Over 33% of the world’s population shops online, making up 2.64B buyers in 2024. This translates to a massive business opportunity, but capitalizing on it requires a strong online presence. However, designing, building and maintaining a successful eCommerce store isn’t as simple as setting up a website. Many businesses struggle to overcome key hurdles when it comes to building an online store, such as lack of technical expertise, complexity of inventory management, and high market competition. For this reason, some companies turn to outsourcing this work to nearshore eCommerce development teams in Latin America.
Hire the best developers in Latin America. Get a free quote today!
Contact Us Today!In nearshore eCommerce development, the service is generally performed in another country near where the service is received (usually within or close to the same time zone) and where labor rates are generally lower than those where the service is received (e.g. Mexico-to-US, Eastern Europe-to-Finland, etc.)
Nearshoring is a common practice among companies of all shapes and sizes. It is a misconstrued perception that only small or budget-strapped companies outsource their software development projects to nearshore development teams in LatAm. On the contrary, many US firms got their start through nearshoring and continue to rely on it today.
By partnering with a specialized nearshore eCommerce development company, businesses can get the expertise and resources needed to succeed. Next Idea Tech provides eCommerce development teams in Latin America, and there are a few considerations businesses should keep in mind when looking for a development partner.
Read on to find out how you can save time, money, and resources by nearshoring your eCommerce development project to developers in Latin America. We’ll also guide you on how to choose the right partner that will transform your online store into a successful sales channel.
What is an eCommerce Development Team?
An eCommerce development team is a group of professionals who collaborate to build, maintain, and optimize online stores. They handle tasks such as design, application development, project management, Quality Assurance (QA), User Experience (UX), site maintenance, server infrastructure, and anything else related to online retail technology. They ensure the eCommerce storefront loads quickly, is optimized for different devices and enables customers to make online payments securely.
Businesses may choose to outsource all their eCommerce operations and technology projects to a third-party nearshore partner, or they may choose to divide tasks between a nearshore software development team and their in-house team.
Nearshoring can be a cost-effective way to run an eCommerce business, providing flexibility and scalability to meet your business needs.
5 Main Reasons To Outsource eCommerce Development to a Nearshore Development Team in Latin America
Businesses outsource eCommerce services as it helps:
- Reduce costs
- Save time
- Access eCommerce expertise
- Increase flexibility
- Focus on core competencies
1. Reduce Costs
The top reason to outsource the development of your online storefront to an eCommerce development team in Latin America is to benefit from lower cost and cheaper prices. Assembling an in-house eCommerce development team presents a significant financial burden for startups, particularly in their early stages. Hiring talented developers in the US is expensive. According to ZipRecruiter, the average annual salary for a senior software developer in the U.S. is around $143,292, which doesn’t include the cost of benefits such as healthcare, paid time off, and retirement contributions. Beyond salaries, other operational costs are associated with recruitment, onboarding, training, and ongoing professional development.
Infrastructure costs also play a significant role. Startups need to provide the right tools, software, hardware, and workspace to support an in-house development team. This can be an expensive commitment, mainly if the company is located in a major city with high office space costs. In addition to infrastructure, many startups will also need to invest in cloud services, development environments, and testing tools. These factors can quickly balloon a startup’s operational costs and drain its financial runway.
In this context, outsourcing eCommerce development offers a straightforward solution for startups seeking to optimize their budgets without sacrificing quality. By working with an experienced nearshore firm, startups gain access to top-tier talent without the long-term financial commitments of hiring full-time employees.
However, gone are the days when nearshoring simply meant hiring cheap developers in Latin America. Over the last several years, companies have realized that paying more for quality work and building long-term partnerships yields better results than nearshoring development to the lowest bidder. Nonetheless, hiring developers in Latin America is still significantly cheaper than hiring US developers, often 30-50% cheaper.
2. Save Time
Business leaders are under constant pressure to drive better and faster business outcomes. Every day lost in the development process is when competitors gain ground, and potential customers remain untapped. For a startup aiming to launch a mobile app, the path to market can be fraught with delays when handled in-house, mainly due to the absence of streamlined processes and the learning curve inherent in building complex applications. Delays in development can lead to missed opportunities, dwindling investor confidence, and, in some cases, the failure to capitalize on a market trend.
Back in the 70s, Philip Kotler said it is better to assign others to do things that they do easier and faster. Nearshore vendors often have streamlined development processes and experienced teams, enabling faster project completion. They bring a wealth of best practices, from agile methodologies and continuous integration (CI) to robust project management systems, all of which contribute to speeding up the development timeline. According to research by PWC, agile projects are 28% more successful than traditional ones, particularly in fast-moving sectors like custom software development.
Beyond agile, nearshore software development firms often utilize comprehensive project management systems like Jira or Trello, ensuring that every task, sprint, and milestone is tracked in real time. This keeps the project on schedule and provides complete transparency for the startup. The startup team is continuously updated on progress, ensuring adjustments can be made swiftly and efficiently. Furthermore, nearshore development vendors provide cross-functional teams—experienced developers, designers, testers, and project managers—used to working together under tight deadlines. Their familiarity with common pitfalls and challenges of custom software development means that they can proactively foresee and address potential issues, reducing downtime and preventing costly delays. This level of coordination and expertise translates into significant time savings for startups.
3. Access eCommerce Expertise
Building a successful eCommerce application goes far beyond coding. It requires a delicate blend of front-end and back-end development, intuitive UX/UI design, rigorous quality assurance, and seamless integration with modern technologies. For startups, mastering this range of technical skills can be overwhelming, especially when the stakes are high and time-to-market is critical. But the challenge doesn’t end there.
Hiring a team of in-house developers with proficiency in the latest mobile technologies, such as Swift for iOS, Kotlin for Android, or cross-platform frameworks like Flutter and React Native, would require time and capital they don’t have. Recruiting and onboarding the right talent can take weeks or even months, which most startups cannot afford in the fast-paced tech industry. Hiring a tech role takes an average of 24 days, with the cost of a bad hire potentially reaching 30% of the employee’s annual salary.
A real-world example of this challenge can be seen in the case of Alibaba, the now ubiquitous workplace communication platform. In its early days, Alibaba faced significant resource constraints when developing its online marketplace, particularly when hiring in-house talent for mobile development. Recognizing the limitations of their internal team, Alibaba turned to external experts for the development of their eCommerce platform. This decision allowed them to expedite the development process, ensuring they launched a seamless, user-friendly storefront in time to capture their growing market of early adopters. By partnering with a reputable nearshore vendor, startups gain immediate access to a large network of highly specialized developers and designers proficient in cutting-edge technologies.
4. Increase Flexibility and Scalability
The dynamic nature of the eCommerce industry often leads to rapidly changing priorities. Whether responding to new market trends, user feedback, or competitor actions, eCommerce businesses must be able to pivot quickly. In such an environment, efficiently scaling development resources can differentiate between maintaining momentum and missing critical deadlines. How many eCommerce companies were on top, only to suddenly play catchup because they fell behind in technological innovation? (Think eBay)
For many startups, internal development teams—restricted by limited staff and fixed resources—struggle to adapt to these shifting needs. Today’s executives want their nearshore partners to offer flexibility and the ability to refocus relationships so they can stay ahead. That could mean quickly adding or reducing staff, instantly jumping on a new project, finding short term cost savings, and more. More than just flexibility to adjust development resources, companies are looking for partners that can evolve with a
business and help it grow long-term.
The fluidity offered by nearshoring enables startups to remain agile, which is a critical attribute in today’s competitive tech landscape. Consider a scenario where a startup initially develops a minimum viable product (MVP) with a lean team but quickly gains traction in the market. The startup may need to scale rapidly to meet increased user demand or accelerate feature development. By leveraging a nearshore development partner, they can immediately onboard additional developers to manage the increased workload and meet tighter deadlines. Once the product is stable, the startup can reduce the team size or reallocate resources to other growth areas.
5. Focus on Core Competencies
Startups are often marked by their innovation, agility, and ability to operate with limited resources. However, this also means that founders and executives are required to manage multiple responsibilities, often straddling the line between technical and business-focused roles. The need to handle tasks such as app development can take valuable time away from core activities like customer acquisition, marketing, and long-term strategic planning. For many startups, this shift in focus can dilute their competitive advantage.
Building an eCommerce store in-house is a significant commitment for any startup. The time, effort, and expertise required to manage the development process—from writing code to testing and debugging—can drain the energy of key team members, particularly founders who are already stretched thin. This diversion from critical business functions can lead to missed opportunities, slower growth, and delayed market entry. Additionally, managing an in-house development team can create inefficiencies for startups without a deep technical bench. Not only does it require constant oversight and coordination, but it also forces leadership to spend time on areas outside their primary competencies, which can compromise the overall direction of the business.
Nearshoring eCommerce development allows startups to refocus their attention on their core competencies while leaving the technical work to experts. This will enable founders and executives to concentrate on business strategy, marketing, and scaling their operations rather than being bogged down in development details. A survey by Deloitte revealed that 65% of companies outsource primarily to focus on core business activities, with startups benefiting from this approach by redirecting their limited internal resources toward growth-oriented initiatives.
How to Hire an eCommerce Development Team in 3 Steps
How do you go about hiring an eCommerce development team?
The following three steps will get you started down the path of finding the perfect team to build your eCommerce solution.
Step 1: Define Project Requirements and Objectives
What are you hoping to achieve with your eCommerce store and related projects?
If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re going to have a hard time getting there, so outlining your requirements and objectives is vital.
- What is your timeline for launch?
- What is your budget?
- What risks might you encounter that prevent you from achieving your goals?
- Are you planning to use a SaaS eCommerce platform like Shopify, or do you want to build your own custom online store using an eCommerce platform like Magento?
- Are you interested in creating a mobile app to accommodate online shoppers, or will they just access the mobile version of your website?
- What digital marketing features do you want to integrate into your online store?
- How will you approach your marketing strategy?
- What outsourcing model will your outsourcing team provide?
This is by no means a comprehensive list—far from it! Instead, it should get you thinking about your big-picture approach and how your efforts will fit into the ultimate goal of winning conversions and building a powerful online business.
Step 2: Research and Select a Nearshore Vendor
Selecting the best-fit vendor can make or break your project—and even your business—so don’t take that decision lightly!
When searching for a nearshoring partner, consider the following criteria:
- Expertise in the technologies you need
- Experience in eCommerce
- Communication skills
- Flexibility and willingness to accommodate your needs
You can use an RFP to find the right eCommerce partner, or you can reach out directly to any team of professionals whose track record you find impressive.
Once you’ve identified potential partners and narrowed it down to a shortlist, conduct interviews and ask the tough questions that will get you the answers you need. Ask about their experience, project management skills, communication approach, methodologies used (e.g., Agile Scrum), and other business processes.
Step 3: Establish Clear Communication and Project Governance
Before you hire a team of developers, clearly define the roles that both your in-house team and your outsourcing partners will play. Don’t even think about signing a contract until you can clearly answer the following questions.
- Who will handle project management?
- How often will project managers or lead developers check in with you?
- How much autonomy does your nearshore development team have to make key decisions?
- What roles will they play in areas outside of development, such as design, QA, security, website maintenance, and others?
The pointers above are meant to get you thinking and move you in the right direction before signing a contract. For further guidance, you can refer to our ultimate nearshoring guide on how to hire reliable developers in Latin America.
Examples of Successful eCommerce Development Projects Completed by Nearshore Development Teams in Latin America
Here are a few examples of successful eCommerce development projects that highlight the positive outcomes achieved by businesses through strategic collaboration with Latin American software development teams:
1. MercadoLibre
MercadoLibre, often referred to as the “eBay of Latin America,” is an eCommerce platform that connects buyers and sellers across the region. Latin American developers have played a key role in the development of MercadoLibre’s platform, ensuring its scalability, security, and user-friendly interface. Their expertise in building robust online marketplaces, integrating payment gateways, and implementing logistics solutions has contributed to MercadoLibre’s success as a dominant player in the Latin American e-commerce market.
MercadoLibre has a vast market reach, operating in multiple Latin American countries and serving millions of users. The platform facilitates a wide range of transactions, including online retail, classified advertisements, and online payments. Latin American developers have been integral to MercadoLibre’s growth, as reflected in its increasing market valuation and expanding user base.
2. Rappi
Rappi is a Latin American technology company that offers a marketplace connecting users who want to purchase prepared foods, groceries, clothes, prescriptions, and virtually anything with independent contractors who can fulfill them. Rappi’s delivery service is a one-stop shop for all of your delivery needs.
To power their platform, Rappi depends on an army of cross-functional eCommerce development teams made up of Android, iOS and backend engineers primarily based in Latin America. These teams are agile, with highly flexible inter-team structures, offering clarity of purpose, and are fast to innovate.
Need Help With eCommerce Development?
When it comes to custom software development projects and application maintenance, a lot of companies can’t hire fast enough, nor can they find the level of skill needed to assure success. Next Idea Tech has access to some of the best eCommerce developers in Latin America. We attract and retain top people, and that allows our clients to focus on their higher priorities.
Our development teams are laser-focused on harnessing the power of software engineering and product development to help clients reimagine their industries for the future, drawing on secure and scalable cloud software platforms and cloud-native applications to undergo wholesale digital transformations.
If you want to learn more about how Next Idea Tech can connect you with top LatAm software engineers who fit your project requirements, book a free consultation today.
