the first conversation.
• Reluctance to share who will do the work.

If you'd like to ask us these questions, see how our eCommerce consulting works and book a call.