Ecommerce Agency Confidence Index

Discover ReferralCandy's Ecommerce Agency Confidence Index, a monthly report collating insights, trends, and forecasts from ecommerce agencies. Gain invaluable perspectives on the ecommerce landscape's evolution and how agencies are adapting to market dynamics. Comments from ECORN included

ReferralCandy has unveiled its latest initiative: the Ecommerce Agency Confidence Index. This ongoing project involves collating insights from various ecommerce agencies each month, encompassing their findings, perspectives, and forecasts, which are then presented in an aggregated and anonymized index.

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Recognizing the Significance of Ecommerce Agencies

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ReferralCandy acknowledges ecommerce agencies as the often-overlooked linchpins of the ecommerce realm. These agencies work intimately with brands, refining their online shopping platforms and, frequently, handling the heavy lifting to enable brands to concentrate on enhancing their offerings. Consequently, the insights they offer are invaluable, given their frontline exposure to the ebbs and flows of ecommerce – encompassing trends, successes, and setbacks.

Moreover, ReferralCandy underscores the tendency to neglect agencies in analyzing the ecommerce sector's evolution. While conventional metrics such as sales volume and customer acquisition costs receive attention, little focus is directed toward gathering data concerning ecommerce agencies' revenue or their clients' sensitivity to pricing for agency services.

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Why they’re doing this

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The year 2023 proved to be challenging for both brands and agencies. Throughout the year, numerous conversations with ecommerce agencies revealed a common theme: many lacked insight into the sentiments and perspectives of their peers regarding the ecommerce landscape. This realization prompted the inception of the Ecommerce Agency Confidence Index. They aim to furnish agency owners with a comprehensive overview of prevailing trends within their sector. Each month, we will distribute a brief and confidential survey to all our affiliated agencies. This initiative will enable them to closely monitor how agencies are responding to dynamic market shifts promptly.

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‍I think that most of our clients were reviewing their strategy for the year in January. So, of course, they allocated some resources in different ways. We haven’t really seen a reduction, but they’ll allocate funds differently even if the total dollar amount hasn’t really changed.‍

Daniil Andreev
Founder @ ECORN Agency

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Merchants are exhibiting caution when it comes to spending, yet they are receptive to the idea of optimizing, testing, iterating, and enhancing their strategies. It's rare for us to encounter merchants who allocate a dedicated budget for apps annually. The crucial inquiry revolves around the app's ability to demonstrate return on investment (ROI) and whether we can effectively track increased profitability stemming from its implementation. This assessment aids in determining whether the investment is worthwhile. Merchants prioritize budget consciousness while also emphasizing performance-driven outcomes.

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In an economy like this, naturally, people are more conservative with their dollar. However, the real challenge for the merchant is to find the right agency to work with—someone who can speak their language. Money holds significance, and merchants are increasingly price-sensitive due to the challenging economy, naturally. Yet, what we observe is that beyond price sensitivity, it's more about finding the right fit.

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Overall, February reveals a heightened level of uncertainty or variation in forecasts concerning clients' strategies. Forty-five percent of agencies anticipate that brands will persist in outsourcing to some extent, while 32% foresee no alterations, and approximately 23% predict some form of reduction in the volume of work outsourced to agencies.

In the broader context, ecommerce is experiencing a surge, and there's no sign of it slowing down. The market is brimming with merchants, which is truly remarkable. I believe this momentum will continue unabated. Our pipeline is exceptionally strong, and I am confident that we will surpass our performance from last year.

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I think that it's all about how agencies are evolving with the market and they're adapting to changes that have taken place in the last few years.

Even if something was working a couple of years ago and now it's not working anymore, we are still feeling more optimistic and we're still having better projections because we’re testing new stuff, and we are finding a new road to survive.

Daniil Andreev
Founder @ ECORN Agency

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