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As your brand scales, you may reach the point where you have to decide between working with an ecommerce agency partner or hiring an internal team. But which is best? Let's dive in to everything you need to know
As an ecommerce merchant, crafting an exceptional product is just the beginning. The real challenge? Ensuring the right team puts that product in front of the right audience. So that begs the question, “Should you rely on the agility and creativity of an ecommerce agency or lean on the deep brand knowledge of an in-house team?”
In this blog, we’re going to look into the pros and cons of both hiring an in-house marketing team for your ecommerce business and working with an ecommerce agency. Hopefully, it will help you make a decision on which route is best for your brand in the long term.
There’s a ton of minute and intricate details we could get into, but ecommerce marketing largely revolves around four core pillars, each a core stage of the buying cycle:
Both ecommerce agencies and in-house marketing teams can manage paid ads, email, SEO, conversion rate optimisation, creative assets, and retention strategies, but the real distinction lies in how effectively they understand each stage of the buying cycle and how effectively they can execute strategies.
An ecommerce agency is a specialised digital marketing firm that helps brands start up, grow, and succeed in the world of online retail.
Rather than managing everything in-house, ecommerce businesses partner with ecommerce agencies to access expert support across the mix of ecommerce disciplines - from website development and performance marketing to brand strategy and customer retention.
Ecommerce agencies design and optimise a brand’s online store to ensure it looks great, functions smoothly across all devices, and effectively converts website visitors into buyers.
An ecommerce agency will also run targeted ad campaigns, create email flows, improve search visibility, and craft on-brand content that speaks to the right audiences. Beyond driving traffic, an ecommerce agency’s goal is to turn clicks into customers and customers into loyal fans. By combining creative, technical and strategic thinking, an ecommerce agency gives brands the tools they need to thrive in a competitive digital landscape.
An in-house marketing team is a group of employees who work directly for an ecommerce business and are responsible for managing all aspects of its marketing from within. Unlike an ecommerce agency, which is an external partner working across multiple brands, an in-house team is fully embedded in the company.
In-house marketing teams will know the brand inside out, understand its goals, products, and audience, and are involved in long-term planning as well as day-to-day execution.
An in-house team can include specialists across all areas of the marketing mix, including social media, paid ads, content creation, email marketing, and SEO. Because an in-house team sits within the business, the team members will often have faster access to internal stakeholders, can move quickly on campaigns, and can help keep messaging consistent across all channels. In short, an in-house marketing team acts as the brand’s internal engine, building and managing the brand from the inside.
Working with an ecommerce agency gives you instant access to a team of specialists across SEO, paid social, content strategy, analytics and more, without the lengthy process of hiring multiple roles in-house.
Ecommerce agencies are built to move quickly, offering speed and flexibility by scaling their services up or down to match your brand’s sales cycle. They also bring valuable industry insights, with access to advanced tools, data benchmarks, and often official partnerships with platforms like Shopify or Meta, meaning your brand gets priority access to the latest features and support.
Ecommerce agencies also bring a fresh perspective, challenging the status quo and drawing on experience from working across a range of brands. Lastly, depending on your needs, an ecommerce agency can also be a more cost-effective way to grow than building a full in-house team.
Agencies juggle multiple clients, so you might not always have their full attention. Similarly, whilst this will allow them to bring an outside perspective, they may lack the same level of brand immersion that comes from working inside your business every day, and certain intricacies may be lost.
There can also be longer feedback loops or a learning curve at the start of working with an ecommerce agency, especially if your brand has a niche offering or a highly specific tone of voice that takes time to understand. Experienced ecommerce agencies often run in-depth immersion sessions with brands before starting any work. These sessions help the agency to fully understand the brand’s identity, audience, and goals, reducing the risk of misalignment and ensuring a smoother, more strategic partnership from the start.
An in-house marketing team lives and breathes your brand, which means they often capture the tone of voice, cultural nuances and audience insights better than an external agency.
Having everyone under one roof also speeds up decision-making, allowing for shorter approval cycles and faster rollouts. In-house marketing teams also give brands the ownership of priorities, roadmaps and execution without outside influence. For niche brands in particular, an in-house team offers the kind of day-to-day familiarity and insight that’s hard to replicate externally.
The primary challenge of working with an in-house marketing team is building the team in the first place. Not only does an in-house team take time and budget to build, but finding the right talent is a long process. Resources across your team might be limited as is, so hiring might stretch the team thin or slow down progress.
Another challenge of exclusively using an in-house team is getting caught in an echo chamber. Without exposure to a wider range of brands or industry shifts, internal teams can also risk becoming too close to the brand, potentially leading to creative stagnation or missed opportunities for innovation.
Choosing between hiring an in-house marketing team vs. the support of an ecommerce agency comes down to understanding your unique business context, goals, and constraints. Here’s a deeper look at the key factors to help guide your decision:
Your brand’s stage of growth will play an important role in helping you decide between an in-house team and an ecommerce agency.
For startups or early-stage brands, hiring in-house can help lay a strong foundation. An internal hire can immerse themselves fully in the brand, shape the tone of voice, manage platform setups, and ensure consistency across the customer journey. That said, this usually means bringing on a generalist, someone adaptable but not deeply specialised.
As the brand scales and operations become more complex, the need for specialised skills like CRO, SEO, and advanced analytics becomes more pressing. At this point, partnering with an ecommerce agency can be more efficient. Ecommerce agencies offer a broader range of expertise without the cost of multiple full-time hires, and they can support faster testing, implementation, and growth.
Budget and hiring capacity are important factors when choosing between in-house teams and ecommerce agencies. For brands with limited budgets, hiring a single in-house marketer or ecommerce lead can be more cost-effective than paying agency retainers, especially when focusing on survival or consolidation. However, the range of skills required to drive growth may be too broad for one or two people to cover effectively.
On the other hand, brands ready to invest in growth can benefit from agency partnerships, which provide access to multiple senior-level experts, from strategists and creatives to media buyers and email specialists, often at a lower cost than building a full in-house team. Agencies offer particular value when support across multiple channels is needed or when brands want to quickly introduce new capabilities.
If speed is your priority, ecommerce agencies are often better equipped to move fast. With established frameworks and dedicated teams, they can quickly test, iterate, and scale campaigns, adapting rapidly to changing data and market conditions.
In-house marketing teams often have a more long-term focus. They bring deep brand knowledge, foster closer internal collaboration, and provide greater visibility into daily operations, making them well-suited for sustained brand-building efforts.
Focusing on a specific platform? If you’re doubling down on one channel, whether it’s TikTok, organic Instagram, or email marketing, an in-house hire who truly lives and breathes that platform can provide focused, hands-on expertise.
However, if your brand needs to work across multiple channels, such as email, paid search, SEO, and paid social, ecommerce agencies are usually better suited. An ecommerce agency brings together channel-specific experts who collaborate to create integrated, high-performing marketing strategies that deliver results across the board.
If you already have skilled team members like an ecommerce manager, head of brand, or content lead, you might only need to fill specific gaps, such as media buying, creative production, or technical SEO. In these cases, working with an agency on a project or retainer basis can provide targeted support without replacing your existing talent. If you lack internal marketing experience, building an in-house team can be slow and risky, whereas partnering with an agency early can fast-track your learning and results while you gradually develop your capabilities.
Many brands are moving towards hybrid models to balance the benefits of both approaches. This typically looks like:
A small in-house core team, which may include...
And other team members who maintain brand control, briefs agencies, and ensures internal alignment.
This small team may be supported by external agency partners who deliver execution, reporting, creative, and optimisation across specialised areas.
A hybrid model works particularly well during transitional phases of your brand. This might be re-platforming from one ecommerce platform to another, international expansion, or during other kinds of business model changes and offers long-term flexibility as your business evolves.
Ecommerce agencies offer a wide range of expertise, fresh creative ideas, and the ability to quickly scale your marketing efforts, making them an excellent choice for brands in growth stages or those needing support across multiple channels. On the other hand, in-house teams provide greater brand consistency, faster approval processes, and a deep understanding of your specific niche, which is invaluable for long-term brand building. If you’re unsure which approach is best for your business, we’d be happy to help. Feel free to get in touch and start a conversation!
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Olivia joined Cake as a Junior Account Executive fresh off from the oft travelled digital marketing fast track course at Birmingham City University.
Bringing with her a wealth of experience working in social media management and client facing content creation, Olivia has got stuck right into the world of eCommerce and delivering projects for our vast range of clients. Assisting in managing some of our toughest projects from ideation through to completion across the full mix of digital marketing channels, Olivia ensures that our work is to the high standard that we pride ourselves on, that our clients are happy, and that everything is finished on time.
